Suggested reading: refresh your mind from last week by reading Exodus chapter 12 verses 1-20

TAKE SOME OF THE BLOOD

We continue with our meditations from last week concerning the institution of the Jewish Feast of Passover that points us to Christ. We reached the point where each Jewish household in Egypt had to take their chosen lamb and kill it. Its death and shed blood made it possible for them to escape God’s judgment that was to fall on the Egyptians. However, if they were to be safe, they had to apply the blood to the doorposts and the lintel of their houses. God had decreed that He would pass through the land of Egypt that night and strike all the Egyptians’ firstborn, because of their cruel treatment of the children of Israel. It would only be possible for a household to be spared judgment if those within it had applied the blood of their lamb to the doorway, in obedience to God’s word. When God saw the blood, He would pass over a house.

These events are a solemn reminder to us that God is holy and, as such, He must judge sin. Nevertheless, the Bible teaches that judgment is His ‘strange (unusual) work’ Isaiah chapter 28 verse 21 and ‘He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy’, Micah chapter 7 verse 18. The blood of the lambs in Egypt, points us to Jesus, as the Lamb of God. The way of escape from the penalty for our sins is found in His death and the shedding of His precious blood on the cross.

To be continued