Exodus 12 — Thoughts

Would the Angel of Death Kill Hebrews Without the Blood?

The Angel of Death was coming to Egypt, and it wasn’t just coming for the Egyptian’s firstborn — it was coming for everyone’s.

Like the Egyptians, the Hebrew people were living on borrowed time. They were also guilty of sin (Romans 3:23), so they also had earned the death that sin inevitably brings (Romans 6:23).

But their story would not be the same as the Egyptians’.

God told them to slaughter a lamb. It had to be a male without defect, and its bones had to remain intact as it was killed. Then, they were to spread its blood around their doorframes.

The Hebrew families did this, and then they waited. They could probably hear the screams coming from Egyptian homes as fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons were discovered dead.

But as the Angel of death came to the Hebrew homes, it recognized the blood on the doorposts and literally passed over the families inside. No Hebrew firstborn was lost. They were saved by the blood of the lamb.

Thirteen centuries later, John the Baptizer saw Jesus and proclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

It was never the Passover lamb that saved the Hebrew slaves. It was what the Passover lamb represented — Jesus.

Like the Passover Lamb, Jesus was without defect. He was completely sinless (1 Peter 2:22).

Like the Passover Lamb, Jesus’ bones would remain intact as he was crucified (John 19:31-36).

And like the blood of the Passover Lamb, Jesus’ blood causes the consequences for our sin to pass over us.

As Peter describes it, we have been ransomed “with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish…” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

(Originally written April 23, 2022)