This is an excerpt from my book “40 Moments From Christ’s Final Days.” Click here to get it from Amazon using my affiliate link.
It was no accident that the “lamb who takes away the sin of the world” would die on Passover. This holy day was sacred to Israel as they remembered God sparing Israel and rescuing them from Egypt. However, the death of Jesus gives it greater significance than we may realize. But to better understand what Jesus did on Passover outside of Jerusalem, we must first understand what God did on the first Passover in Egypt.
Many are familiar with God rescuing Israel from slavery in Egypt. Part of God rescuing His people starts in Exodus 7:14, where God struck Egypt with ten plagues. In Exodus 11:1, the tenth and final plague would cause the death of every firstborn child. However, Exodus 12:1 details God’s instructions that every house in Israel needed to sacrifice an unblemished male lamb and put its blood on their doorposts.
And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and I will see the blood, and I will pass over you, and there shall be no plague among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)
Most of us picture God strolling through the streets of Egypt. We imagine Him going house-to-house, killing every firstborn child. As we tell the story, we describe God seeing a house with sacrificial blood on the door frame and walking by, leaving it untouched and relatively unnoticed. Most readers stop reading the story at verse 13 and think the Passover is about God’s goodness in passing by the obedient Israelites.
However, notice this tragic moment’s description a few verses later.
And Yahweh will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and He will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, and Yahweh will pass over the doorway and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. (Exodus 12:23)
Notice that it’s not just God (Yahweh) here, but a destroyer carrying out God’s judgment on Egypt. We see a similar event later in Israel’s history.
Then the angel sent forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, and Yahweh relented of the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax your hand!” (2 Samuel 24:16)
God ordered the plagues on Egypt and used a destroying angel to carry out His will. This angel wasn’t walking door-to-door to see who was or wasn’t obedient. He was like a flood sent to destroy everything. Upon seeing the innocent lamb’s blood, Yahweh would cover the doorway, passing Himself over it like a shield, barring the angel’s entrance and sparing the inhabitants from God’s wrath.
This is not how many of us read the Passover, but we must understand it to see the significance of why God came to the world and died on this specific day. God didn’t just skip past certain houses. God protected those houses because of the blood of the lamb. An innocent lamb was slain to protect the people of Egypt from God’s wrath. Jesus Christ, the spotless lamb of God, was likewise killed so His blood could protect us from the wrath of God.
This is the beginning of Passover. This is the meaning of the blood that was shed. This is why those who trust Jesus Christ for salvation have the eternal hope of being covered and spared from the wrath of God.
Stop and think: As Israel entered Passover, they remembered the goodness of God. However, Passover was always pointing forward to Jesus. Using the events of the first Passover, what did Jesus do for His people on the cross?
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