January 24, 2025 - Exodus 12-13

We often rehearse the fact that the Bible is one story, not two.  Though Old and New Testaments, they tell the same story from promise to fulfillment.  Along the way, God points his people forward by various means, in particular, through his actual words – e.g., “I am going to do this or that.” – and through symbols and pictures.  The first Passover is of the latter.  “This month shall be for you the beginning of months.  It shall be the first month of the year for you. . . . on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. . . . Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. . . . the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. . . . Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it” (12:2-7). & “I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.  The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are.  And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt” (12:12-13).  Remember Jesus’ words at the last Passover with his disciples?  “He took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, ‘Take, this is my body.’  And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it.  And he said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many’” (Mark 14:22-24).  One story, indeed!

Christ our Redeemer died on the cross,

Died for the sinner, paid all his due;

Sprinkle your soul with the blood of the Lamb,

And I will pass, will pass over you.

Chiefest of sinners, Jesus will save;

As He has promised, that He will do;

Wash in the fountain opened for sin,

And I will pass, will pass over you.

When I see the blood,

When I see the blood,

When I see the blood,

I will pass, I will pass over you.   --John G. Foote, Elisha A. Hoffman (1892)