Exodus 12: 21-28: “Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. And the children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.”
This section reminds us of the words the Lord spoke to Noah after he came out of the ark (see Gen 9: 4-6, “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”). The Lord going to take the lives of some of the Egyptians to show them that He is the Lord and give them a last chance to accept His absolute authority. However, the Israelis had to understand that their lives were being protected by the same Lord and they had to offer Him a sacrifice in their own place. The entire history of Israel, as a nation, makes sense if we remember that they were formed by the Lord’s grace through a sacrifice. Every thing the Lord asked of them was based on the fact that He had saved them and made them through a sacrifice. They were called upon to remember the Lord’s grace through this sacrifice on yearly basis so that their children would never forget the price that was paid to deliver them from slavery. If we remember that we, too, have been saved by a sacrifice and regularly remind our children of the importance of that sacrifice then they will want to enjoy the benefits of that sacrifice as well.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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