Passed Over - Your Daily Forward Devotional

Passed Over

May 3

Read Exodus 12:21-23 (ESV)

Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

Reflect

How does the first Passover point to Christ?

When we left off yesterday, God’s people were in Egypt. You can read how they came to be there in Genesis 37-50. Jacob’s sons sold their brother, Joseph, into slavery and he was taken to Egypt. God providentially allowed Joseph to rise to a prominent position there. Eventually, a famine would drive Jacob and his family to Egypt where they were surprised to be reunited with Joseph. Because of his high esteem for Joseph, Pharaoh allowed the Israelites to settle on some of the best land Egypt had to offer—the land of Goshen. Through it all, God orchestrated events to preserve His people and move His plan of redemption forward.

Then, we turn the page to the second book of the Bible, the book of Exodus. It is part of the Pentateuch and authorship is attributed to Moses. By this time, over 400 years had passed and much had changed. “Now there arose a new king of Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). Fearful of how Jacob’s family (the Hebrews/Israelites) had increased in size and strength, this Pharaoh made them slaves to build with bricks and work the fields. They were treated harshly. Pharaoh also commanded the Hebrew midwives to throw all the Hebrew baby boys into the Nile.

But once again, God kept the people He had made a covenant with in His hand. Instead of allowing her son to be thrown into the Nile, one mother put her son, Moses, in a basket on the Nile. He was found, raised, and educated by Pharaoh’s daughter. God was raising Moses up to lead His people.

In Exodus 3:10, God called Moses to “bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” Moses appeared to Pharaoh but of course, Pharaoh refused to let the people go. So God sent a series of plagues upon Egypt. These plagues showed just how strong the Lord God is and just how useless the Egyptian’s gods were.

The last plague upon Egypt is of special significance because it shines a light on the Scarlet Thread. In Exodus 12,od we see a hint of God’s plan of redemption in the Passover. God was going to punish Egypt for their sins with one last plague—the death of their firstborn sons. But He promised to “pass over” the homes of the Hebrew people if they had the blood of an unblemished lamb on their doorposts. It was the blood of the lamb that set them apart from the Egyptians. It was the blood of the lamb that covered them and protected them from death. The Israelites, like all of mankind, were dead in their sins. They didn’t do anything to earn God’s favor. But God, in His mercy, made a way for them to be spared by covering them with the blood of a lamb.

In the Passover of Exodus, we see a foreshadowing of Christ. Several of hundreds of years later, when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him he declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). The shed blood of Jesus on the cross covers our sins and protects us from a just punishment which is death. Jesus is the perfect and final Passover Lamb.

After the Passover, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and served as their leader. Throughout the entire book, we see that it is God alone who delivered them, protected them, sustained them, and provided for them. God also gave them (through Moses) the Ten Commandments and other moral laws, civil laws, ceremonial laws, and instructions for how to construct the tabernacle and worship Him. The book of Exodus ends with God’s glory filling the tabernacle. It was His presence, in the form of a cloud by day and fire by night, that would direct the Israelites on their journeys.

Exodus is a book about God delivering His people and leading them to freedom. It is a foreshadowing of the deliverance and freedom that we can find because of our Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ. Friend, if you are still in bondage to your sin, I urge you to trust in the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. It is only in Him that any of us have the hope of eternal life. Our sins have been passed over because of His blood.

Pray