THE POWER OF THE BLOOD

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now the Lord had said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely. Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold." (The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.)

So Moses said, "This is what the Lord says: 'About midnight, I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.' Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, 'Go, you and all the people who follow you!' After that, I will leave."

Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.

The Lord had said to Moses, "Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you—so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt."

Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover."

“On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”

"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord - a lasting ordinance. For seven days, you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day, remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat—that is all you may do.”

"Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month, you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days, no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread."

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and He will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.”

"Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as He promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when He struck down the Egyptians.'"

Then the people bowed down and worshiped. The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.

At midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

Exodus 11:1-10, 12:1-30

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It never had to come down to this for a simple act of true repentance matched with a spirit of humility, obedience, and reverence toward God would have prevented senseless loss.

Of course, if you have been following this story from the early chapters of the Book of Exodus (7 through our passage today), you know this refers to Egypt’s supreme leader, Pharaoh. All he had to do was let the people of Israel go as their God commanded. It was as simple as that. Releasing them wouldn’t have changed the fact that he led a great nation, even with the Israelites being gone. If anything, Egypt would have lost the slave labor they had gained by keeping God’s people captive.

But Pharaoh, like so many people throughout human history right up to present times, was too stubborn, hardening his heart while refusing to surrender to the God of Israel. This was despite the great power God put on full display, bringing affliction and devastation to the Egyptian nation and its people. Pharaoh just wouldn’t allow the Israelites to leave and as we see in today’s passage, God was going to have the last say in the matter. For as we see in His tenth and final plague, He was about to inflict the kind of focused wrath that would cause even the most obstinate person to drop to their knees and submit.

The scriptures show us that after the three days of utter darkness that had fallen over all of Egypt, except in Goshen where the Israelites resided, and Pharaoh’s refusal to comply yet again, God told Moses the following:

“I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely."

What was this last plague God was sending, the one that would lead to the Israelites’ freedom?

Well, we read where it involved the killing every first born in Egypt. It would strike at the heart of the Egyptian society, especially in regard to the firstborn males who would be valued the most, in line to carry on their father’s name and in the case of Pharaoh, be an heir to his throne.

So God sent Moses to give instruction to Pharaoh one last time, even though Moses promised he would never step into the Egyptian leader’s presence again. Obedient to God’s orders, unlike the man he was addressing, Moses passes this message to Pharaoh:

"This is what the Lord says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.' Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All these officials of yours will come to Me, bowing down before Me and saying, 'Go, you and all the people who follow you!' After that I will leave."

And with that, we read where Moses departed "hot with anger" because deep down he knew that Pharaoh was not going to give in and would allow his own people, as well as his own child, to die.

Now, we need to note that God didn’t just give Pharaoh instructions about what was to come. For we see that he sent Moses to also instruct the Israelite people.

At this juncture, it’s important to remember that up to now, the Hebrews had been protected by God from the plagues He brought on Egypt without them having to anything.

But this final plague would be different.

For as we see, there were actions the Israelites had to carry out in advance preparation of the deadly plague that was coming. These actions would be of critical importance to that God’s people would be saved from the death that would come upon Egypt. God delivered the following guidance to Moses and his brother, Aaron:

"This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover. On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt."

Indeed, a disaster of monumental proportions was about to strike Egypt but the Hebrew people would be spared. All they had to do was the one thing that Pharaoh didn’t do and that was to obey God.

Well, after his encounter with God, we read where Moses left his encounter with God and "summoned all the elders of Israel", giving them the following instructions:

"Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and He will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down."

The scriptures tell us that upon receiving the message, the Israelite “people bowed down and worshiped" before doing “just what the Lord commanded", action that brought a life-preserving reward.

For we read where "at midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead."

Tragedy had struck and it could have been avoided if only Pharaoh had exhibited the kind of deference to His authority that was displayed by the people of Israel, a people who were "passed over" because of the blood of the sacrificed lamb painted around their doorways which covered them from harm.

So what does all this have to do with us today?

Well, in our present times, we are facing a damaging, life threatening plague as well called sin. Everyone one in the world is infected by it (Romans 3:23) but not everyone will be destroyed from it.

This is because there are those who believe and trust in Jesus Christ, God’s one and only Son who is the Savior of the world (John 3:16-17). This man, Jesus, allowed Himself to be crucified on the cross, bearing the weight of mankind’s sin so that anyone who would place their hope in Him would not spend an eternity in Hell but rather reside in Heaven forever.

Truly, Jesus was the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29). In essence, He was God’s sin sacrifice for us and His blood became our covering and protection just as the slain lamb’s blood was for the Israelites in Egypt. So because of Jesus and our belief in Him, death passes over every Christian and Jesus brings them to God the Father to abide with Him forever (John 14:6).

In the end translation, it’s all about the power found in the blood of Jesus, the blood that washes the sin-stained believer clean, leaving them unblemished and white as snow.

Friends, we need to fully grasp and realize that we would be as doomed if it weren’t for Jesus as the Egyptians were more than 2,000 years ago. For we would live this worldly life every day without the hope of anything except eternal torment and suffering after death.

Thanks be to God that He loved us so much that He gave us an opportunity for everlasting life after this temporary existence is over through the death and resurrection of Jesus, all for simply placing our belief in Him.

This is the Good News of the Gospel, the good news that sets us free to live and learn and love as we go forth to carry out the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), helping others to know their personal Savior, Jesus Christ, and understanding the power of His blood.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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