Old and New: Devotions From Time of Grace MinistryNäide

Blood once made the death angel pass over

God’s judgment follows human sin. Always. Universally. Inescapably. That judgment came crashing down on the Egyptian enslavers of the Israelite people. But--the Israelites were sinners too, and they also were at risk of the angel of death.

However, God’s mercy always provides an escape from judgment, and his Word shows the way. Through Moses, he told the believers among the Israelites, “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. . . . When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood . . . and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down” (Exodus 12:21-23). That angel of death passed over Israel and set them free from slavery.

All Israel was to celebrate this “Pass-over” every year. There was to be no yeast (symbolically representing sin) in anyone’s house for a week (thus giving rise to the alternate title “Feast of Unleavened Bread”).

When you read about the Passover, ponder both the terrible cost of sin and also the tremendous redemptive love and power of a God determined to set his people free.