²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.

Think about it for a minute. God told Moses that a death angel would fly over the land to kill the first-born of all, both humans and animals, as punishment against the Egyptians. For the Jewish people to escape this ubiquitous event from being played out in their homes, they were required to kill a lamb and smear its blood on the doorways. Note: the word translated “sprinkled” is a singular word in biblical literature and can also be rendered “to pour.” In any case, the OT passage clearly shows the blood was applied to the doors). And then every year, they were to remember this event with a festive celebration, called Passover.

That sounds barbaric, by today’s standards, where death is hidden from view for most of us, and bloodshed is sterilized and sensationalized by Hollywood. But in the context of the ancient Middle East, death was an upfront, community experience, very commonplace and very visible. And in an agricultural context, where people often slaughtered their own livestock, this imagery was not so shocking.

But the concept required faith. After seeing the first nine miracles of Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, there was absolutely no doubt that their God could and would work supernaturally again. So the decision was one of trust or defiance. There is no biblical evidence that any of the Jews refused to keep the Passover, but the Egyptians suffered unimaginable grief.

For the Jews, though, it was the first time that individually they had to enter into the works of God through faith. Each individual had to place himself into a home that had lamb’s blood on the doorposts. Moses is singled out as the leader, the one who brought the message from God about doing this. And it was he who convinced (from a human leadership standpoint) the multitude of Jews of the veracity of God’s command. Notice in the next verse 29, the shift to “they” acting in faith; the commendation of faith moves from the leader to the people.

Moses, with all the people, dared to believe that God would in reality bring definitive judgment, and there would be only one escape. Does this not present a beautiful picture of the coming day, when escape from God’s judgment of the world would come by the shed blood of another Lamb, whose blood would take away the sins of the world?

Lord, thank You for saving me from the wrath of God because of the Lamb’s blood applied to the doorposts of my life.