September 26, 2024
The words lamb, hyssop, blood, and outstretched arm have been spinning through my mind.
Digging into the first Passover, puzzle pieces are falling into place as the people of Israel prepare to be freed from their slavery. God perfectly stitches the Scriptures of the Old Testament together with the New Testament into a beautiful tapestry. It is fascinating and amazing… when we are looking for it.
I couldn’t always see it. But now, in my older age, the words LEAP off the page. When we got our first NIV Study Bible in the early ‘90s it felt like we were seeing in Technicolor. Well-known stories came to life. I read and got chills, thinking I can understand this! If present me could tell younger me something, it would be, “Girl, dig into God’s Word. Every single day. Not because you have to but because you get to!”
In Exodus 12, the LORD told Moses and Aaron about the final plague of the firstborn. He also gave instructions for the Passover. Moses and Aaron passed that information on to the people. Exodus 12:21-23 gives the dramatic message: “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. None of you shall go out of the door of your 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.’”
There are several interesting connections. The Passover lamb: John 1:29 reports, “John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’”Jesus is our Passover lamb.
Hyssop was used to paint the blood on the doorframe. It is also mentioned at the Crucifixion. John (again) in 19:29 tells while Jesus was on the cross, when He was thirsty the soldiers offered Him vinegar on a sponge. They placed it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth.
This Passover night, the blood of the lamb would save the people from death. Simon Peter (one of Jesus’ disciples) wrote in 1 Peter 1:18-19, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed…but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” So many old hymns come to mind: “Nothing but the Blood,” “Power in the Blood,” “Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb?” That precious blood paid for our sins!
In Exodus 6:6, God told Moses exactly what was going to happen: “I will free you…I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.” And He did. Our redemption was provided by a Savior Who willingly stretched out His arms to be crucified on the cross thousands of years later.
The Israelites had no idea what lay ahead, but this day they were walking out of bondage. If the Great I AM could do all they had seen in Egypt, He could surely help them on a short journey through the desert to the Promised Land.
If you haven’t read it lately, join me in the pages of Exodus. The Israelites are trusting God for their freedom from Egypt, but they haven’t seen anything yet. The Red Sea is waiting!
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Dawn Reed is a pastor's wife and newspaper columnist. Reach her at preacherswife7@yahoo.com.
