Are You Under the Blood? The Lamb of God
The greatest event in the Old Testament was the exodus. God's people, the Israelites, were in slavery in Egypt, and God calls Moses to confront Pharaoh who was holding them captive, and convince him to set the people free.
Perhaps you remember the story. Pharaoh keeps refusing, so God unleashes plague upon plague on Egypt, but Pharaoh just doesn't budge. Eventually, God announces the final plague. He is going to send an angel of death to kill all the firstborn animals and people in the land.
The First Passover Lamb
But God's people could be saved. On instruction from God, Moses does this:
"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.'" (Exodus 12:21-23)
The blood of the lamb saved the people of God from the angel of death. Every year, the Israelites commemorate how God saved them, by celebrating a Passover festival.
Jesus Is Our Passover Lamb
Many generations later, Jesus came into the world. God had been promising a deliverer, who would finally offer redemption for all peoples. When John saw Him, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"
Jesus was slain on the cross once for all as the new Passover lamb, so that all people who put their faith in Him, come under the protection of His blood. Like the Israelites did back in Egypt, painting the blood of the lamb over their doorframes, now all people who put their faith in Christ have His blood 'painted' over their souls, so that death will 'pass over' us and we will live on with Christ in heaven.
Paul recognised this. He said, "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed." (1 Corinthians 5:7)
Peter recognised this. He said, "You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." (1 Peter 1:18-19)
John recognised this when he heard the saints singing this in Revelation 5: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation." (Revelation 5:9)
Nobody was worthy to offer themselves as a perfect lamb to be sacrificed, but Jesus. He did it. His blood flowed on the cross, and His blood purchased our redemption.
Are You Under His Protection?
I loved these words from C.E. Cornell, one of the early Nazarene preachers. He wrote: "There is not a text in the Bible three feet away from Calvary. God has put nothing in His Book that is not within easy reach of His dying Son. Nothing will come into your life that will not be under the outstretched hand of the cross."
Are you under the protection of the blood of Christ? Have you trusted in Him, not just as a good moral teacher, but as the Lamb who was slain and shed His blood for you?
There's an old hymn that says, "The blood that cleanses from all sin will never lose its power."
Forgiveness of your sin, and life eternal, are found only through the shed blood of the Lamb of God. Put your faith in Him today, please!
Just as the Passover lamb's blood saved Israel from the angel of death, the blood of Jesus - our true Passover Lamb — saves all who trust in Him. But are you under His protection?