Behold the Passover Lamb Part 2

The First Passover: Lamb’s Blood and Deliverance (Exodus 11–12)

The origin of Passover takes us to the time of Moses and the Israelites enslaved in Egypt. God raised up Moses to demand Pharaoh release the Israelites. Pharaoh stubbornly refused, so God sent a series of plagues upon Egypt. The tenth and final plague was the most devastating: the death of every firstborn in the land. However, God provided a means of escape from this judgment for those who would trust Him. The provision came in the form of a sacrificial lamb.

In Exodus 12, God gave Moses specific instructions for the night that later became known as Passover. Each Israelite household was to select a male lamb, one year old and without any defect (“without blemish”), and keep it until the appointed day. Then, at twilight on that night, each family would kill their lamb. They were to take some of the lamb’s blood and apply it to the doorframe of their house – on the two side posts and the top lintel of the door. The lamb itself was to be roasted and eaten that night, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, as the family huddled inside ready to depart Egypt.

Let’s pause on two crucial details: the quality of the lamb and the purpose of its blood.

• The lamb had to be perfect, with no blemish or broken bones. Scripture says, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year” (Exodus 12:5, KJV​). This was not to be a cull from the flock, but the best they had – symbolizing purity and innocence.

• The blood of the lamb was the key to their protection. God said, “The blood shall be a token for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you” (Exodus 12:13, KJV​). In other words, the blood on the door shielded that household from God’s judgment. The firstborn inside would live, because a lamb had died in his place.

That night, the Lord struck down the firstborn of Egypt – from Pharaoh’s palace to the lowest prisoner – but every home marked by the lamb’s blood was spared (Exodus 12:29–30). There was loud wailing in unbelieving Egyptian homes, but in the Jewish homes under the blood, there was safety. Pharaoh finally relented and let Israel go. The Israelites left in haste, beginning their journey to the Promised Land, and the Lord commanded that they remember this day forever. Thus, the annual Feast of Passover was instituted as a memorial of how God delivered His people from bondage by the blood of a lamb (Exodus 12:14​).

Imagine being an Israelite child that night, hearing the distant cries in the darkness and knowing that death was near – but seeing the lamb’s blood on your door and realizing that God’s promise stood between you and doom. The message was clear: someone innocent had died so that you could live. Substitution and faith were at the heart of Passover – the lamb was the substitute, and applying its blood to the door was the act of faith.

The Passover was not just about that one night in Egypt; it was a sign of God’s covenant and a shadow of a greater rescue to come​ - learn.ligonier.org. In fact, the New Testament calls these Old Testament practices “a shadow of the good things to come” (Hebrews 10:1). The shadow only makes sense when the real object appears. For centuries, Jews kept Passover, sacrificing lambs year after year. Little did they know that these millions of lambs were all pointing to one Lamb – the Lamb who alone could truly take away sin and death forever. That Lamb is Jesus Christ.