Power in the Blood: Who We Must Remember (Exodus 12:12-17)

“Would you o'er evil a victory win? There's wonderful pow'r in the blood.” – Lewis E. Jones 🩸

Dear bluebird in bondage,

It’s time to fly! Spread your wings and soar the sky. “How can I,” a question you may cry, “when these chains are no lie?”

Yes, there are things that will limit you, burdens that will battle your briskness, barriers that will block you, and bullies that will beat your emotions, but there’s one thing, which also starts with B, that can free you from any bondage—the blood of Christ.

Why His blood? Find out in today’s passage.

Exodus 12:12-17 (NASB)

¹² For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and fatally strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the human firstborn to animals; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord. ¹³ The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will come upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ ‘Now this day shall be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. ¹⁵ For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove dough with yeast from your houses; for whoever eats anything with yeast from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ And on the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except for what must be eaten by every person—that alone may be prepared by you. ¹⁷ You shall also keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your multitudes out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall keep this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance.

Here is the tenth and final plague God sent to the Egyptians: All the firstborns in Egypt died. How were the Israelite firstborns spared? In the beginning of the chapter, the Lord commanded them to kill one unblemished year-old male lamb for every household. They shall put its blood on the sides and tops of the doorframes of their houses. This is what verse 13 is referring to. As God goes through Egypt to smite the firstborns to their death, when He sees the blood, He’ll pass over that house, and no one in it will be killed.

There are four points Matthew Henry (1710) discussed in his concise commentary on Exodus 12:1-20. The first is the paschal lamb being a picture of Jesus Christ. The second is the sprinkling of blood on the doorposts symbolizing the need for “the applying of the merits of Christ's death to our souls” to redeem us from sin. The third is the eating of the lamb, the Passover, which is not in our passage, representing our duty to feed on the Word of God. Finally, the fourth is the Feast of Unleavened Bread being the type of the Christian life of continually living in sincerity and truth.

I’d like to focus on the two things talked about in our text, the symbolism of the blood and the bread. Today, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper by eating bread, which represents Jesus’ body, His life, and drinking the fruit of the vine, which represents His blood, His every stripe. Now, we see in our passage the story that will explain the power of the blood.

For blood to come out, you have to be wounded. However, it was more than that. Someone has to give their life. Life is what blood represents in ancient Israel (Got Questions Ministries). We learn in school that blood circulates our bodies to give nutrients and oxygen to every part. The Lord says in Leviticus 17:11 that “the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.”

In our story, the Egyptians sinned by oppressing the Israelites, and Pharaoh sinned by not listening to God when He tells him through Moses to let the people go. God sends a series of plagues to show He was worth listening to, but what finally made Pharaoh obey is the death of the firstborns. These deaths are not the same as the atonement the Leviticus verse is referring to. I mentioned earlier that God required an unblemished lamb and that this is a picture of Christ. If the death of flawed men changed the heart of Pharaoh, how much more will the obedient death of Someone sinless change our hearts? “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).”

It’s not that we’ll be literally perfect, but that we’ll be considered righteous when we believe in Jesus. His victory over the grave is what frees us from sin, our foe. This is exactly what the blood on the doorposts did foreshadow. If the blood of an innocent lamb can spare the lives of the Israelites from the plague, how much more can the precious blood of Jesus save?

After the institution of the Passover was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It’s a reminder for the Israelites that they were rushing to get out of Egypt, so they didn’t leaven their morning bread as it takes time (Langham & Ferguson). This wasn't just to remember they were freed from their oppressors, but to remember who freed them. This feast, along with the Passover and all Old Testament traditions, were renewed when Jesus proclaimed the new covenant in His Last Supper. “When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete (Hebrews 8:13).” The feasts were memorials of how God delivered them from slavery. Now, the Lord’s Supper reminds us of Christ. We remember how He saved us from the slavery of sin. Leavening is actually a picture of sin. Paul and Sosthenes gives the Corinthian Church the comparison of sin to leaven, as it affects the whole dough. It says in 1 Corinthians 5:8, “Therefore let’s celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” This is the Christian life Matthew Henry was referring to in his fourth point I’ve mentioned.

Jesus on the cross (created in Animal Crossing: New Horizons)

Jesus wanted us to remember Him by partaking of symbols of His body and blood. Our passage today points us to that exactly, to show that Jesus' giving up of Himself and shedding of blood is what saves us. In fact, the whole Bible points to that good news. Everything in this universe was created through and for Him (Colossians 1:16). There has to be this specific thing that we must keep on doing for us not to forget. That’s why we have the Lord’s Supper.

Let’s always see that in Christ we’re free. By His shed blood, we’re forgiven. By His stripes, we’re healed. Through His word, believing souls He quickens. Through His life, hearts He empowers in the battlefield. Let your life be one He matures. Let the power of His blood make you endure.

With love,

Celina <3

References

Got Questions Ministries. (n.d.). What is the significance that life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:14)? Retrieved from GotQuestions.org: https://www.gotquestions.org/life-is-in-the-blood.html

Henry, M. (1710). Exodus 12 Matthew Henry's Commentary. Retrieved from Bible Hub: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/mhc/exodus/12.htm

Langham, K., & Ferguson, J. (n.d.). Exodus 13 | The Feast of Unleavened Bread. Exodus | The Rescue. Westminster, California, United States of America: Through the Word. 

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