A Redeeming Love (Exodus 12:13)

The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
—Exodus 12:13

If you are familiar with this chapter, you know it is one of the most important, well-known, pivotal chapters in all the Old Testament, as God brings his people out of slavery in Egypt through the blood of a Passover lamb. The people of God bring a lamb into their home and care for it, then sacrifice it and put its blood over their doorposts so that, on the night when God executes judgments—that is the word used in Exodus 12:12—against sin in Egypt, the people of God will be saved from those judgments. They are saved not by their own merit, not because they are better than the Egyptians, but because of their trust in the blood of this sacrifice over their doorposts.

Exodus 12:13 shows God’s provision for salvation.

By being under the banner of that sacrifice—that blood—they are saved, delivered from death and from slavery. This becomes a picture, one of many in the Old Testament, of the ultimate salvation God brings to all who trust in the sacrifice of Jesus, in his blood. Jesus is the Lamb who makes a way for us to be saved from all our sins—saved from the penalty of sin, death—and saved from slavery to sin in this life.

I want to encourage you today, if you are a follower of Jesus, to see yourself right now in this picture in a fresh way. Your life is hidden under the banner of the blood of Jesus, which has covered all your sins—not because you are better than anyone else, not because of any merit in you, but solely because of your trust in the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for you.

You are forgiven of all your sin. There is no condemnation for you. You are in Christ Jesus. The price for your sin has been paid. You are forgiven, and you are free. You have been delivered from the power of sin in your life. There is no sin that has rule, reign, or authority in your life today. You have freedom through the power of Jesus’s blood and his Spirit, who now lives within you, to live free from sin’s power and penalty forever.

Exodus 12:13 pictures ultimate salvation through Jesus.

So, God, we praise you for this reality. I pray in my own life and on behalf of every follower of Jesus listening right now that we would see ourselves in this picture in a fresh way—hidden under the banner of your blood, Lord Jesus. And God, if anyone listening right now has not trusted in you—Jesus—perhaps even having played a Christian game for who knows how long, O God, may today be the day, the moment, when they say, “I need to be under the banner of Jesus’s blood. I need to trust in Jesus’s blood for my forgiveness, my freedom, my life.”

O God, I pray that you would draw someone to salvation right now. Help us to share this good news and to lead others to salvation—to hide under the banner of Jesus’s blood. God, help us to live with urgency, to lead others to the blood of Jesus, and then to live in the power of Jesus’s blood—the power over sin you have made possible for us. Jesus, your death on the cross, your resurrection from the grave, your ascension to heaven, your sending of the Holy Spirit—so that we might live today free from the penalty and power of sin in our lives—may it be so.

Prayer for the Kurdish People

God, we pray for people who have not heard this good news—for the 14.8 million Kurdish people in Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq, in mountainous regions and urban centers. We pray that the good news of Jesus’s blood—the Lamb who has taken away the sins of the world—might reach the Kurdish people, that they might be saved. God, we pray for the salvation, freedom, and deliverance of the Kurdish people, that all 14.8 million of them would hear the good news of your love for them in Jesus. Please, may it be so.

We pray all of this because of the blood of Jesus, which has made the way open for us to walk with you. God, help us to live in the fullness of what it means to be under the banner of Jesus’s blood today. We pray this according to your Word in Exodus 12:13. In Jesus’s name, amen.