“For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.”
– Exodus 12:23
Exodus 12:23 maybe more than any other in Exodus 12 summarizes what Passover is about. What God was instituting in this moment in a way that God’s people would look back to really every day after this point. And even in the church today, we look back to the blood of Christ shed on a cross for our sins. We look back at the Lord’s supper. And it all hinges on this imagery from Exodus 12:23. God chose to use the Passover. This picture of taking a sacrifice and taking the blood of a spotless animal and putting it over the doorposts of the Israelites. It shows that God paid the penalty for sin, death, for their house. In a way that was different from the Egyptians in this story.
This Verse Reminds Us of the Sacrifice of Jesus
This is a picture of the sacrifice of the blameless Christ.
So that when, it says, “The Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you,” the whole picture is that, on that night, when every Egyptian household would experience death, death of the firstborn son in their household, the Lord would pass over the houses of all who were trusting in God and his provision of a sacrifice instead of the first born son dying.
The whole picture in Exodus 12:23 gets developed more and more throughout the Bible. It is developed in the sacrificial system in the Old Testament. We deserve death before God, every single one of us. And yet God has made a way for a substitute sacrifice to be made for our sin. He saved us from death. Ultimately, what John 1:29 describes as, “Jesus the Lamb of God, who comes to take away the sin of the world,” the reality that you and I, every single one of us deserves eternal death before God for our sin against God.
Exodus 12:23 Reminds Us of Salvation
Yet, God has made a way. The sacrifice of his only son dying on a cross for our sin. Jesus was a substitute sacrifice for us. He saves all who trust in his blood, his love, in what he did, and who he is. For all who trust in the blood of Jesus, God passes over us. He saved us.
Jesus, we praise you today in a fresh way as we read Exodus 12:23, as we think about this story and even read right after this verse, you shall observe this right as a statute for you and your sons forever. We look back even today to what you did among your people then and we praise you for the substitute sacrifice you made possible for your people to save your people out of Egypt.
Exodus 12:23 Leads Us to Praise God
And we look back at the substitute sacrifice you have made available for all of us, for my life, for every person who’s praying right now, who’s put their trust in you. All glory be to your name, Jesus, for dying on the cross for our sin, for rising from the grave in victory over sin so that as we trust in your blood, in your love for us, that we are delivered out and saved from death to experience eternal life with you. All glory be to your name.
And, so God, we pray that you would help us to spread the good news of your sacrifice, to spread the good news of your love, to spread the good news of Jesus’ blood shed, for sinners. God, we pray that you’d help us to share that good news with somebody today in our sphere of influence. Help us to point people to the salvation. And to the life that is found in Jesus. Help us to share what Jesus has done for sinners.
This Verse Leads Us to Pray for the Unreached
God, we pray you’d help us to share this Gospel with others around us and others all around the world. God, we pray for Turkish speaking Kurds in Turkey, six million of them hardly any followers of Jesus. All of them right now under the penalty of sin. They are on a road that leads to eternal death and eternal hell. God, we pray, we pray that you would bring your salvation to the Turkish speaking Kurds of Turkey. Please bring the good news of your grace and your love. Bring the news of your mercy in Jesus. And the news of his blood shed for sins to them.
God, please help somebody, somebody who knows Jesus, to go them. God spend our lives and our families and our churches for the spread of this news in the world that more and more people and more and more people groups might be saved, nations, peoples might be saved by the blood of Jesus as we proclaim this good news.
This Verse Leads Us to Glorify God
Oh, we love you, Jesus. We glorify you as the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. We glorify you as the lamb who takes away our sins, who forgives us of our sins through your blood on the cross. All glory be to your name for making it impossible, to use the language of Exodus 12:23, “the Holy Lord of the universe to pass over us when it comes to the penalty of death, to save us that we might experience eternal life.” All glory be to your name. Jesus is our savior. You are the lamb who takes away our sins. In your name we pray. In your name, we experienced this communion with the father. And in your name, we experience life. In your name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
