Exodus 12:21-28

²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Draw out and take lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. ²² Take a cluster of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you should go out of the door of his house until the morning. ²³ Because 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. ²⁴ You are to observe this ritual as a permanent rule for you and for your sons forever. ²⁵ So when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you will keep this practice. ²⁶ And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this practice?’ ²⁷ you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but delivered our households.'”And the people bowed down low. ²⁸ Then the people of Israel went and did so; just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, this is what they did.

brush with death

The symbol of blood on the doorframes of the houses was not just for the night of Passover itself. It was to be performed at every Passover celebration. It was to be a reminder to every Israelite that judgment and death had come, but that the LORD had passed them over. He saw the blood and passed over them.

For the Christian, the ritual of communion, or the Lord’s Supper, can serve the same purpose. When we regularly partake of the emblem of the broken body and shed blood of our Savior, we remember that we were sinners and deserved the judgment of death. But the LORD chose to rescue us by his grace, taking the punishment for our sin upon himself. He did not just decide to arbitrarily forgive us. He paid the price with his own life.

It is possible that the markings on the door were meant to symbolize the actual word for life. The Hebrew word for life is chayim, which begins with the letter chet.[1] The bloody doorposts were a symbol of death but became a symbol of life. The cross is now the same thing for us. That symbol of cruel torture and shameful, agonizing death is now a symbol of rescue, deliverance and life.

LORD, thank you for taking the punishment of death upon yourself, so that we can know eternal life. May we constantly remind ourselves of this grace, and so worship you with reverence and joy.

[1] A painted doorframe would display the Hebrew letter chet.