Lord, send your Holy Spirit into our hearts and minds to show us the marvels of your Kingdom. Let us always be amazed at what you have done for us. Amen. Thank you, Jesus.
This article describes an Old Testament image (prefigurement) of Christ, the Lamb of God, on the Cross. The inspiration for this article started with a book called Christ in the Passover written by Ceil and Moshe Rosen. It was Published by Moody Bible Institute of Chicago in 1978 on behalf of Jews for Jesus. Some years after I first read the book, The Children of the Living God Community in Winnipeg invited Jews for Jesus to give a presentation on Christ in the Passover to the community. It was my privilege to attend their prayer meeting that Friday night. From those events comes this article. Praise God!
Let us begin by reviewing the story of Israël's escape from Egypt (Exodus 12). The Israëlites were instructed to take an unblemished lamb, slaughter it, and eat it. The blood was to be caught in the basin and some of it had to be put on the doorposts of their homes, and on the lintel. Later that night when the Angel of Death went through Egypt, it was not allowed into any home which had been marked with the blood of the lamb; however it did enter every home which was not protected by lamb's blood and it killed the first born of those households.
Praise God for deliverance from the Egyptians! Yes, we know all of that, so why this article? Well, let's take a closer look at the doorways of those Israëlite homes.
The basin was a simple hole in the ground in front of the door or right in the doorway. Normally, it was filled with water so that anyone entering the home could wash their feet and leave the dirt of the world outside. Those among us who have ever gone on long hikes know the joy of dipping our feet into some nice cool water after walking ten or 15 miles on a warm day. I imagine that the men who worked in the fields of Egypt looked forward to dipping their feet into the basin upon arriving home in the evening after a long, hot day.
However, on this particular day, the basin was filled with the blood of a lamb which had been slaughtered for supper in accordance with special instructions received from Moses and he claimed that he first heard them from Yahweh. Hm-m-mmm.
Look closer at the set-up. We know what doorposts are: they are the posts on either side of a doorway; one post normally has the hinges and the other has the latch for the door. But do you know where or what the lintel is? It is the cross bar at the top of the doorway -- it connects the two doorposts at the top of the doorway. What does this mean?
Picture for a minute the basin in the ground by the bottom of the doorposts (remember that it is filled with blood); then take a piece of hyssop (or a paint brush, or a stick with a rag tied onto one end) and dip it into the basin, soaking the end of the hyssop in the blood. Now lift it up and see how the blood drips from it onto the ground as you put the wet end against the left doorpost and rub blood onto the post, then do the same to the right doorpost, and finally do it to the lintel at the top of the door. Replace the hyssop onto the ground, step back and admire your handy work.
Do you see what I see? I see a cross outlined in blood. Superimpose onto this picture a picture of Christ hanging on the cross, bleeding from his head, his hands, his feet, the blood dripping onto the ground.
Israël was freed from slavery to the Egyptians by the blood of the lamb on their doorways; we have been freed from slavery to sin by the Precious Blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, poured out for us on that lonely cross on Calvary.
Wow!! What a beautiful picture! Thank you, Lord for revealing these things to the simple and hiding them from the wise. Thank you for beautiful images of your Son in the Old Testament. Open the eyes of the Jews today to see what we see that they may experience the fullness of your Salvation for us. Amen. Alleluia.