Devotion Booklets for Seasons of the Church Year Lent 2018 | Page 52

The True Passover Lamb
Thursday, March 29th
Exodus 12:1-13
Give up defending yourself, it won’t work. It can’t work. Not just because the attitudes and orientations
of your heart are indefensible (you shouldn’t be trying to paint them as godly), but because your
attempts at defending yourself have failed, do fail, and will always fail in the future.
Give it up, it is not working, it cannot work. Like a child in the 1960’s being taught to hide under the
desk as a protection from the A-bomb, all your defense efforts will do is give you the illusion of safety.
Some of the plagues in Egypt affected Israelites and Egyptians alike. Others afflicted only Egyptians.
The final plague, the plague of the firstborn would fall across the whole land. Death was coming, “I
will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn” (Exodus 12:12). This destructive plague would
take the lives of people and animals alike, but for the Israelites there was a defense.
What stood between the Israelite firstborn and death on that great and dreadful night was not
impenetrable armor plating or a robust verbal argument. It wasn’t an ever vigilant guard outside the
door or a king’s decree declaring the firstborn to be untouchable. What stood between the firstborn and
certain death was blood, the blood of the lamb.
Spotless and innocent, the lamb had received special care in the home for 5 days. Then the family
would gather to watch the lamb’s slaughter and the blood painted on the doorframe.
The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over
you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt (Exodus 12:13).
Blood seems to be a pitiful defense against a destroying angel. Yet the blood of the innocent was shed
to spare the firstborn from death. The blood of the Passover lamb on the doorframe showed that death
had already come to that house and death would not come again. The Passover lamb died and its blood
was the only defense that the family needed.
On this night we recall how the true Passover Lamb gave his body and blood to us, to eat and to drink,
to forgive our sins, to mark our hearts, to defend us from death, and to deliver eternal life. Jesus, the
true Passover Lamb purchased a perfect defense with his holy precious blood and his innocent
sufferings and death. With him, I can gladly give up defending myself.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, my true Passover lamb, defend me from the terrible danger of my sin and bless me
with the peace of forgiveness. May your precious blood shed and body given always be for me the
greatest protection from death and the promise of everlasting life. Amen.
Activity: Google search “Luther seal” and answer the question: if the picture of the heart is like
doorframe of my heart, what is painted on it like the lamb’s blood of the Passover? Draw your own
picture of the Luther seal and rejoice in Jesus your sure defense.
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