E12-6: The saving blood of the Lamb applied equally to Israel and Egypt

 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 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 12:12

It was the Lord Himself who struck down the firstborn.

He didn’t send some angel or mercenary to do His Work for Him.

The Scripture makes it clear that it was God Himself who went down into Egypt and with His heavy hand of judgement laid waste to the firstborn.

I’ve heard a lot of criticism directed towards Israel’s invasion of the Promised Land and how God commanded that every non-Hebrew man, woman and child be exterminated.

However, let’s not forget that a similar thing occurred here.

Just imagine the scene.

Members from every age group of the Egyptian population were killed.

Babies.

Toddlers.

Teenagers.

Adults.

The elderly.

There was not one home that did not have a dead person in it.

Even the firstborn of the animals were targeted.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of livestock lay dead in the fields.

The Almighty Creator of the universe, without apology or hesitation, had executed terrible judgement on Egypt.

There are some very important truths we can take away from studying this incident.

First, although the Lord had specifically targeted Pharaoh by killing the firstborn heir to the throne of Egypt, ALL of those who decided to side with Pharaoh also suffered the same fate.

Can you see how there is no neutral ground here?

You’re either with the God of Israel or you’re not.

In this life, I urge you while you still have the breath of life in you to choose this day whom you will serve.

Because if this event is a prototype or pattern of how God’s judgement upon mankind is going to unfold in the future, once the judgement begins, it may be too late.

Second, and perhaps the most important point, those who were spared from God’s judgement depended on the blood of the Lamb.

Although, the Scripture doesn’t explicitly mention it, any Egyptian household who made a decision to join Israel and applied the blood of the Passover Lamb to their doorposts would also have been spared this terrible judgement of God. 

The opposite is also true.

Let’s say there had been an Israelite family or two that decided to NOT pay careful attention to God’s instructions concerning the Passover Lamb.

Maybe they were tired that night or decided it just wasn’t a big deal.

Maybe they assumed “Well, we’re Israelites. There’s no way God is going to hurt us.”

Unfortunately, they too would have suffered the same fate as the Egyptians if due to either their carelessness or stubbornness they had not applied the blood of the lamb to the door of their households.

The saving blood of the lamb would have applied equally to everyone in Egypt regardless of whether one was a Hebrew or not.

Finally, I can’t help closing with this thought.

If you were an Egyptian and you wanted to escape God’s terrible judgement that night, you had no choice but to go to Israel to find the way of salvation.

There was only one group of people in all of Egypt (and remember Egypt symbolically represents the world in Scripture) where you could go to in order to get saved.

There was no other nation or religion or wise sage or philosopher you could turn to.

You couldn’t go to India, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia or wherever to find the path to salvation.

You won’t be able to find the way to salvation via countless hours of Buddhist meditation, reading 20 million self-help books (speaking to myself here), lifting weights and taking vitamins everyday or saving up tons and tons of money.

As it was in days past, so it is today.

Salvation has always been and still is from the Jews.

Believe in the Messiah of Israel today.

His Name is Yeshua.

By applying Yeshua’s blood to the doorway of your heart, you graft yourself into the covenants that God has ONLY made with Israel and ensure that when judgement strikes mankind as it did in Egypt so long ago, you will be passed over.

You will NOT be condemned.

CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

You Samaritans worship what you do not know;
we worship what we do know,
for salvation is from the Jews.
-John 4:22

“He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world
in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained.
He has given assurance of this to all
by raising Him from the dead.”
-Acts 17:31

“Here I am!
I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in and eat with that person,
and they with me.”
-Revelations 3:20