The older book
Passover Lamb
This time, the New Testament tells us what the pattern means.
For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.
Exodus 6:6-7 · Exodus 12:1-32, 43-51 · Luke 22:14-20 · John 1:29 · John 19:31-37 · 1 Corinthians 5:7 · 1 Peter 1:18-19
The scene
Israel has been enslaved in Egypt for generations, and God is about to bring them out. But first comes the final plague: the death of every firstborn throughout Egypt.
God tells each household to take a year-old male lamb without defect, kill it and put some of its blood on the doorposts and lintel of the house where they eat it. Then he tells them why:
"The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt."Exodus 12:13
Judgment passes through Egypt, but the people inside those houses are safe. There is blood on the doorway.
Something has already died.
Later in the same chapter, God gives another instruction about the Passover:
"Do not break any of its bones."Exodus 12:46
Passover becomes part of the life of Israel, a memorial of the night God brought them out of Egypt.
Centuries later, Jesus sits down to eat Passover with his disciples. He takes the bread, gives thanks, breaks it and says:
"This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me."Luke 22:19
Then he takes the cup:
"This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."Luke 22:20
Every Passover took these men back to Egypt: the lamb, the blood, the judgment and the deliverance. Now, at Passover, Jesus is talking about his own body and his own blood.
When Jesus is crucified, the soldiers break the legs of the men crucified beside him. But Jesus is already dead, so they don't break his legs. John tells us that Scripture has been fulfilled:
"A bone of him will not be broken."John 19:36
Exodus had said of the Passover:
"Do not break any of its bones."Exodus 12:46
And that isn't the only connection the New Testament gives us. John the Baptist calls Jesus "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" Peter says Christians were redeemed "with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ."John 1:29 · 1 Peter 1:19
And Paul makes the Passover connection explicit: Christ is our Passover, and he has been sacrificed.
At the first Passover, judgment was coming. A lamb was killed, and the people under its blood were spared. The blood marked their deliverance from death and the beginning of their freedom from slavery.
The point
For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.1 Corinthians 5:7
Sit with this
When I see the blood, I will pass over you.Exodus 12:13