The Egyptian Pharaoh held the people of Israel in slavery, but when they began to cry out to God, He raised up Moses to initiate ten plagues upon the Egyptians. Each plague progressively worsened, but Pharaoh stubbornly held the Israelites and refused to release them to worship the Lord. The tenth and final plague was the death of all firstborn children throughout Egypt. God told Moses He would protect the Israelite firstborn if they would slay a lamb as a substitute and put the lamb's blood on the lintel and sides of the doorframes of their houses.
12"On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13The 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 12:12-13; emphasis added).
God required faith in the substitutionary blood of the Passover lamb. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). The Israelites took a bundle of the hyssop plant and dipped it in a bowl of the blood from the sacrificed lamb. The hyssop was then used to strike the lintel and each side of the doorframe. God intended to leave the Israelites with the image of a cross over the door. Can you imagine hearing the screams from neighboring houses that lost their firstborn? There is more to this than meets the eye. For many years, I thought God was the One passing by the households of those who had faith in the shed blood of an innocent sacrificial lamb, but I no longer believe this to be true. The Lord gives us a picture of what happened in Isaiah 31:5:
Like birds hovering overhead, the LORD Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will 'pass over' it and will rescue it" (Isaiah 31:5; emphasis added).
The context of the above passage from the prophet Isaiah highlights God's protection of the city of Jerusalem. God describes Himself as hovering over the city and shielding the inhabitants from harm. Ceil and Moishe Rosen, in their book Christ in the Passover, discuss the word translated as "pass over:"
“The verb “pass over” has a deeper meaning here than the idea of stepping or leaping over something to avoid contact. It is not the common Hebrew verb, a-bhar, or ga-bhar, frequently used in that sense. The word used here is pasah, from the noun pasha, translated into English as Passover. These words have no connection with any other Hebrew word, but they do resemble the Egyptian word pesh, which means "to spread wings over" that He may protect us."
The picture depicts the Lord protecting us from harm. It sheds new light on the passage where Jesus grieved over the city of Jerusalem when He said: "O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" (Luke 13:34). The God we have come to know and love desires to bring us close to His heart and wrap His arms around us, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings to protect them. With fresh insight into what is unfolding in the Book of Exodus, let’s now examine what occurred that terrible night:
When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down (Exodus 12:23).
The Lord is our protection and help. As a destroying angel moved through the land, God hovered over the households of the faithful, sheltered by the innocent blood of the substitute lamb over their doors. The Israelites had to walk in obedience to what God commanded them. The Lord Himself drew near and embraced His people, protecting and binding them to Himself, not allowing the destroyer to enter their homes. The Passover celebration reminds the Israelites of their deliverance from bondage and slavery. What occurred in the book of Exodus serves as a foreshadowing of what God intended to accomplish through Jesus, who became our Passover Lamb. He is our Substitute whom we must trust and obey. Pharaoh symbolizes Satan, who kept us in cruel slavery to our sins. Egypt represents the worldly system in which we live. Christ is our sacrificial Lamb who willingly gave His life to deliver us if we place our faith in His shed blood applied to the door of our hearts. God desires His presence to rest over the homes of our hearts and to dwell with us for eternity. Keith Thomas
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