April 18, 2016 - Day 109 - DELIVERANCE VIA BLOOD

Exodus Monday (chapters 9-12)                                                                                               

Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the  lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin.  (Exodus 12:21-22 ESV)

Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, has resisted the first nine plagues sent by almighty God in order to encourage the freedom of the Israelites. The tenth plague is about to come upon the land of Egypt. But first God must protect His chosen people. He tells them to slaughter a perfect lamb, one per household. They are to make it their source of protein in the meal of haste. (There would not be even enough time to allow bread to rise.) But first they must use the blood of these lambs as a sign for the death angel to pass over their dwellings.

Every house in the entire land of Egypt that did not have lamb’s blood on their doors would lose their firstborn child that night, along with the firstborn of their livestock.

While there was wailing and mourning throughout the land because of so much death, in the homes covered with lamb’s blood, there was instead peace and a sense that God was working powerfully among His people. The blood had delivered them. The same is true for you and me today. The Lord delivers us from our enemies of sin, death and the devil by means of Jesus, the lamb of God who shed His blood for us that first Good Friday.

Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
Which at the mercy seat of God
Pleads for the captives' liberty,
Was also shed in love for me.
(Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness, The Lutheran Service Book, CPH 2006, #563-3)

Lord, thank You for covering me in Your blood and thereby redeeming me, buying me back from sin, death and the devil. Please use me this week to share the story of Your love and mercy with someone else. Amen.

Pastor David Paape

The following link is to the 52 Week Reading Plan Bible upon which these devotions are based.  http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf