Freedom must be purchased. The nation of Egypt paid for the rebellion of her ruler, “god” pharaoh. The kind of deliverance Egypt would need would require the very presence of God among them. If God was to be among them, their sins would need atonement. So Yahweh gives Israel the opportunity to sacrifice a spotless lamb as atonement for their sin.
Egypt had no opportunity. Pharaoh was holding back God’s very own son in Israel, so God requires Egypt’s first-born sons as judgment against their rebellion. Israel, whose sin was just as great as Egypt’s placed a sign over their door that blood had been spilled for the sins of that particular house.
The lamb is only a picture of the true son of God whose blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins. Like the Israelites spread the blood of the lamb over their doors on the night before their departure from Egypt, our identity with Jesus’ atoning sacrifice becomes the turning point for our freedom. Will we need to walk through our respective Red Sea’s and claim our place in the Promised Land? Yes, but none of those journeys begin without blood to pay for our sins.
Many of us are trying to break into the Promised Land through the back door because we feel a sense of guilt in our lives. We claim that Jesus blood has paid for our sins, yet we act as if God is waiting for us to be good enough so that we are worthy of Jesus’ sacrifice. As the song says, “If you tarry until you are better, you will never come at all…” We can only get the the Promised Land through the front door: Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Each of us must recognize our sins, confess them, repent of them, believe in Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away our sins and walk into the Promised Land God has for us.
“…let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean…” Hebrews 11:22
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