Encore Post: Nine times, God sent plagues on Egypt to show Pharaoh and his people that their gods did not have the powers claimed for them. Nine times, Pharaoh had agreed to let the people of Israel go to worship God. Nine times, God brought the plague to an end and Pharaoh went back on his word. Now the last and greatest plague would be sent. Every first-born male in the land of Egypt, other than those of the Hebrews, would die. This was the reverse of what a previous pharaoh had tried to do by ordering the first-born male babies to be killed. Now one that had escaped, ironically at the hand of a daughter of Pharaoh, would pronounce God’s answer to that outrage.
God marked the day by establishing a feast. A young lamb would be killed for each family of the Hebrews. The blood of that lamb would be spread on the door frame of each of their homes. The lamb itself would be the entrée of a feast called Passover because on that night, the Angel of Death passed over every house marked in this way. The death of Pharaoh’s heir and every firstborn in Egypt was finally enough. Pharaoh let them go and their Egyptian neighbors gave riches to the people of Israel, so they would leave quickly.
Every year since that first Passover, Jewish families remember that day of freedom. The Passover is a kind of Old Testament sacrament, bringing union with the God Who saves. Luther believed that the Passover, sacrifices and circumcision drew their power to forgive from the cross, which was yet to come, just as our sacraments draw their power to forgive from the cross, where the Lamb of God, Jesus, was sacrificed for us.
By choosing to institute the sacrament of Holy Communion during the Passover, Jesus used all of its symbols to point to what He was to do for us. Now He offers His Body and Blood to us with bread and wine, bringing with it freedom from slavery to sin and the power of the devil.
Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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The so-called “Angel of death” was none other than YHWH, if my aging memory is hitting on all 8 cylinders this morning.
Well… probably both. None of the commentaries I took a quick look up turn to that question. The text says that YHWH would pass through the land and would not let the Destroyer (IDed by commentaries as the “destroying Angel”) enter houses marked by blood on the doorpost. It doesn’t seem to enter the Angel of YHWH=Son of God discussion, but I often wondered, since that Angel is in the Pillar of Cloud/Fire during the exodus and thereafter.