Good Friday - the Day God Passed Over

I watched quietly as my father and mother walked to the doorway with the bowl of lamb's blood. Father and I had killed the tiny lamb early in the morning, and my mother and sisters had prepared the meat for the evening meal - I could smell the herbs mingling with the sweet evening air. Her eyes wide and anxious, Mother lifted the bowl for Father to dip the hyssop branches and spread the blood across the lintel of the door. There was no sound but the scratch of the branches against the splintered wood. My whole family gathered around and watched, holding hands in fear and hope; for this was the passover - the sign God had given to mark the homes of His people. Tonight the death angel was coming. Unless God kept His promise, tonight all the firstborn sons in Egypt would die - and that included me.





I sat quietly on my bed, staring through my tears at the worn pages of my grandmother's Bible. No one in my family had ever told me this before - no one had told me about the Bible, about God, about the sins that I'd committed. Sure, I sassed back at my mom, or snuck a cigarette after school, or drove faster than the speed limit at night. All of my friends did the same thing, and we knew we shouldn't. But now I knew that these were sins. That they broke God's laws. That I was going to die - that I really did deserve to go to hell. But my friend said that Jesus Christ took my place and died instead of me, that He rose again to save me from death. I rubbed my wrist across my eyes so I could see the page. I had to know if what the Bible said was true - I had to know if Jesus really would save me like it said He would. Unless God kept His promise, I was worse than lost.

***

Today is Good Friday and Passover, a combination of two vitally important days for us as Christians. Passover came first, the image of what was to come: God had told the ruler of Egypt nine times to release His people, the Jews, from slavery; and each time, the Pharaoh refused. God sent plagues on the Egyptian people to warn Pharaoh that He meant what He said, and still Pharaoh would not listen. Finally, God used Moses to warn Pharaoh that the next plague was the last and ultimate: every firstborn in Egypt would die in every house that did not have the blood symbol on its door (Exodus 11).

So each of the Jews' households killed a pure, perfect lamb. They spread the blood on the top and sides of the wooden doorposts, a symbol that they believed, that they belonged to God, and that they would not die when the death angel came. They ate the symbolic meal that became the Seder, the roasted lamb with the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs. And they waited in their houses while the angel of death began to move through the streets.

The cries of the Egyptians began to rise in the night like crying birds as the morning came, for their firstborn sons were dead - the strong men and the tiny newborns, every firstborn male had been soundlessly stolen away in the night by the angel of death. It was because the Egyptians did not believe when God warned them that judgment was coming, nor did they believe that He had provided innocent blood to cover their sins. Meanwhile, the Jews who did believe rose up that morning - quietly, humbly; and they looked at their strong, healthy sons and thanked the Lord for His protection. They believed; and they were passed over.

Then time passed and the fullness of time came, when God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to bring the same warning to the whole world: Judgment is coming. And He provided the same remedy - innocent blood to cover their sins. Only this time, it was the purest, most innocent blood in the world - Jesus' own blood.

On Good Friday, a pure, perfect Lamb was killed, His blood running down the sides of a wooden cross. He was pure and sinless, like the unleavened bread; yet He tasted the bitter herbs of our vile sin. And death came, and the Lord yielded His life of His own accord, shedding His blood to cover our sins just like the Passover lamb. When God moves in the world, He sees the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts of our hearts. We believe; and we are passed over.

But the beauty of today, as we wait through the dark and quiet weekend to celebrate the Resurrection on Sunday, is that the death angel has not yet come to you, if you are reading this. There is still time for you to ask God to apply His blood to your heart, to forgive your sins and make you one of His people, before the night comes and it's too late. Someday, you will have to face death; and what happens to your soul will depend on whether you chose to believe in the Lamb, or if you choose not to believe. I beg you to seek the Lord and ask Him to help you trust and believe in Him today.

For those of us who have believed, those of us who already have the blood of the Lamb applied to our hearts, let us sit quietly on this night and pray for those who are outside, for those who are unprepared for the judgment that is coming; and let us also celebrate, because we are safe in the love of God and protected by the sacrifice He made for us.

God bless you on this special day, my friends!

Love,
Vicki