--"The Power of the Blood"
Exodus 12:21-28
Exodus 12:13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
I. The Significance of the Blood -- "...the blood..."
There is a crimson stream running throughout the Word of God, a stream filled with blood and to quote a popular song, "It's all about the blood, it's all about Calvary..." One can't help but notice the progression of this idea of a blood sacrifice:
a. The blood for a person
Genesis 4:4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
b. The blood for a family
Exodus 12:3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:
c. The blood for a nation
Leviticus 16:34 And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.
d. The blood for a world
John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
II. The Sign of the Blood -- "...shall be to you for a token..."
It shall be the sign to the destroying angel, that the house on which he sees this blood sprinkled is under the protection of God, and that no person in it is to be injured. Clarke
a. The integrity of the blood
One thing more must be observed about this blood. All of the lambs mentioned above had to be without blemish or spot.
Exodus 12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
This lamb was to be observed for four days to insure that there was no defect in it. Rev. Jerry Shirley writes: "For almost four years the world observed the life and ministry of Jesus and we have a record of what they found:"
Pilate -- "...I find no fault in Him..."
Pilate's wife -- "...Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him..."
Judas -- "...I have betrayed the innocent blood..."
Thief -- "...this man has done nothing amiss..."
Centurion -- "...surely this man was the Son of God..."
Peter -- "...But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot..."
"...Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth..."
b. The implications of the blood
Another important aspect of this "sign" was that in order for the blood to be effectual the lamb had to die. There was a death in every household in Egypt that night with no exceptions, not even one. What do you mean preacher? I mean that in every house in all of Egypt there was a death. Either the first born of every family or a lamb; for blood to be sprinkled it had to be shed and for blood to be shed the lamb had to die! If the death angel passed over and didn't take the firstborn, it was because there had already been a death there...a lamb had to die!
c. The importance of the blood
Leviticus 17:11, 14 (cp. Deuteronomy 12:23) "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul....For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof ..."
Hebrews 9:22 "Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins."
1 John 1:7...the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
Revelation 1:5 "...Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood."
III. The Safety in the Blood -- "...and when I see the blood, I will pass over you..."
a. The perusal
The death angel looked for the blood and if he saw it, it made the difference, all the difference. There will come a day when God will look for the blood once again. Not the blood of a lamb but the blood of the Lamb!
b. The passing
"Christ our Redeemer died on the cross,
Died for the sinner, paid all his due.
All who receive Him need never fear,
Yes, He will pass, will pass over you.
Chiefest of sinners, Jesus will save;
As He has promised, so He will do;
Oh, sinner, hear Him, trust in His Word,
Then He will pass, will pass over you.
Judgment is coming, all will be there.
Who have rejected, who have refused?
Oh, sinner, hasten, let Jesus in,
Oh, He will pass, will pass over you.
O great compassion! O boundless love!
Jesus hath power, Jesus is true;
All who believe are safe from the storm,
Oh, He will pass, will pass over you.
Refrain: When I see the blood, when I see the blood,
When I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you."
c. The person
The last thing I want you to notice about this lamb and its blood can be found in our text:
Exodus 12:3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:
4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
Ill.--John Griffith was in his early twenties--newly married and full of optimism. He and his lovely wife had been blessed with a beautiful, blue-eyed baby, Gregory. The stock market crashed in 1929 and they made their way to Missouri, to the edge of the Mississippi River, and there he found a job tending one of the great railroad bridges that spanned the massive river.
Every day John sat in a control room and directed the enormous gears of an immense bridge.
By 1937 his son Greg was 8 years old, and on April 5, 1937, for the first time, John brought Greg to work with him. Excitedly they packed their lunches and headed off toward the immense bridge.
Greg looked on in wide-eyed amazement as his dad pressed down the huge lever that raised and lowered the vast bridge. Soon, noon arrived. After John elevated the bridge and allowed some scheduled ships to pass through, he took his son by the hand, and they headed off for lunch. They inched their way down the narrow catwalk and out onto the observation deck that projected some 50 feet out over the majestic Mississippi. There they sat and watched spellbound as the ships passed by below.
Suddenly, they were startled by the shrieking whistle of a distant train. He quickly looked at his watch and saw that it was time for the 1:07, the Memphis Express, with 400 passengers, which would be rushing across that bridge in just a couple of minutes. He had just enough time.
He instructed his son to stay put. Quickly leaping to his feet, he jumped onto the catwalk and climbed the steel ladder leading into the control house.
Once in, he searched the river to make sure no ships were in sight. And then as he had been trained to do, he looked straight down beneath the bridge to make certain nothing was below. It was then he spied something so horrifying that his heart froze in his chest. For there, below him in the massive gear box that moved the bridge was his son.
Apparently Greg had tried to follow his dad but had fallen off the catwalk. Even now he was wedged between the teeth of two main cogs in the gear box. Although he appeared to be conscious, John could see that his son's leg was bleeding. Then an even more horrifying thought flashed through his mind. For in that instant he knew that lowering the bridge meant killing his son.
His eyes filled with tears of panic. His mind whirled. What could he do? In his frantic search he spied a rope in the control room. He would rush down the ladder and out the catwalk, tie off the rope, lower himself down, extricate his son, climb back up the rope, run back into the control room, and lower the bridge. But even as he thought this he knew the horrible truth: there was just not enough time. He'd never make it.
Suddenly he heard the whistle again, this time much closer. The clicking of the locomotive wheels on the track beat out their cadence of doom. He heard the puff puff puff of the train with its 400 passengers. How could he sacrifice his son? His mother--he could see her tear stained face now. This was their only child, their beloved son. How could he. . . .
But he had no choice. He knew what he had to do, so with terror on his face he buried his head under his left arm and pushed the gear forward.
The cries of his son were quickly drowned out by the relentless sound of the bridge as it ground slowly into position. With only seconds to spare, the Memphis Express roared out of the tress and over the mighty bridge.
John Griffith lifted his tear stained face and looked into the windows of the passing train. A businessman was reading the newspaper. A uniformed conductor was glancing nonchalantly at his large vest pocket watch. Ladies were sipping their afternoon tea in the dining cars. A small boy, looking strangely like his own son, Greg, pushed a long thin spoon into a large dish of ice cream. Many of the passengers seemed to be in either idle conversation or careless laughter. But no one looked his way. No one even cast a glance at the giant gear box that housed the mangled remains of his blue eyed boy.
In anguish he pounded the glass in the control room and cried out, "What's the matter with you people? Don't you care? Don't you know what I've sacrificed for you? Doesn't anyone care?" No one heard. And soon the disappearing train had vanished over the horizon.
The blood of the Son made the difference!
[This story is adapted from Bob Barnes, 15 Minutes Alone With God for Men, as well as accounts by Dennis Hensley and D. James Kennedy.]
