The Pass Over

Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:13

This evening begins the annual celebration of the Passover in Israel. This story comes down to us by way of the Bible and tells of a time of destruction, a highly specific destruction. You likely know the story well from the Bible studies of your youth. The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for about 400 years, God sent Moses to bring them out of the land, and there was this Pharaoh who was perhaps the world's foremost anti-change champion. But not so much that God didn't need to help out by hardening this pharaoh's heart. God's hardening worked of course, and the final plague upon Egypt would target a group of beings so specific that even today we marvel. The first born of Egypt, including livestock, would all die at once in all the land one night with this one exception - a sign. Only the sign of blood on specific places of a home would cause the destroying agent to pass over a particular house. And that, boiled down to a paragraph, is the reason for the annual celebration of the Passover to this day among God's children of Israel.

Take the time today, if you can, to read that first part of Exodus and how God by His mighty hand separated Israel to Himself.

Love in Christ,

Bucky