It was a most singular spectacle that presented itself in Egypt on the Passover night. On the outside of every Israelitish family appeared the sprinkled blood. It was there for three reasons: First, because of the threatened judgment; secondly, because Jehovah had commanded it; thirdly, because all Israel were obedient. To the natural mind those blood marks signified nothing. To the eye of faith they meant everything; for the Judge had said, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”
At midnight the test came. Jehovah visited the land. Upon every house, unsprinkled with the blood, judgment was executed. Over every house that bore the token He passed by. Why did Jehovah pass over Israel? Because the judgment had already been executed upon them in the person of their substitute—the slain lamb. The blood upon the lintel was the sign of this.
It mattered not that some among the Egyptians were moral and upright. In God's sight they were sinners. God looked for the blood; and finding it not, executed His just decree. It mattered not that some of the firstborn of the Israelitish nation were great sinners. God saw the sprinkled blood outside, and therefore passed them by. The blood, or the absence of it, made all the difference, and guided the Lord in His acts that night. The time of judgment had come, and wherever the blood was not, judgment was poured out.
These are solemn realities, recorded in the book of God for the warning and instruction of sinners in this world now. God's principles do not change; the ground on which He saves a sinner from judgment today is the same as that on which He saved the sinner in the day of Ex. 12.
From the pages of sacred writ, the work of Jesus rises before us in all its divine and solitary grandeur as the only way of salvation from the judgment of God. This lost world can find no other. There is salvation in naught besides. In man's creeds, good works and human righteousness count for a great deal; but in God's estimation, as a means of salvation, they stand for nothing. He knows only one way whereby we can be saved, and that is through faith in Christ, whose blood has atoned for sin.
This is a note that the Spirit of God is never weary of striking. It sounds throughout the entire New Testament, in which is recorded the history of that blessed God-man who took the sinner's place at the cross. The Old Testament abounds with prophecies, shadows and symbols of the same glorious Person, the promised Deliverer and Savior of men. This could not be otherwise; for, in the counsels of God from everlasting, the redemption of the sinner was to be by blood, the blood of the Son of God.