The First “Stay at Home” Order

Exodus 12:21-23 New International Version (NIV)

“Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssops, dip it into the blood in the basin, and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.”

Moses was given by God the instructions to tell the children of Israel to pull out of their flock, lambs according to their family’s size. This lamb had requirements in the selection. The lamb had to be one without blemish or flaws. It had to be a male and one of the firstborn of the flock. This meant that they should pull out the number of lambs that would be equivalent to the size of their family, but they needed to be perfect lamb as well. They were to kill the lambs and capture the blood in a basin. Then they were to take hyssop branches and dip them in the blood and brush the blood of the lamb over the door and down the door side post. The hyssop branch was used as a medicine and cleaning plant. It was also used in spiritual cleansing rituals. The hyssop branch was referred to as a tool or mechanism of purging, which is a process of cleansing or refining.

God was about to send the angel of death to the land to take the life of all the firstborn in the land as a punishment to Pharaoh for not listening to His request to free his people Israel. The firstborn to die included the child of Pharaoh. The placement of blood on the door for the Israelites was to protect them and their families from the plight of the death angel. The blood of the lamb would be a signal to the death angel to Passover that house and its occupants, sparing their lives.

This can theologically be looked at as God’s precursor to the coming of Christ to save the world, by His death and bloodshed. His blood would cover the sins of man (those who accept His gift) thus providing eternal life and rescue from the sting of death.

By each family placing the blood on their door, their lives would be spared as long as they did not venture out of the door of their houses during the designated time period. If one chose to disobey the mandate of protection, one would take their peril into their own hands and death would be a certainty. Inevitably the death angel came, those not covered suffer the agony of death to the children and this included the death of Pharaoh’s firstborn son.

In Summary: God gave an instruction to them that would protect their entire family. Close the door and stay in until I tell you to come out. We are expected to obey the instructions given to protect us from evil. This means do what you can to protect your loved ones. Trusting God is also obeying God and the authorities he’s placed in charge of information to protect.

We don’t know the answers to the difficult questions that plague us in this life and day to day, as in this pandemic. But we do know that minimizing our contact with individuals who may have it and we can’t see it, can serve as a protective measure to secure ourselves, our families, our friends, our neighbors, and our coworkers.

“Obedience is still better than sacrifice”.

This has been a biblical message for the day and the times.

Minister Ron King