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Passover: When I See the Blood

Week 1 of 6 in The Spring Feasts, for Easter · next: "I Will Not Drink Again": The Last Supper and the Cups of Passover

Week 1 of 5 in The Gospel in the Old Testament · next: As the Snake Was Lifted Up: The Bronze Serpent and the Son of Man

A blood-marked doorway on a full gold moon: Passover, fulfilled at His first coming On the night God judged Egypt, the difference between a house of mourning and a house of safety was blood on a doorframe. "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" (Exodus 12:13, ESV).

In one sentence: At the first Passover God judged Egypt and spared every household that sheltered under a lamb's blood; Israel kept that night every year as a memorial, and the New Testament names Jesus as the Passover lamb, chosen, slain at the feast and without a broken bone; so His blood is the sign over you, and the judgment you deserve passes over you because it fell on Him.

✝️ Exodus 12:12-13 (ESV)

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. 13 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 no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

Key Takeaways

(This section follows the Key Takeaways format — see that page for what each part is for.)

Types & Prophecy

  • Type, named by the New Testament. "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7, ESV). John applies the lamb's law, "you shall not break any of its bones" (Exodus 12:46, ESV), to the cross: "Not one of his bones will be broken" (John 19:36, ESV).
  • Type, by resemblance. The lamb was "without blemish" (Exodus 12:5, ESV); Peter says you were ransomed "with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Peter 1:19, ESV).

Lessons about Jesus

  • He is the Lamb God provided. John the Baptist said it twice: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29, ESV; John 1:36).
  • He died at the Passover. John marks the day: "Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover" (John 19:14, ESV).
  • He longed to keep it with His disciples. "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer" (Luke 22:15, ESV).

Memory verses

✝️ Exodus 12:13 (ESV)

13 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 no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

✝️ 1 Corinthians 5:7 (ESV)

7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Be Transformed

  • Think. You are safe from God's judgment for one reason: the blood of His Son Jesus. "Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God" (Romans 5:9, ESV).
  • Attitude. Live as Israel ate that night, "with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet" (Exodus 12:11, ESV): rescued, and ready to leave the old life.
  • Do. Answer the question Israel's children asked, "What do you mean by this service?" (Exodus 12:26, ESV). Tell someone this week, in your own words, what the blood of Jesus has done for you.

Prayer

Father, on the night you judged Egypt you saw the blood and passed over your people. Thank you that you gave your own Son Jesus as our Passover lamb, without blemish, slain at the feast, and that His blood is the sign over us. We deserved the judgment that fell on Him. Keep us trusting His blood and nothing of our own, teach our children what this means, and make us ready to follow where you lead.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Study outline

The night in Egypt

Passover came as the tenth plague. Nine times God had struck Egypt and Pharaoh had refused to let Israel go. The tenth would fall on "all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast", and God named its real target: "on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD" (Exodus 12:12, ESV).

God gave Israel a way through it:

  • A lamb for each house. On the tenth day of the month every household took "a lamb for a household", and a small household shared with its neighbour (Exodus 12:3-4, ESV). The ESV Study Bible notes the symmetry: the plague would bring a death into every Egyptian house, and Israel was told to bring a lamb's death into every one of theirs.
  • Without blemish. "Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old" (Exodus 12:5, ESV), kept until the fourteenth day and killed "at twilight" (Exodus 12:6, ESV).
  • Blood on the door. "Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts ..." (Exodus 12:22, ESV). No one went out of the house until morning.
  • A meal eaten ready to leave. The lamb was roasted whole and eaten "with unleavened bread and bitter herbs", "with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover" (Exodus 12:8, 11, ESV).

Every house in the land faced the same judgment, Israel's included. The difference was the blood. This shows that God's judgment on sin is real, and that He Himself provides the way to be sheltered from it.

What "pass over" means

The feast's name is פֶּסַח (pesach, H6453), used forty-nine times in the Hebrew Bible. The verb behind it, פָּסַח (pasach, H6452), "to pass over", occurs four times in this sense: three times in Exodus 12 (Exodus 12:13, 23, 27) and once in Isaiah.

Isaiah's use shows what the word carries. "Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it" (Isaiah 31:5, ESV). "Spare" is pasach, set beside "protect", "deliver" and "rescue". Exodus 12:23 has the same picture: "the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you" (ESV). Two readings are held, and the Septuagint, the Greek translation made before Christ, already carries both: at Exodus 12:23 it has παρελεύσεται (pareleusetai, G3928, "he will pass by"), and at Exodus 12:13 and 27 σκεπάσω (skepasō, "I will shelter"). One reading has God passing by the marked house. The other, from Isaiah 31:5 and Exodus 12:23, has Him standing over the door to guard it. Both are defensible, and both say the same thing about the blood: it is why God's judgment did not enter. God keeps the house that is under the blood.

A memorial for every generation

The children's question

"This day shall be for you a memorial day ... throughout your generations, as a statute forever" (Exodus 12:14, ESV). God wrote the teaching into the meal:

✝️ Exodus 12:26-27 (ESV)

26 And when your children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?' 27 you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.' And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

The firstborn were remembered too. Israel's firstborn had been spared that night, and from then on each one belonged to the LORD and was redeemed: "the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt ... but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem" (Exodus 13:15, ESV).

In the land

Once Israel entered the land, the Passover was to be sacrificed only "at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it" (Deuteronomy 16:6, ESV). Israel kept it at Gilgal on entering Canaan (Joshua 5:10). Hezekiah called all Israel to Jerusalem to keep it (2 Chronicles 30:1), and under Josiah "no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges" (2 Kings 23:22, ESV).

Grace written into the law

Two provisions show God's heart in the statute:

  • A second Passover. Anyone "unclean through touching a dead body, or ... on a long journey" was to keep it a month later (Numbers 9:10-11, ESV). God made room for those who could not come on the day.
  • The stranger. No foreigner could eat it, but a stranger who wished to keep it could be circumcised and "be as a native of the land. ... There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you" (Exodus 12:48-49, ESV). The door was open to anyone who would come under the covenant.

The Lamb of God

Named by the New Testament

The New Testament makes the connection itself, six times:

  • John the Baptist: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29, ESV).
  • Philip: the Ethiopian official was reading Isaiah 53:7, "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent", and "beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus" (Acts 8:32, 35, ESV).
  • Paul: "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7, ESV).
  • Peter: "you were ransomed ... with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Peter 1:18-19, ESV).
  • John at the cross: the soldiers broke the legs of the men crucified with Jesus but not His (John 19:32-33), "For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: 'Not one of his bones will be broken'" (John 19:36, ESV). The ESV Study Bible traces it to the Passover law (Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12) and to Psalm 34:20.
  • Revelation: John sees "a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain", between the throne and the four living creatures (Revelation 5:6, ESV).

Hebrews adds that Moses "kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood" by faith (Hebrews 11:28, ESV). The blood saved because Israel trusted God's word about it.

His last week

This site's chronology places the crucifixion on Friday 3 April AD 33, Nisan 14; Chronology Anchors sets out how the year is settled. On that reckoning the days of Jesus' last week follow the days of the Passover lamb:

  • The lamb was chosen on the tenth day (Exodus 12:3). John dates Jesus' arrival at Bethany "six days before the Passover" (John 12:1, ESV), and the next day the crowds met Him with palm branches (John 12:12-13). On the site's count that entry falls on 10 Nisan. John does not draw the link, and it depends on the chronology, so hold it as a correspondence the dates suggest.
  • The lamb was killed on the fourteenth. John says Jesus stood before Pilate on "the day of Preparation of the Passover" (John 19:14, ESV), and that the priests had not yet eaten the Passover that morning (John 18:28). On this reckoning He died in the afternoon of Nisan 14, when the lambs were being slain.

What is contested. Matthew, Mark and Luke call the Last Supper the Passover meal (Luke 22:15), while John has the priests still to eat theirs the next day. Scholars reconcile the two in several ways. The ESV Study Bible takes John's "day of Preparation" as the Friday of Passover week and has all four Gospels agree on a Passover meal on Thursday evening. This site follows the reading in Three Days and Three Nights: the meal as Nisan 14 began on Thursday evening, and the cross on its afternoon. Either way, Jesus died at the Passover, and the New Testament calls Him its lamb.

One small echo: Israel marked its doors with "a bunch of hyssop" (Exodus 12:22, ESV), and on the cross the soldiers raised sour wine to Jesus "on a hyssop branch" (John 19:29, ESV). The Greek Old Testament uses the same word at Exodus 12:22 as John does, ὕσσωπος (hyssōpos, G5301). John does not comment on it.

This shows that God provided the Lamb He required. "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God" (Romans 5:8-9, ESV). That is the doctrine of substitution: the judgment due to you fell on Jesus, and His blood is the sign God sees.

For the meal Jesus ate that night and the cup He left undrunk, see "I Will Not Drink Again". For where Passover sits among the feasts, see The Appointed Times.

Discussion questions

  1. The language. Isaiah 31:5 sets "pass over" beside "protect", "deliver" and "rescue". How does that change your picture of what God did at the doors in Egypt?
  2. The text in its context. Every house in Egypt faced the tenth plague (Exodus 12:12-13). What made the difference for Israel's houses, and what did not?
  3. Christ. John applies "not one of his bones will be broken" (John 19:36) to Jesus. Why would John point to that detail?
  4. The hard part. The first three Gospels call the Last Supper a Passover meal (Luke 22:15), and John has the priests still to eat theirs the next day (John 18:28). What is at stake in how the two are reconciled, and what is not?
  5. Grace in the law. Numbers 9 made a second Passover for the unclean and the far away, and Exodus 12:48 opened the meal to the stranger. What do those provisions show about God?
  6. Be transformed. Israel's children asked, "What do you mean by this service?" (Exodus 12:26). How would you answer that about the Lord's Supper?
Group study sheet for a 40-minute group: two A4 sheets, or one with the guided path

The point, the passage, the questions and the response, from this study. Print on both sides of two A4 sheets, flipping on the long edge. While this block is open, printing the page prints the sheet; close it to print the study.

Group study · 40 minutes

Passover: When I See the Blood

Exodus 12:1-28; Exodus 12:43-49; Leviticus 23:5

The point At the first Passover God judged Egypt and spared every household that sheltered under a lamb's blood; Israel kept that night every year as a memorial, and the New Testament names Jesus as the Passover lamb, chosen, slain at the feast and without a broken bone; so His blood is the sign over you, and the judgment you deserve passes over you because it fell on Him.

0–5min

Ask: what comes to mind when you hear Passover? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

5–12minRead it aloud BSB

Exodus 12:1-28 1Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2“This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year. 3Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must select a lamb for his family, one per household. 4If the household is too small for a whole lamb, they are to share with the nearest neighbor based on the number of people, and apportion the lamb accordingly. 5Your lamb must be an unblemished year-old male, and you may take it from the sheep or the goats. 6You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight. 7They are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9Do not eat any of the meat raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over the fire—its head and legs and inner parts. 10Do not leave any of it until morning; before the morning you must burn up any part that is left over. 11This is how you are to eat it: You must be fully dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover. 12On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn male, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a sign; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14And this day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to the LORD, as a permanent statute for the generations to come. 15For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. 16On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and another on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days, except to prepare the meals—that is all you may do. 17So you are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must keep this day as a permanent statute for the generations to come.

Also read: Exodus 12:1-28 from 12:18; Exodus 12:43-49; Leviticus 23:5

12–25minLook closer
What does it say?
What did it mean to them?
What does it mean for us?
Page 1 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Passover: When I See the Blood

The study in brief
  1. The night in Egypt. The lamb, the blood and the meal, in Exodus 12.
  2. What "pass over" means. The Hebrew verb, and God standing guard at the door.
  3. A memorial for every generation. The children's question, the place God chose, the second Passover and the stranger.
  4. The Lamb of God. How the New Testament names Jesus as the Passover lamb, and the days of His last week.
Notes
Page 2 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Passover: When I See the Blood

12–17minStep 1 · The night in Egypt

1The text in its context. Every house in Egypt faced the tenth plague (Exodus 12:12-13). What made the difference for Israel's houses, and what did not?

17–21minStep 2 · What "pass over" means

2The language. Isaiah 31:5 sets "pass over" beside "protect", "deliver" and "rescue". How does that change your picture of what God did at the doors in Egypt?

21–26minStep 3 · A memorial for every generation

3Grace in the law. Numbers 9 made a second Passover for the unclean and the far away, and Exodus 12:48 opened the meal to the stranger. What do those provisions show about God?

26–35minStep 4 · The Lamb of God

4Christ. John applies "not one of his bones will be broken" (John 19:36) to Jesus. Why would John point to that detail?

5The hard part. The first three Gospels call the Last Supper a Passover meal (Luke 22:15), and John has the priests still to eat theirs the next day (John 18:28). What is at stake in how the two are reconciled, and what is not?

Page 3 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Passover: When I See the Blood

35–40minBe transformed

6Be transformed. Israel's children asked, "What do you mean by this service?" (Exodus 12:26). How would you answer that about the Lord's Supper?

  • Think. You are safe from God's judgment for one reason: the blood of His Son Jesus. "Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God" (Romans 5:9, ESV).
  • Attitude. Live as Israel ate that night, "with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet" (Exodus 12:11, ESV): rescued, and ready to leave the old life.
  • Do. Answer the question Israel's children asked, "What do you mean by this service?" (Exodus 12:26, ESV). Tell someone this week, in your own words, what the blood of Jesus has done for you.
Memory verse

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 no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

Exodus 12:13 (ESV)
Pray together

Father, on the night you judged Egypt you saw the blood and passed over your people. Thank you that you gave your own Son Jesus as our Passover lamb, without blemish, slain at the feast, and that His blood is the sign over us. We deserved the judgment that fell on Him. Keep us trusting His blood and nothing of our own, teach our children what this means, and make us ready to follow where you lead.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Notes
The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/feasts/passover/
Page 4 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission
Group study · step by step

Passover: When I See the Blood

Exodus 12:1-28; Exodus 12:43-49; Leviticus 23:5

Open Ask: what comes to mind when you hear Passover? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

Read it aloud Exodus 12:1-28; Exodus 12:43-49; Leviticus 23:5

Step 1The night in Egypt — The lamb, the blood and the meal, in Exodus 12.

1The text in its context. Every house in Egypt faced the tenth plague (Exodus 12:12-13). What made the difference for Israel's houses, and what did not?

Step 2What "pass over" means — The Hebrew verb, and God standing guard at the door.

2The language. Isaiah 31:5 sets "pass over" beside "protect", "deliver" and "rescue". How does that change your picture of what God did at the doors in Egypt?

Step 3A memorial for every generation — The children's question, the place God chose, the second Passover and the stranger.Key verses: Exodus 12:26-27

3Grace in the law. Numbers 9 made a second Passover for the unclean and the far away, and Exodus 12:48 opened the meal to the stranger. What do those provisions show about God?

Step 4The Lamb of God — How the New Testament names Jesus as the Passover lamb, and the days of His last week.

4Christ. John applies "not one of his bones will be broken" (John 19:36) to Jesus. Why would John point to that detail?

5The hard part. The first three Gospels call the Last Supper a Passover meal (Luke 22:15), and John has the priests still to eat theirs the next day (John 18:28). What is at stake in how the two are reconciled, and what is not?

Be transformed

6Be transformed. Israel's children asked, "What do you mean by this service?" (Exodus 12:26). How would you answer that about the Lord's Supper?

  • Think. You are safe from God's judgment for one reason: the blood of His Son Jesus. "Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God" (Romans 5:9, ESV).
  • Attitude. Live as Israel ate that night, "with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet" (Exodus 12:11, ESV): rescued, and ready to leave the old life.
  • Do. Answer the question Israel's children asked, "What do you mean by this service?" (Exodus 12:26, ESV). Tell someone this week, in your own words, what the blood of Jesus has done for you.
Page 1 of 2 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Passover: When I See the Blood

The point At the first Passover God judged Egypt and spared every household that sheltered under a lamb's blood; Israel kept that night every year as a memorial, and the New Testament names Jesus as the Passover lamb, chosen, slain at the feast and without a broken bone; so His blood is the sign over you, and the judgment you deserve passes over you because it fell on Him.

The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/feasts/passover/
Page 2 of 2 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission
  • ESV Study Bible (Crossway) — verse text throughout; notes on Exodus 12:1-28, 12:3-4, 12:7, 12:13, John 19:14 and John 19:36.
  • NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (Zondervan) — note on Exodus 12:13.
  • Macula Hebrew (WLC) and Macula Greek (SBLGNT) — occurrence data for פֶּסַח, פָּסַח and ὕσσωπος; unfoldingWord ULT interlinear for Exodus 12:13 and Isaiah 31:5.
  • Septuagint (Brenton's Greek text, public domain) — Exodus 12:13, 23 and 27.
  • This site's chronology (docs/data/chronology.json) — the AD 33 Passover week, following Harold Hoehner's count of Daniel's sixty-nine weeks.

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