---
title: "Passover: When I See the Blood"
category: "feasts"
description: "Passover is the night God judged Egypt and spared every house marked with a lamb's blood. What the feast commanded, what \"pass over\" means, how Israel kept it, and how the New Testament names Jesus as the Passover lamb, chosen, slain at the feast and without a broken bone."
tags: ["passover", "exodus", "leviticus", "john", "1-corinthians", "atonement", "method/typology", "method/word-study", "lang/hebrew", "lang/greek"]
draft: false
primary_passage: "Exodus 12:1-28; Exodus 12:43-49; Leviticus 23:5"
bible_references: ["Exodus 12:1-14", "Exodus 12:21-27", "Exodus 12:43-49", "Exodus 13:14-15", "Leviticus 23:5", "Numbers 9:10-12", "Deuteronomy 16:1-7", "Joshua 5:10", "2 Kings 23:21-22", "2 Chronicles 30:1", "Isaiah 31:5", "Psalm 34:20", "John 1:29", "John 1:36", "John 12:1", "John 12:12-13", "John 18:28", "John 19:14", "John 19:29", "John 19:32-33", "John 19:36", "Exodus 12:46", "Luke 22:15", "1 Corinthians 5:7-8", "1 Peter 1:18-19", "Romans 5:8-9", "Hebrews 11:28", "Revelation 5:6", "Isaiah 53:7", "Acts 8:32-35"]
date_created: 2026-10-02
date_modified: 2026-10-08
ai_provider_models:
- anthropic/claude-opus-5.5
---
# Passover: When I See the Blood
{ align=right width="96" }
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](https://the-way.lewy.au/about/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](#the-night-in-egypt). The lamb, the blood and the meal, in Exodus 12.
- [What "pass over" means](#what-pass-over-means). The Hebrew verb, and God standing guard at the
door.
- [A memorial for every generation](#a-memorial-for-every-generation). The children's question,
the place God chose, the second Passover and the stranger.
- [The Lamb of God](#the-lamb-of-god). How the New Testament names Jesus as the Passover lamb, and
the days of His last week.
- [Discussion questions](#discussion-questions). Six, for a group or on your own.
## 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](https://the-way.lewy.au/chronology/chronology-anchors/#verdict-friday-3-april-ad-33) 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](https://the-way.lewy.au/jesus/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"](https://the-way.lewy.au/feasts/last-supper-four-cups/). For where Passover sits among the feasts, see
[The Appointed Times](https://the-way.lewy.au/feasts/feasts/).
## 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?
## References & Recommended Reading
- **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.
### On this site
- [The Appointed Times](https://the-way.lewy.au/feasts/feasts/) — the seven feasts of Leviticus 23.
- ["I Will Not Drink Again": The Last Supper and the Cups of Passover](https://the-way.lewy.au/feasts/last-supper-four-cups/)
- [Three Days and Three Nights](https://the-way.lewy.au/jesus/three-days-and-three-nights/)
- [Chronology Anchors](https://the-way.lewy.au/chronology/chronology-anchors/)