And they shall take of the blood, and put [it] on the two door-posts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
The instruction to strike the doorposts is the point where blood first appears in Scripture as the means of rescue rather than as evidence of guilt.
In this verse, for the first time in Holy Scripture, blood is linked with man's deliverance and blessing. Several passages in Genesis speak of blood as evidence of human guilt — above all in the story of Cain and Abel. In the early chapters of Exodus, blood twice comes in as one of God's judgements on rebellious Egypt. Now, in the Passover lamb, it comes before us as the means by which God kept His believing people safe from destruction. From this point on to the end of the book of God, the teaching of atoning blood stands out unmistakably. By blood, and by blood alone, can men be saved. It was not enough to kill the lamb, or even to present the blood in a basin. They had to sprinkle it, in obedience to the word of Jehovah.
The mark on the door said one thing about the family inside and another thing to God.
When they sprinkled the blood, those who did it were confessing that they themselves deserved nothing but death, and that they were sheltering under the death of another. To God, the blood was a witness that death had already entered every house it marked. That is what made it right for Him to tell His ministers of judgment to pass those houses by.
The blood went on three sides of the doorway, never on the threshold. Commentators differ on why. Some point to what the placing says about the worth of the blood:
Notice the places where they were to sprinkle the blood — the lintel and the side posts of the doors. They had to lift it high and look up to it, which is just what everyone who truly values the blood of Christ does now. The Israelite had to put it between himself and God, and to know its protecting power on his right hand and on his left as well.
Others say the bare threshold shows which direction the danger came from:
The question was the judgment of God, and where the blood had to be sprinkled to shelter them from it. Which direction was the blow coming from? Certainly not from below, but from above... The lower side was the only side that was never exposed while He passed over. And God did not say, I will pass under you, but over you.
The blood went on the outside of the door, in the dark.
What could show more clearly that the blood was for Jehovah's eye, and not for man to see or reason about? The lamb's blood went outside; inside they ate the flesh roasted with fire. What makes this even clearer is that it was night. There was no natural light for men to see the blood by. Only the divine eye could see the blood on the doorposts.
Two families could feel very differently through that night. It made no difference to their safety.
Do not look for a sign inside yourself; see it in the blood of Christ. Do not look at your feelings, but at His sufferings; not at your joy, but at His pain... Is the firstborn of the pale, downcast mother any less safe than the firstborn of a mother whose strong faith in Jehovah already welcomes the freedom God gives? No — the safety lies in the blood outside the door, not in the feelings of those inside the house.
The verse ties the mark on the door to the meal within, and the two answer to each other.
The lamb was killed, and its blood put on the two side posts and the lintel, outside the house where the family lived. Inside the house they were to eat its flesh. The blood marks on the door were the outward witness that death had already taken place inside. Eating the flesh inside the house pictured how those sheltered by the blood took in the death of the lamb and made it their own.
Safety under the blood was not the whole story.
With the blood on the lintel and doorposts the Israelites were safe. But at the Red Sea God told them to stand still and see "the salvation of the LORD." That was deliverance itself — He took them out of one place and put them into another.
- Blood first — Blood stops being a sign of guilt and becomes the means of rescue. From here on, salvation comes by blood alone.
- Blood applied — Blood left in the basin shelters no one. It had to be put on the door of the house, in obedience to God's word.
- Blood above — On the lintel and the side posts, it stood between the family and God. It was over them and beside them, never under their feet.
- Blood seen — In the dark, only God could see the mark. Safety rested on what He saw in the blood, not on how the family felt.
- Blood then bread — Once sheltered, they ate the lamb. Shelter comes first, making its death your own comes next, and full deliverance came at the sea.
And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter [herbs] shall they eat it.
Blood marked the outside of Israel's houses, and inside the same lamb became supper. This verse sets how that meal was to be eaten — fire, unleavened bread, bitter herbs — and commentators read each detail as a picture of the death of Christ and of the heart that receives it.
The blood on the doorposts and the meal inside the house do two different things:
Outside the house, the blood of atonement spoke to God, the One it was addressed to. Inside, He provided what would satisfy them and make them fit for the path with Him that they were soon to set out on. The lamb is theirs to feed on, and God is set on their enjoying this provision of His love.
Safety and communion are not the same thing. The meal did not buy the family's protection:
The families fed on the lamb "roast with fire" (v. 8). But it was not their feeding on the lamb inside their houses that led the angel to pass over them. It was the blood outside their doors. We are not redeemed because of our communion with Christ, but because Christ died for us. True, they could not have eaten the lamb unless they had killed it for themselves. So no one can have communion about the sufferings of Christ unless he first truly receives Him in his heart as Saviour.
The writers quote an older translation, "roast with fire," where the ESV has "roasted on the fire." Fire stands for God's holiness in judgment. That rules out any view of the cross that stops at admiration for a brave man:
Men's thoughts are completely out of step with the mind of God when they speak of the death of Christ as only a martyr's death, with no reference to its atoning worth. But "roast with fire" ought to destroy the dangerous dreams and delusions that men's false theories produce about the sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus. Fire speaks of the holiness of God expressed in judgment. So in the lamb roast with fire we see a picture of the Lord Jesus. He was Himself free from sin and its penalty. Yet as our sinless, unblemished Substitute He was exposed to the full, intense and searching action of the fire — the judgment of God expressed in wrath against sin.
Shelter under the blood is not the whole of it. The lamb was also supper, and many believers stop short there:
We are not merely under the eternal shelter of the blood of the Lamb, but we feed, by faith, upon the Person of the Lamb. Many of us come short here. We are apt to rest content with being saved by what Christ has done for us, and never grow in holy communion with Himself. His loving heart could never be satisfied with this. He has brought us near to Himself, that we might enjoy Him, that we might feed on Him, and delight in Him.
Leaven is yeast, and God shut it out of this meal:
Leaven pictures evil in its tendency to spread by taking over whatever it touches. So this command means refusing and putting away all the evil that belongs to man in his fallen state.
Asked whether the herbs mean self-judgment, one writer agreed and went further:
We quite agree with you in thinking that self-judgment has its place in what the "bitter herbs" pointed forward to. These herbs always had to go with the passover. We do not consider it the only thing, but we do consider it one thing foreshadowed in these herbs... We think they set out the deep spiritual exercises that flow from really entering into the sufferings of Christ. If these things were better known, there would be less heartless lightness, less cold formality, less sinful indifference in our celebration of the Lord's Supper.
Taken as one meal, the three elements form a pattern:
Leaven is a picture of sin, so the unleavened bread pictures sin fully judged and put away by the cross. "Bitter herbs" show how our hearts respond when we recognise that it was our own sins for which He was sacrificed. So the roasting speaks of Christ judged for us; the unleavened bread, of sin judged; and the bitter herbs, of self judged.
- Blood — the blood outside the door made the angel pass over, not the meal inside. Redemption rests on Christ's death, not on our communion with Him.
- Fire — the roasting shows Christ judged in our place. So the cross was never just a martyr's death.
- Feeding — the roasted lamb was supper. Believers feed on the Person who bore that fire, not only rest in what He did.
- Bread — leaven spreads by taking over what it touches. Shutting it out means sin judged and all the evil of fallen man put away.
- Herbs — the bitter herbs are the heart's own share: self judged. Where they are missing, the Lord's Supper turns cold and light.
Ye shall eat none of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roast with fire; its head with its legs and with its in-wards.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.