The Lord God made His Covenant with Abram, that through his seed, all the earth would be blessed. He gave him a new name: Abraham. God renewed His Covenant with Abraham's son, Isaac. Isaac's son, Jacob, wrestled with God all night (much as Enos would do) and finally, Jacob received a reaffirmation of the Covenant which God made with His grandfather and father. God also changed Jacob's name: Israel.
Fast forward to Israel's twelve sons. Because of a famine, the family emigrated to Egypt, where Israel's eleventh son, Joseph, had been sold. The Covenant family was saved, and in the early days they prospered and multiplied. Eventually, a new pharaoh came to power. He didn't know Joseph and he was afraid of the multitude that was Israel now living on the eastern edge of his kingdom in Goshen. Israel was enslaved. A later pharaoh heard rumors that Israel's God would send a deliverer to free them. In a desperate measure to forestall that, pharaoh issued a decree that all male Hebrew children should be slain at birth.
But the Hebrew midwives feared God more than Pharaoh and kept some of the babies alive. One such baby was born to Jochebed of the tribe of Levi. She and her husband hid the baby as long as they could, but finally Jochebed placed her baby in a watertight basket and set him adrift on the Nile, praying that God would direct him to safety. He was found by the daughter of Pharaoh, who named him Moses and raised him as a prince.
Whew! Long story short (too late!), Moses returned to Egypt, having been called by I AM (Jehovah) to free the Children of Israel. Pharaoh hardened his heart to the plea, "Let my people go," and God sent nine plagues upon Egypt, hoping to get Pharaoh's attention. (Sound familiar yet?) But Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let Israel go. It took the tenth and final plague, the most chilling of all: the first born of every family in Egypt would die in one night.
The Great God Jehovah gave to Moses a way that the first born of Israel should be saved. The people were to sacrifice a lamb and paint the door posts and lintels of their home with its blood. The blood of the lamb was a signal to the destroying angels to pass over that home and not take the lives of the first born.
This brings us back to the Covenant. Remember when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son? On the way to the mount, Isaac asked his father, "Where is the lamb?" and Abraham said, "God will Himself provide the lamb."
God did provide Himself a Lamb. He provided Himself to be the propitiator for our sins and fallen state. Saved by the Blood of the Lamb: The Lamb Slain from the Foundation of the World (Revelation 13:8.) The Lamb of God (1 Nephi 11: 21.) Cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb (Mormon 9:6.)
The blood of the lamb on the doorposts and lintels saved God's children that night when they were passed over by physical death. We, too, are saved by the blood of the Lamb, both physically and spiritually. Even today, observant Jews remember the night of Passover when they were saved by the blood of the Lamb.
© April 2020 Dr. Kathleen Rawlings
Buntin Danielson
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