By the Blood of the Lamb / Exodus 11:1-12:32
Pecan Pie and Flannelgraphs
I didn’t grow up in church. My family has roots in Oklahoma, and when I was a kid, the way they would get us to go to church was by bribing us with pecan pie. My grandmother could cook—she was phenomenal. Sweet potato pie, biscuits and gravy, and her pecan pie would set you free. They would just say, “Look, we’re going to feed you as much food as you want to eat, you little overweight kid, but first, you have to go to church.”
So we would go to this little Nazarene church in Reedley. They had a basement underneath the church that I thought was kind of awkward because it smelled like a dirty shoe. You’d go down in there, and as a kid who didn’t know anything about Jesus, I was thinking, Man, they could lock me in here. I just wanted the pecan pie. But down in that basement, they would tell us these Bible stories.
One of the most familiar stories I remember them sharing was the story of the Exodus. I think maybe the reason they shared it so often is that it looked really good on a flannelgraph. That’s how long ago it was—flannelgraphs! They would walk through the plagues of Egypt and show us what God did.
What we want to do today is connect the dots, because that Exodus story is a shadow of a far more profound New Testament reality. It is a type of Jesus, who fulfills it in a fresh and new way. But it is vital for us to understand the origins.
An Unlikely Deliverer
When you go back to the early parts of Exodus and the end of Genesis, the people of God end up in Egypt because of a severe famine in the land. There was a Costco in Egypt, and Joseph was the guy in charge of checking cards at the door. The people of God originally arrived in Egypt as invited guests. They were well taken care of, they had good land, and they were able to provide for their families. They were houseguests.
Generations came and went, and after four hundred years, they were no longer guests—they were slaves. In the midst of their enslavement, God raised up the protagonist of the story, an unlikely hero by the name of Moses.
Incidentally, as you read through your Bible, if you are looking for perfect examples of people who start well and finish really well, you are going to be hard-pressed to find anyone next to Jesus. Most people in the text have deep frailties, just like you and I do. But God raised up Moses.
Moses was an Hebrew boy born in Egypt who survived the infanticide of his generation and was raised in Pharaoh’s household. They educated him, trained him, and brought him up in royalty. At the age of forty, he started connecting with his heritage and realized that God might want to use his unique background to be a deliverer.
So Moses decided to take matters into his own hands and deliver God’s people in his own strength. Here is a good caution for all of us: anything you try to do in your own strength is most likely going to end up in a total train wreck. Sure enough, that is exactly what happened with Moses. He ended up killing an Egyptian taskmaster and had to run for his life.
Moses lived on the lam as a runaway felon for forty years out in the desert. After forty years of learning not to trust in himself and learning to trust in God, God called him at the burning bush. God told Moses that He had seen the affliction of His people, heard their cries, and knew their suffering. God said, “I have come down to deliver My people from the power of the Egyptians.”
The Showdown with Pharaoh
God sent Moses, the runaway prophet, to speak to the most powerful man on the planet: Pharaoh. Moses delivered God’s command: “Pharaoh, you need to let your two million slave laborers go free.”
Pharaoh obviously did not want to lose his entire labor force. He had massive building projects underway, and losing his slaves would set him back drastically. So Pharaoh asked in Exodus 5, “Who is the Lord that I should obey Him and let Israel go?”
Pharaoh considered himself to be a deity, a living manifestation of a god. He said, “Who is this God? I’ve never seen Him. I don’t know who you’re talking about. By the way, have you seen my kingdom?” Pharaoh’s pride would be the very thing that brought him and his entire nation to catastrophe. By the end of the Exodus journey, Pharaoh would know exactly who the real Lord was.
In chapter 6, God essentially said, “We are going toe-to-toe. Pharaoh and I will face off, and I will show him who I am. He will be compelled by My mighty hand to let My people go.”
Then came ten plagues. God could have redeemed His people through any means He chose, but He chose ten specific plagues, each designed to confront and dethrone a specific Egyptian deity. God raised Pharaoh up, made him the most powerful monarch on earth, and gave him an unrivaled military so that the entire world would witness his fall and see the supreme power of the one true God.
The Nile turned to blood. Swarms of frogs, lice, and flies covered the land. The livestock died. Boils broke out on everyone. Hail, locusts, and thick darkness fell across Egypt. Yet through these nine plagues, Pharaoh’s heart grew harder. Fifteen times in the text, you see this man in his stubborn pride refuse to submit to God. He thought he was sovereign, submitting to no one but himself.
Yet even amidst impending judgment, grace was offered. Many Egyptians saw through the hollow pride of Pharaoh and recognized the true God. Pharaoh claimed to be a manifestation of the sun god, but the God of Israel spoke the sun itself into existence. Many began turning toward the Lord.
The Tenth Plague and the Blood on the Doorposts
The final plague arrived in Exodus chapter 11, and it was catastrophic.
Exodus 11:1 (NASB)
Now the LORD said to Moses, ’One more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt; after that he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out from here completely.
Exodus 11:4-6 (NASB)
Moses said, ’Thus says the LORD, ’About midnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; all the firstborn of the cattle as well. ’Moreover, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been [before] and such as shall never be again.
A devastating plague was coming upon the land: the death of every firstborn. Death was imminent and unavoidable, except for one divine provision. God declared that there was only one way to escape this judgment, found in Exodus chapter 12.
Exodus 12:3 (NASB)
’Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household.
Exodus 12:5 (NASB)
’Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
This lamb could not be from the scrap heap; it had to be an unblemished yearling male. What they were commanded to do with the lamb was remarkable.
Exodus 12:7 (NASB)
’Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
Death was coming. It was unavoidable. You could not negotiate with it, buy your way out of it, or make a political treaty to bypass your home. The only way death would pass over your household was if you sacrificed that unblemished lamb and applied its blood to the doorposts and the lintel of your home.
Exodus 12:23 (NASB)
’For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite [you].
If you were living in Egypt at that moment, you had a massive decision to make. You heard the decree of God warning that the destroyer was coming, and that the only shelter was the blood of the sacrifice. You could scoff and say, “Come on, this is Egypt! Pharaoh is our god. We don’t need this. Who is the Lord?” You could harden your heart like Pharaoh, and death would certainly cross your threshold. Or you could say, “Wait a second. Pharaoh claimed he was god, but the God of the Hebrews has shown supreme power over all our gods. We need to listen to Him.” You had to choose to obey.
Exodus 12:28 (NASB)
Then the sons of Israel went and did [so]; just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
The Israelites obeyed. They sacrificed the lamb, applied the blood to their doorposts, and waited inside.
They ate that first Passover meal with their sandals on, bags packed, and cloaks secured. It was literally a meal to-go, ready to move the second the command was given. But while they ate, they waited.
Think about the personal reality of that night. Imagine applying the blood to your doorway and looking over at your Egyptian neighbor. You say, “Hey, didn’t you hear what God said? Please, sacrifice a lamb and cover your doorposts. If you don’t, death is coming to your house tonight.”
Your neighbor replies, “I appreciate your concern, but I don’t buy into all this God stuff. I’m choosing not to do that.”
You plead with him: “Our kids grew up together! They play together every day! If you don’t do this, your boy is going to die.”
He shrugs it off: “I’m just not down with that.”
So you mark your door with the blood, step inside, and wait.
A Night of Deliverance and Judgment
Then midnight arrived.
Exodus 12:29-30 (NASB)
Now it came about at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle. Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead.
Imagine the horror of sitting in your home at midnight, hearing the quiet presence of the Lord pass over, immediately followed by the piercing wails of your neighbors who had just lost the most precious treasure of their lives.
Exodus 12:32 (NASB)
‘Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and bless me also.’
In that decisive moment, God demonstrated His holy justice and His mighty power. Do not miss that God had extended grace over and over again through ten increasingly severe plagues. He gave Pharaoh multiple opportunities to humble himself, but Pharaoh refused, proving that pride goes before destruction.
Yet many Egyptians did listen. The Scriptures tell us that a “mixed multitude” left Egypt during the Exodus. There were Egyptians who recognized the supreme power of Yahweh, submitted to Him in faith, applied the blood to their doors, and were saved from death.
From that night forward, God’s people celebrated the Passover every year to remember what God had done. That first Passover was an urgent meal eaten in haste. In every generation after, it became a slow, sacred feast enjoyed with family and community, looking back at their deliverance from death through the blood of the lamb.
Behold, the Lamb of God
Now, fast-forward fifteen hundred years to the New Testament. John the Baptist is standing by the Jordan River, looks up, sees Jesus walking toward him, and cries out:
John 1:29 (NASB)
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, ’Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
If you were a Jewish person hearing those words, what did that mean to you? “The Lamb of God?”
Every single year, you offered a Passover lamb. Year after year, century after century, innocent lambs died so that judgment would pass over. That theology, that heritage, was woven into your DNA. When John pointed at Jesus and called Him the Lamb of God, everyone stopped and took notice.
Under the Old Covenant, sacrifices had to be offered continuously. When Moses received the Law in Exodus, God gave the commandments: “Obey them.” But because humanity is broken and unable to keep the Law, God instituted the sacrificial system. Obedience was never fully achieved by human effort, so blood had to be shed continually.
John the Baptist declared that Jesus does not merely cover sin for another year; He takes away the sin of the world. The Exodus was a shadow pointing to a vastly greater deliverance. The Exodus delivered Israel from the tyranny of Pharaoh and physical bondage in Egypt; Jesus delivers us from the tyranny of Satan and spiritual slavery to sin.
You might say, “I knew it. I come to church, and they always want to talk about sin.” Let me explain why.
Romans 3:23 (NASB)
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Isaiah 64:6 (NASB)
For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
When we measure ourselves against a holy and righteous God, even our best days, our highest moral achievements, and our deepest religious efforts fall woefully short. The Bible says that our righteous deeds are like filthy rags before Him.
Romans 6:23 (NASB)
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The death that Scripture warns about is not confined to ancient Egypt; it is an eternal reality facing every human soul. This is a high-stakes question: Do we take God at His word, or do we reject Him and try to stand on our own merits? Pharaoh chose to stand on his own, and it cost him everything.
We need an unblemished sacrifice to stand in our place, someone whose shed blood will cause eternal judgment to pass over us. That sacrifice is Jesus.
1 Peter 2:22 (NASB)
WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH;
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB)
He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Hebrews 7:26 (NASB)
For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;
Jesus is the only sinless, worthy sacrifice in all sixty-six books of the Bible.
John 3:16-17 (NASB)
’For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ’For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
Through His sacrifice, Jesus calls us out of slavery to sin, out from the dominion of darkness, and away from dead religious moralism into a living relationship with the Son of God.
Matthew 11:28-29 (NASB)
’Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. ’Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.
The Shadow Meets the Substance at the Cross
On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus sat down to celebrate the Passover meal with His disciples. In that upper room, He reached back fifteen hundred years to Exodus and redefined the entire meal. He took the bread and the cup and showed that they had always pointed to Him.
Luke 22:19-20 (NASB)
And when He had taken [some] bread [and] given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ And in the same way [He took] the cup after they had eaten, saying, ’This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.
Jesus shifted the focus from the historic Passover lamb to the true Lamb of God. Then He went to the cross.
Because the wages of sin is death, a substitute had to die. Jesus was taken to the place called the Skull and crucified between two criminals.
Luke 23:34 (NASB)
But Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.
Matthew 27:46 (NASB)
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?’ that is, ‘MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?’
I remember reading those words in college as a beer-drinking fraternity guy, trying to comprehend what was happening. I didn’t realize back then that Jesus was hanging on that cross for beer-drinking frat guys just like me. On that cross, the collective sins of humanity—past, present, and future, including yours and mine—were laid upon Him. Jesus bore the full weight of the holy wrath of God so that we would never have to.
People often ask, “If God is good, how could He send anyone to hell?” But the deeper dilemma is: How can a perfectly holy God allow broken, sinful people like us into His presence? We are not condemned because God is unfair; we face judgment when we reject the only shelter provided in the blood of the Lamb.
When you place your faith in Jesus Christ, a divine exchange takes place: your sin is placed upon Him, and His perfect righteousness is credited to you. Just as that family in Egypt applied the blood to their doorposts, faith in Christ marks your life with His blood. When the Father looks at you, He does not see your flaws and failures; He sees the righteousness of His Son.
As Jesus hung between the two thieves, one criminal ridiculed Him. But the other thief watched Him, recognized who He was, and made a plea of faith.
Luke 23:42-43 (NASB)
And he was saying, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!’ And He said to him, ‘Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.’
That thief brought zero good works to the table. He was saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. You cannot earn the favor of God through moral performance or religious ritual. You could quit drinking from now until Jesus returns, and it will not earn your salvation. What saves you is the finished work of Jesus credited to your account.
The Empty Tomb and the Finished Work
Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “It is finished,” and yielded up His spirit. But the Gospel does not end at the cross. The ultimate fulfillment of the Passover is found at the empty tomb.
After Jesus died at three o’clock on Friday afternoon, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus rushed to take His body down before the Sabbath began at sundown. They placed Him in a nearby tomb and went home to wait.
Imagine the heartbreak and confusion the disciples experienced throughout that silent Saturday. They had spent three years walking with Jesus, watching Him heal the sick and raise Lazarus from the dead. They remembered Him saying:
John 11:25-26 (NASB)
Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’
Yet there He lay in a sealed tomb.
Early Sunday morning, before the sun had even crested the horizon, the women made their way to the tomb with burial spices.
Matthew 28:5-6 (NASB)
The angel said to the women, ’Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. ’He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.
The power of the Gospel is not merely that Jesus died, but that the tomb is empty! Jesus was not a helpless martyr; He willingly laid His life down, and He took it up again.
Under the Old Covenant, priests stood daily offering sacrifices over and over because sin was never fully removed. But when Jesus offered His own blood, He accomplished total redemption.
Hebrews 10:12 (NASB)
but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,
Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father because the work was completely finished. And one day, He is coming back. When He entered Jerusalem during Passion Week, people waved palm branches and shouted, “Hosanna!” We call that the Triumphal Entry. But the truly triumphant entry will be when Jesus returns on a white horse as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Death Passes Over
The ancient Israelites and Egyptians had to believe God’s warning that judgment was coming, and they had to trust His single provision: the blood of an innocent, unblemished lamb applied to the door.
For us today, the reality has not changed. Physical and eternal death is an unavoidable reality for every person on earth. You cannot outsmart it, buy your way past it, wish it away, or rely on personal morality to escape it.
John 14:6 (NASB)
Jesus said to him, ’I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
There is only one way of salvation. When you place your trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ, His blood marks your life. When judgment comes, death passes over you. Even though your physical body will one day die, you will live with Him for all eternity.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB)
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Pharaoh hardened his heart and suffered catastrophic ruin. Do not make his mistake. Humble yourself before God today. The blood of the Lamb has been shed for you, but you must receive Him by faith.
John 1:12 (NASB)
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, [even] to those who believe in His name,
Place your trust in Jesus Christ today. Apart from the sacrifice of our Passover Lamb, there is no other way.
Let’s pray together.
Father in heaven, we are so thankful for the Gospel. Thank You that You did not leave us without an answer to our sin, but provided the ultimate solution in Jesus. Lord Jesus, You lived the perfect life we could never live, and You died the death we deserved. By faith in You, Your blood marks our lives. Death passes over us, and we are set free from the power of sin, Satan, and death. Thank You for Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.