Body And Blood

We have seen that God’s people are in Egypt in the place of Goshen, and many of us often think that it was just a matter of God, through His angel of death, not passing through the place of Goshen. However, that is not the case, for when God spoke, He said, I will pass through Egypt. In other words, when God said Egypt, He was referring to all of Egypt, the entire territory and place of Egypt.

It’s like a sprawling hotel that has villas on its hundreds of acreage. Management has decided to spray the property. This treatment is for the great luxury five star hotel and for the little villas dotted around the place. Why? Because the little villas though not a part of the hotel itself, are a part of the property or acreage.

You may understand it even better, with this simple example. In the luxury hotel itself, room service is available every single day of the week. Although the many rooms are being serviced, you hang a sign on your door and no one enters your room to do anything. In fact, when the cleaning person comes along, your room is bypassed because of the sign hanging on the door. It has absolutely nothing to do with you, but absolutely everything to do with the sign on the door. In other words, the cleaning person does not have to see you, to see who you are, before making a decision about your room. The sign on the door does it all.

It is with these simple, everyday pictures in mind, that we come to the second part of our two-pronged response to the question before us. Where is the Place from which the blood works?

However before coming into the second response we have been guided in this direction, which allows us to state clearly that the animals being killed by the Hebrews are not just for their blood works. No! At the given time, which is at twilight, the animals have to be killed and their flesh is to be eaten. Not only that, but God has stipulated how these animals are to be prepared for eating. Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire – with the head, legs and internal organs. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. Exodus 12: 9 – 10.

In other words, these animals kept and prepared for the Passover Sacrifice, have their body and blood used in God’s salvation plan. Indeed, many thoughts rush into our heads. Oh! How these thoughts cause us to lift our lingering, thirsting eyes to Jesus, in even greater devotion and love. At the first ever Passover, the body and blood of the animal to be sacrificed, are vital to God’s plan of salvation. Here, we also observe, in this final Passover meal with His disciples, the absolute necessity of the Body and Blood of the Sacrificial Lamb of God. We are held in renewed mind, body and spirit, when we hear Jesus speak about Himself as He and His disciples are sharing in this last Passover meal.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take and eat; this is my body. Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Matthew 26: 26 – 28.

Who can fathom the mind of Almighty, Sovereign God, how His Words and Works are ever one? Somehow, for the first time, I am being awakened to more of the order and continuity in our Lord’s mind in His works. The first Passover was but an image, a shadow of the Passover to come. The power and preservation given to the body and blood of the sacrificed animal, was given fullness, in the power and preservation we have in Jesus.