Remaining In The House

We have been hearing over and over about remaining in Jesus, being in Him, or abiding in Him. Today, we are returning to the Passover picture of the blood being on the doors of the houses and not on the people in the houses. We need to revisit this for a number of reasons. However, two will suffice, as they give adequate coverage to help us to look with new eyes and mind. The first reason is that many of us who have, grown up with the learning and belief that blood is marked on individuals, are finding it difficult to have our hearts and minds open to expand our understanding.

The other reason is that many of us quote Scripture and can even repeat it accurately, but somehow, we are often blind to some of what these verses say to us. We miss part of its proclamation and thus we continue to live with some and not all that is available to us. It's like a person who looks at the moon through a louver in his house and is all thrilled about seeing the moon. Then one day that person is brought outside to view the moon and what an enlightenment! What a receiving! So much more is seen of the same moon that that person is left amazed and aghast, at more of the beauty of the shining moon. Believe you me, this happens with Scripture verses we know well. I know this personally.

Having shared with some friends that the Blood of Jesus was not on the people on that first Passover, they were a little shocked. After bringing to them the well-known passage which we all quote with ease, it was quite a different matter. Comments such as, “I never knew this,” and “I never saw this”, were genuinely made. Here are the texts which we have spoken about in an earlier offering. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. Exodus 12: 7. The blood is not placed on any person, only on the doorframes.

Now look at what has been recorded a bit lower down, in the same Chapter. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. Exodus 12: 12b – 13. The blood is not placed on any individual, only on the houses of the Israelites. There is something very miraculous and mystical in this understanding of salvation of households.

Look at this picture. Do you remember Rahab? Listen carefully to scripture you already know, but listen to it in terms of those inside the scarlet-marked house being saved. Joshua 2: 17 – 19. The men had said to her, The oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. If any of them go outside your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head; we will not be responsible. As for anyone who is in the house with you, his blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on him.

What a visibly clear picture of the grace of salvation for all who are in the house! So many thoughts are running through the mind it’s almost scary. You feel so overtaken and overwhelmed, you are afraid to think of what you are being shown and told. Yet this is exactly the case with the Israelites and their salvation from the destruction God was bringing to that land in which they were living. Rahab was also living in a land that God was about to destroy. The men who were sent to destroy it, gave precise instructions to Rahab, as Moses gave precise instructions to the children of Israel. The occupants of Rahab’s house were saved only because they were inside the house that was marked with the scarlet cord.

Here it is again for us to see. Even if I belong to the family of Rahab, legitimately and legally so, even if I am a blood relation of hers, these strong family ties and bonds will not save me, if I am not in the marked house. The command was clear. If any of them go outside your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head. To be outside the house is to seek one’s own destruction. On the other hand, if a family member was one who had disgraced the family name, for example, and left the family home, but had returned home, home to Rahab’s house, that person would know salvation from God’s ordered wrath. No scarlet cord was tied on any member of Rahab’s family. It was on the window of the house.

Will you ponder this? Is not salvation by grace through faith? For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourself, it is the gift of God – not of works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2: 8 - 9