None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
Exodus 12:22
As I write today, the Prime Minister has just announced more drastic measures in order to try and slow down the spread of Covid-19. Here they are:
- To shop only for necessities.
- To have one form of exercise daily, alone or with a member of one’s household.
- We may go our for medicine or to care for the vulnerable.
- We may travel to work, if absolutely essential.
The measures were introduced to try and curb the virus and to ease the pressure on the Health Service.
This made me think of a similar measure introduced to the people of Israel in Egypt. God had announced a terrible tenth plague to follow the other nine – the death of each male firstborn in the land. On a specific night the angel of destruction would activate the last plague.
But the Lord had prepared a way for the children of Israel to be protected from the plague. This included a complete lockdown from sunset to sunrise: “None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.”
Also, they had to kill a year-old lamb, and paint some of its blood around their door. When the angel of destruction would see the blood around the door of the house, he would pass by (Passover).
And this is an obvious shadow of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” As the lamb was spotless, so Jesus Christ was completely blameless and holy too. As the lamb had to be killed, so the Lamb of God had to be sacrificed, in order to save us. As the blood had to be painted around the door, we must trust personally in Christ Jesus’ sacrifice in our place. We must place the blood of Christ between our sin and the wrath of God. Then we will know forgiveness and pardon, as God’s damnation passes us by. Let’s make sure that we’re locked down in Jesus Christ!
John Treharne (Tabernacl Llwynhendy)