‘On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 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.

I had some South African friends who formed a singing trio, and I remember them belting out an old gospel song that included these words:

‘I’ve got the blood on the door of my heart, and all my life is beneath its cleansing flow;

And when God, He looks at me, He know more sees the things I’ve done, He only sees the blood of His crucified Son.’

This, of course, is imagery taken right out of Exodus 12. As we have seen, the Passover lamb points ultimately to Jesus. For the people of Israel then, as for us now, it was the application of the shed blood which made all the difference between salvation and judgment.

In terms of God bringing “judgment on all the gods of Egypt” (12), we could ask, ‘How so if idols are not real?’ But I wondered, could it be that the judgment is on the demonic powers lying behind idolatry, exposing them, defeating them, and demonstrating the far superior power of the living God? Then I read Tom Hale’s commentary and he explained that this judgment also fell on those human beings the Egyptian people worshipped. They too lost their firstborns.

Whatever the correct interpretation may be, we can say in the words of a more recent song that ‘Jesus is the winner Man’, and in Him we win too!

PRAYER: Today, Lord, I want to thank you again for the precious blood of Jesus that takes away all my sin as I trust in Him and His Cross.