This week the plagues continue and finally culminate with the angel of death. Before the last plague strikes though, God gives instructions to His people for the Passover meal. The Passover meal was a meal in which a lamb was sacrificed and its blood was painted over the doorways of the Israelite families as a sign to the angel of death that the families inside the house were the Lord’s. When the angel of death saw the mark, he would “pass over” that house. This Passover meal and sacrifice was to be repeated every year to remind the Israelites what God had done for them.

The Passover lamb was also a hint at God’s ultimate plan for humanity’s rescue from sin. At the first Passover the lamb was sacrificed so that the family would be spared from physical death. That first sacrifice foreshadowed Jesus death on Good Friday when He was sacrificed for us as the perfect Passover Lamb to save us from Eternal death. Because of Christ’s blood, eternal death and damnation pass over us and we are saved.

John the Baptist saw this connection when he excitedly pointed to Jesus and told everyone, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) The whole point is driven home even further by the fact that Jesus’ death takes place as the nation of Israel is celebrating Passover. Jesus even institutes communion while He and the disciples are having the Passover meal; pointing them to the fact that they are to be saved by His blood.