Striking Blood on the Doorposts: The Passover Anticipates Jesus Christ

The Passover offering was a lamb (Ex. 12:3).

Jesus is “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29).

The lamb was called “the lord’s Passover” (Ex. 12:11).

Jesus is called “Passover” (1 Cor. 5:7).

The Passover lamb needed to be a male (Ex. 12:5).

Jesus is male.

The Passover lamb needed to be without blemish (Ex. 12:5).

Christ was “without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:18–19).

The lamb was sacrificed at Passover (Ex. 12:6).

Jesus was sacrificed at Passover (John 19:14).

The Passover lamb was killed after noon (Ex. 12:6).

Jesus was put on the cross before noon but died after noon (Mark 15:25, 34–37).

Israel ate bitter herbs (Ex. 12:8).

Jesus drank from the cup in Gethsemane.

The token of the lamb’s blood saved ancient Israel from death (Ex. 12:13).

Christ’s atoning blood saves souls from the grave and from spiritual death (Hel. 5:9).

The lamb’s blood was struck on the door’s vertical posts and horizontal beam (Ex. 12:7).

Christ’s blood fell on the cross’s vertical post and horizontal beam.

The remainder of the lamb needed to be completely consumed by fire (Ex. 12:10).

Jesus gave Himself entirely to sacrifice.

Israel ate the “flesh” of the lamb (Ex. 12:8).

Sacramental bread, which is eaten, represents Christ’s body (Matt. 26:26).

Firstborn males of Egypt died (Ex. 12:29).

Christ was the Firstborn of the Father and is the Firstborn of the dead (Col. 1:18).

The whole assembly killed the Passover lamb (Ex. 12:6).

The entire nation slew Jesus (Matt. 27:20–23; Luke 23:1, 10, 13, 23, 35).

Strangers were forbidden to eat of the feast until circumcised (Ex. 12:43, 48).

Only those who enter into a covenant with Christ are saved.

No bones of the sacrificial lamb were to be broken (Ex. 12:46).

Christ’s bones were not broken on the cross (John 19:33).

The Passover released Israel from bondage (Ex. 12:31).

The Atonement releases mortals from the bondage of sin and death.

The Passover provided temporal deliverance to those who smeared the lamb’s blood on their doorposts (Ex. 12:7).

Jesus provides spiritual deliverance to those who accept His blood (Matt. 1:21; Luke 4:18).

The Israelite calendar restarted at Passover (Ex. 12:2).

The world reckons time from the coming of the Savior.

Those who did not observe the Passover were “cut off” (Ex. 12:15; Num. 9:10–13).

Those who do not accept Jesus, the Passover, are cut off from heaven.