DAY 123 - BIG PICTURE IN A YEAR - THE EXODUS

In today's devotion we read about the final effect of Pharaoh's choice to harden his heart against God's will - the horrible death of the firstborns. On that fateful night, the angel of death visited every home that did not have blood on its posts, and took the life of the firstborn in that home.

A great distinguishing was made that night - between those who feared God and obeyed Him and those who did not. 

For it was not really the substance of blood that spared the people from death. It's not as if the angel of death had an aversion to blood and avoided the houses where the inhabitants had put it on their doorposts - it was the fact that these people obeyed God and did all that He instructed them to do, that spared them. 

Ultimately, it wasn’t the slaughter of a lamb and the ritual that saved them but their faith in the word from God, and their obedience to God. 

We, like them, are saved by faith, we are saved by believing a message from God.
God told the Israelites to put the blood of a lamb on their door posts and they did – and so they were saved from the death of the first born. This was their salvation moment, not entering the Promised Land. The blood of the lamb delivered them from judgment, just like the blood of Jesus spares us from eternal judgment.