Under the Shelter of God's Wings
Read Exodus 12:1-23
Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.” –Exodus 12:21-23
Jamalyn’s Aunt Jo Ann was a deeply devout and faithful woman. She was a “prayer warrior,” someone who believed in God with great conviction. Aunt Jo Ann had a particular way of praying over people and situations—she prayed “the blood of Jesus” over them. If Jamalyn was worried about an exam, if a car was broken down, if someone was going on a long trip away from home, if a big decision loomed in the future—in all these cases and more, Aunt Jo Ann would pray “the blood of Jesus” over it!
The sentiment of Aunt Jo Ann’s prayer goes all the way back to the story of the Exodus, some 1300 years before Jesus was even born. You’re likely familiar with the story. Moses returned to Pharaoh and demanded that he release the Hebrews from slavery, so that they could return to their ancestral land in Canaan. Pharaoh, of course, refused, so God visited Egypt with one plague after another. God filled their homes with frogs, destroyed their crops with locusts, infected their livestock with disease, poisoned their water with blood, and covered their skin with boils. Each successive plague got worse, and Pharaoh’s heart grew harder and harder. It all culminated in the tenth and final plague—the death of the first-born son.
On that night, God promised that he would pass through the land and “strike down every firstborn of both people and animals,” as an act of final judgment upon the gods of Egypt. But he promised to “pass over” every home that bore the blood of the lamb upon its doorway. (Ex. 23:13)
The Hebrew word here is pesakh. I always pictured a literal angel “passing over” all the homes with blood on their doorways. But the Bible Project argues for a more expansive understanding of this word. (The 3-minute video is well worth a watch: The Bible Project-What is Passover).
The word pesakh actually means to “protect.” For instance, Isaiah uses this word to describe a mother bird hovering over her chicks, spreading her wings in protection over them. That’s a vastly different image than an angel “skipping over” a house. If you want to see for yourself, just re-read the story of the tenth plague (Exodus 12) and substitute the word “protect” every time you read “pass over” in your Bible. I love the way the Bible Project video summarizes the meaning of Pesakh: “Passover is the night when God’s protective love held back death.”
So back to Aunt Jo Ann’s prayer. As Christians, we believe that Jesus was the “lamb of God” (John 1:29). Jesus was crucified during the feast of Passover, and just as the Passover lamb's bones were left unbroken (Exodus 12:46), none of Jesus' bones were broken during His crucifixion (John 19:36). As Paul declared to the early church, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed!” (1 Cor 5:7). The sacrifice has already been made, at a personal cost to God that we cannot begin to fathom. The question is whether we will “anoint the blood” of that sacrifice over the thresholds of our lives.
Praying the “blood of Jesus” over our lives does not guarantee that nothing bad will ever befall us. It’s not a magic formula to ward off all evil. But the “blood of Jesus” is a reminder that God suffered the death of his own firstborn Son, so that his protective love might extend to all who believe in His name. When we surrender our lives to God, we invite God to place the blood of His Son upon the doorways of our hearts. In this way, our hearts are made holy and whole, and we belong to God’s protective love forever.
O God, may Your protective love hover over me my whole life long. No matter what evil may befall, protect my heart and my soul. Protect those I love. May my heart rest secure in Your love. Amen.