Plagues and Passover: God Delivers Through Blood
Come Follow Me 2026 — Combined Lesson C07 — Synthesis of Weeks 13–14 — Exodus 7–13 & Easter
One Story, Two Angles
The narrative of Exodus 7–13 is a single sustained argument with two interlocking movements: the plagues and the Passover. The plagues demolish the false god-claims of Egypt one by one, stripping away every competing allegiance until the question stands bare: who is LORD? The Passover answers: the God whose Lamb's blood stands between life and death. Together, these two movements declare the same truth from different directions — God is sovereign, and he delivers his covenant people through blood.
When we read these chapters through an Easter lens, the doctrinal architecture becomes clearer still. The plagues are a systematic dismantling of every false confidence — every trust placed in something other than God. Pharaoh's Egypt had placed its trust in nature deities, in royal power, in military might, in ritual religion. Each plague targeted one of those false trusts and shattered it. What was left standing at the end was only the family sheltering under the blood of the lamb.
That is the Easter proclamation as well. Every competing claim to human loyalty — every power that presents itself as ultimate, every system that promises salvation without a Savior — was demolished at the cross. “Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). The plagues of Egypt were dress rehearsal for the cosmic rout of Easter morning.
The Structure of Redemption: Judgment and Grace
A careful reader notices that the plagues do not merely demonstrate God's power — they reveal his character. Each plague was preceded by a warning. Even the most devastating plagues came with opportunity to repent: the Egyptians who “feared the word of the LORD” during the hail plague brought their servants inside and were spared (Exodus 9:20). God was not eager to destroy; he was pressing toward a response of acknowledgment and surrender.
This is exactly the structure of the Atonement. The cross is simultaneously God's most severe judgment on sin — the full weight of divine justice satisfied — and his most lavish act of grace. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Psalm 85:10). The plagues taught Israel that their God takes sin seriously enough to judge it catastrophically. The Passover taught them that this same God provides an escape — but the escape requires blood.
Psalm 85:10
“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”
Not by Coincidence: The Timing of the Cross
The theological claim at the center of this synthesis is the one Paul makes with such compressed boldness: “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). He does not say Christ died at an interesting time of year. He says Christ is the Passover. The institution in Exodus 12 was not a calendar coincidence but a divine appointment — Israel had been rehearsing the event for centuries before it occurred.
The precision of the fulfillment confirms the identity of the Fulfiller. A lamb selected on the 10th, examined and found unblemished, killed on the 14th — Jesus entered Jerusalem on the 10th of Nisan, was examined by Pilate and found faultless, and was crucified on the 14th. No bones broken — the soldiers confirmed it at Golgotha. Blood applied for protection — those who are “washed in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14) are the antitype of those households in Goshen.
1 Corinthians 5:7
“Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”
The Passover as the Centerpiece of Old Testament Typology
The Passover is the most complete type of Christ in the Old Testament because it brings together the most elements in a single event. Other types capture one aspect of the Atonement: the bronze serpent (the uplifting of Christ for those bitten by sin); the scapegoat (the removal of sin); the high priest (the intercessor who enters the holy place). The Passover integrates them all: the Lamb's sacrifice, the blood applied for protection, the eating of the offering in covenant participation, the deliverance of the firstborn, the redemption from bondage, and the memorial feast kept through all generations.
This is why Jesus, at his last meal, chose the Passover as the occasion for inaugurating the sacrament of his own body and blood. The Passover was already the most theologically loaded meal in Israel's calendar. He did not invent new symbolism; he inhabited existing symbolism and filled it to its full meaning. “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread...” (Matthew 26:26). The meal had always been pointing to this moment.
Application: Reading the Old Testament Through Easter Eyes
One of the great gifts of this combined lesson is the invitation it offers to read the entire Old Testament differently. The Hebrew scriptures are not a prequel to Christianity that has now been superseded. They are a sustained, divinely orchestrated preparation — a gallery of portraits painted by God himself of the One who was coming. Every Passover lamb, every plague that struck Egypt's gods, every drop of blood applied to a doorpost was God writing the story of Easter before it happened.
When we read Exodus with Easter eyes, we see what the earliest Christian teachers saw: that “all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Corinthians 10:11). The story of the Exodus is our story. We were in bondage; God sent a deliverer; the blood of a Lamb was applied on our behalf; we passed through waters of baptism; we eat the bread and drink the cup that remembers his death; and we journey toward a promised land that is not made of stone and soil but of eternal life.
Discussion Questions
- Which plague stands out to you as the most theologically pointed, and why?
- What does the requirement to apply the blood personally teach about the role of individual covenant-making?
- How does the hardening of Pharaoh's heart apply to patterns of spiritual hardening in your own life or in those you teach?
- What elements of the Passover do you see most clearly expressed in the Sacrament prayers?
- How does seeing Christ as the fulfillment of Passover change how you will observe Easter or the Sacrament this week?