There are times, as we read Scripture, when God's commands confuse us, when God seems to make no sense at all. Such is my reaction when reading the story of Passover in the Book Exodus. At the climax of Moses' confrontation with Pharaoh, God announces the tenth and final plague that will free the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. God tells Moses to instruct the Israelites to slaughter a lamb, and paint the lintel and doorposts of their homes with blood. All this so that the Messenger of Death will "pass over" the homes of the Hebrews in his mission to kill the first-born of Egypt. What seems strange to me is that in each of the nine previous plagues that God brings upon Egypt (blood, frogs, lice, wild beasts, blight, boils, hail, locusts, darkness) the households of the Hebrews were spared. Exodus tells us specifically, that each inflicted plague bypassed the Hebrew families. Their water did not turn to blood, their animals remained healthy, their homes were safe from locusts, lice and frogs, and they had light when darkness covered all of Egypt.
Clearly, God was able to distinguish between the Israelites and the Egyptians in each of the first nine plagues-- so why does God instruct them to put blood on their doorposts in advance of the last and final plague? Doesn't God already know who lives where? When God sends the Messenger of Death over the homes of Egypt, wouldn't God's messenger already know which home was whose? Surely the blood-painted doors are not needed to direct the Divine! And if not for God, then for whom are they meant?
Perhaps the painted door-posts are for our benefit, a connecting reminder of another story from Scripture. In thinking about this last plague, there's something 'familiar' here, something we've read before. What strikes me, is that this story of God averting the death of the first-born because a sheep was offered in its stead, sounds a lot like what happened to Abraham and Isaac way back in Genesis 22. There, the life of a first-born is also threatened by a divine decree, only to be halted by a sheep substitution, specifically a ram.. There, in Genesis, at the last minute, God 'passes over' Isaac as the offering, and points to a ram, caught in the thicket, declaring it to be the boy's replacement. These are tied together in that each is the beginning of a new covenant, the essential and decisive action through which this chosen people is declared. In both cases it is the first-born who are at risk, and both are only released with a substitute sacrifice.
But as I read the two narratives, what strikes me is that in each case, God's actions make no sense whatsoever! In Genesis, prior to the "binding of Isaac", even prior to Isaac's birth-God has already told Abraham that his son with Sarah would inherit the covenant [chapters 17 and 21], that his son would father a new nation "as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the shore." If God has already declared that the covenant would pass through Isaac, why would God command Abraham to kill him?! Either God was not telling the truth about Isaac's future, or God was not going to let Abraham kill his son! It has to be one or the other! Similarly here in Exodus, why would God ask the Hebrews to mark their doors when God had already demonstrated that God knew where they lived?
It seems to me that the Divine directions, in both stories, only make sense as a lesson to us, about our responsibility in-covenant with God. We learn that we cannot depend upon God rescuing us merely because God promised us. We are required to take an active, choosing role in our own redemption and salvation. From Abraham we learn that we must always be testing ourselves, thoughtfully and critically examining the meaning and the message of Covenant, always aware and conscious of how belief and faith direct behavior. To merely believe that we are special, deserving of God's grace-does not in any way insure our well-being. Belief, in and of itself has no value unless it directs us to live rightly, and act justly and generously. Belief must mean "live by"-or it means nothing at all. From our Exodus story we learn that redemption and salvation require us to stand up and publicly proclaim an active role in effecting God's repair of the world. The Hebrews painted their doorposts with blood, declaring for all to see, their intentional identification as God's partners in covenant. Our faith only has value when it is effected within community, when we stand up, and step into, our responsibilities as covenant-partners with God. The truth is that though we may believe that everything is dependent on God, we must act as if everything depends on us.
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