Special or specially protected?

The story of the first Passover in Exodus is truly an amazing one. As the final plague God sent against the Egyptians, the angel of death would go from house to house killing the firstborn wherever there wasn’t the blood of a lamb over the doorpost, the special protection given to the Jewish homes. But have you ever wondered why they needed it?

I mean the Jews had true religion. They were descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so their pedigree was right. They were God’s chosen people, the people of promise. They lived by the morality of their fathers. They were the weak, oppressed, and impoverished people suffering under an unjust government. And God had already levied nine plagues on their behalf against their enemies in His efforts to free them.

But none of this was enough.

If any of them had not put that lamb’s blood over their door, their oldest child would have died just as surely as any Egyptian’s did. Despite everything else in their favor, they still needed that lamb to avoid death.