As followers of Messiah Yeshua, we know very well the spiritual significance of blood – Yeshua paid with His blood for our transgressions and wiped away our sins. We also know the significance of water, the living water Yeshua promised to the woman at the well, water that quenches spiritual thirst once and for all.
It is no surprise, therefore, that these two elements appear all throughout Scripture – from Genesis to Revelation: the Spirit of God hovers over the waters, the blood of Abel calling unto God, the flood, the endless sacrifices in the tabernacle, just to name a few. Blood and water flow through the redemption story that the Word of God weaves, imbuing the literal with deep symbolic meaning.
Unsurprisingly, blood and water are also integral elements in the Exodus story which Jews all over the world recount during the first night of Passover.
THE FIRST PASSOVER – starting and ending with blood
The Bible tells us that blood is the vehicle of life: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11) In the natural, spilling blood is a euphemism for killing and death. But in God’s wonderous plan, it becomes protection and life – to all who believe!
During the Passover seder meal, the ten plagues are recalled as everyone at the table dips a finger in their wine and drips it on their dinner plate, exclaiming the name of each plague. The first plague called out in unison is “blood!” Indeed, God’s opening volley of judgement against Egypt was turning the waters of the Nile, Egypt’s life source, into blood. In His amazing symbolism and foreshadowing, God offered protection through blood from the 10th and final plague, His judgement against Egypt in the death of every firstborn:
“They are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs… The blood on the houses where you are staying will distinguish them; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.…” (Exodus 12: 7, 13)
Not only Jews exited Egypt the next morning after the 10th plague, but many people from other nations joined them as well. The blood of the first Passover lamb beautifully foretells the redeeming blood of Yeshua, the ultimate Passover lamb, which offers protection from judgement and freedom from sin to everyone who believes.
WATER – life and death
Water is the most critical compound for life on earth. Nowhere is this more apparent than in deserts like the Middle East. It is the reason ancient Egyptians worshipped the Nile: no water meant no life for them and their families. Yet, just as with the blood, examining the biblical meaning of water reveals that it is also a metaphor for death or dying: in baptism, going under the water symbolizes death to the old self. Only when we die to ourselves, can we then receive living water from the only source able to provide it – God.
After the night of Passover, those who were spared the 10th plague by the blood of the lamb and fled Egypt gained their lives yet again when they crossed the Red Sea: they went through the sea on dry land while Pharaoh’s army, those who did not trust in the blood of the lamb, died in those waters. After the passing through the Red Sea and seeing God’s judgement on Israel’s enemy, God provided the children of Israel and all the peoples with them life-giving water that flowed from the Rock in the desert.
“I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”
(1 Cor. 10:1-2)
And having been buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.
(Col. 2:12)
THE ULTIMATE PASSOVER
As significant as it was for the children of Israel, the first Passover, called by Jews “the first redemption”, was only a foreshadowing of God’s ultimate plan of redemption – the ultimate Passover that provides the way of salvation and eternal life to all who believe.
Messiah Yeshua was crucified at the time the Israelites were slaying their Passover lambs in the Temple ahead of the Holy Day. Blood flowed from Him when He was beaten, crowned with thorns, and then nailed to the cross.
There was also water – when a soldier pierced him, making sure the King of the Jews was dead, water flowed from the wound in His side—the water of purification which purified anyone defiled by the “impurity of the dead”, the water Ezekiel prophesied that God would sprinkle on Israel to make them clean. (Num. 19, Ezek. 36:25-28)
Just like in the first Passover, Yeshua’s followers received the living water, the Holy Spirit, only after being sealed in the blood covenant of the Passover lamb. The Israelites drank living water from the Rock in the desert after the first Passover, and Yeshua’s disciples “…drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Messiah.” (1 Cor. 10:4)
Today, as we are preparing for Passover, Israelis are awaiting the return of 59 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza for over 550 days. IDF soldiers are fighting in Gaza again to pressure Hamas to release every single one and stop their reign of terror over the people of Gaza. There is much pain, desperation, and death all around us.
Yet we have hope. We have the promises. We have the blood of the Lamb of God and the living water of the Holy Spirit which give us strength and desire to see the future God has prepared for those who love Him.
Happy Passover!
Pieter van Staden says:
Thank you for these metaphors of blood and water. There’s more, such as: “the One who came by water and blood … and it is the Spirit who testifies” (1 John 5:6). In the desert I assume the cloud represented the Spirit.