The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. – Exodus 12:13

Today's Scripture Reading (November 12, 2024): Exodus 12

Sometimes, a song lyric sticks with me better than anything else. It also can trigger me. Let me explain. A few months ago, a friend decided to send me a message via group text. The message was simple; it was just one word: "Hello." You have to understand that my mind works differently. So, I replied to the text with a little longer message. My reply was, "How are you? Have you been alright through all those lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely nights?" And then there was silence. I recognize that I am old, and I started to worry that my friends didn't get the reference. And, in fact, they didn't. They didn't listen to much Electric Light Orchestra when they were younger. But the one-word message had sent me down a rabbit hole of music. For the rest of the afternoon, all I had in my mind was an old song by the Electric Light Orchestra. As I make grammatical corrections to this post, it is a few days later, and I am heading down the same ELO rabbit hole.  

Hello, how are you?
Have you been alright through all those lonely, lonely, lonely,
Lonely nights? That's what I'd say.
I'd tell you everything if you'd pick up that telephone.

Going down a music rabbit hole happens to me a lot. There is another song that comes back to me when I read specific passages in the Bible, including this one. It is a song I first heard sung by Steve Bell. It is called "Here by the Water." The lyric that keeps returning to me is from the song's second verse.

I know it was stormy.

I hope it was for me a learning

Blood on the road wasn't mine, though

Someone that I know has walked here before.

I love the lyrics because I know the truth about it. The blood on the road is not mine; it comes from the nail-pierced feet of the one who came before me.

Exodus tells us that the blood of the lamb that was slaughtered was placed around the doorframe on that terrible night in Egypt. The blood that would be placed on the doorframes of the houses in the time to come wasn't theirs; it belonged to the Passover lamb, the one that was killed and eaten in that Passover supper.

You may not know the song, but you can understand the truth. The blood on the doorframes in Egypt or our figurative road is not ours. It belongs to the one who died on our behalf. We are saved because someone else died in our stead.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Exodus 13