In the Book of Exodus, blood has several related layers of symbolic significance: it symbolizes purification, dedication to God, sacrifice, and redemption (the purchase of a life by means of another’s death). On the night that God delivers Israel from Egypt, he instructs the Israelites to slaughter a lamb and place some of its blood on the doorposts of their houses. When the angel of the LORD sees this blood, he will pass over their houses and not kill their male firstborn (God’s final plague against the Egyptians). In the future, the Israelites are to celebrate this observance annually (called Passover) in remembrance of God’s redemption—his costly rescue of Israel from Egypt in order that they may worship him.
Blood comes to occupy a central role in Israel’s worship in the form of animal sacrifices—for example, when a male firstborn is “redeemed” by the ceremonial slaughtering of livestock. Similarly, sacrificial blood is splashed on the altar, on Aaron and his sons, and even on the people to consecrate them to God. In this system, blood serves as an ongoing reminder of God’s holiness and the purity necessary in order to draw near God.
Blood Quotes in Exodus
Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and of his officials he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the river, and all the water in the river was turned into blood, and the fish in the river died. The river stank so that the Egyptians could not drink its water, and there was blood throughout the whole land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts; so Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. […] And all the Egyptians had to dig along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the river.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months […] Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male […] You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night […] For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.
For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children. When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance. And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this observance?’ you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed down and worshiped.
Blood Symbol Timeline in Exodus
