The Plainer Truth about . . .
The Passover and the RANSOM

The Passover Blood and the Ransom
What set Israel free - lamb's blood or the Ransom?

"For I [am] the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt [for] thy ransom . . . and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life." (Isaiah 43:3-4, KJV).

The blood over the doorposts kept the firstborn of Israel from becoming part of the ransom. A ransom is a price paid to set the captured free. It should be obvious that the lambs Israel killed for the Passover were not the ransom. Pharaoh could have said, "So you killed some lambs! Now get back to making bricks!"

The ransom to get Israel out of Egypt was the death of the firstborn of Egypt. The lamb’s blood was a token (Exodus 12:13) so the firstborn of Israel would not die. The blood was not to save all Israel from death. The ransom was to allow Israel to go free!

Christ, The Ransom, Was Not Passed Over

"The Son of Man came . . . to give his life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; 1Timothy 2:6; Isaiah 35:10). Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us (1Corinthians 5:7). He was not passed over on that 14th of Nisan. The church partakes of the token wine at Passover as firstfruits so that we will be passed over and not be dead during the millennium reign of Christ. But Jesus’ life is the Ransom for the whole world for freedom from enslavement of sin.

Why Were the Remains of the Lamb Burned, not Buried?

Jesus was buried at the end of Nisan 14. The bodily remains of the lambs in Egypt were burned, not buried, as a type of Christ’s burial. The blood the night before was a token. What was buried in Egypt as hundreds of thousands of Israelites left the country? The Ransom, the firstborn of the Egyptians (Numbers 33:4). They were buried at the end of Nisan 14, which was the same time Jesus was buried. The firstborn of Egypt was a major type of Christ. The tokens in Egypt were the blood of the lambs and the unleavened bread. The tokens used by the New Testament church are the wine (blood of the grape) and unleavened bread. The firstborn Egyptians were a type of the True Ransom, Jesus Christ, the Firstborn of God.

The firstborn of Egypt, slain after midnight on the night Passover was eaten, was Israel’s ransom (the type). Christ’s crucifixion was the ransom antitype occurring after midnight, which was also after the disciples had eaten the Passover. Many of the Jews were killing lambs at the temple as Christ was dying. What they were killing was really the Holy Day sacrifice (for the night to be observed) (Leviticus 23:8). In confusion, they were calling it the Passover: "the feast of unleavened bread CALLED the Passover" (Luke 22:1). "The Jews’ Passover" (John 11:55). But Jesus kept "THE Passover" (Luke 22:7, 11, 15). The "Lord’s Passover" (Leviticus 23:5), not the Jews’ Passover.