Will you obey when you don’t understand?
Exodus 12:21–28 (ESV)
Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons for ever. And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshipped.
Then the people of Israel went and did so, as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
There are moments where obedience becomes more than instruction, it becomes refuge. Moses gathers the elders and tells them exactly what to do, and the instructions are not complicated. Select the lamb. Kill it. Mark the doorway. Stay inside. Trust that God will keep His word. Nothing about this is dramatic, but everything about it is decisive. Their lives depend on doing what God says, even if they cannot see the danger outside the door.
It is worth noticing how physical the obedience is. Hyssop dipped in blood. Streaks painted on timber. A family shutting themselves in for the night. God does not save them through vague belief or vague spirituality, He saves them through concrete trust expressed in concrete action. Faith always moves. Faith always responds. Faith always takes God at His word, even when the stakes feel impossibly high.
The instructions also carry a protective tone. “None of you shall go out of the door.” In other words, the danger is real, so stay under the mercy that has been provided. They are not asked to fight, to plead or to negotiate. They are asked to shelter. It is a picture of salvation we often resist, because it requires us to admit that we cannot protect ourselves. We like the idea of earning rescue. We struggle with the idea of receiving it.
Then the passage lifts our eyes to the generations ahead. This act will become a memorial. God expects the children to ask questions, and He expects the adults to answer with clarity, humility and gratitude. “It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for He spared our houses.” The whole community is shaped by remembering the mercy they did not deserve and the judgment they did not escape on their own.
And the response of the people is striking. They bow their heads and worship. Before the angel passes through, before they see deliverance with their own eyes, they worship. They trust God enough to obey Him now, not once the outcome is visible. That is genuine faith. Obedience first, explanation later. Submission now, understanding in time.
The final line carries a quiet power. “They went and did so.” No arguing, no adjusting the instructions, no negotiating for alternatives. They simply obey, because they have learned the cost of resisting God’s word. In a world that constantly encourages us to treat obedience as optional, these verses stand as a needed reminder. When God speaks, safety is found in listening.
The question for us is simple. When God calls us to trust Him, even when the future is unclear, do we stay inside the shelter of His word. Do we obey even when we cannot see the danger or the deliverance. Do we remember the mercy that has spared us, and do we teach the next generation to rest in it as well.
Prayer
Father, teach us to obey You with the same simple trust we see in Your people here. Keep us under the shelter You provide, and help us to remember the mercy that has saved us. Give us faith to act on Your word and to pass on Your truth to those who follow after us. Amen.