Typically, this was the great question, on "the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month"; namely, _How can God exempt from judgment, and receive into His favor, those whom His holiness condemns?_ To this most solemn question, there was but one answer that would satisfy the demands of the God of holiness, and that was the _blood of the Lamb of His own providing_. "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." This settled the all-important question. It was one of life or death, of deliverance or judgment. The blood-sprinkled door-post was a perfect answer to all the claims of holiness, and to all the need of the congregation. All was settled now. God was glorified, sin judged and put away, and Israel saved through the blood of the lamb. Blessed truth! Israel was now at peace with God, a sheltered, saved, and happy people, though still in Egypt--the land of death and judgment. God was now _pledged_ to deliver Israel,--precious type of the perfect security of all who are trusting to the blood of Christ! They were securely and peacefully feeding on the roasted lamb, when, "at midnight, the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead" (xii. 29, 30.). "But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast; that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." (xi. 7.) But why, some may ask, put this difference? The Israelites were sinners as well as the Egyptians. True, on this ground there was "no difference;" but, in type, the judgment of God against sin had been expressed in the death of the unblemished lamb. The blood "on the lintel and the two side-posts" was the proof of this. It proclaimed, with a loud voice, that the lamb was slain, the ransom paid, the captive freed, justice satisfied, and the hour of Israel's deliverance fully come. _It was the blood that made the difference, and nothing else_; "for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. iii. 23.) But oh, what a difference! The one, divinely shielded from the sword of judgment; the other, defenceless and slain by it: the one, feasting on the rich provisions of grace; the other, compelled to taste the bitterness of the cup of wrath. The destroying angel entered every house, throughout all the land of Egypt, that was not sprinkled with the blood. The first-born of Pharaoh on the throne, and the first-born of the captive in the dungeon, fell together.