Intentional Motherhood: Decorating Doorposts with Blood and Truth

In  two days we will gather at our local small-town church and share a Passover meal. We will remember the Lamb of God and his blood that was shed for the forgiveness of sins. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

Our children will share the meal with us and see the vivid reminders of the great redemptive act that was foreshadowed thousands of years ago on a dark night in Egypt when the firstborn either died or was saved depending on whether there was blood  painted on the crossbeams of the door.

The most vivid reminder the Jews had for their freedom from bondage was the Passover meal. Each year they were to select a perfect, spotless, unblemished, male lamb. They were to take its blood and put it on the doorpost of the home just as the Israelites had to do to be delivered from the angel of death. Each year families would gather and take a lamb and mark its blood on the doorposts and explain to their children why they were doing this. 

"As we think of the precious blood and seek to walk in the nearness to God which it gives, let us claim its cleansing power for our houses, as well as for ourselves. Let us be assured that our faith as parents has power and does secure divine blessing. Every day there is sin in my house. The fullness of the application of the blood will correspond to what faith claims. I have in nature transmitted sin and death--through me they inherit it. Thank God . . . I may also transmit the grace and blessing of redemption."

It was obedience in applying this blood to the doorpost that saved the firstborn.

The Israelites were commanded then to remember this feast each year that they would reflect on all that He had done for them. 

And they were commanded to teach these things to their children that His redemptive acts would be 'stamped on the minds and hearts of future generations . . . Even as we teach our children today through object lessons, Jehovah used everyday acts of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching to teach holy truths to His people.' (Ceil &Moishe Rosen, 'Christ in the Passover')

Jesus shared this very meal with his closest disciples on the night before He would become this substitutionary spotless lamb that would atone for sins and set us free from our bondage.

"The salvation that which is secured for the child in redemption must be appropriated by him personally before it is made his own. This cannot happen without the child knowing it. The children of Israel were taught that they belonged to the redeemed people and that they belonged to the redeeming God. The parent was to act not only as priest, but also as prophet and teacher. As he dealt for the child with God in blood-sprinkling, so he was to deal for God in the instructions given to the child. Let us teach our children what the blood has done for them, to make them know and love the God who accepted them, even before they knew Him."

On the very doors that were to be painted, year by year, with the blood of the spotless lamb, the words that God commanded  were to be written on them as well.  

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (Duet. 6:4-9)

On days that are tough and my faith is put to the test, honestly, I would prefer to not have an audience of little ones. But I am called to obedience and to lay out these truths and teach my children of the great love and mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Words are empty if we are not loving and living these truths before our children. As we live out our own faith, the questions our children pose are endless. As we are watched and and our own actions are weighed by the little ones around us we have opportunity to grow in faith and to disciple these ones in their very own faith.

 "I must train and educate my children to know and love, and keep the commands of their God. Day by day, in teaching and living, I must seek to set before them the joy of a faith that freely accepts all the God gives, with a surrender that gives all that He claims."

A Mother's Prayer

"Blessed Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, Your blood cleanses from all sin . . . Gracious God, who gave this wonderful ordinance of a lamb for a house, I yield myself to You as the minister of Your covenant. Use me, my God, to save my children, to train them for You and You alone. I want my children to grow up to serve You. May our faith in the blood and surrender to Your will be as the two doorposts which we daily go in and out. The Lord make it so. Amen."

*****

{all quotations taken directly from 'Raising Your Child for Christ' by Andrew Murray, unless otherwise noted}


There's a little book, 'Raising Your Children for Christ' by Andrew Murray, on my shelf that I keep bringing down and leafing through and, Lord willing, on Wednesdays I hope to share snippets of my gleanings from it.

I don't claim to know all the answers. I need to dig deeper so that I can be even more equipped to be the mother that God intended. I am so thankful that this task of raising our children has not been given to me alone.


Join me on this journey? It is not a list of rules and how-to's but rather a chance to look into your own life and heart and be challenged to live a life wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord. 

For the first post in this series on Intentional Motherhood you can find it here.

For all posts in this series you can read them here.