In the Book of Exodus God send a angel to kill all the first born in Egypt from the the animals to the first born of pharaoh. God says to Moses to put the blood of the passover lamb of the lintel of your houses that the angel will pass over you.

This blood is but a symbol of the blood of Christ but it still has the power to preserve us from the angel of death. St John Chrysostom writes ‘If you wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. Sacrifice a lamb without blemish, commanded Moses, and sprinkle its blood on your doors…In those days , when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so much less now will the devil approach now when he see, not the figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the Temple of Christ.’

We ought not to assume that the destroying angel was a demon. He might have been a faithful angel of God. Each of the angels has their task, and it would not be unreasonable to think that one of the angel by his touch cause our life here on earth to end. His simple touch causes death. Even if the angel of death is a demon. He can only do the task that God permit. But I am of the mind that he is most likely a faithful angel. It looks like he did homage to the prefigured blood of Jesus on the doors of the Israelites. He did not spurn the blood he did homage to the blood by passing over their homes.

I write this because of a dream I had about a month ago. I saw a young man whose very touch caused death. I was next to this man and he reached over me but did not touch me but touched the man next to me, and as soon as he touched the man next to me he died. What struck me was that his mere touch caused death, the man next to me died but I did not.

I saw this as a image of Passover. The angel of death, the destroying angel is still in our world today. This angel who very touch can and does cause death by God Command. May we on this Holy Thursday, which is a figure of Passover, moist our lips on the Blood of Jesus poured out from the wounded side of Christ on the Cross, and given to us with the chalice of His Blood.

As we read in scripture ‘May we moist our lips on the fruit of the vine.’ Jesus is the vine and the fruit of the vine is His Blood.