Exodus
12
THE
INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER
In the
interval allowed by God, according to the precedent of former announced
plagues,
between the warning concerning the first-born and the execution, Moses
received instructions
for the institution of a new religious rite, founded possibly upon
some
previous national usage, but so reshaped, recast, and remodeled as to have an
entirely
new and fresh character. In all Eastern nations, the coming in of spring was
observed as
a merry and festive time, with offerings, processions, and songs of
rejoicings.
When the date of the vernal equinox was known, it was naturally made
the
starting-point for these festivities.
Early flowers and fruits, the fresh ears of the
most forward
kinds of grain, or the grain itself extracted from the ears, were presented
as
thank-offerings in the temples; hymns were sung, and acknowledgments made of
God’s
goodness. Such a festival was celebrated each year in
consonant
to man’s natural feelings, that, if the family of Jacob did not bring the
observance
with them from
became to
some extent agriculturists (Deuteronomy 11:10) under the Pharaohs.
God, being
about to smite with death the first-born in each Egyptian house,
required
the Israelites to save themselves by means of a sacrifice. Each Israelite
householder
was to select a lamb (or a kid) on the tenth day of the current month
(v. 3), and
to keep it separate from the flock until the fourteenth day at even, when
he was to
kill it, to dip some hyssop in the blood (v. 22) and to strike with the hyssop
on the two
posts and lintel of his doorway (v. 7), so leaving the
mark of the blood
on it. He was then the same night to roast the lamb
whole, and eat it with unleavened
bread and
bitter herbs (vs. 8-10). He was to have his dress close girt about him, his
sandals on
his feet, and his staff in his hand; to be prepared, that is, for a journey.
If he did
all this, God, when He went through the land to smite and destroy,
would
“pass over” the house upon which
there was the blood, and spare all that dwelt in it.
Otherwise the plague would be upon them to destroy them (vs. 11,
13). Such were
the
directions given for immediate observance, and such was the Passover proper.
The lamb
itself was primarily the Pesach (v. 11), the “pass,” which secured safety.
From this
the name spread to the entire festival.
Having, by the directions recorded
in vs. 3-13
instituted the festival, God proceeded, in vs. 14-20, to require its
continued
celebration year after year,
and to give additional rules as to the mode
of its
annual observance.
Ø The
festival was to last seven days.
Ø No leavened
bread was to be eaten during that space, and leaven was
even to be put away altogether out
of all houses.
On the
first day of the seven and on the last, there was to be “a holy
convocation” or
gathering for worship.
Ø No work not
strictly necessary was to be done on these days.
Other
directions were given at a later date.
Ø Besides the
Paschal lamb, with which the festival commenced, and which
was to be a domestic rite, public
sacrifices were appointed for each day of
the seven — to consist of two young
bullocks, one ram, seven lambs, and
one goat, with appropriate “meat-offerings” (Numbers 28:19-24).
Ø On the
second day of the feast, “the morrow after the sabbath,” the first-
fruits of the harvest were to be
presented in the shape of a ripe sheaf (of
barley) which was to be a wave-offering,
and to be accompanied by the
sacrifice of a lamb with meat and
drink offerings (Leviticus 23:10-14). By
this regulation the festival was
made to embody the old spring feast, and to
have thus a double aspect.
1“And
the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the
saying,”
And the LORD spake - According
to the Biblical record, neither Moses
nor
Aaron introduced any legislation of their own, either at this time or later. The
whole system, religious,
political, and ecclesiastical, was
received by Divine Revelation,
commanded by God, and merely established by the agency of
the two brothers.
In the
we have
here a separate document on the subject of the Passover, written
independently
of what has preceded, some time after the exodus, and placed here
without
alteration, when Moses gathered together his various writings into a single
work.
2 “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be
the first month of the year to you.” This month shall be unto you the
beginning of months. The
Israelite year would seem to have hitherto commenced
with the
autumnal equinox (Exodus 23:16), or at any rate with the month Tisri
(or Ethanim), which corresponded to our October. Henceforth two
reckonings
were
employed, one for sacred, the other for civil purposes, the first month of
each year,
sacred or civil, being the seventh month of the other. Abib,
“the
month of
ears” — our April, nearly — became now the first month of the
ecclesiastical
year, while Tisri became its seventh or sabbatical
month. It is
remarkable
that neither the Egyptians nor the Babylonians agreed with the
original
Israelite practice, the Egyptians commencing their year with Thoth,
or July;
and the Babylonians and Assyrians theirs with Nisannu,
or April.
The
Advantages of an Ecclesiastical Calendar (vs. 1-2)
With their
new position as an independent nation, and their new privileges
as God’s
redeemed people (ch. 6:6), the Israelites received
the gift
of a new
ecclesiastical calendar. Their civil calendar remaining as before,
their civil
year commencing with Tisri, about the time of the
autumnal
equinox,
and consisting of twelve months of alternately twenty-nine and
thirty days,
they were now commanded to adopt a new departure for their
sacred
year, and to reckon its commencement from Abib or Nisan, which
began about
the time of the vernal equinox, or March 21. This was
advantageous
to them in several ways.
CONTEMPLATION,
NOT ALREADY OCCUPIED BY WORLDLY
CARES. The
commencement of a civil year naturally brings with it various
civil and worldly cares, which occupy the mind, demand the
attention, and
distract the thoughts. The worldly position has to be reviewed,
accounts
made up, stock taken, debts claimed and paid, subscriptions
renewed or
discontinued, agents communicated with, orders given,
arrangements made
in some instances for the whole of the coming twelvemonth;
and the result
is, that the mind of most men is then so occupied, not to
say harassed, that
it cannot turn itself with any vigor or freshness to the
contemplation of
things heavenly and
spiritual. Of great value then, and importance, is it that
religion should have a separate time to itself for a review
of the spiritual
position, for the taking of stock in a
religious sense, the balancing of the
account with heaven, the
forming of plans for the spiritual life beforehand,
since that life has as much need to be carefully provided
for as the worldly
life. The opening
of a year being the natural time for such a review, the
new arrangement made naturally suggested it, and provided a
quiet time
for it.
ABOUT TO
BE INSTITUTED A GREATER
THOUGHTS
THAN MIGHT OTHERWISE HAVE BEEN THE CASE.
Everyone recognizes the importance of a new beginning. A
religion
naturally strikes its key-note at the commencement of its
round of services.
As the coming of Christ into the world is the very essence
of Christianity,
the ecclesiastical year of Christendom commences with
Advent. Thus
Christians are taught that the foundation-stone of their
religion, the root
out of which it all springs, is the Incarnation. For Judaism
the key-note
was deliverance from
people by means of sacrifice. Deliverance from
servitude, and the commencement of a free national life.
Sacrifice was the
appointed means of keeping up and renewing the covenant
relationship
begun in circumcision. In the
Passover these two thoughts were blended
together, and
necessary to call forth that loving trust in the favor and goodness of God,
which lies at the root of all acceptable service; the other
was needed to
give ease to the conscience, to reassure the trembling
sinner, and remove
his sense of a guilt that separated him from God, and made
his circumcision
unavailing. The prominence given to
these ideas by the position of the
Paschal Festival, impressed them upon the minds of the Israelites as
fundamental and vital
truths.
POSITION
OF
RESPECT
FOR IT. In all times and countries the suspicion occurs to
some, that religion is but a form of statecraft, a politic
invention of
governors to render government more easy. Anything that
marks the
coordinate authority of Church and State in their separate
spheres, and
especially the independence of the Church, is valuable, as
an obstacle to
Erastianism (a doctrine that the state is superior to the church in ecclesiastical
matters) and an
indication of the Church’s inherent right to regulate
Church affairs. An ecclesiastical calendar distinct from the
civil calendar is
no doubt a little matter; but it implies an important
principle, and is perhaps
not without some influence over the general tone of thought
and feeling in
a country.
The Beginning of a New Era (vs. 1-2)
IN THE
HISTORY OF GOD’S PEOPLE (vs. 1, 2).
ü It was then
only that the history of the nation as the people of God
began. Before they had been told of God’s
favor towards them;
they now knew it. “Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for
we have heard Him ourselves” (John
4:42).
ü God’s final
deliverance begins a new era for His people.
“Behold! I make all things
new.” (Revelation 21:5)
ü This has
its correlative type in Christian experience now. The true life
of
the servant of God dates from
the hour of his deliverance from the
bondage of sin. “If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature:
old things are passed away:
behold all things are become new.”
(II Corinthians 5:17)
Ø Before
and love, Sinai, the giving of the law, etc.
Ø Before us lies the deepening knowledge of His love,
Ø and of His
will, the priestly service, etc.
ü The remembrance
of God’s grace makes the soul the dwelling-place
of humbleness and trust.
ü It is joy
and strength for service.
ü It is
consecration; in the brightness of that unmerited grace the life
is
claimed for God; the ear is opened, the heart is touched and
changed;
we forget things that are behind, and reach forth to things
that are
before. (Philippians
3:13-14)
The Beginning of Months (v. 2)
The exodus
from
commemoration
of this great event, the day from which the (religious) year
began was
changed. The month Abib was thenceforth to be “the beginning
of months.” The civil year continued to begin with Tisri (ch. 23:16).
EXISTENCE. The day when salvation comes to a man’s house (Luke
19:9; Acts 16:34) is the true “beginning of
days” to him. (To me it
was July 18, 1955 – I remember because it was my father’s
birthday –
CY – 2017)
ü It is the
commencement of a new life. “Born again” (John
3:3);
“passed from death into life’ (John
5:24); “a new creature”
(II Corinthians 5:17). “The years we spent before we turned
to the Lord
are not worth counting; the best that can happen to them is
to be buried
out of sight” (Dr. J. M. Gibson).
ü It is the day of separation from the world. Some think
that up to this
time the Israelites had used the Egyptian calendar, which
began about the
time of the summer solstice. “From this time, however, all
connection with
to commemorate the time when
Jehovah led them forth to liberty and
independence” (Geikie).
ü It is the day which begins the journey to
heaven. Redemption is the
beginning of the new life: it is, however, but the
beginning. The wilderness
journey follows it. Conversion is not a resting-place, but a
starting-point. It
begins, but does not complete, salvation.
so immaterial a thing as time, God has inscribed a memorial
of His three
greatest works.
ü Creation. He has
built into the structure of the week an imperishable
record of the six days’ work.
ü The Exodus. The order
of the year in
deliverance from
ü The Christian redemption. The advent
of Christ has founded an era. The
bitterest enemy of the Gospel is compelled to do it, at
least, the involuntary
homage of dating his years from the Lord’s advent. By his
use of the
Christian calendar, the infidel testifies unwittingly to the
power of the
religion which he seeks to overthrow.
DISTINCT.
One indication of this, even in the polity of
the fact that the sacred year began in one month, and the civil
in another.
3 “Speak ye unto all the congregation of
month they shall take to them every man a
lamb, according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for an house:” Speak ye unto all the congregation. Under the
existing circumstances Moses could only venture to summon
the elders of
a meeting.
He necessarily left it to them to signify his wishes to the people.
(See v.
21.) A lamb. The Hebrew
word is one of much wider meaning
than our “lamb.”
It is applicable to both sheep and goats, and to either
animal
without limit of age, In the present case the age was fixed at a year
by
subsequent enactment (v. 5); but the offerer was left
free with respect
to the
species. It is curious that, such being the case, the lamb alone
should, so
far as appears, ever have been offered. According to the house
of their fathers. Literally,
“for a father’s house,” i.e. for a family.
4 “And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his
neighbor
next unto his house take it according to
the number of the souls;
every man according to his eating shall
make your count for the lamb.”
If the household be too
little for the lamb — i.e., “too few to
consume it
at a sitting.” Usage in course of time fixed the minimum number
at ten.
(Josephus Bell. Jud. 6:9, § 3.) The whole family,
men, women and
children
participated. The lamb was generally slain between the ninth hour
(3 p.m.)
and the eleventh (5 p.m.). Let him and his neighbour take it
according to the number of
the souls. If there
were a household of only
five, which
could not possibly consume the lamb, any large neighboring
family was
to send five or six of its number, to make up the deficiency.
Every man according to his
eating, etc. It is difficult to see what sense
our
translators intended. The real direction is that, in providing a proper
number of
guests, consideration should be had of the amount which they
would be
likely to eat. Children and the very aged were not to be reckoned
as if they
were men in the vigor of life. Translate — “Each man according
to his eating shall ye
count towards the lamb.”
5 “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall
take it
out from the sheep, or from the goats:” Your lamb shall be without blemish.
Natural
piety would teach that “the blind, the lame, and
the sick” should not be
selected for
sacrifice (Malachi 1:8). The Law afterwards expressly forbade any
blemished
animals — “blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen,
or
scurvy, or scabbed” — to be offered for any of the stated sacrifices, though
they might
be given as
free-will offerings (Leviticus 22:20-25). The absence of blemish was
especially
important in a victim which was to typify One “holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners.” (Hebrews
7:26) – “a male” - As standing in place of and
redeeming
the first-born of the males in each family - “of the first
year:” - Perhaps
as then
more approaching to the ideal of perfect innocence. The requirement was not
a usual
one. ye shall
take it out from the sheep or from the goats” - Theodoret says
the proviso
was made for the relief of the poorer class of persons; but practically it
seems not
to have taken effect. When people were poor, their richer neighbors
supplied
them with lambs (Kalisch).
6 “And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month:
and the whole assembly of the congregation
of
the evening.” Ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day. The
interval of
four days
(see v. 3) was probably intended to give ample time for the
thorough
inspection of the lamb, and for obtaining another, if any defect
was
discovered. The precept is not observed by the modern Jews; and the
later Targum (which belongs to the sixth century after Christ)
teaches that
it was only
intended to apply to the first institution; but the text of Exodus
is wholly
against this. The
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel
shall kill it. One of the
main peculiarities of the Paschal sacrifice was this
— that the
head of each family was entitled — in the early times was
required to
offer the sacrifice for himself. In it no one intervened
between
the individual and God. Thus it was recognized that the whole nation was a
nation of
priests, as are Christians also, according to John (Revelation 1:6) and
Peter (I
Peter 2:5). The intervention of Levites at a late date (II Chronicles 30:17;
35:5-6) was
contrary to the original institution. In the evening. Literally,
“between the two evenings.” This phrase
has been explained in two ways. Some
regard the
first evening as commencing when the sun begins visibly to decline
from the
zenith, i.e. about two or three o’clock; and the second as
following the
sunset.
Others say, that the sunset introduces the first evening, and that the
second
begins when the twilight ends, which they consider to have been
“an hour
and twenty minutes later” (Ebn Ezra, quoted by Kalisch). The use
of the
phrase in ch. 16:12, and the command in Deuteronomy
16:6 —
“Thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun,”
seem to be
decisive in favor of the second explanation. The first arose out
of the
later practice. When the lambs were sacrificed in the temple by a
continual
succession of offerers, it became impossible to
complete the
sacrifices
in the short time originally allowed. Of necessity the work of
killing the
victims was commenced pretty early in the afternoon, and
continued
till after sunset. The interpretation of the direction was then
altered, to
bring it into accord with the altered practice.
The Passover
Lamb a Prophetic Picture of Christ and His Salvation (vs. 3-6
ü The
families of
against the visitation of the angel of death, and it shields
these only.
ü Those who
feed upon Him. Saving faith must be a real, appropriating
faith. Mere assent to a form of words avails nothing,
neither can a mere
intellectual conviction of the truth of Christianity or
apprehension of the
plan of salvation; it must be the
soul’s food.
gentleness and blamelessness. He who dies for us is
accepted, because He is
faultless. The sin-bearer must be
sinless. This is redemption’s great central
mystery. But though the eternal reason of it may not be
understood, THE
WISDOM OF IT IS SHOWN IN
OUR EXPERIENCE. The power which
changes us lies in this, that Christ died not for sins of
His own, but solely
for ours. “He bore our sins, in His own body on the tree.” (I Peter 2:24)
ü The lamb
kept for four days within the house foretold that God’s
accepted sacrifice should come forth from the homes of
days may symbolize the nearly four years of our
Lord’s ministry.
ü The day and hour of the Saviour’s death (v. 6).
ü His death
was to be
Ø Our sins
nailed Him to the tree. He was slain by our
iniquities.
Ø
of the sin which is in us all.
None are free from this awful blood
guiltiness, save the repentant and pardoned.
7 “And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts
and on the upper door post of the houses,
wherein they shall eat it.”
And they shall take of the blood - The blood, which, according
to Hebrew ideas,
“is the life,” – (Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:11,14) and so the very essence of
the
sacrifice,
was always
regarded as the special symbol of that expiation and
atonement,
with a
view to which sacrifice was instituted. As by the Paschal sacrifice atonement
was
made for the house, which was therefore to escape unscathed,
the sign of
atonement
was to be conspicuously placed upon it -
and strike it on the two side
posts and on the upper door post of the houses - The “striking” was
to be by
means
of a bunch of hyssop dipped in the blood (v. 22) – The selection of the doorway
as the
part of the house to receive the stains of blood is probably to be connected
with
the
idea that the secondary agency producing death, whatever it was, would enter by
the
door — and if the door showed the house to have been atoned for, would not
enter.
The upper door-post. The word
used is elsewhere translated “lintel” (ch. 12:22-23);
but it
seems properly to mean the latticed window which was commonly placed over
a doorway
in Egyptian houses, and which is often represented in the facades of tombs.
It is
derived from a root signifying “to look out.”
8 “And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and
unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs
they shall eat it.”
Roast with fire. The meat
of sacrificial meals was commonly
boiled by
the Hebrews (I Samuel 2:14-15). The command to roast the
Paschal
lamb is accounted for:
1. By its
being a simpler and quicker process than boiling;
2. By a
special sanctity being regarded as attaching to fire;
3. By the
difficulty of cooking the animal whole unless it were roasted.
Justin
Martyr’s statement that for roasting two wooden spits were
required,
placed at right angles the one to the other, and thus extending
the
victim on a cross, will seem to many a better ground for the
direction than
any of
these. And
unleavened bread. See below, v. 18. With bitter
herbs. Literally,
“with bitternesses.” That herbs, or vegetables of
some
kind, are
intended, there is no reasonable doubt. The Mishna
enumerates
endive,
chicory, wild lettuce, and nettles among the herbs that might be
eaten. Undoubtedly they were a disagreeable
accompaniment, and represented
at once the
bitterness of the Egyptian bondage (ch. 1:14) and the
need of
self-denial,
if we would feed on Christ.
9 “Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire;
his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.”
The injunction
appears to
moderns superfluous; but an ὠμοφαγία – omophagia - or eating
of the raw
flesh of victims sacrificed, seems to have been practiced by several
heathen
nations in ancient times, more especially in the worship of Dionysus
or Bacchus.
Its head with
its legs. The lamb
was to be roasted whole — according
to some,
as a symbol of the unity of
which they
were to become so soon as they quitted
from John
(John 19:36), still more to prefigure the unbroken
body of Him whom
the lamb especially represented, the true propitiation and
atonement and deliverer
of His people from the destroyer, our Lord
Jesus Christ. “and with
the
purtenance thereof” - Rather,
“the
intestines thereof.” The Jewish
commentators
say
that the intestines were first taken out, washed, and cleansed, after which
they
were
replaced, and the lamb roasted in a sort of oven
10“And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that
which
remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with
fire” Ye shall let nothing
of it remain till the morning. The whole
of the flesh was to be consumed by the
guests, and
at one sitting, lest there should be any
even accidental profanation of
the food by man or animal, if part were put away.. The
on the same principle of careful reverence, declines to
allow any reservation of the
Eucharistic
elements, requiring the whole of the consecrated bread and
wine to be
consumed by the Priest and communicants in the Church
immediately
after the service. That which remaineth — i.e.,
the
bones,
and any
small fragments of the flesh necessarily adhering to them. Ye shall
burn with fire. Thus only
could its complete disappearance, and seeming
annihilation
be secured. It does not appear that this burning was viewed as
a
sacrificial act.
11 “And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and
your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat
it in haste: it is the LORD’s Passover”.
With your loins girded, etc.
Completely prepared, i.e., to start on your journey —
with the
loose wrapper (beged),
ordinarily worn, collected together and fastened by
a girdle
about the waist; with sandals on the feet, which were not commonly worn
in houses;
and with walking sticks in the hand. There were some Jews who regarded
these
directions as of perpetual obligation; but the general view was that they
applied
to the
first occasion only, when alone they would have answered any useful
purpose. You shall eat it in haste. As not
knowing at what moment you
may be
summoned to start on your journey, and as having to see to the
burning of
the bones after the flesh was eaten, which would take some
time. It is the Lord’s Passover. Very
emphatic words! “This is no common meal,”
they seem
to say, “it is
not even an ordinary sacrificial repast. The lamb is Jehovah’s!.
It is
His pass-sign — the mark of His protection, the precious means of your
preservation from death. As such view it; and though ye eat it in haste, EAT IT
WITH REVERENCE!
If One Died for All then All Died (vs. 3-11)
Pharaoh’s
heart was still hardened. The crowning judgment needs no
intermediary;
Jehovah will reveal His own right arm. (ch. 11:4).
“Who shall live when God doeth this?” (Numbers
24:23) He who obeying
His word shelters
himself beneath His shadow. See:
ü
A carefully selected victim. V. 5, deliberately set apart four days
beforehand:
Ø
Pure within;
Ø
innocence typified by inexperience,
Ø
“the first
year.”
Ø
Pure without,
Ø
“no
blemish.”
ü
A carefully conducted purification. The partaker of the sacrificial feast
must endeavour after a
purity resembling that of the victim. Leaven, evil,
must be purged out that he may offer and receive
worthily.
ü A sarifice
to save from death, 5:6-7.
Notice
Ø
Obedience
ensured safety. The judgment was to go forth against the
first-born; but the lamb slain — his blood duly
sprinkled — would be
accepted as a substitute. Obedience was all that was demanded.
Ø
The meaning
of the command. Few types are arbitrary; almost always
some ground of relation is between them and the
thing typified, even though
we may not see it. Here the pure lamb represents
the offerer as he
ought to
be; it says in his
name “I would be pure; I would dedicate myself wholly to
thy service; accept me, not for what I am but
for what Thou canst make
me. Take this lamb for me; make me as this
lamb!” Obedience saves, but
that which is commanded shadows forth the final
result to be achieved by
obedience.
ü Sustenance to nerve for duty.
The Lamb not merely to be killed but
eaten.
Ø
The people saved from the destroyer are to be
released also from the
oppressor; to commence at once the life of
liberty. Strength needed for the
march. That which saves is that which supports,
if the lamb represents the
offerer as he ought to be, feeding
upon the lamb will represent feeding by
faith upon the ideal thus figured. To become
righteous we must hunger and
thirst after righteousness, Matthew 5:6.
Dedication is the starting-point,
but the road is persistent obedience, and they
only can walk that road who
feed upon the ideal first set before them
(Philippians 3:12-14).
antitype.
ü Our
sacrific
Ø
Pure,
perfect. Slain for us. By faith accepting
his work, peace with
God; shelter from the avenging angel. This is
what we mean by
substitution — Christ died for me. Notice however:
Ø
Accepting this sacrifice we must still regard it
as representative.
Pleading its efficacy, we not merely mean
“Forgive me for Christ’s
sake,” but also, “I would be like Christ, I
would give myself up wholly
to Thy will even as He has done — Accept me in
Him, make me like
Him!” The doctrine of substitution is only explained by this underlying doctrine of
identity, it could not
otherwise be a doctrine of salvation.
ü Our sustenance. We too, saved in Christ, have to march on along
the
road which leads from slavery to freedom. To do this we must
feed upon
our ideal, “inwardly digest” it. ("Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of
the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." - John 6:53)
What we ought to be; what we hope to be;
WHAT CHRIST IS! Our great
advantage over the Jew is that our ideal
is realized in a person. To feed upon it is to feed upon
Christ. To attain it is to be like Christ, to be one with Him.
we also die with Him. Dedication of a substitute is not enough
unless self is
dedicated in the substitute. Very well wishing to be happy, and the
hope of
many is little more than this. God, however,
means us to be holy, and there
is no easy road to holiness. Accept the
ideal, accept Christ out and out, we
shall find Him more than an ideal: He will strengthen and
sustain us till we
attain it. Forget what the ideal is; forget what dedication
means; we may
yet find that it is possible for those who are saved from
bondage to perish
in the wilderness.
12 “For I will pass through the
all the firstborn in the land of
all the gods of
“For I will pass through the
give the
reason for the institution of the new ceremony, and to explain the new
term pesach. “I have commanded this rite,” He says, “because I am about to
go through the whole
about to smite and kill every
one of the firstborn both of man and beast. I shall
enter into every house, and
slay the first-born in it, unless I see upon the house
the token of THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB! In that case I shall pass
over the
house, and you will escape the plague.” It would clear the sense if the opening
words of v.
12 were translated — “For I shall go through,” instead of
“pass through.” The word
translated “pass
through” has no connection at all
with that
rendered “pass
over. Against all the gods of
These words
are exegetical of the word “beast,” which immediately precedes. Animal
worship was
an important part of the
religion of the Egyptians. At four great cities,
the Western
Delta, animals were maintained, which were viewed as actual
incarnations
of deity — the Apis Bull at
White Cow.
If any of these were at the time animals that had “opened the
womb,”
death must have fallen upon them. Thus would judgment have
been
executed, literally, upon Egyptian “gods.” But, besides these, the
whole
country was filled with sacred animals, regarded as emblematic of
certain
particular deities, and as belonging to them. Sheep were sacred to
Kneph, goats to Khem, cows
to Athor, cats to Pasht,
dogs and jackals to
Anubis, lions to Horus,
crocodiles to Set and Sabak, hippopotami to
Taouris, cynocephalous apes
to Thoth, frogs to Heka. A
sudden mortality
among the
sacred animals would be felt by the Egyptians as a blow struck
against the
gods to whom they belonged, and as a judgment upon them. It
is scarcely
necessary to understand literally the expression “all the gods,”
and to
defend it by the assertion that “not a single deity of
represented
by some beast.” Such an assertion cannot be proved; and is
probably
not correct. It has often been remarked, and is generally allowed,
that Scripture
uses universal expressions, where most, or even many, of a
class are
meant. I am the Lord. Rather as in ch. 6:8, “Against all
the gods of
13 “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye
are:
and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be
upon you to destroy you, when I smite the
to be
a token to the Israelites, but to
God for them. Translate— “and the blood
shall be as a token for
you upon the houses that you are there.” It shall distinguish
the
houses in which you dwell from the others.
“I will pass
over you” - This
is the
emphatic
clause. God would pass by, or over the
house on which the blood was, spare
it,
slay none of its inmates; and from this action of His, the lamb itself, and the
feast
whereof
it was the principal part, were to be termed “the Passover.”
Christ is His People’s Salvation and Strength (vs.
7-13)
ü They took
the blood and struck it on the door posts and the lintel. We
must appropriate Christ’s atonement. We must say by faith, “He died for
me.” (Galatians
2:20)
ü They passed
within the blood-stained portals. Christ’s blood must stand
between us and condemnation, between us and sin. Our safety
lies in
setting that between our soul and them. The realizing of Christ’s death
for our sins is, salvation.
upon Christ. (John
6) While
While the world is busy with its dreams we must feast upon the joy of eternity, and, comprehending with all
saints the infinite love of Christ, be filled with all
the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:18-19) “Except ye eat the flesh of
the Son
of Man, and drink His blood,
ye have no life in you.” (John 6:53)
ü With
unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The old leaven of malice and
wickedness must be put away, and the feasting on Christ’s
love must be
accompanied with repentance and self denial. There may be
now and again a momentary glimpse of Christ’s love where sin is not parted
with, but there can be no communion, no enduring vision WITH SIN!
ü Christ must
be taken as God has set Him before us, in the simplicity of
the Gospel, with nothing of man’s
invention, addition, or diminution.
The Gospel remedy avails only when taken in the Gospel way
(vs. 9-10).
ü He must be partaken of in the union of love. The
Passover is a social, a
family feast. Those who refuse to seek
church-fellowship are despising
God’s arrangements for
their own salvation, and proving themselves
DEVOID OF the spirit which, loving Him that begat, loveth
Him also that is begotten of him.
ü He must be partaken
of with the pilgrim spirit and preparedness (v.11). They who will
be saved by Jesus must take up their cross and follow
Him.
vs.
14-20. — Hitherto the directions given have had reference,
primarily
and mainly,
if not wholly, to the first celebration of the Passover on the
night
preceding the Exodus. Now, it is announced,
(1) That the
observance is to be an annual one; and
(2) That it is
to he accompanied with certain additional features in the
future.
These are
(a) the eating of unleavened bread
for seven days after the killing of
the Passover;
(b) the putting away of leaven out
of the houses;
(c)the holding of meetings for worship on the first
day and the last; and
(d) the observance on these days
of a sabbatical rest.
14 “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it
a feast to the LORD throughout your
generations; ye shall keep it a
feast by an ordinance for ever.” This day shall be to you for
a memorial.
Annual
festivals, in commemoration
of events believed to have happened, were
common in
the religion of
ideas of the Hebrews. (See the “Introduction” to this
chapter.) They were now
required to
make the 14th of Abib such a day, and to observe it
continually
year after
year “throughout their generations.” There is
commendable
faithfulness
in the obedience still rendered to the command at the present
day; and it
must be confessed that the strong expression — throughout
your generations and as an
ordinance for ever — excuse to a great
extent the
reluctance of the Jews to accept Christianity. They have already,
however,
considerably varied from the terms of the original appointment.
May they not
one day see that the Passover will still be truly kept by participation
in the
Easter Eucharist, wherein Christians feed upon “the Lamb
slain from the
foundation of the world” – (Revelation 13:8) — the
antitype, of which
the Paschal
lamb was the type — Jesus
Christ, the true sustenance of souls — the
center and
source of all real unity — the one “perfect and sufficient sacrifice, and
oblation, and satisfaction
for the sins of the whole world”? – Jesus
said, Except ye
eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no
life in you”
–
(John
6:53) The Church requires
an
Easter communion of all her members,
proclaims
that on that day, Christ our passover being slain, we are to keep the
feast; and thus, so far as in her lies, maintains the
festival as “an ordinance for
ever,” to be observed through all her generations.
The Passover Feast the Type of the Christian life
(vs. 14-20)
ü It is
unending, deepening joy. Other joys fade, this brightens.
ü It is a
growing appropriation of the Lamb of God. Our union with Him
grows ever closer, fuller. Is this our experience? A nominal
Christianity will never save us. Are we feeding on Jesus? Are we
in Him and He in us?
DELIVERANCE,
AND THE ANTICIPATION OF A
GREATER.
ü There was
present safety from the destroyer.
ü On the
morrow there was to be the passing out from amidst the broken
bonds of
the types onward. We have forgiveness through the blood of
Jesus, and
the expectation of His coming the second time without sin
unto salvation.
(Hebrews 9:28) Faith,
and love, and hope the threefold glory of Christ’s people.
feast the old leaven was not to be found in the dwellings of
that turns back to sin is cut off (vs. 15, 18-20). What was
a mere
accompaniment in the type, is a fruit of
life IN CHRIST!
family feast. It began and it closed with an assembly of the
whole
congregation. There are separate churches still, as there
were families then.
But the union of all believers must be recognized and
rejoiced in.
THE
PASSOVER CONTINUED IN THE EUCHARIST
(v.
14)
It was
expressly declared that the Passover was instituted to be observed as a feast “by
an ordinance for ever.” (v. 14) -
Jews are justified in remaining Jews, if they cannot
otherwise
continue to celebrate it. But they can. The Passover is continued in the
Eucharist. Hence Paul’s words at Easter time — “Christ, our Passover, is crucified
for us; therefore let us keep the feast” (I Corinthians 5:7-8).
EVENT, WHICH THE PASSOVER PREFIGURED AND
FORESHADOWED. The reality underlying both being the Lord’s
death
upon the cross as a propitiation for the sins of
man, this death was set forth
in anticipation by the Paschal sacrifice; it is
now “shown forth”
after the
event, in the Eucharist, “until Christ come”
(I Corinthians 11:26). The bread
and wine represent the humanity of Christ as
truly as the Paschal lamb
represented it. The Eucharistic ceremony is “a
perpetual memory (ἀνάμνησις –
an-am’-nay-sis; - recollection; remembrance) of His
precious death,” and
in some respects a more lively
setting forth of that central event of history
than ever was the Paschal
ceremony.
FROM BONDAGE, AS THE PASSOVER DID THE
JEW’S. The true
bondage is
the bondage of sin. This is the “
to be delivered. The death
of Christ, which the Eucharist “shews forth,” is the
one and only remedy for sin, the one and only
means whereby it becomes
possible for man
to shake off the grievous yoke from his shoulders, and
become free. (“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make
you free” –
(John 8:32) - By
His meritorious sacrifice the guilt of sin is removed; by His
assisting grace,
given most abundantly through the Eucharist, the power of sin
is destroyed, and
its taint gradually purged out of our nature.
CHRISTIAN, AS THE PASSOVER FESTIVAL WAS TO
THE JEW.
The very name of Eucharist, which
became the usual name of the Holy
Communion as early as the second
century, indicates how essential a
feature of it thanksgiving was felt
to be. “We praise
thee, we bless thee, we
worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thee thanks for
thy great glory, O
Lord God” — this is the general key-note of Eucharistic
services. And
naturally. For, if the Jew
had much to thank God for, the Christian has
more. Redemption, justification, assisting grace,
sanctification, union
with
Christ — clear and distinct promise of everlasting life — are his,
and
crowd upon his mind in connection with this sacrament.
SACRIFICE. In the
Passover, as generally in sacrifices, the victim was first
offered on behalf of the sacrificers — in this case the household, and then
the flesh of the victim furnished a
solemn sacrificial meal to the members of
the household. In the Eucharist,
where the true victim is Christ Himself,
whose sacrifice upon the cross is
alone propitiatory, a commemoration of
the death of Christ is made, and
then there follows a feast of the most
sacred kind. Whatever benefits may
have flowed from participation in the
Paschal festival are far exceeded by
those attached to the “Supper of the
Lord.” The Jew felt himself by
participation in the Passover festival
incorporated anew into the community
of
participation in the Eucharist, is
engrafted anew into Christ.
15 “Seven days shall ye eat
unleavened bread; even the first day ye
shall put away leaven out of your houses:
for whosoever eateth leavened
bread from the first day until the seventh
day, that soul shall be cut off
from
was
admitted by the ancient Egyptians, or even known to them.
Apparently,
the nation which first adopted it was that of the Babylonians.
Abraham may
have brought it with him from “
from him it
may have passed to Jacob, and so to Moses. That the week
was known
in the family of Abraham before the giving of the law, appears
from
Genesis 29:27-28. Unleavened bread is typical of purity of
heart,
leaven being an emblem of corruption (Matthew 16:6-12; I Corinthians 5:7).
“Leaven,”
says Plutarch, “comes from corruption, and corrupts
the dough with
which it is
mixed; and every fermentation seems to be a putrefaction.” The primary
command to
celebrate the first passover with unleavened instead
of leavened bread
(v. 8),
must be attributed wholly to this symbolism. But the permanent institution
of a “feast of unleavened bread,” to last a week, had a double
bearing. Partly, it was
designed to deepen and intensify the conviction that corruption and
impurity disqualify for religions
service; but it was also partly intended as a
commemoration
of the fact, that in their hasty flight from
which they
took with them was unleavened (ver. 34), and that
they were
forced to subsist
on this for several days. (Compare the double meaning of
the “bitter
herbs, noticed in the comment on verse 8, ad fin.)
The
requirement to “put away leaven out of
their houses” is probably intended
to
teach, that for family worship to be acceptable, the entire
household must be pure,
and
that to effect this result the head of the household must, so far as he can, eject
the leaven of
sin from his establishment. Whosoever eateth… shall be out off from
transgresses any plain precept of God, even
though it be a positive one, he should
be
severed from
the Church, until he confess his fault, and repent, and do penance
for it. Such was the “godly discipline” of the primitive Church; and it were well if
the Churches of these modern times had more of it.
16 “And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the
seventh day there shall be an holy
convocation to you; no manner
of work shall be done in them, save that
which every man must eat,
that only may be done of you.” On the first day there shall be an holy
convocation. After the
Paschal meal on the evening of the 14th of Abib,
there
was to be a
solemn assembly of the people on the next day for religions worship.
The name “convocation;” applied to these gatherings, seems to show that
originally
the people were summoned to such meetings, as they still are by
the muezzin
from
the minarets of mosques in Mahommedan countries, and
by bells
from the steeples of churches in Christian ones. And on the
seventh day. On the
22nd of Abib — the seventh day after the first holy
convocation
on the 15th (see Leviticus 23:4-8). Only two of the Jewish
festivals
were of this duration — the feast of unleavened bread, and the
feast of
tabernacles (ibid. vs. 39-42). The Christian Church has adopted
the
usage for
Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Whitsuntide, where the last
day of the
week is known technically as “the octave.” No manner of work
shall be done in them.
Festival-days were in all countries days of abstention
from the
ordinary business of life, which could not conveniently be carried
on
conjointly
with attendance at the services, meetings, processions, etc., wherein
the festival
consisted. But absolute cessation from all work was nowhere strictly
commanded
except among the Hebrews, where it appears to have been connected
with the belief in God’s absolute rest after the six days of
creation. The command
here given
was solemnly repeated in the law (Leviticus 23:6- 8)
17 “And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this
selfsame day
have I brought your armies out of the
this day in your generations by an ordinance
for ever.” In
this self-same day.
The 15th of
Abib — the first day of the feast of unleavened
bread. Have I
brought
your hosts out. This
expression seems to prove that we have in the injunctions of
vs. 14-20,
not the exact words of the revelation on the subject made by God to
Moses
before the institution of the Passover, but a re-casting of the words after
the exodus
had taken place. Otherwise, the expression must have been, “I
will bring
your hosts out.” As an ordinance for ever. Easter eve, the day
on which
Satan was despoiled by the preaching of Jesus to the spirits in
prison (I
Peter 3:19), and on which the Church first realizes its
deliverance
from the bondage of sin by the Atonement of Good Friday, is
the
Christian continuance of the first day of unleavened bread, and so
answers to
this text, as Good Friday to the similar command in v. 14.
18
“In the first month, on
the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall
eat unleavened bread, until the one and
twentieth day of the month at even.”
In the first month. The word “month” seems to
have
accidentally
dropped out of the Hebrew text. In the evening. The Hebrew
day
commenced with the evening (Genesis 1:5); but the evening here
intended is
that at the close of the 14th of Abib, which began
the 15th.
Similarly,
the evening of the 21st is here that which commenced the 22nd.
19 “Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for
whosoever
eateth that which is leavened, even that soul
shall be cut off from the congregation
of
“vain
repetition” of v.15. It adds an important extension of the punitive clause — “that
soul shall be cut off from
reminded, at the very
time when
inheritance
of exclusive privileges, that no exclusion of the Gentiles
by reason of race
or descent was ever contemplated by God, either at the giving of
the Law, or at any
other time. In Abraham all the families
of them were to be blessed (Genesis 12:3).
It was
always open to any Gentiles to join themselves to
“proselytes
of justice,” adopting circumcision and the general observance of the law,
and joining
the Israelite
community. The whole law is full of references to persons
of this class (chps. 20:10; 23:12; Leviticus 16:29; 17:10; 18:26; 20:2; 24:16;
Numbers
35:15; Deuteronomy 5:14; 16:11-14; 24:17, 19; 27:19; 29:11). It must
have been
largely recruited in the times immediately following the exodus from the
“mixed multitude” which accompanied the Israelites out of
from the Kenites who joined
them in the wilderness (Numbers 10:29-31; Judges
1:16).
“born in the land”— i.e., an Israelite by birth — “the land” is, no
doubt,
which is
regarded as the true “
by God to
the posterity of Abraham (Genesis 15:18).
20 “Ye
shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat
unleavened bread.” Here again
there is no repetition, but an extension. “Ye shall
eat nothing leavened,”
not only no leavened bread (v. 15), but no leavened cake
of any
kind. And “in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread,” i.e.,
wherever ye
dwell, whether in
everywhere
to this day, though they no longer sacrifice
the Paschal lamb.
(? –
CY – 2017)
THE
PASSOVER PROPER (vs. 3-20)
tenth plague, and as a means by
which the first-born of the Israelites might
be saved from destruction, but
accompanied by ceremonies which were
connected with the prospective
departure of the whole nation out of
the Passover feast, as established “by
an
ordinance for ever,” commemorated
two distinct and different things.
ü The passing
over of the houses of the Israelites by Jehovah, when he
went through the land in
the character of “destroyer” (v. 23),
to smite
the first-born; and
ü The hurried
departure of the nation out of
bread for their
journey, which they had not had time to leaven (v. 34).
It was thus
intended to remind them of two great mercies; the lesser
one being the
escape of their first-born from sudden death, and the
greater one the
deliverance of the whole people from the bondage and
affliction of
establishment of
them as a nation under the direct government of God,
(a theocracy) and
under laws which were communicated to them by
God, Himself at
Sinai. Man is so apt to forget the benefits which God
confers upon him,
that it has been found necessary, or at least desirable,
in almost all
countries, to establish, by authority, days of commemoration,
when national
deliverances, national triumphs, national recoveries, shall
be brought
prominently before the mind of the nation, and pressed upon
its attention.
The Passover must be regarded as one of the most effective
of such
commemorative ceremonies. It has continued to be celebrated for
above three
thousand years. It brings vividly to the recollection of the
Jew that night of
trepidation and excitement, when the lamb was first
killed, the blood
dashed upon the doorposts, and the sequel waited for —
that night, when “about midnight” was heard “a great cry,” and in
every house the
Egyptians bewailed one dead — that night, in which,
after the cry, a
murmur arose, and the Egyptians became “urgent”
(v. 33), and insisted
that the Israelites should quit the land forthwith. It
has all the political advantage
of a great national celebration; and it
exalts the political
idea by uniting it with religious enthusiasm.
week, with the exception of the
Paschal lamb and the daily goat, must be
viewed as thank-offerings. They
consisted of fourteen bullocks, seven
rams, and forty-nine lambs of the
first year, provided by. the priests, and
offered to God in the name of the
nation. They were burnt on the altar as
holocausts, accompanied by meat-offerings
of flour mingled with oil. At
the same time individuals offered
their own private thank-offerings. So far,
the special object of the
thanksgiving was the great deliverance, with which
might be conjoined, in thought,
God’s further mercies in the history of the
nation. On the second day of the
feast, however, another subject of
thankfulness was introduced. The
season of the year was that in which the
earliest grain ripened in
it was the time when the return of
spring had been long celebrated among
the Semites by a traditional
observance. As “each return of the Passover
festival was intended to remind the
Israelites of their national regeneration”
(Kalisch),
it was thought appropriate to bring the festival into connection
with the regeneration of nature, and
the return of vernal vegetation. On the
second day, therefore, a sheaf of
the first ripe barley was offered as the
first-fruits of the coming harvest,
and thanks were rendered to God for His
bounty in once more bringing to
perfection the fruits of the earth. During
the remainder of the week, both
subjects occupied the thoughts of the
worshippers, who passed the time in
innocent festivities, as songs, music,
and dancing.
symbolical meaning of the Passover,
as of so much that is contained in the
Jewish law. Scripture distinctly
declares it. “Christ, our Passover, is slain,”
says
who was prefigured and foreshown in
every sacrifice, was symbolized
especially by the Paschal victim. He
was “the Lamb of God’ (John
1:29),
“without spot
or blemish” (I Peter 1:19), “holy,
harmless, undefiled”
(Hebrews 7:26);
offered to keep off “the destroyer,” saving us by His blood
from death (Acts
20:28); slain
that we might feed upon His flesh (John
6:51). The Paschal lamb, when
prepared for sacrifice, presented, as Justin
Martyr informs us, a lively image of
the Saviour upon “the accursed tree,”
being extended on a cross formed of
two wooden spits, one longitudinal,
and one transverse, placed at right
angles each to the other. “Not a bone of
it
was to be broken,” that it might the better typify Him whom God
preserved from this indignity (Psalm
34:20; John 19:33). It was to
be consumed entirely, as Christ is
to be taken entire into the heart of the
faithful (Galatians 4:19). Scripture
also distinctly declares the symbolical
meaning of the unleavened bread. “Let us keep the feast,” says Paul, “not
with
the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread
of
sincerity and truth.” (I Corinthians 5:8) - He who would feed on
Christ
must first put away from him all
corruption and impurity, eject all leaven
out of the house wherein his spirit
dwells, make himself fit to sit down at
that heavenly banquet, by getting
rid of all those “evil
things which come
from
within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:23). There may be some doubt,
however, as to the symbolism of the “bitter herbs,” which
Scripture leaves
unexplained. The exegesis, that the
bitter herbs symbolized the sufferings of
the Israelites in
The memory of past sufferings
inflicted by others is not a necessary
accompaniment of present festal joy,
though it may enhance that joy by
contrast. The “bitterness” should be something that is
always
requisite before the soul can find
in Christ rest, peace, and enjoyment —
something that must ever accompany
that rest, peace, and enjoyment, and,
so long as we are in the flesh,
remain inseparable from it. Two things of
this kind suggest themselves — repentance and self-denial. The
bitter herbs
may perhaps symbolize both, pointing
on the one hand to the important
truth, that real repentance is a
continuous act, never ceasing, while we live
below, and on the other to the
necessity of men’s “taking up their
cross
daily,” (Luke 9:23) and striving towards perfectness through suffering.
THE
FIRST PASSOVER (vs. 21-28)
Having
received the Divine directions as to the new rite, if not with all the fullness
ultimately
given them, yet with sufficient fullness for the immediate purpose, Moses
proceeded
to communicate the Divine Will to the people under his protection.
Having
already aroused the jealousy and hatred of Pharaoh, he could not summon
a
general assembly of the people, but he ventured to call a meeting of the
elders,
or
heads of principal families, and through them communicated the orders which
he had
received to the entire nation. We find, in the directions which he gave, two
small
points which are not comprised in the record of God’s words to him:
Ø The
designation of the “hyssop,” as
the instrument, by which the blood
was to be placed on the side-posts
and lintel (v. 22); and,
Ø The
injunction not to quit the house “until the morning.” These points
may have been contained in the
original directions, though omitted from
the record for brevity; or they may
have been added by Moses of his own
authority. On the other hand,
several very main points of the original
directions are not repeated in the
injunctions given to the elders, though
there can be no doubt that they were communicated.
21 “Then
Moses called for all the elders of
Draw out and take you a lamb according to
your families, and kill
the passover.” Draw out — i.e., “Withdraw from the flock.” (See v. 3.)
A lamb. The word
used is generic, and would not exclude the offering of a goat.
22 “And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is
in the bason, and
strike the lintel and the two side posts with the
blood that is in the bason;
and none of you shall go out at the door
of his house until the morning.” A bunch of hyssop. The hyssop was regarded
as having
purging or purifying qualities, and was used in the cleansing of the
leper
(Leviticus 14:4), and of the leprous house (ibid. vs.
51-52), and also
formed an
element in the “water of separation” (Numbers
19:6). It was
a species
of plant which grew on walls, and was generally low and
insignificant
(I Kings 4:33), yet which could furnish a stick or stalk of
some length
(John 19:29). It must also have been a common plant in
respect to
it. One, that it was a species of marjoram (Origanum
Aegyptiacum, or O. Syriacum
)
common in both
that it was
the caper plant (Capparis spinosa), which abounds especially in
the Desert.
(Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 21.) It is in favor of
this
latter
identification, that the modern Arabic name for the caper plant is asaf
or asuf, which excellently represents the Hebrew ezob, the word uniformly
rendered in
our version by “hyssop” The blood that is in the
basin. The
Septuagint
and Vulgate render — “that is on the threshold.” Saph — the
word
translated “basin” has the double meaning. None of you
shall go out.
Moses may
well have given this advice on his own authority, without any
Divine
command. (See introductory paragraph.) He would feel that beyond
the protection of the blood of the lamb, there was no assurance of safety.
No Safety for Man Beyond the Limits Protected
by
the Lamb’s Atoning Blood (v. 22)
No
Israelite was to pass beyond the door of his house until the morning, lest he
should be
destroyed by the destroyer. Within the precincts, protected by the blood
of the lamb,
he was safe. Let Christians beware of stepping beyond the limits
whereto the
atoning blood extends. Those step beyond the limits:
ü WHO TEMPT GOD BY DALLYING WITH SIN. Atonement has
been made
for us, we feel We have had moments of assurance that
atonement and
forgiveness are ours. We have had an impression that
we were safe. At
once the Evil One begins to whisper to our hearts
that there is no
longer any need of our walking warily, of our being
afraid to put
ourselves in temptation’s way, of our flying all contact
with evil; and we
are too apt to listen to his suggestions, to regard the
danger of falling
from grace as past, and to allow ourselves a liberty in
which there is
too often awful peril. We draw near the confines of sin,
confident that we
shall sin no more; and lo! we are entangled in the
meshes. And why? Because
we have gone beyond the limits protected
by the atoning blood. We have
opened the door and stepped out. We
have turned
our backs upon the redeeming marks and put them behind
us. We have been
over-trustful in our own strength.
ü WHO ARE PUFFED UP BY THE THOUGHT OF THEIR
SPIRITUAL
ATTAINMENTS AND PRIVILEGES. “Pride goeth
before
a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18) - Pride was the great temptation of the
Jew, who felt himself
one of God’s peculiar people, to
whom pertained
“the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of
the
law, and the service of God, and the promises” (Romans
9:4).
And pride often tempts
the Christian, who has realized the
work of
Christ on his behalf,
and the greatness of the salvation
wrought for him.
But pride is one of the
deadly sins, and at once severs the
soul from
Christ. The blood of the
covenant does not extend its protection
over
the paths which are
trodden by the foot of pride. He who enters
on
them has wandered beyond
the door which bears the redemption
marks, and is open to the assaults of the
destroyer.
ü WHO FOLD THEIR HANDS AND CEASE TO BE ZEALOUS
OF
GOOD
WORKS, AS THOUGH THEY HAD ALREADY
ATTAINED.
Though we cannot, by anything that we can do, merit our
own salvation, or redeem ourselves or others
(Psalm 49:7), yet God will
have us “work while it is day,” (John 9:4) and
be “careful to maintain
good
works” - (Titus 3:8). Idleness, apathy, sloth, are contrary to His
will and His word; and
the man who indulges in them has strayed
beyond the prescribed
limits and in danger of losing the needful
protection. Well for him
if he discovers his mistake in time to
return, and , “do again the first works” (Revelation
2:5), and so
regain the lost shelter!
It is needless to say that the atoning blood can
avail none who
o reject the
atonement; or,
o despise it,
by giving it no thought; or,
o trample it
under foot by leading an immoral and
ungodly life.
These are as far removed from its
protection as
were the Egyptians.
23 “For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when
He seeth the
blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the
LORD will pass over the door, and will not
suffer the destroyer to
come in unto your houses to smite you.” Compare
verses 12-13 which are
closely
followed. The only important
difference is, the new expression,
“The Lord will not suffer the destroyer to come in,” which has generally
been
regarded as implying, that the actual
agent in the killing of the first-born
was a “destroying angel.” But it is to be noted that elsewhere Jehovah
Himself
is
everywhere spoken of as the
sole agent; and that in the present passage the
word used
has the meaning of “destruction” no less
than that of “destroyer.”
24 “And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy
sons for ever.” To thee and to thy children. The change from the plural to the
singular is
curious, Perhaps, we are to understand that Moses insisted on
the
perpetuity of the ordinance to each of the elders severally.
25 “And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the
LORD will give you, according as He hath
promised, that ye shall
keep this service.” See above, ch. 3:8-17;
6:4; and compare Genesis 17:8;
28:4, etc.
26 “And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you,
What mean ye by this service?” Apparently, Moses adds these injunctions by
his own
sole authority. He assumes that curiosity will be aroused by the strange
and
peculiar features of the Paschal ceremony, and that each generation in
succession
will wish to know its meaning and origin. It is the parents
duty
to pass this information on.
(It has always been God’s design that children
learn this way – Deuteronomy 6:6-9 – CY – 2010) Careful instruction in the
true
nature
and value of ceremonial observances is thus of the highest importance; and
parents
should not wait till their children “ask the meaning” of public worship,
salvation,
baptism, the Lord’s supper, etc., before enlightening them on the true
nature
and value of each. Men’s private views are
various, and may be mistaken,
but the Scriptures cannot but be true; and a
knowledge of what is contained in
the Bible
with respect to each Christian rite or ceremony will be an excellent basis
for the
formation of a sound and healthy opinion on the subject when, in the course
of time,
the different views of different sections of believers come to be known.
Jesus
said, “Suffer little children and
forbid them not, to come unto me:
for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew
19:14; see also Matthew 18:3-6)
27 “That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s
passover, who
passed over the houses of the children of
smote the Egyptians, and delivered our
houses. And the people
bowed the head and worshipped.” It is the sacrifice. It was
offered in the
holy place
(Deuteronomy 16:5-6 ); the blood of it was sprinkled upon the altar,
and the fat
was burnt (II Chronicles 30:16; 35:11). Compare also ch.
23:18;
Numbers
9:7; Deuteronomy 16:2. The people bowed the head and worshipped.
Rather,
“and made obeisance.” Compare ch. 4:31. By “the people”
seems to be
meant “the elders of the people.” (See v. 21.)
The Obligation of Men to Teach the True Meaning of
Rites
and
Ceremonies to Their Children (vs. 26-27)
The rites
and ceremonies of a religion are liable to be misunderstood in two
ways.
1. They may
be regarded as unimportant, trifling, nay, even as superstitious
— a weight
and an encumbrance on true vital religion. Or,
2. They may
be assigned more importance than is their due; considered to
be that in
which religion mainly consists, believed to have an inherent
power and
efficacy which is far from belonging to them. Men are prone to
extremes;
and most persons are naturally inclined either unduly to exalt, or
unduly to
depreciate religious ceremonies. Of the two evils, undue
depreciation
would seem to be the worse, for the following reason:
ü It tends to
make them of little service to men when they actually take part
in them, since they neither prepare themselves properly
beforehand, so
as to derive from them the benefit they might, nor enter
into them with much heart at the time of their occurrence, nor help their
effect by
devout meditation upon them afterwards.
ü It causes
an infrequent participation in the ceremonies by the
depreciators, who, expecting but little benefit in the
future, and being
conscious of but little benefit in the past, allow small obstacles to
prevent their attendance at
services which they do not value.
ü In extreme
cases, it produces either complete abstention from, or
sometimes actual abrogation of the rite, whereby advantages
are forfeited
on the part of whole sections of believers which would
otherwise have
been enjoyed by them.
any rate retaining them in use, so that their benefit is not
wholly lost. It
often, however, greatly lessens the benefit:
ü by
exaggerated and superstitious views of its nature, and
ü by the
attribution of the benefit to the mere formal participation in the
rite irrespective of the participator’s preparation,
attention, and
devoutness at the time. Further, it is apt to produce such a
reliance on the ceremonies as is unfavorable to practical
efforts at improving the moral
character and making advances towards Christian perfection. Careful instruction in the true nature and value of
ceremonial observances is thus of the highest importance; and parents should
perhaps scarcely wait till their children “ask the
meaning” of public worship, baptism confirmation, the Lord’s supper,
etc., before enlightening them on the
true nature and value of each. In so doing, it will always
be of use to set forth the historical origin of each usage, to show when and
how it arose, and to draw attention to what Scripture says on the subject.
Men’s private views are various, and may be mistaken, but the Scriptures cannot
but be true; and a knowledge of what is contained in the Bible with respect to
each Christian rite or ceremony will be an excellent basis for the formation of
a sound and healthy opinion on the subject when, in the course of time, the
different views of different sections of believers come to be known.
“What Mean Ye by This Service?”(vs. 26-27)
Apply to
the Lord’s Supper.
HIS
CHILDREN.
ü
The children are presumed to be spectators of the ordinance. It is well
that
children should be present during the
administration of the sacraments.
Ø
It awakens their interest.
Ø
It leads them to inquire.
ü
The
ordinance is fitted to attract attention. An
external interest attaches
to it. It appeals to the senses. The symbolic
acts and movements prompt to
inquiry.
ü
It
furnishes an excellent opportunity for
imparting instruction. Children
will attend to an explanation of the sacraments,
who will pay little attention
to a book or a sermon. The symbolism of the
ordinance aids instruction;
makes it vivid and impressive.
ABLE TO
ANSWER TO HIS CHILDREN. It is a sad matter when a
parent is incapable of sitting down, and instructing his
children in the
meaning of the sacramental symbol. It betrays something
worse than
ignorance; not improbably, a total want of spiritual
religion.
STATEMENT
OF THE GREATEST VERITIES OF OUR FAITH. The
Jew had to answer to his child — “It is the
sacrifice, of the Lord’s
passover,” etc. (v. 27). The Christian has to answer, “It is the memorial
of our Lord’s death, in
atonement for our sins.” He has to tell:
ü How we were
in guilt and danger.
ü How, for the love wherewith He loved us, Christ gave Himself up to the
death for our redemption.
ü How, for His sake, we are forgiven and accepted.
ü How the ungodly world has still God’s wrath resting upon it. It is
wonderful to reflect how simply, yet how perfectly, God has provided
for the handing down of a
testimony to these great truths in the
ordinance of the Lord’s
Supper. The pulpit may fail to
preach the doctrine of atonement; Rationalistic and Unitarian teachers may deny
it; but as often as the Lord’s Supper is observed, on the model of
the New Testament, the truth is anew proclaimed
in unmistakable symbols. To give a child a satisfactory explanation of
the Lord’s Supper, embodying the words of institution, would be almost of
necessity, to preach a sermon on the atonement.
The Children’s Question in
provoke curiosity. It was not
some daily action of the household, of which
the children learned the meaning and purpose almost
unconsciously. The
grinding of the corn, the kneading of the dough, in a very
short time
explained themselves. But when as the beginning of the year
drew round, it
brought with it these special observances, the slaying and
eating of the
lamb and the seven days of unleavened bread, there was
everything to
make a child ask, “What is this
being done for?” God makes one thing to
fit into another. He institutes services of such a kind,
with such elements of
novelty and impressiveness in them, that the children make it easier for
them to be instructed IN THE THINGS THAT BELONG UNTO HIS
WILL! And what
was true concerning this Passover service, is also true,
more or less, concerning ALL THAT IS
REVEALED IN SCRIPTURES!
The great facts of DIVINE
REVELATION are such as to provoke
curiosity, even in a child’s mind. If it be
true that the Scriptures are given to guide us
all the way through life, then what is more reasonable to
expect than that
God will have placed much in them to stir up attention and inquiry from
those who are just at the
beginning of life?
advantage was to be taken of childish curiosity. Inquisitive children are
often reckoned a nuisance, and told
to be quiet; yet such a policy as this,
though
it may save trouble in the present, may
lead to a great deal more
trouble in the future. A stupid
child who never asks questions, is to be
reckoned an object of pity and a source of peril. God has
always in mind
how to make each generation better instructed than the one
going before;
more obedient to Him, and more serviceable for His purposes. (In
traditionally, in this
for their children to be better off economically than their
generation. Normally,
this is the case but think how sad to
provide for your children in this world,
and neglect to teach them and
prepare them for the next! CY –
2017) The
temptation of the grown
people in
going on in the minds of
their children. Remember
how Mary and Joseph
suffered through their want of forethought on this point. The God who
watches human beings all
the way from the cradle to the grave knows well
how children, even very
little children, have their own thoughts about
things; and He wanted the people to give them every encouragement and
information. One
question wisely answered leads to the asking of other
questions. Thus, by the continuance of an inquiring mood in
the mind, and
thus only, is profitable information to be given. Information is not to be
poured into the mind as
into a bucket; it must be taken as food,
with
appetite, and digestive and
assimilating power. Thus if the question were
not asked, if, while the Passover preparations were being
made, a child
stood by in stolid unconcern, or ran away heedlessly to
play, such conduct
would fill a wise parent with solicitude. He would look upon
it as being
even more serious than a failure of physical health. He would do all he
could by timely suggestions
to bring the question forth. Ingenuity and
patience may do much to bring curiosity into action, and if
the question
were not asked it would have to be assumed.
The
narrative of the Passover
was a most important one for every Israelite child to hear
and remember;
and if only the narrative was begun, it might soon excite
the requisite and
much desired interest.
USEFULNESS
TO THE CHILDREN IN THE ANSWERING OF IT.
God, indeed, directs how it is to be answered; but of
course, it is not meant
that there was to be a formal, parrot-like confinement to
these words.
What, for instance, could be more gratifying to the children,
who in after
times asked this question, than to begin by pointing out to
them, how God
Himself expected them to ask this question? Then the words
He had
directed Moses to provide for an answer, might be repeated.
But it would
have been a poor spiritless answer, unpleasing to God, and
profitless to the
children, if it had stopped with the bare utterance of the
words “It is the
sacrifice of the Lord’s
Passover who passed over the houses of the
children of
our houses.” (v.
27) There was room for much to be said,
that would very peculiarly impress the mind of a thoughtful child. He might be
reminded that whereas, now, little children were born in
the freedom of Canaan, some among their forefathers had been born in the
bondage of
of Pharaoh who had threatened the men* children with destruction. In
particular, the story of the infant Moses might be told. So
now, in those
parts of the world where the idols are abolished, and former
idolaters are
gathered round the throne of grace for Christian worship, an opportunity is
given for explaining to the
children, in how much better a state, and with
how much better
surroundings they are brought up. “What mean ye by this
service?’ was a
question which could be answered in form, and yet with
such absence of heart, as utterly to chill and thwart the
eager inquirer.
Whereas, if it were only
answered with evident care, with amplitude of
detail, with loving desire
to interest and satisfy, then the child thus
favored, would be laid
under great obligations to be thankful in feeling,
and devoted in service. A question
of this sort gave great opportunity.
Happy those who could seize the opportunity at once, and use
it to the full,
“talking of them when sitting
in the house, and when walking by the way,
and when they lie down to go
to sleep at night, and when thou risest up!
(Deuteronomy 6:7)
ISRAELITE (adults included), AT THE ANNUAL OBSERVANCE
OF THE
PASSOVER, TO A CAREFUL CONSIDERATION OF HIS
OWN FEELINGS
WITH RESPECT TO IT. It was a question which helped to guard against formality. A little child may render a great
service, without
knowing it, even to a
grown man. God can send the little ones, to test,
to rebuke, to warn, to stir out of lethargy. “What mean ye
by this service?” How is the
Israelite of the grown generation to answer this question?
He may tell the
child what the service is intended for, the historical facts
out of which it
arose, and the Divine appointments concerning it; but after
all, this is no
real answer to the question. It may be an answer to satisfy
the inquiring
child, and yet leave the person who has to give it, with a
barbed arrow in
his memory and conscience. Notice the precise terms of the
question. What
mean ye by this service? How should the child ask in any other terms? It
looks and sees the parents doing something new and strange;
and to them
it naturally looks for
explanation and guidance. The question is not simply,
“Why is this thing being done?’ but “Why are you doing it, and what do
you mean by it?” It became only too possible in the lapse of
ages, to go
through this service in a cold, mechanical, utterly
unprofitable way. Not so,
we may be sure, was it
observed the first time in
deliverance. Then all was excitement, novelty, and overflowing emotion.
Be it ours, in considering all outward and visible acts in
connection with
religion, all symbolic and commemorative institutions, to
ask ourselves in
great closeness and candor of personal self-application, “What mean WE
by this service?’ Do we mean
anything at all, and if so, what is it that we
mean? To answer this is not easy: it is not meant to be easy.
Perhaps one
great reason why there are such marked and unabated
differences of
opinion with respect to Baptism and the Lord’s Supper is,
that we have
never sufficiently considered the question, “What mean ye
by
these
services?’ It is hard work to be quit of mere superstition,
mere clinging to
outward observances as matters of custom, tradition, and
respectability. It
is very certain that to this question of the children, put
in all its particular
emphasis, only too many fathers in
“We do this thing because
our fathers did it.” Remember that forms are, in
themselves, NOTHING TO THE INVISIBLE, SPIRITUAL
GOD! Their
value is as containing, protecting and expressing what we
have to present.
That which pleased Jehovah and profited
and THE HOPES THAT
LAY BEHIND IT!
28 “And the children of
commanded Moses and Aaron, so did
they.” So did they. The long
series
of miracles
wrought by Moses and Aaron
had so impressed the people, that they
yielded an
undoubting and ready
obedience.
The Passover (vs. 1-28)
God’s last
and overwhelming blow was about to be struck at
anticipation
of that blow, and in immediate connection with the exodus,
God gave
directions for the observance of a Passover.
details of the ritual, see the verses of the chapter in
exposition.
ü
The design of
the Passover was to make plain to
which its salvation was bestowed — the ground, viz., of ATONEMENT!
The more recent plagues had fallen on
were saved from them. But though the salvation
was obvious, the way of
salvation had not yet been indicated. But now
that the last and heaviest
plague is about to fall, not only will
on which (the whole) salvation
is bestowed WILL BE MADE
PLAIN!
ü
The connection of the Passover with the exodus. In this relation it is to
be viewed more especially as a purificatory sacrifice. Such a sacrifice was
peculiarly appropriate on the night of leaving
probably have been appointed, even had no such
special reason existed for
it as the judgment on the first-born.
ü
The connection of the Passover with the judgment on
the first-born.
represented by his
first-born; and so with
not let
smiting “all
the first-born in the land of
(v. 12); the punishment in this case, as
frequently in God’s
(compare Isaiah 30:16), taking a form analogous
to the sin it is designed to
chastise. “The first-born represented the
family, so that judgment of the
first-born stood for judgment
upon all, and redemption of the first-born
stood for the redemption
of all” (Dr. Gibson). Accordingly, not the
firstborn merely, but the entire household, as
represented in him, was
redeemed by the blood of the Passover, and
joined in the subsequent feast
upon the lamb (v. 8). Note, there was a peculiar
fitness in the Passover
being instituted at this particular crisis.
Ø
The death of the firstborn was a judgment pure and
simple; not,
like the
hail, locusts, etc., an admonitory
plague.
Ø
It gave a heightened and impressive character to the salvation that
redemption
by blood, redemption by power, and the emergence of the
people from
slavery into distinct existence as a people of God, were
thus seen going hand in hand. The
analogy with the Christian
redemption
is obvious.
ü
The teaching of the Passover. It taught the people
Ø
that naturally
they were as justly exposed to wrath as the people of
they were themselves of
without any separate and independent existence
of their own, vassals of
the enemy, and inhabitants of the doomed
territory — individually, also,
partakers of the guilt and corruption of
had been one of character, it is quite certain
that the line would not
have been run so as to range all
on the other. No one can suppose that all the
real worth and excellence
were on the side of the latter, and all the
meanness and wickedness on
the side of the former. In fact, the children of
too deeply
in the sins of
it must be on some other ground than their own merits”
(Gibson).
Ø
That the medium of their salvation — the ground on which it was
bestowed — was BLOOD OF ATONEMENT!
It is vain to deny that
the Passover victim was truly a propitiatory
sacrifice. The use made of
its blood is proof sufficient of that. The lamb
died in room of the
first-born. Sprinkled on the
door-posts and lintels, its blood sheltered
the inmates of the dwelling from the stroke of
the destroyer (vs. 21-24).
“A sinless victim, the household might, as it
were, hide behind it, and
escape the just punishment of their sins”
(Kohler in Geikie). The
Passover
thus emphatically taught the necessity of atonement for the
covering of GUILT!
No thoughtful Israelite but must have deeply
realized the truth, “Without
shedding of blood is no remission”
(Hebrews 9:22).
Ø
The solidarity of the nation. The observance of the Passover was to be
an act, not of individuals, but of households
and groups of households,
and in a wider sense, of the nation as a whole.
The Israelites were thus
taught to feel their
unity as BEFORE GOD — their oneness in guilt
as in
redemption.
o
In guilt. Each was involved in guilt and doom, not only
through his own sins, but through the sins of
the nation
of which he formed a part (compare Isaiah 6:5;
Matthew 23:35).
o
In redemption. This was beautifully
symbolized in the eating
of the lamb. The lamb was to be roasted entire,
and placed on
the table undivided (v. 9). “By avoiding the
breaking of the
bones (v. 46), the animal was preserved in complete
integrity,
undisturbed and entire (Psalm 34:20)… There was
no other
reason for this than that all who took part in
this one animal,
i.e. all who ate
of it, should look upon themselves as one
whole, one community, like those who eat the New Testament
Passover,
the body of Christ (I Corinthians 5:7), of whom the
apostle says (ibid. ch. 10:17), ‘We
being many are one bread,
and one body; for we are all partakers of that
one bread.’”
(Bahr.)
Ø
It pointed to an
atonement in the future. For, manifestly, there lay in
the blood of the lamb no real virtue to take away sin. It declared the
necessity of atonement, but could not
adequately provide it. The life
of a beast was no
proper substitute for the
life of a first-born son.
(“For it
is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take
away sin.” Hebrews 10:4) The Passover, therefore, from its
very nature, is to be viewed as a type. It pointed on to CHRIST
in
whom all the types of sacrifices find complete fulfillment.
Ø
The various features of the ritual were symbolic. The unleavened bread
was indicative of haste (Deuteronomy 16:3); the
bitter herbs of the
affliction of
the victim, the sprinkling of the blood, etc.,
had also spiritual
significance. See below, Homily on vers. 21-29. It is to be remarked,
in general, that “the earthly relations then
existing, and the operations
of God in connection with them, were framed on
purpose to represent
and foreshadow corresponding but immensely
superior ones, connected
with the work and
GENERATIONS (vs. 14,
24-28). In this respect, the Passover is to be
viewed:
ü
As an historical witness to the reality of the events of the exodus. See below;
also Homily on Deuteronomy 16:1-9. (This
website) The Passover, like the
Lord’s Supper, was an institution which, in the
nature of things, could not
have been set up later than the event
professedly commemorated.
ü
As a perpetuation of the original sacrifice. The blood of the lambs was
year by year presented to God. This marked that
the true sacrifice had not
yet been offered (Hebrews 10:1-3). Now that
Christ has died, and has
“put away
sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 1:1;
9:26; 10:12), there
is no room for further sacrifice, and the Lord’s
Supper is to be regarded as
simply a commemorative ordinance and means of
grace. The doctrine of
the mass has no foundation in true scriptural
analogy.
ü
As a means of grace. It was a feast, collecting the Israelites in great
numbers at the sanctuary, and reviving in their minds the memory of the
great
deliverance, in which had been laid the foundation of their
national
existence. The
lamb, slain on their behalf, roasted with fire, and set on the
table
before their eyes, to be handled and eaten by them, in solemn
observance
of a Divine command, gave them a vivid sense of the reality of
the facts
they were commemorating. The Lord’s Supper, in like manner, is
a powerful means of impressing mind and heart,
an act of communion on
the part of Christian believers, and a true source of nourishment (through
spiritual participation in Christ) to the soul.
ü
The observance of the Passover was connected with oral
instruction
(vs. 26-27). This was a further guarantee for
the handing down of a
faithful, ungarbled
tradition of the meaning of the ceremony; added to the
interest of the service; took advantage of a favorable opportunity to
impress the minds of the young; and helped to keep alive in all classes of
the
community a vivid remembrance of GOD’S
MIGHTY WORKS!
ordinance for this feast was probably given at Succoth, on
the day
succeeding the exodus (see v. 17, and ch.13:5-8). It is
inserted here on
account of its internal connection with the Passover. It is
to be viewed:
ü
As a memorial of the haste with which the Israelites left
Israelites had evidently intended to leaven
their dough on the night of the
exodus, but were prevented by the haste (v. 34).
“For thou camest out of
the land in haste” (Deuteronomy 16:3). This is
the historical groundwork
of the institution.
ü
As a symbol of spiritual truth.
Ø
The feast lasted seven days, a complete circle
of time.
Ø
It was rounded off at the beginning and end by
an holy convocation.
This marked it as a sacred period.
Ø
Sacrifices were offered during its course
(Numbers 28:16-25;
Deuteronomy 16:2).
Ø
The bread eaten was to be unleavened. So strict was the injunction on
this point that the Israelite found eating leaven
during these seven days
was to be “cut off,” i.e., excommunicated. The general idea of the feast
was, therefore, to represent what redeemed life
in its entirety ought to
be — a life purged from the leaven of “malice and wickedness,” and
devoted to God’s service in “sincerity and truth” (I Corinthians 5:8).
“The exodus formed the groundwork of the feast,
because it was by
this that
The “walk in
newness of life” follows on redemption. We may
apply
the precept about “cutting
off from
immoral and impure members from the Church.
The Institution of the Passover (vs. 1-28)
Moses has
now done with requesting and threatening Pharaoh. He leaves
Pharaoh to
the terrible smiting hand of Jehovah, and turns, when it is quite
time to
turn, to his own people. He who would not listen had to be left for
those who
would listen. It is now manifest that Moses is to be profitably
occupied
with matters which cannot any longer be delayed. It was needful
to give
warning concerning the death of the first-born to the Israelites quite
as much as
to Pharaoh. For some time they had been the passive, the
scarcely
conscious objects of Divine mercy and power. Painfully conscious
they were
of the physical hardships which Pharaoh inflicted on them, but
they had little or no thought of deprivations and hindrances
with respect to
higher things. God had been leading them forward by a way they
knew not,
and now the
hour has come for them to know the way and walk in it with
understanding,
choice, circumspection, and diligence. All at once, from
being
passive spectators in the background, they came forward to be prime
actors in
the very front; and God is here telling them through Moses what
to do, and how they are to do it. More is to
be done than simply wait for
God’s coming
at midnight: that coming has to be made ready for with great
solemnity
and minuteness of preparation.
ELEMENT
INTO THE DELIVERANCE OF HIS PEOPLE AND THEIR
CONNECTION
WITH HIM. They
are to be delivered, only as they are
willing
to be delivered. They are to signify their willing regard to
conform
with the will of God. The matter is made almost a personal
one; if not
brought before every Israelite, it is brought before every
head of a
household. Hitherto the immunities of the people during
the course of the
plagues had been secured in a mere external way. The
protection belonged
to a certain territory, and the Israelites had to exert no
attention, take no
trouble, in order to secure the protection. God kept the
flies, the hail, and
the darkness out of
habitations and property of His people. But now, as the last visitation from
God draws nigh, they have to
take a part, and a very decided part, in
making their exemption
effectual. Jehovah comes, treating all who are in
some significant act the deep difference which separates
between them and
the Egyptians. There had been, up to this time, certain
differences between
the Egyptian and the Israelite which did not depend upon the
Israelite’s
choice. The Egyptian was master, and the Israelite slave;
assuredly the
Israelite had not chosen that. An Egyptian might soon lose
all trace of his
personal ancestry, but every
Israelite could trace his ancestry back to
Jacob, to Isaac, to
Abraham; and this was a matter he had not chosen. The
Egyptian belonged to a nation which had been smitten with
nine plagues,
but from the later and severer of these the Israelite
dwelling in
been free; yet this freedom had been secured without making it
to depend
on the Israelite’s own action. But now, as the day of
redemption draws
near, Jehovah reminds every Israelite that underneath all
the differences
which, in carrying out His purposes, He may make to exist
among men,
there is a common humanity. Before Him
who comes smiting at midnight
there is neither Israelite nor Egyptian, bond nor free; everything depends
on the sprinkled blood; and
the sprinkled blood depends on whether the
Israelite has put it on his
door of his own accord. If, that night, the Israelite
did not of his own accord make a difference between himself
and the
Egyptian, then no natural distinction or
past immunity was of the slightest
avail. Even already
it is being shown that circumcision availeth nothing,
but
a new creature.
mark upon the door without must come from the perfect heart
and willing
mind within. The only great abiding differences between man
and man are
such as we, fully considering our position, concur in making
of our own
free will! True it is that we cannot establish and complete
these differences
in our own strength; but it is very certain that God will
not do this —
indeed, by the very limitations of the thing to be done, He
cannot — except
as we willingly and with alacrity (brisk and cheerful
readiness) give Him
opportunity.
FUNDAMENTAL
ELEMENT OF PURE FAITH INTO ACTIVE
EXERCISE. In Hebrews
11:28 we are told that by faith Moses kept
the passover, and the sprinkling
of blood, lest He that destroyed the firstborn
should touch them. And this faith extended from Moses to every
head
of a household in
spirit, on the part of those receiving them. Up to
this time nothing had been
required of them except to stand still and wait while God dealt with
Pharaoh. They are left
on one side, treated as helpless captives, whom it is
vain to ask for what they cannot give. But now
they are asked for
something, and they have not only to render it willingly, but with the
obedience
of faith (Romans 16:26). They are asked to slay a number
of
lambs, the number being determined according to a settled
proportion.
When the lambs are slain, the blood is to be sprinkled on
the doors of each
Israelite dwelling, and the flesh, prepared in a peculiar
and exact way, is to
be eaten by the inhabitants. Well, what
should all this have to do with the
protection of
deliverance? If God had told them to get ready swords and
spears, and
discipline themselves for battle there would have been
something
intelligible in such instructions, something according to the schemes of
human wisdom. But God does not deliver as men would
deliver. It pleased
Him, in the fullness of time and by the foolishness of a
slain lamb and
sprinkled blood to save
sprinkled blood that saved by themselves. Moses and Aaron
might have
slain so many lambs and sprinkled their blood, and yet there
would have
been no efficacy in them. Their efficacy as protectors was
not a natural
efficacy. The
efficacy lay in this: that the lambs were slain
and the blood
sprinkled in THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH! The thing
done and the spirit
in which it is done — truth and faith go together in RESISTLESS POWER!
There
must be truth; faith by itself
does nothing; for a man may believe a lie
and then where is he? There must be faith; truth by itself does nothing; just
as food does nothing unless a man takes it into his stomach.
Of course it was
quite possible for a skeptical
Israelite to say, “What can there be in this
sprinkled blood?” — and the
very fact that such a question was possible
shows how God was shutting His people up to pure faith. He
asks them
to act simply on the word of Moses. That word
was now to be a sufficient
reason for their conduct. Moses had done enough to show from
whom he
came. It is interesting to notice how faith stands here,
asked for, the first thing,
by Moses, even as it was afterwards by Jesus. As the
Israelites believed
because Moses spoke, so we must believe
because JESUS SPEAKS! Jesus
speaks truth because it is true; but we must receive it and
believe it, not
because in our natural reason we can see it as true, but
because of the
ascertained and well-accredited character of Him who speaks
it. And we
must show our faith by our works, as these Israelites did. It was not
required of them to understand how
this sprinkled blood operated. They
acted as believing that it would operate, and the
indisputable fact is that
they were saved. It is a great deal more important to have a
thing done,
than to be able to understand all the ins and outs by which
it is done. A
man does not refuse to wind up his watch, because he cannot
understand
its intricate mechanism. His purposes are served, if
he understands enough
to turn the key. (I
remember as a kid listening to the words of the song
which said “Prayer is the key to
heaven, but Faith unlocks the door!”
CY – 2017) And so our
purposes are served, if we have enough
practical faith in Jesus to gain actual salvation through
Him. Exactly how
Jesus saves, is a question which we may ask again and again,
and vainly
ask. Let us not, in asking
it, waste time and risk ETERNITY when by
the
prompt and full obedience of faith, we may know in our
experience, that
however obscure the process may be, the result itself is a
real and abiding
one.
of Jesus, we see HOW AMPLE A TYPE IT IS OF HIM WHO WAS TO
COME AFTER
AND STAND BETWEEN THE BELIEVING SINNER
AND THE
AVENGING GOD.
ü
The lamb was taken so as to bind families and neighbors together.
This reminds us of Him, who gathers round
Himself, in every place, those
who form the true family, the new family; joined
together not after the
temporary, dissolving order of nature, but after the abiding, ever-consolidating
order of grace. Wheresoever two or
three are gathered together in the name of
Jesus, there the true Lamb of God is present
(Matthew 18:20) in all
those relations of which the Passover lamb gave
but a foreshadowing. The
true families are made by the coalescence of those who, living in one
neighborhood,
have:
Ø
one Lord,
Ø
one faith,
Ø
one
baptism,
Ø
one God and
Father of all.
ü
The Passover lamb was without blemish. Consider what is said in this
respect of Jesus (Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke
3:22; 23:4, 14;
John 19:4-6; II Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 4:13; Colossians 1:19;
Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter. 2:22).
ü
It was a male of the first year. So Jesus was taken in the freshness and
strength of His manhood (Luke 3:23).
ü
The flesh of the lamb was eaten in the company for which it had been
slain. It is only when we
bear in mind the first Passover in
reach the significance of all that was said and
done on the night when Jesus
sat down for the last Passover feast with His
disciples. Jesus took the bread
and said: “Take,
eat; this is my body.” (Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22;
Luke 22:19; I Corinthians 11:24) There was to be
no more killing of
the lamb; the bread, easily made and easily portioned out, took its place.
But still the Lord had to say “this is my body.” A body had to be thought
of as eaten, and not mere bread. Really, when we
look into the matter, we
find that the sprinkling of the blood was only
part of the protection; the
eating was protective also. Assuredly the
sprinkling by itself would have
counted for nothing, if the eating had been
omitted. When the blood was
sprinkled, it illustrated faith in Him who comes between God
and the
sinner.
When the flesh was eaten, it illustrated faith
in him whose life becomes our
life. Being unblemished, he makes us
unblemished, and being acceptable to
God, he makes us acceptable also.
accomplished JEHOVAH
MADE CAREFUL PROVISION FOR A
MEMORIAL
OBSERVANCE. Thus another indication is given to us, as
to the completeness and order with which His plans were
laid. (Those plans
were solidified with Christ before the world began! Revelation 13:8; 17:8 –
CY – 2017) Directions
are given for the present need, and along with them
are combined directions by which the record of
this great liberating event may
be transmitted to the remotest
generations. Henceforth, the beginning of the
year is to date from the month of these dealings with the
first-born. Then
there was also the appointment of the feast of unleavened
bread. So
crushing was the blow of Jehovah, and so suddenly the
consequent action
of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, that the Israelites were
hurried out of the
land with their dough before it was leavened. Here then in
this domestic
operation of preparing the daily bread was an opportunity
given of setting
forth once a year the complete separation which God had
effected between
the Israelites and the Egyptians. When for seven days no
leaven was put in
the bread, the great fact to be called up was this: that the
Egyptians had
hastened the Israelites out of the land. This memorial act
called up at once
the great change which God had produced, and in a
comparatively short
time. But a little while before
and the Egyptians were spoiling the
Israelites, demanding from
them bricks without straw; now the Israelites
are spoiling the Egyptians,
getting gold and silver and raiment from them in
profusion, and with the
utmost good-will.
WERE TO BE
CROWNED BY MAKING FULL
PREPARATIONS FOR
DEPARTURE. Jehovah
was coming to open the prison-doors and strike
off the fetters; and He would have
the captives ready to march on the
instant. He is the
God who makes all things to work together for good to
them who are called according to His purpose. (Romans
8:28) To him who
is truly and devoutly obeying God, nothing comes but he is
able to meet it.
The obedient is never taken at a disadvantage; he is never
defrauded of a great
opportunity. The children of
the journey; even though it might plausibly be said that it was
a making
ready before the time. The lesson is, obey God in
everything where as here
the terms of His requirement are plain to the understanding
and imperative
to the conscience. Reasons are not for you, who know only in
part, but for
Him to whom the darkness and the light are both alike.
(Psalm 139:12)
but also by them. The crucifying of Jesus by the Jews, the
revelation of
what lies in every unrenewed
heart. “They shall look upon him whom they
have pierced.” (Zechariah 12:10; John 19:37)
ü
Appropriating faith. It was the blood
applied with their own hands to the
door of the dwelling that saved those within. It
is not enough that the
blood be shed. Is
it upon
our gates? Have we set it by
faith between us and
destruction?
ü
It must be applied as God directs us. It was
sprinkled on the lintel and
doorposts — not within, but without. It is not enough
that we believe. We
must make open profession of our faith.
ü
We must abide within until the day dawn and
salvation come. To put
that blood (which should be between us and the
world) behind us, no
longer to hide within it but to forget it, is to
renounce salvation. Are we
without or
within the
blood-stained gateway? We are saved if we hold the
beginning
of our confidence steadfast unto the end.
(Hebrews 3:14)
shed blood stands between US and DEATH! The awe and
joy of redeemed
the judgment of sin but only from afar.
ü
Perpetual
remembrance (v. 23). We
must, in the ordinance of Christ’s
own appointment,
SHOW HIS DEATH TILL HE COME!
(I Corinthians 11:26)
ü
The handing
down of the
knowledge of salvation (vs. 26-27). Christians
should
glory in the story of the Cross.
THE TENTH PLAGUE – THE DEATH OF THE FIRST BORN (vs. 29-30)
At last the
time had come for the dealing of the final blow. Nine plagues had been sent,
nine
inflictions endured, and no serious effect had been produced. Once or twice
Pharaoh had
wavered, had made profession of submitting himself, had even
acknowledged
his sin. But each time he had relapsed into obstinacy. Now at length
the fiat
had gone forth for that last plague which had been announced from the first
(ch. 4:23). Pharaoh’s own son, his firstborn, the heir to
his throne, was smitten with
death, in
common with all the other male Egyptians who had “opened the
womb.”
What the
effect on the king would have been, had he alone suffered, we cannot
certainly
say. As it was, the whole population of
the country, nobles, tradesmen,
peasants,
suffered with him; and the feeling aroused was so intense that the popular
movement
left him no choice. The Egyptians everywhere “rose up in the
night” (v. 30),
and raised “a great cry,” and insisted that the Israelites should depart at once (v.33).
Each man feared
for himself, and felt his life
insecure, so long as a single Israelite
remained
in the land. By only
affecting all the firstborn and no others, and no
Israelites, as well as its announcement, plainly showed this to
be “miraculous”.
29 “And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the
firstborn in the
on his throne unto the firstborn of the
captive that was in the
dungeon; and all the firstborn of
cattle.” At midnight. As
prophesied by
Moses (ch. 11:4). The day had not been fixed, and this uncertainty
must have
added to
the horror of the situation. The first-born of Pharaoh. We have no
proof that
the eldest son of Menephthah died before his father,
unless we take
this
passage as proving it. He left a son, called Seti-Menephthah,
or Seti II,
who either
succeeded him, or reigned after a short interval, during which
the throne
was held by Ammonmes, a usurper. The first-born of the
captive who was in the
dungeon. This
phrase takes the place of another
expression,
viz. “the
first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill”
(ch.11:5).
In both cases, the general meaning is, “all, from the
highest to
the lowest.” This is perhaps the whole that is in the writer’s
thought;
but it is also true that captives in dungeons were in some cases
employed in
turning hand-mills (Judges 16:21). And all the first-born
of cattle. Rather,
“of beasts.” There is no limitation of the plague to
domesticated
animals. (Only an
Omniscient God could know and
perform this! (CY –
2017)
Christ our Passover (vs. 21-29)
The
Passover was an eminent type of Christ. It was probably to it the
Baptist
referred when he said, “Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh
away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Paul gives a decisive
utterance on
the
question in the words: “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us”
(I
Corinthians 5:7).
ITS TYPE.
ü
In both you have the death of a blameless victim.
Ø
The lamb, physically blameless (v. 5);
Ø
Christ, morally faultless. A SINFUL WORLD needs A SINLESS SAVIOUR! It has one in Christ.
Proofs of this sinlessness:
Ø
Christ asserts his own freedom from sin (John
8:29-46; 14:30).
Ø
In no part of his conduct does He betray the least
consciousness of
guilt. Yet it is admitted that Jesus possessed
the finest moral insight of any man who has ever lived.
Ø
His apostles, one and all, believed him to be
sinless (II Corinthians
5:21; Hebrews 4:15; I Peter. 2:22; I John 3:5).
Ø
His enemies could find no fault in him (Matthew
26:60; 27:23-24).
Ø
The very traitor confessed the innocence of
Christ (ibid. v. 4).
Ø
The delineation of his character in the gospels
avers His moral blamelessness.
ü
In both, the design is to secure redemption from a dreadful
evil. In the
one case, from the wrath of God revealed against
its first-born. In the other, from the yet more terrible wrath of God
revealed
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Romans
1:18). “Jesus,
which delivered us from the wrath to come” (I
Thessalonians 1:10). “Saved from
wrath through Him” (Romans 5:9).
ü
In both, the principle of the deliverance is that of vicarious sacrifice.
The lamb was
substituted for the first-born. It protected the house, on
whose door-posts the blood was sprinkled, from
the stroke of the avenger.
The substitutionary character of the death of
Christ is, in like manner,
affirmed in innumerable Scriptures. Jesus “died for the ungodly”
(Romans 5:6). He “suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust” (I Peter 3:18).
He gave “His
life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28).
His blood is a propitiation (Romans 3:25).
ü
In both, there was need for an act of personal, appropriating faith.
“The people bowed
the head, and worshipped. And the children of Israel
went away,
and did as the Lord had commanded" (vs. 27-28). “Through
faith (they) kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood,” etc.
(Hebrews 11:28). Their
faith showed itself in
sprinkling the blood on
their
door-posts and lintels, and in sheltering themselves under it. Nothing
short of this would have availed to save them. So it is not knowledge about
Christ:
Ø
but faith in Him;
Ø
personal
application to His blood, and
Ø
trust in
it as the means of salvation,
which secures our safety. Faith is the bunch of
hyssop.
ü
In both, the slain lamb becomes the food of the new life. There was, on
the part of the Israelites, a sacrificial feast
upon the flesh of the lamb. This
denoted, indeed, peace and fellowship with God,
but it was also an act of
nourishment. Similarly, under the Gospel, the new life is nourished by
feeding
upon Christ. We make Him ours by inward appropriation and
assimilation, and so are spiritually nourished
for all holy service (See
John 6). Minor typical features might be
insisted upon:
Ø
male of the first year,
Ø
roast with fire,
Ø
not a bone broken,
Ø
unleavened bread,
Ø
bitter herbs of contrition, etc.,
but the above are the broad and outstanding
ones.
belongs to the nature of a type that it should be surpassed
by the antitype.
The type is taken from a lower sphere than the thing which
it represents.
So completely, in the case of the Passover, does the reality
rise above the
type, that when we begin to reflect on it the sense of
likeness is all but
swallowed up in the sense of disproportion. How great:
ü
The contrast in the redemptions. The
redemption from
spiritual elements were involved in it, was primarily a redemption from the
power of
Pharaoh, and from a temporal judgment about to fall on
Underlying it, there
was the need for a yet GREATER
REDEMPTION — a
redemption from the curse of a broken law, and from the
tyranny of sin and
Satan; FROM DEATH:
Ø
spiritual,
Ø
temporal, and
Ø
eternal.
It is this
higher redemption which Christ has achieved, altering, through His death,
Ø
the whole relation of God to man, and
Ø
of (believing)man to God.
ü
The contrast in the victims. That, an irrational
lamb; this, THE
ETERNAL SON
OF GOD in human nature, the Lord’s own Christ.
ü
The contrast in THE EFFICACY OF THE BLOOD! The blood of the
Passover lamb had no inherent virtue to take
away sin. Whatever virtue it possessed arose from God’s appointment, or from
its typical relation to the sacrifice of Christ. Its imperfection as a
sacrifice was seen:
Ø
In the multitude of the victims.
Ø
In the repetition of the service (Hebrews
10:1-3).
But what the flowing
of the blood of millions of lambs, year by year slain in
atonement for sin could not achieve, Christ has achieved once for
all by the
offering up
of HIS HOLY BODY AND SOUL! The dignity of His person,
the
greatness of His love, His holy will, the spirit of perfect self-sacrifice in
which He,
Himself sinless, offered Himself
up to bear the curse of
sin for the
unholy, confers upon his oblation an
EXHAUSTLESS MERITORIOSNESS! Its worth and
sufficiency are INFINITE! (Hebrews 10:10-15; I Peter.
1:19;
I John 2:2).
ü
The contrast in the specific blessings obtained. The
difference in these
springs from the contrast in the redemptions.
Ø
Escape from
judgment.
Ø
Outward
liberty.
Ø
Guidance,
care, and instruction in the desert.
Ø
Ultimately, an
earthly inheritance.
We receive,
through Christ,
Ø
Pardon of
all sins.
Ø
A complete
justifying righteousness, carrying with it THE
TITLE
TO ETERNAL LIFE!
Ø
Renewal and
sanctification by the Spirit.
Ø
Every needed
temporal and
spiritual blessing in life.
o
Heaven at the
close,
o
with
triumph over death,
o
the hope of a
resurrection, and
o
of final
perfecting in glory.
30 “And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all
the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in
a house where there was not one dead.” And Pharaoh rose up in the night,
and all his servants. This general disturbance differentiates the present
visitations
from that which came upon
the host of Sennacherib (II Kings 19:35).
Then, the
calamity came with such silence and
secrecy, that the deaths were not
suspected until men rose to go about their
various tasks in the morning Now,
every household seems to have been aroused from its sleep in the
night.
We must suppose sharp and painful illness, terminating
after a few hours in death.
The
disaster itself may have been one from which
spring of
the year (Kalisch); but its
attacking all the firstborn and no others,
and no
Israelites, as well as its announcement, plainly showed it to be
miraculous. There was a great cry. See the
comment on ch.11:6.
For there was not a house
where there was not one dead. This is
perhaps a
slight hyperbole. There would be many families in which there
was no son;
and some houses might contain no male who had opened the
womb. It is
always to be borne in mind, that the language of Scripture —
especially
where exciting and tragical events are narrated — is
poetical, or
at the
least highly rhetorical.
The Death of the First-Born (vs. 29-30)
From the
death of the first-born we may learn:
punishment will overtake the wicked
sooner or later was the conviction of
heathendom no less than of the
Jewish and Christian worlds. Horace says
— “Judgment may halt, but yet it
rarely fails to overtake the guilty one at
last.” Tibullus
— “Wretch, though at first thy sin no judgment meet,
vengeance will come at length with
silent feet.” But the greater heaviness
of the punishment that is long
deferred does not appear to have attracted
their notice. Yet experience might
have taught it them. Who has not seen
the long triumphant career of a
thoroughly bad man, crowned with success
for years, seeming to turn all he
touched to gold, “flourishing,” as
the
Psalmist has it, “like a green bay tree,” (Psalm 37:35)
yet ending in
calamities and misfortunes so
striking, and so heaped one upon another, as
to draw general attention? Th Scripture is
full of examples. How long God’s
Spirit strove with men in the
antediluvian world, as they proceeded from one
wickedness to another, heaping up to
themselves wrath against the day of
wrath, till the flood came and swept
away the ungodly! For what a
prolonged term of years must the long-suffering
of God have borne with
the cities of the plain, as they
more and more corrupted themselves, till in
all
punishment! (Reader – check out
arkdiscovery.com – CY – 2010) - Again,
what an instance is Ahab of the
operation of the law! Flourishing in
every way,
in spite of his numerous sins — his
idolatries, cruelties, selfishness, meanness,
hatred of God’s servants —
victorious over Benhadad, supported by all the
forces of Jehoshaphat,
encouraged by his successes to undertake an aggressive
war against
at a venture (I Kings 22:34) — his
blood licked up by dogs — his wife and
seventy sons murdered! (Oh,
Reader – ponder this teaching of Scripture –
“Some
men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and
some
men they follow after. Likewise also the
good works of some are
manifest
beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.” –
(I Timothy
5:24-25). The Pharaohs and the Egyptians
had now worked their
wicked will on
Joseph” — all this time they had been treasuring up to
themselves wrath
(Romans 2:5) — and now
it had fallen upon them in full force. Let
sinners beware of trying the
forbearance and long-suffering of God too far
— let them tremble when all goes
well with them, and no punishment
comes. Let them be assured that the
account of their offences is strictly
kept, and that for each they will
have to suffer. Delay does but mean
accumulation. However long
suspended, the bolt will fall at last, and it will
be proportioned in its severity to
the length of the delay, and the amount of
the wrath stored up.
was night — it was the hour of
repose, of peace, silence, tranquility. All
had gone to rest unsuspectingly. No
one anticipated evil. Each said to
himself, as he lay down, “To-morrow shall be as this day, and much
more
abundant,” (Isaiah
56:12) - when suddenly, without warning, there was death
everywhere. Fathers saw the light of their eyes snatched
from them —
mothers beheld their darlings
struggling in the agonies of dissolution. A shrill,
prolonged cry sounded throughout the
land. So the flood came upon man
unawares (Luke 17:27) – “and knew not until the flood came and took them
all
away” - Matthew 24:38-39)
— and a sudden destruction overthrew the
cities of the plain (Luke 17: 28, 29) — and Ahab found himself mortally
wounded when he was thinking of
nothing but victory — and in the height of
his pride Herod Agrippa was seized
with a fearful malady “and eaten of
worms” – (Acts
12:23) — and Uzziah’s leprosy smote him in
a moment —
(II Chronicles 26:19) - and in the
night of his feast was Belshazzar slain.
(Daniel 5:30). Wicked men are for the most part thinking of
nothing less
when the judgments of God fall upon
them. They have said to their soul —
“Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat,
drink,
and be merry,” when the dread sentence goes forth — “Thou fool,
this
night thy soul shall be required of thee.” (Luke 12:19-20) - God’s
judgments often come in the night. We know not what a day, nor what a
night
may bring forth. Let us commend our souls to God when we lie down to
rest.
ALL CONDITIONS OF MEN. “Pale
death smites equally the poor
man’s hut and the king’s palace,” says a
heathen moralist. And so it is
with all God’s judgments. He is no
respecter of persons. “Without respect
of
persons
He judgeth according to every man’s work” (I Peter
1:17).
Greatness furnishes no security
against Him. His messengers can enter the
palace, elude the sentinels, pass
the locked doors, make their way into the
secret chamber, smite the monarch,
sleeping or waking, with disease, or
death, or frenzy. Nor can obscurity
escape Him; “All things are naked and
open
unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” (Hebrews
4:13) - The
lowest dungeon, the most wretched
garret, the obscurest cellars are within his
ken, their inmates known, the moral
condition of each and all of them
noted. His judgments find men out as
easily in the darkest haunts of vice,
or the most wretched abodes of
poverty, as in royal mansions. And as
greatness will not prevent Him from
chastising, so neither will meanness
The “woman behind the mill,” the “captive
in the dungeon” are His
creatures and His servants, no less
than the great, and must be either His
true servants, or rebels against His
authority. If they are the-latter, their
obscurity and insignificance will
not save them from His judgments, any
more than the great man’s greatness
will save him. Vice must not look for
impunity because it is low-placed,
and hides itself in a corner.
THE DISMISSAL OF THE ISRAELITES FROM
(vs.
31-36)
The first
action seems to have been taken by Pharaoh. The “cry” of the people
had no
doubt been
heard in the palace, and he was aware that the blow had not fallen on
himself
alone, and may have anticipated what the people’s feelings would be; but he
did not
wait for any direct pressure to be put upon him before yielding. He sent his
chief
officers (ch. 11:8) while it was still night
(ch.12:31), to inform Moses and Aaron,
not only
that they might, but that they must take their departure immediately, with all
the people,
and added that they might take with them their flocks and herds. The
surrender
was thus complete; and it was accompanied by a request which we should
scarcely
have expected. Pharaoh craved at the
hands of the two brothers a blessing!
We are not
told how his request was received; but that it should have been made is a
striking
indication of how his pride was humbled. The overture from Pharaoh was
followed
rapidly by a popular movement, which was universal and irresistible. The
Egyptians “rose up” everywhere, and “were urgent
upon the people,” to “send
them out of the land in haste” (v. 33); and to expedite
their departure readily
supplied
them at their request with gold and silver and raiment (v. 35), thus
voluntarily
spoiling themselves for the benefit of the foreigners. The Israelites, long
previously
prepared for the moment which had now arrived, made their final
arrangements,
and before the day was over a lengthy column was set in motion, and
proceeded
from Rameses, which seems to have been a suburb of
Hist. of
have lain
towards the southeast, and was probably not very remote from the capital.
31 “And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up,
and get you forth from among my people,
both ye and the children
of
the
prohibition of ch.10:24, and“gave the sacrifices and
burnt-offerings” which
Moses had
required (ib. v. 25). And he called for Moses and Aaron.
Kalisch understands this as a summons to the King’s presence
(Commentary, p. 130), and even supposes that the two brothers complied,
notwithstanding
what Moses had said
(ch.10:29). But perhaps no more is meant
than at
Pharaoh’s instance
Moses and Aaron were summoned to an interview
with some
of the Court officials (see ch.
11:8). As ye have said. Literally,
“according
to your words.” The reference is to such passages as ch.
8:1, 20; 9:1,13.
.
The Death of the First-Born (vs. 29-31)
On this see
Exodus 11:4-7. Observe here:
REPRESENTATION. Hitherto,
the plagues had fallen on the Egyptians
indiscriminately. Now, a change is made to the principle of
representation.
was to be inflicted, the lines had to be drawn more sharp
and clear. We are
reminded that this principle of representation holds
a vitally important
place in God’s moral government. The
illustrations which more
immediately affect ourselves are, first, the representation
of the race in
Adam, and second, its representation in Christ (Romans
5:12-21).
Hence it is not altogether fanciful to trace a relation to
Christ even in this
judgment on the first-born.
ü Christ is the great first-born of the
race. We catch some glimpse of this
by looking at the matter from the side of
first-born, is admitted to have been a type of Christ
(Matthew 2:15).
Much more were the first-born in
this peculiar feature in the calling of the nation — types
of Christ. They
resembled Him in that they bore the guilt of the rest of the
people. But
Christ, as the Son of man, sustained a relation to more than
we may say, the great
First-born of HUMAN RACE!
ü The death of Christ is not only God’s great means of saving the world,
but
it is God’s great judgment upon the sin of the world. It is
indeed the
one, because it is the other. There is thus
in the death of Christ, both the
endurance of penalty — of the one suffering for, and bearing
the guilt of,
the many — even in the destruction of
ü
The
death of Christ, which brings salvation to the
believing, is the
earnest
of FINAL DOOM to the unbelieving portion of the race. This also is exhibited in
principle in the history of the exodus. In strictness,
the firstborn were viewed as having died, both in
prophecy the coming of the true and sinless first-born,
whose death
would redeem. But Christ’s death, to the unbelieving
part of mankind — the wilfully and obstinately
unbelieving — is a
prophecy, not of salvation, but of judgment. God’s judgment
on sin in the person of Christ, the
first-born, is the earnest of the doom which will descend on all who refuse
Him as a Saviour.
And this was the meaning of the death of the first-
born in
the unbelieving.
but to the one (
of God) His death MEANS DOOM; to the
other (
HOLD ON
the attempt to realize it. As we write, accounts come to
hand of the terrific
storm of Oct. 14 (1881), attended by a lamentable loss of
life on the
Berwickshire coast of
awful and ominous darkness. Compare with remarks on ninth plague the
following: — “I noticed a black-looking cloud over by the
school, which
shortly spread over all the sky out by the Head. Sea, sky
and ground all
seemed to be turning one universal grey-blue
tint, and a horrible sort of
stillness fell over everything.. The women were all
gathering at their doors,
feeling that something awful was coming. No fewer than 200
fishermen
and others are believed to have perished, the
losing 129. So connected by intermarriage is the population
of the villages
and hamlets, that there is scarcely a family in any of them
which is not
called to mourn its dead. The scenes are heart-rending.
Business in every
shape and form is paralyzed.” An image this, and yet how
faint, of the cry
that went up in
dead. Yet no stroke less severe would have served the
purpose, and this
one is to be studied in view of the fact that it did prove
effectual for its end.
Observe:
ü It was a death-stroke. Death has a
singular power in subduing and
melting the heart. It is the
most powerful solvent God can apply to a
rebellious nature. It is sometimes tried when gentler means have
failed.
God removes your idol. He lays your dear one in the dust.
You have
resisted milder influences, will you yield to this? Your
heart is for the
moment bowed and broken, will the repentance prove lasting,
or will it be,
like Pharaoh’s, only for a time?
ü It is a death-grip
upon the soul which is needed to make sin
relax its
hold upon it. “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of
hell got hold upon me; I
found trouble and sorrow. Then
called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I
beseech thee, deliver my soul” (Psalm
116:3-4). God comes in the preaching of His law, and lays
His hand, a hand carrying death in it, upon the soul of the trembling
transgressor, who then for the first time realizes the
fatal and unspeakably awful position in which he has placed himself by sin. It is a
death-sentence which is written in his conscience.
ü
That which completes the liberation of the soul
is a view of the meaning
of
the death of Christ. Terror
alone will not melt the heart. There is needed to effect this the influence of
love. And where is love to be seen
in such wonderful
manifestation as at the Cross of Christ? What see
we there? The first-born of the race expiring in awful agony
under the judgment of God for our sins. Is not this a spectacle to melt the
heart? It
is powerful enough, if earnestly contemplated, to make the
Pharaoh that
is within us all relinquish his grip upon the captive
spirit. What read we
of the prospective conversion of
and brethren, WHAT SHALL WE
DO?” Compare Revelation 1:7.
The Cross inspires mourning:
Ø By the spectacle it presents of holy suffering.
Ø By the recollection of WHO it is that there
suffers.
Ø By the thought that it is our own sins which are the cause of this
suffering.
Ø By the thought that it is the judgment of God in the infliction
of the curse of sin which the Holy one is thus enduring.
Ø By the conviction of sin, and the dread of Divine justice, thus
awakened.
Ø Above all,
by the infinite love shown in this gift of the
Son,
and in the
Ø Son’s willingness to endure this awful agony and shame for our
salvation.
32 “Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone;
and bless me also.” Also take your flocks and
your herds. Pharaoh
thus
retracted
the prohibition of ch. 10:24, and “gave the
sacrifices and
burnt-offerings”
which Moses had required (ibid. v. 25). Bless me also.
Pharaoh was
probably accustomed to receive blessings from his own
priests,
and had thus been led to value them. His desire for a blessing from
Moses and
Aaron, ere they departed, probably sprang from a conviction —
based on the
miracles which he had witnessed — that their intercession
would avail
more with God than that of his own hierarchy.
(And is it not
a
characteristic of the worldly man to practice sin, and yet
expect a blessing?
CY – 2017)
Pharaoh’s Prayer (v. 32)
It has come
then to this, that Pharaoh is glad to beg a blessing from the man
whom at
first he had so contemptuously spurned. “And bless me also.”
THE
MISERABLENESS OF HIS OWN PORTION, AS COMPARED
WITH THAT
OF THE GODLY. He may be, often is, even when he
refuses to acknowledge it, secretly conscious of the
superior happiness of
the good man. There come times, however, when severe
affliction, the
sense of a gnawing inward dissatisfaction, or special
contact of some kind
with a man of genuine piety, extorts the confession from
him. He owns that
the good man has a standing
in the Divine favor; enjoys an invisible
Divine protection; and is
the possessor of a peace, happiness, and inward
support, to which his own wretched life is utterly A STRANGER!
SHARE IN
THE GOOD OF GOD’S PEOPLE. He envies them. He feels
in his heart that he is wretched and miserable beside them,
and that it
would be happiness to be like them. He says with Balaam, “Let me die the
death of the righteous, and:
let my last end be like his” (Numbers 23:10).
HUMBLE
HIMSELF TO BEG THE PRAYERS OF THE GODLY. And
this, though but a little before, he has been persecuting
them. He feels that
the good man has power with God.
TRANSIENT.
33 “And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might
send them out of the land in haste; for
they said, We be all dead
men.” (a very logical deduction
– CY – 2010) The Egyptians were urgent
upon the people. The
Egyptians feared
that, if any further delay took place,
the God of the Hebrews might not be content with slaying all
the first-born,
but might punish with death the whole nation, or at any
rate all the males.
It is easy
to see how their desire to
get rid of the Israelites would expedite
matters,
and enable all to set out
upon the journey on the same day. (Also
it
would
explain their willingness
to give them “jewels of silver, and jewels
of gold”
in v. 35
below – CY – 2017)
34 “And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their
kneadingtroughs being bound up in their clothes upon their
shoulders.” The people took their dough. They
probably regarded dough
as more
convenient for a journey than flour, and so made their flour into
dough
before starting; but they had no time to add leaven. Their
kneading-troughs. This
rendering is correct, both here and in the two
other
places where the word occurs (ch. 8:3, and Deuteronomy 28:5).
Kneading-troughs
would be a necessity in the desert, and, if like
those of
the modern Arabs, which are merely small wooden bowls, would
be light
and portable. The dough and kneading-troughs, with perhaps other
necessaries,
were carried, as the Arabs still carry many small objects,
bound up in their clothes (i.e., in the beged or ample shawl) upon their
shoulders.
35 “And the children of
they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of
silver, and jewels of gold, and
raiment:” The children of
See ch. 11:2. They borrowed. On this mistranslation, see the comment upon
ch. 3:22. It is plain that the gold and silver articles and
the raiment, were
free-will
gifts, which the Egyptians never expected to see again, and which
the Hebrews
asked and took, but in no sense “borrowed.” Hengstenberg
and
Kurtz have
shown clearly that the primary meaning of the words translated
“borrowed”
and “lent,” is “asked” and “granted,” and that the sense of
“borrowing”
and “lending” is only to be assigned them when it is required by
the
context.
36 “And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians,
so that they lent unto them such things as
they required. And they
spoiled the Egyptians.” So that they lent unto them such things as they
required. Rather, “So that they granted them what they
asked.” They
spoiled the
Egyptians. See the
comment on ch. 3:22, ad fin. The
result was that the Israelites
went forth,
not as slaves, but as conquerors, decked with the jewels of the Egyptians,
as though
they had conquered and despoiled them.
(vs. 31-36)
Churches
are sometimes enslaved and oppressed by the civil power. In
unsuspecting
confidence they have accepted the State’s protection, and
entered
into certain relations with it, supposed to be mutually
advantageous.
But, as time has gone on, the terms of the original
arrangement
have been disregarded; the civil power has made
encroachments;
has narrowed the Church’s liberties, has behaved
oppressively
towards it, has reduced it to actual slavery. A time comes at
last when
the bondage is felt to be intolerable; and the Church demands its
liberty and
claims to go out from under the yoke of the oppressor. Under such
circumstances
the following analogies are noticeable:
WHICH IT
HAS BEEN DRIVEN TO CLAIM, IS APT AT LAST TO BE
“THRUST
OUT” BY ITS OPPRESSOR. The early efforts of a downtrodden
church after freedom are strenuously opposed, denounced as
at
once wrongful, foolish, and futile, sometimes punished by an
increase in the
oppression. The Church is set to “make bricks
without straw.” If this
process fails, and the demand for freedom continues, the
claims made are
perhaps at the next stage derided. (See ch.
5:2.) They are then for
a long time determinedly and persistently refused. If
occasionally a seeming
concession is made, it is scarcely made before it is
retracted. If still the
Church will not give way, but continues the struggle, a crisis arrives. The
State finds itself in difficulties. One inconvenience after
another befalls it in
consequence of the prolonged conflict. At length it comes to
be felt that
the inconveniences of the struggle exceed the benefits of
the connection;
and a sudden change of policy takes place. The Church is
sent adrift; cut
away like an encumbering mass of wreck; bidden to shift for
itself, and
trouble the State no more. The State is glad to be rid of
it.
EMANCIPATION,
SURROUNDED BY DIFFICULTIES AND
PERPLEXITIES. In the
first place, the attitude of the State towards it is
apt to be hostile; and an attempt may even be made to coerce
it and force it
to resume its old position. Apart from this, it labors under
many
disadvantages. It has recollections of the “flesh-pots of
a strong contrast to the fare whereto it is reduced. It has
to enter on a dull
and wearisome course; to plod forward toilfully,
painfully. It finds its
movements hampered by encumbrances. All these things are
against it. But
if the nerves be braced to bear, if the will be resolute to
turn away from all
thought of the “flesh-pots,” if the
fact of freedom be kept before the mind’s
eye and the old ills of slavery held in recollection, the
difficulties of the
early journey will pass away, THE PRESENCE
OF GOD WILL BE
REVEALED and after
(it may be) forty years of trial, the wilderness will
have been passed through, and there will be a
triumphant entrance into
IT ALL ITS
OWN PROPERTY, AND IS ENTITLED, IF OCCASION
ARISE, TO
“SPOIL THE EGYPTIANS.” Moses and
Aaron would not
stir without their flocks and herds — the main wealth of a
pastoral nation.
“Not a hoof,” they said,
“should be left behind” (ch. 10:26). So the
emancipated Church should take with her whatever is her own
into the
wilderness. She must not relinquish her property to the
oppressor. It is
really not hers, BUT GOD’S: she is trustee to God for it. She is
entitled to
say that she “knows not with what she
must serve the Lord till she is come
out.” And she is
entitled to ask for parting gifts when she is about to quit a
known shelter and to confront the perils and dangers of an
unknown
future. If God gives her favor in the eyes of those whom she
is leaving,
she will do well to require of them their silver and their
gold and their
raiment — all that they have most precious — and take it
with her, not as
“borrowed” wealth, but as endowment
freely “given,” intentionally made
over for a permanence, out of goodwill and affection, or out
of compassion
and pity. She will find a proper use for all that is most
rich and most rare in
the service of the sanctuary.
THE
DEPARTURE (vs. 37-39)
There are,
no doubts, great difficulties in conceiving the departure on one day, from
one place,
of “six hundred thousand that were men, beside children.” The
difficulty
is increased when we find (from Numbers 1:3-43) that by “men” is meant
males above
twenty years of age. The entire body of Israelites is thus raised
from over half
a million to over two millions. As these two
millions
must have lived dispersed over a considerable space, and there
could have
been no advantage in their all assembling at Rameses
(
we are
probably to suppose the main body with Moses and Aaron to have
stared from
that place, while the others, obeying orders previously given,
started
from all parts of
the first
rendezvous. Each body of travelers was accompanied by its flocks
and herds,
and followed by a number of slaves, dependants, and
sympathizers
not of Hebrew birth (v. 38), which still further enlarged
their
numbers. The extremely open character of the country, and the
firmness of
the soil at the time of year, would facilitate the journey. There
was no
marching along roads, which indeed did not exist. Each company
could
spread itself out at its pleasure, and go its own pace. All knew the
point of
meeting, and marched towards it, in converging lines, there being
no obstacle
to hinder them. Arrived in the vicinity of Succoth, they could
bivouac
without hurt, in that fine climate, in the open air.
The Dismissal (vs. 31-36)
The blow
had been so measured by infinite wisdom as to produce precisely
the desired
effect. Pharaoh “called for Moses and Aaron
by night,” etc.
Observe:
AS FORMERLY HE WAS TO KEEP THEM. It had
been predicted at the
beginning
that this would be the issue of God’s dealings with him (ch. 6:1).
Note:
ü Pharaoh’s folly in resisting the
demand of God so long. He has to
concede everything at
last. Had he yielded at the beginning, he could
have done so with honor,
and with the happiest results to his dynasty
and kingdom. As it is, he has gained nothing,
and has lost much,
nearly
all. He has ruined
lost his first-born, and
irretrievably forfeited his prestige in the eyes of
his subjects. Foolish
king! and yet the same unequal and
profitless
contest
is being repeated in the history of every sinner!
ü The dismissal is unconditional. No more
talk of leaving the little ones,
or the flocks and herds;
or even of returning after the three days’
journey. Pharaoh wants no more to do with this fatal
people. No one
could any longer dream
of the Israelites returning, or expect them to
do so. They were “thrust out altogether” (ch.11:1).
ü He seeks a blessing (v.32). He
wished Moses to leave a blessing
behind him. He wants to be blessed, and still
continue in his sins.
Beyond letting
and becoming a
worshipper of the God he had so long defied. Many,
today, would like to be
blessed, while cleaving to their sins.
ISRAELITES SAFELY OUT OF
ü They were affrighted. “They said, we be all dead men” - (v.33).
They
were perfectly right.
Had
have been destroyed. It would be
well if every sinner had as clear a
perception of the
effects of persistence in his evil.
ü They were urgent to send the people
away. Not simply
because this was
what Jehovah had
commanded, but because they were terrified to have
them in their midst any
longer. The Israelites were a people of ill-omen
to them. They wished to
get rid of the nation at once and for ever. This
is not without
significance. We remember how the Gadarenes
besought
Jesus that He would
depart out of their coasts. (Matthew 8:34) -
Worldly people have no liking for the company of
the converted.
Society bustles them out of its midst. Their old
companions betray a
singular uncomfortableness
in their presence. They would rather have
done with them. “Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us;
for we
desire not the knowledge of thy ways” (Job. 21:14). Alas!
the world that desires to be rid of the society of God’s people will one
day get its wish. The separation they would fain hasten will take place,
and
for ever! (Matthew 25:46).
ü They were willing to buy the departure of
Israelites asked, and
the Egyptians freely gave, of jewels of gold, of
jewels of silver, and of
raiment. Thus, singularly did
provide for the
enriching of the people in the hour of their exodus.
They went forth, not in
squalor and disorder, but as a triumphant host,
laden with the spoils of
the enemy. The spoils of the world will yet turn
to the enrichment of the
Church.
THE
them twice
to leave the land. Their dough was unleavened, but, binding up
their
kneading-troughs in their clothes upon their shoulders, they prepared at
once for
departure. There are supreme moments in every man’s history, the
improvement or
non-improvement of which will decide his
salvation. Many
other things at such a moment may need to be left undone; but
the man is
insane who does not postpone everything to the making sure of his
deliverance. Such times
are not indolently to be waited for. THE LORD
IS TO BE SOUGHT AT
ONCE!
37 “And
the children of
about six hundred thousand on foot that
were men, beside children.”
From Rameses. It has
been doubted whether this “Rameses”
is the same
place as the “Raamses” of ch.
1:11. But the doubt
scarcely
seems to be reasonable. The two words differ only in the pointing.
Brugsch has clearly shown that Rameses
(Pa-Ramesu) was a town newly
built in
the reign of Rameses II, partly erected by himself,
in the immediate
vicinity of
the old city of
Rameses II. and Menephthah.
(See Brugsch, Hist.
of
and 128.) Succoth. The
meaning of the word “Succoth” is “booths.” Mr.
Greville Chester tells us that “huts made of reeds” are
common at the
present day
in the tract southeast of
here mentioned
may have been at Salahiyeh, fifteen miles due south
of
more
probable site. Six
hundred thousand. See the Introductory
paragraph.
At the time of the numbering recorded in Numbers 1, the males
above
twenty years of age were 625,550. Beside children. Rather,
“beside
families.”
The word used includes all the women, and the children under
twenty.
38 “And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and
herds, even very much cattle.” A mixed multitude went up also with them.
Kalisch supposes that these strangers were native
Egyptians, anxious to escape
the tyranny
of the kings. Canon Cook suggests that they were “remains of the
old Semitic
population” of the Eastern provinces. Perhaps it is more
probable
that they consisted of fugitives from other subject races (as the
Shartana) oppressed by the Pharaohs. We have again
mention of this
“mixed multitude” in Numbers 11:4, where we find that they were the
first to
regret the absence of “flesh and the fish, the
cucumbers, the melons,
the leeks, the onions, and the garlick” which they
had eaten in
(ibid.
v.
5). They thus
set a bad example, which the Israelites followed.
And flocks, and herds, even very much
cattle. Compare ch. 10:26. It has
been
noticed that this is important, as lessening the difficulties connected
with the
sustentation of the Israelites in the wilderness. But it increases, on
the other
hand, the difficulties connected with the march, and with the
possibility
of finding pasture for such large flocks and herds in the Sinaitic
peninsula.
The Mixed Multitude (v. 38)
The mass of
this mixed multitude which left
consist of foreign
settlers in the Delta, victims, like the Hebrews, of the
tyranny of
the Pharaohs, and, like them, glad to take this opportunity of
making
their escape (compare ch. 1:10). The enthusiasm of a
great body
of people
is contagious. When the Israelites left
moved to
leave with them. Recent events, too, had doubtless produced a
powerful
impression on these mixed populations; and knowing that God
was with
departing
nation. They had not calculated on the trials of the desert, and
afterwards “fell a-lusting” (Numbers 11:4), provoking
bringing
wrath upon the camp.
LITTLE IN
COMMON WITH HER SPIRIT AND AIMS. They are like
the mixed crowd of hangers-on, which left
traditions, customs, maxims
of life, habits of thought and feeling generally,
are FOREIGN to those of the true
join the Church
1. From motives of self-interest.
2. Under transient convictions.
3. Caught by a wave of religious enthusiasm.
4. Under partial apprehensions of the importance
of religion.
5. Because others are doing it.
They hang of necessity on the outskirts of the Church,
taking little interest
in her work, and acting as a drag upon
her progress.
BENEFITED,
WHOSE ADHERENCE SHE IS
YET NOT ENTITLED
TO
REFUSE. The “mixed multitude” were not
forbidden to go with
Because, perhaps, they could not altogether be prevented. It
is kindlier,
however, to believe that
in the hope of ultimately incorporating them with the people
of Jehovah.
The Church is certainly not at liberty to encourage nominal
adherence. She
must do her very utmost to dissuade men from mere empty
profession.
Neither to swell her numbers, nor to add to her wealth, nor
to increase her
respectability in the eyes of the world, nor under a
mistaken idea of
“comprehension,” must she open her doors to those who are
known to be
ungodly, or who give no evidence of serious religious
intentions. Yet
neither must she draw her lines
too stringently. She must not presume to
judge the heart, or to deal with men otherwise than on the
ground of their
professed motives and beliefs. She must teach,
exhort, warn, and
rigorously exclude all whose
lives are openly inconsistent with the Gospel;
but she must at the same
time exercise great charity, and rather include them
who may possibly prove
unworthy, than mistakenly exclude one
whom
Christ would be willing to
receive. The responsibility in the matter of
religious profession must, in great measure, be allowed to
rest with the
individual who professes. The Church is to consider,
not only what is best
for her, but the duty she owes to the world, in laying hold of those who are
yet very imperfect, and
training them for Christ.
STRENGTH,
BUT A GREAT WEAKNESS TO THE
CHURCH. It may
be the Church’s duty to bear with them, but she can never derive benefit
from them. She may
benefit them, and in that hope should treat them
tenderly, but they will never benefit
her. They will be a drag upon her
activity. In
proportion to their numbers they will exert a chilling and
detrimental influence. They will stand in the way of good
schemes. They
will “fall a-lusting,” and provoke
discontent. The morale of a Church can
scarcely avoid being lowered by them. What then? Put them
out? Not so.
We shall work in vain to separate tares and wheat, and we
are forbidden to
act on this principle (Matthew 13:24-30). But:
ü Let us do
what we can to keep down their number. Many churches and
church office-bearers are greatly to blame for the indiscriminate
way in
which they receive persons to communion. We are bound to
abide by the
principles above laid down; but consistently with these
principles it
should be our care to keep down nominal adherence as far as that
is possible. Many of the character of the “mixed
multitude” will find
their way into the Church without our seeking for them, or
giving
them any encouragement.
ü Let us do
what we can to change their nominal adherence into real
adherence. Seek their
good. Be not overcome by their evil, but try to
overcome it by superior
goodness. (Romans
12:21)
ü Beware of their influence, and seek to keep it in check.
39 “And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought
forth out of
thrust out of
for themselves any victual.” Unleavened cakes. Some of the modern Arabs
make such
cakes by simply mixing flour with water, and attaching flat circular
pieces of
the dough thus formed to the sides of their ovens after they have
heated
them. (Niebuhr,
Description de l’Arabie,?. 45, and
pl. 1, F.) Others
put a lump
of dough into the ashes of a wood fire, and cover it over with
the embers
for a short time (Layard, Nineveh
and Babylon, p. 288). All Arab
bread is
unleavened. They
were thrust out of
In the
departure of the Israelites from
set out,
two things are principally remarkable:
Ø All were of one mind — none hung back;
Ø A mixed multitude cast in their lot with them, elected to
accompany them, and resolved to share their fortunes. The
first
of these two facts shows:
A
WHOLE NATION WILL ACT AS ONE MAN. Critical times are
favorable to the formation of a
national spirit. Let a powerful invader
threaten a people, and differences
are at once forgotten, quarrels made up,
party spirit held in abeyance. All
unite with equal zeal against the common
enemy. Or again, let any wave of
strong feeling come upon a people, desire
of unity, or of freedom, or of
taking part in a great enterprise, like the
crusades, and much the same
unanimity prevails. Such a spirit is found
among the Jews who returned from the
captivity with Zerubbabel, when in
the seventh month they “gathered themselves together to
one man”
(Ezra 3:1), to set up the altar of burnt offerings. Such a spirit
appears again in the time of Nehemiah,
when all the people with one
accord kept a solemn fast on the
24th of Tisri (Nehemiah 9:1), and then
“sealed
to the covenant” (Nehemiah 10:1-29). But it was not very
frequently exhibited. When
proclamation was made by Cyrus the Great that
all Israelites who chose might quit
his dominions and “go up to
and
build the house of the Lord” (Ezra 1:3), it was only a portion of
the nation, “whose spirit God had raised,” that went
forth. But now the
whole people was of one mind. Braced
by the severe discipline of suffering,
their spirits raised — their whole
moral tone exalted — by the long series
of signs and wonders which they had
witnessed, encouraged by the Divine
promise of a “land flowing with milk and honey,” and
confident in the
leadership of Moses, they all arose “as one man,” left their
abodes, their
lands, their farming implements,
their utensils, their furniture, and started
for the rendezvous of Succoth. Such
waves of popular feeling have been
known from time to time, but
scarcely to this extent. But God now inspired
the whole Israelite nation with one
unanimous feeling; and all left
together. The other fact shows:
AND EXCITES OTHERS BEYOND ITS LIMITS TO FOLLOW
ITS
EXAMPLE.
The contagious character of a revolutionary spirit has
often been
noticed.
Even the war spirit, when strongly felt, is apt to be
contagious, and to
overleap national
boundaries. Here we see that a righteous enthusiasm will
also, on
some occasions, catch hold of those seemingly beyond its range, who
are in contact
with it, and sweep such alien elements into its vortex. The
“mixed multitude” who joined
the Israelites had none of the reasonable grounds
for hoping to better their condition
that the Israelites had; but they entertained
nevertheless expectations
of, somehow or other, sharing in their advantages.
They may have contained:
ü Some native
Egyptians, connected with the Hebrews by marriage, for
the example of Joseph is likely to have been followed;
ü Some slaves
anxious for freedom;
ü Some
members of oppressed races, held to labor in
Israelites had been. The
later facts of the history show:
TO BE RELIED UPON AS PERMANENT. The
enthusiasm of
cooled wonderfully when they found
themselves shut in between the host
of Pharaoh and the
passage through the sea, but faded
again rapidly under the toils and the
monotony of the wilderness. Nor was
that of the “mixed
multitude”
more lasting. They
appear to have been the first to grow sick of the
continual manna, and to have
“lusted” after the rich and varied diet of
similar misconduct; and the quails,
and the plague which followed the
quails (ib. 31-33),
were the consequence. Enthusiasm is a thing with which
we cannot dispense; as a motive
force for initiating a great movement, it is
invaluable; but we must not trust to
it for the accomplishment of anything
which requires long and sustained
effort. It is an abnormal and excessive
stir of feeling, which must be
followed by reaction. As it dies away, we
must seek to supply its place by the
ever increasing force of habit, which
may be depended on for continuance.
40 “Now the sojourning of the children of
was four hundred and thirty years.” The sojourning of the children of
which dwelt in
Septuagint — ἡ κατοίκησις
ἣν κατῴκησαν –
hae katoikaesis haen katokaesan –
Four hundred and thirty
years. Literally “thirty years and four hundred years.”
The Exodus as a Fact in History (vs. 37-40)
The Exodus
from
appears in
the history as A SUPERNATURAL WORK OF GOD! The
subsequent
legislation assumes it to have possessed this character. The bond of
covenant
declared to exist between the people and Jehovah had its ground
in the same
transaction. They were God’s people, and
were bound to
adhere to Him, and to obey His laws, because He had so marvelously
REDEEMED THEM! Every motive and appeal in the later books is
drawn from
the assumed
truth of the events related here, and of those which happened
afterwards
in the wilderness. Obviously, therefore, the history of
presupposes
the truth of this history; while if the narrative of the exodus,
as here
recorded, is admitted to be true, we are in immediate contact with
supernatural
facts of the most stupendous order.
1. The exodus of
powerful civilization of ancient times. They had but one story
to give of it — the story that rings down in their psalms to
latest
generations — the same story which, with minute
circumstantial detail, is
embodied in these chapters.
2.
3. The institution of the Passover was connected most
especially of
all with the fact of a great judgment which fell on
Egypt on the night of the exodus, and from which the Israelites had been
mercifully delivered by the sprinkling of the lamb’s blood upon the doorposts;
a memorial of which was preserved in the name (Pass-over).
4. This account and the Pentateuch as a whoe is historical; that it
was written wholly or in large part by Moses himself; and
that in
style, circumstantially, vividness of narration, and minute
accuracy of
reference, it bears all the marks of a true and contemporary
history.
41 “And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years,
even the selfsame day it came to pass, that
all the hosts of the LORD went
out from the
The setting
forth upon the journey
is regarded as the “going out” — not the
actual
exit, which was
only effected by the passage of the
42 “It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them
out from the
observed of all the children of
to be much
observed. We must suppose that some of the Israelites actually
commenced
their march before the night was over, being “hastened” by the
Egyptians
(v. 33), and having all things in readiness; but the bulk of the people
can
scarcely have started before daybreak. This is that night of the Lord — i.e.,
the night
concerning which directions had been already given (vs. 6-11) —
the only “night” for which any observances were appointed. In their generations.
To all time
— so long as they continue to be a people. On the binding nature of this
commandment,
see the comment on v. 14 of this chapter.
WORLD’S
JUDGMENT.
ü The time of
visitation; midnight, when all were wrapped in deepest slumber and,
notwithstanding the warning which had been given, busy only with dreams. The
world will be surprised in the midst of its false security. “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the
days of the Son of
ü Its universality. There were none so high that God’s hand did not
reach
them, and none so low that they were overlooked.
ü The after anguish. The whole nation, steeped the one moment in
deceitful slumber, the next torn with the most heartrending
and
hopeless grief. Their sin had slain their dearest and best.
ü It is a hopeless sorrow (a sorrow that has no hope – I Thessalonians 4:13).
Their grief cannot bring back their dead. The anguish of the
wicked, like Esau’s, will find no place for repentance. (...though he
sought it carefully with
tears.” Hebrews
12:16-17)
OF THE
FULL ENFRANCHISEMENT OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
ü All that
God had ever asked for them is granted. The demand for
freedom to the people of God, and the breaking of the yoke
laid upon the
poor, will yet be obeyed in fear by the persecutor and the
oppressor.
ü It is
pressed upon them with all the eagerness of deadly fear.
so desired the boon as the Egyptians that they should now
accept it. The
persecutors will come and
worship at the Church’s feet.
ü They go
forth laden with the treasures of
ü They go forth AWED BY THE PROOF OF GOD’S
FAITHFULNESS! To a day had He kept the
promise given to the fathers (v. 41). The
prophecies, now dim and misunderstood, will then be read IN THE
LIGHT OF GOD’S DEEDS, and like
March at Midnight (vs. 29-42)
“This is that night of Jehovah” (v. 42). Observe the striking
words of the text! “The night of Jehovah,” a night in which He specially appeared and
acted on behalf of
Dr. W. M.
Taylor’s “Moses,” 99-101.
Let us endeavor to reproduce somewhat the scenes
of that
much-to-be-remembered night. The full moon shone
clearly out
over the Egyptian landscape—for in arranging for
a midnight
journey to be hastily made by his chosen people,
even such a minute
matter was thought of, and the date on which the
moon was at the
full was deliberately selected. All was quiet in the streets of the city
wherein for the time the Pharaoh had his
residence ; but out in the
quarter occupied by the Hebrew brickmakers there was unwonted life.
No one, indeed, could be seen running about
among the huts; but lights
gleamed
out through every aperture, and in every dwelling there was a
feast. As you neared their habitations you might
have seen by the
moonlight the big blood-stains on the door-posts
; and if you could
have passed within each entrance, you would have
found that
everything available had been packed into the
kneading-trough, from
which the unleavened bread had been taken to be
hastily baked
upon the fire ; while the members of the family
were
standing all ready for a journey, and eating
their meal with
as much of eager hurry as is manifested by
modern travelers
in the restaurant of a railway station. But if
you had
asked them whither they were going, not one of
them could
have given you a reply ; and if you had
requested them to
go forth with you and look upon the beauteous
night, they
would have pointed you to the mystic blood upon
the lintel, and
would have said, "We pass
not out from beneath that until Jehovah
summons
us." Nor had they long to wait for His command ; for
hark!
a shriek of agony is heard, distinct and loud as
from some broken-hearted
mourner, and another and another rises, long and
clear, until the night is
filled with lamentation. And while they gather
at their doors, within them—
yet near enough to see what is passing
without—the royal messengers appear,
with rage in their hearts and fury in their
eyes, crying for Moses, and saying to
him in the king's name, “Rise up,
and get you forth from among my people."
Nay, multitudes of the Egyptians themselves,
roused by the grief of that awful
night, beseech the Hebrews to depart
immediately, saying, "We be
all dead men."
But they will not move until they have heard the
word sent down from Moses
through their elders ; and then, laden with
jewels of silver and jewels of gold,
and raiment, which the terrified Egyptians gave
them for the asking, they
march out from Rameses—a nation born in a day. (Isaiah 66:8 – I personally
believe that this has reference to the Jews
accepting Christ at the End Times –
CY – 2017)
What a transformation that night has made upon them ! Yesterday
a horde of slaves, to-day a host of exultant
freemen ; yesterday a multitude of
units, to-day a united people. By this one
journey they have put
bondage behind them; they have begun that national life which
neither Midianite
nor Philistine, neither Assyrian nor Persian,
neither Grecian nor Roman could
destroy, and which, after eighteen centuries
(now twenty – CY – 2017) of
dispersion through Gentile lands, beats yet with
inextinguishable ardor in the
breast of every Jew; for still, as on that
paschal night, these scattered ones do
eat their food with sandaled feet and tightened
girdle, ready at any favorable
opportunity to return to
Jew who lives outside of
"Next Year in
the Passover Seder. When
consoling a mourner, Jews recite "May God comfort
you among all the mourners of
Verily, it
was a night much to be remembered. (taken from:
https://ia801406.us.archive.org/14/items/moseslawgiver00tayl/moseslawgiver00tayl.pdf
In the
treatment of this subject considerable exposition will be necessary. For
material, see
expository section above. It may, in order to include all important
points, be
marshaled thus (under each head we give suggestive hints):
had a natural basis, the tenth had none. It was purely
supernatural. They
blended mercy (first warning and then withdrawal) with
judgment. This
was pure judgment. In them there was indeed a call to faith,
but also room
for unbelief. The demonstrations of God are seldom absolute.
But the tenth
judgment was awfully impressive. There is very little
evidence of any
secondary instrumentality, angelic, or any other; but see in
the Hebrew
vs. 13, 23. Jehovah this time smote with
His own hand.
וְהָיָה֩ הַדָּ֨ם לָכֶ֜ם לְאֹ֗ת עַ֤ל הַבָּתִּים֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אַתֶּ֣ם שָׁ֔ם וְרָאִ֙יתִי֙ אֶת־הַדָּ֔ם
וּפָסַחְתִּ֖י עֲלֵכֶ֑ם וְלֹֽא־יִֽהְיֶ֨ה בָכֶ֥ם נֶ֙גֶף֙ לְמַשְׁחִ֔ית בְּהַכֹּתִ֖י בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃
(Hebrew text of Exodus 12:13 from Westminister Leningrad Codex)
“And shall be the
blood to you for a sign on the houses where you [are] there and when
I see the blood I
will pass over and will not be in you the plague of death when I strike
the
וְעָבַ֣ר יְהוָה֮ לִנְגֹּ֣ף אֶת־מִצְרַיִם֒ וְרָאָ֤ה אֶת־הַדָּם֙ עַל־הַמַּשְׁקֹ֔וף וְעַ֖ל שְׁתֵּ֣י
המזוזת ופסח יהוה על־הפתח ולא יתן המשחית לבא אל־בתיכם לנגף׃
(Hebrew text of Exodus 12:23 from Westminister Leningrad Codex)
“For will pass through the Lord to strike the
Egyptians when He sees the blood on the
lintel and on the two side posts and will pass
the Lord over the door and not allow the
destroyer to come into your houses to strike
you.” (translation of the above)
between the first-borns of fathers and of mothers. In the
tenth plague it was
so, that the first-borns of mothers were the destroyed (ch. 13:2).
Now, these were the “sanctified” unto the
Lord, first, as “living sacrifices,”
and as representing the consecration of each family, and
then of the entire
nation. But failing this consecration, their lives were
forfeited. This was the
case at that moment with the Israelites and Egyptians alike.
In the case of
the Egyptians the life of the
first-born was taken, in that of the Israelites
atoned for. Hence
emerges a law of the
that will not voluntarily consecrate himself to the Lord, must involuntarily
come under the cloud of
condemnation.
so with the nine plagues, it was especially so with the
tenth. The heir to the
throne was regarded as an incarnation of the Deity; by this plague God
pronounced him common clay with the rest. But the
first-born of animals
also fell. This was a blow against the animal worship of the
land.
Pharaoh’s permission was conditioned or unconditioned; and
show that
with Pharaoh’s resistance God’s demands increased, and that
the king’s
surrender must have been absolute, in spite of 14:8-9. Note
the pathos of
the prayer of the now broken-hearted, “Bless
me also,” (v. 32).
instead of “harnessed,” would be
“militant,” as including the outer
armedness, and the inner valorous and
jubilant spirit; both which ideas are
in the original. Observe; the nine or ten months of
preparation, the
organization in which the “elders” and Hebrew “clerks” of
the works may
have taken part, the arms they surely possessed, as witness
the battle at
Rephidim — how probably they had
become marshaled into detachments
—
and places of rendezvous been appointed.
·
THE FESTAL
RAIMENT.
Divine influence (v. 36),
gold, silver, and raiment; these might
be regarded as the “spoils” of
were such as women might ask of women (see ch.3:22 — “neighbor”
is feminine in the Hebrew), and such as women value. They
were to be put not only on themselves, but on sons and
daughters. The
contributions of the Egyptian women must have been immense
in quantity
and value. Now then, why this spoiling? That
horde of dirty, ragged slaves, but in festal army. Compared with the slavery
of
the Lord.
Of all the words of tongue or
pen,
the saddest are these, “It
might have been?
(John Greenleaf Whittier)
even as it is at this day in the mission field of
obvious — THE LORD’S SALVATION is for:
ü the sinful,
ü the
outcast, and
ü the
miserable.
ü The moment
of salvation is the
beginning of a new time.
as a nation dates from that night (v. 2). So the history of a soul dates
from its conversion to
God. (July 18, 1955 is the
special date for me –
CY – 2017)
ü
The new time is a festal time.
ü The redeemed should assume
festal attire (Luke 15:22), a bright
eye,
a cheerful countenance, etc.
ü
Still he must don armor, and
the Church must be militant.
ü The
Church should welcome
all comers; for the miserable
need
salvation, and the
most rude are capable of some service. Compare
Deuteronomy 29:11, with v. 38 here.
ü The salvations of God are full-orbed in their completeness. From the
months of preparation till
complete.
ü
The moment of salvation is to be held in everlasting remembrance
(see v. 42). SO OF THE STILL
GREATER SALVATION!
God’s Discipline of
His
JOYFUL
END AT LAST. The sojourn
in
affliction (Genesis 15:13). It was
only on account of the famine in
sons of the desert. But in
entered on a species of servitude.
Not only were they Pharaoh’s subjects,
but to some extent his servants
(Genesis 47:6). They were no longer
free to come and go as they chose.
They had a certain province assigned to
them. They had, it is probable, to
pay rent for their lands (Genesis 47:26).
After a certain time, during which
they suffered only this “light
affliction,” the severe oppression began. Their lives were “made bitter
with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all
manner of service in
the field” (ch.1:14); then their children were massacred (ib. v.22);
lastly, they were required to “make bricks without straw’ (Exodus
5:7-
19). So with God’s people generally.
They are given a time of suffering.
They have to learn to “endure hardness.” But God
afflicts them as a
discipline, and makes even their
worst afflictions tend to their growth in
grace. At last their trial time is
over. Sometimes in this world, oftener in
another, they find their
LENGTH,
AND APPORTIONS IT TO THE NEEDS OF THE
PARTICULAR
CASE. Four hundred and thirty years is a long space,
even
in the life of a nation. The severe oppression of
nearly so long as this. Perhaps it
lasted only about a century. In any case,
times and seasons are in God’s
hands, and as He fixed four centuries for the
entire servitude many years before
it began (Genesis 15:13), so, we may be
sure, He fixed the term in His own
counsels for the severe oppression. And
it is doubtless the same with
individuals. God knows what kind and length
of chastisement they need, and
assigns to each of His chosen ones the term
of suffering that is needful for
him.
SUPERVENES, IT IS WELL TO OBSERVE YEARLY
THE DAY OF
THE CHANGE AS A DAY OF THANKSGIVING TO
GOD. As national
mercies are
rightfully commemorated by national “days of thanksgiving,” so
the special blessings vouchsafed to individuals
should receive private
commemoration. The day, or night, that brought
us out of the
is especially worthy of such honor. (For me it
was July 18, 1955 at
Church, near
known, it should be “observed unto
the Lord.”
SUPPLEMENTARY ORDINANCE WITH RESPECT TO THE PASSOVER
(vs. 43-51)
The
position of these verses is curious. We should have expected them to have
followed
immediately on v.20, or else to have been reserved for the further
consideration
of the subject in ch.23. It is suggested, in order to account for their
place, that
they formed the matter of a special revelation made to Moses at Succoth.
They
comprise three main points:
Ø The
absolute exclusion of all uncircumcised persons from
participation in
the Passover rite;
Ø The
extension of the rite (implied in v.19) to all full proselytes; and,
Ø The
injunction that not a bone of the lamb should be broken. (This
last is repeated
in Numbers 9:12)
43 “And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance
of the passover:
There shall no stranger eat thereof.” This is the ordinance
of the passover — i.e., “This is
the law, in respect of the persons who are to partake
of it” — there shall no stranger eat thereof, or
literally, “No son of a stranger shall
eat
thereof.” By a “stranger” here is
meant one of a foreign race who wishes to retain
his foreign
character and to remain uncircumcised. Compare v. 48.
The Exodus (vs.
40-43)
View it in
three lights.
slave-holder. Only in a very modified sense was slavery
tolerated in
and the laws were such as gradually to undermine the system.
Historically,
Christianity has proved
itself the great slave-liberator.
ü
In
single night.
ü
In
single precept in v. 44 of this chapter. The
slave sat down with his master
on equal terms at the board of the Passover. The
same thing happened in
the Christian Church. When the Lord’s Supper was
dispensed, the
Christian slave remained; the master, if he was
only a catechumen (a
Christian convert under instruction before
baptism) or a penitent, retired.
ü
In Christian countries. Christianity, it is true, did not preach a crusade
against slavery — a course which would only have
led to a slave-revolt —
but it inculcated truths and principles which
undermined the system.
Slavery was the corner-stone of the ancient civilizations.
Philosophers
defended it. The pagan religions did nothing to overthrow
it. But the
Christian Church took up from the very first the cause of
the slave. The
master who ill-treated his slave was excommunicated. He was
compelled to
marry the female slave whom he had seduced. He sat with his
slave at the
Lord’s table. The slave might hold office in the church, and
thus become,
in a spiritual point of view, the superior of his master.
The influence of the
Church was used to secure the liberation of the
slave. Under Domitian, a
prefect of
slaves who had become Christians, saying, “Those who have become the
children of God ought to be
no longer slaves of men.” Says John Stuart
Mill, “In an age when the weak
were prostrate at the feet of the strong,
who was there but the
Church to plead to the strong for the weak?”
(Dissert. 2:155). The emancipation of four millions of American
slaves —
so long a blot on a so-called
Christian civilization — has been accomplished
in our sight, A SECOND EXODUS. “We can
say today that, with some
trifling exceptions, the soil of
Christian nations is free from the disgrace of slavery. (Unfortunately,
human bondage today continues in subjection to
drugs, alcohol, sex, hate, etc. It is a TRAGEDY that a man is more
concerned about HIS BODY than HIS SOUL – totally ignoring Jesus’ words,
“What shall it profit a man
if he gain the whole world, and lose his own
soul?” - CY – 2017)
Under what influences have
the efforts been produced which have brought about such a result? We have only to look at facts,
and we see the whole clearly. What men
were the first to advocate and
emancipate slaves? The Quakers of America, who held that
bondage was
contrary to the Gospel. What men have pleaded the cause of
the negroes in
the English Parliament with the most power and perseverance?
Decided
Christians — Wilberforce and Buxton. What spirit animated
the book
called Uncle
Tom, which acted so powerfully upon opinion in favor of the
negroes? A spirit steadfastly
Christian. (Harriet Beecher Stowe, who when
introduced to Abraham Lincoln, said, “So
you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war” To what sentiment did the Alexander II,
known as the Alexander the Liberator, czar of
deliverances has the Church, both in Old and in New
Testament times,
experienced since.
ü Deliverances
under the Judges;
ü destruction
of Sennacherib;
ü edict of
Cyrus, and return from captivity;
ü Maccabaean Era.
Read Christian Church history. See the Church emerging
triumphant, laden
with the spoils of the foe, from:
ü the days of
persecution under the Roman Emperors,
ü in the Albigenses, in the Lollards of
ü in the
Huguenots of
ü in the
Covenanters of
Redemption from SIN and WRATH THROUGH
CHRIST!
44 “But
every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast
circumcised him, then shall he eat
thereof.” - Every man’s servant that is
bought for money. Or “every
man’s slave.” The Mosaic Law found servitude
existing,
and left it existing, only guarding against its extreme abuses
(ch. 21:20-27).
It put no
check on the traffic in slaves. When thou hast circumcised him. The
Jewish
commentators say, that the desire of the slave to receive the rite and
become a
Jew is here implied. But it would seem rather, that opposition
and refusal
is not thought of as possible (see Genesis 17:13, 17). The
case is like
that of baptism among the barbarous nations, where no sooner
was the
king converted than a general order went forth for the baptism of
his
subjects, which no one thought of resisting. Then shall he eat thereof.
It was a
principle of the Jewish law that the slaves should be admitted to
complete
religious equality with the native Israelites. (compare Leviticus 22:11).
45 “A
foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.”
A foreigner. Literally
“a sojourner” — i.e., a foreigner who is
merely passing
through the land, or staying for a time, without intending to
become a
permanent resident. The Septuagint πάροικος – paroikos – foreigner;
sojourer; stranger - well
expresses the meaning. An hired servant. It is assumed
that the “hired servant” will be a
foreigner; and intended to guard against any
compulsion
being put upon him.
46 “In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt
not carry forth
ought of the
flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof”.
In one house shall it be
eaten. Compare
the directions in vs. 3-10, which imply this,
and see the
comment on ve. 10. Neither shall
ye break a bone of it. Kalisch thinks
that the
lamb was a symbol of the unity of
the nation, and was therefore not to have
any of its
bones broken. This view may be a true one, without being
exhaustive.
It may have
been to mark the unity of the Church in Christ that his
bones were
not broken,
and in view especially of that unity, that the type was made
to
correspond
in this particular with the antitype. (See John 19:33-36.)
47 “All the
congregation of
it.” (Compare
v. 6.)
48 “And when a stranger shall sojourn with
thee, and will keep the
passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised,
and then
let him come near and keep it; and he shall
be as one that is born in
the land: for no uncircumcised person shall
eat thereof.
49 One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and
unto the stranger
that sojourneth
among you.” And when a stranger, etc. Here we have the
positive ordinance corresponding to the implied
permission in v. 19, and
modifying
in the most important and striking way the prohibitive enactment
of v. 43.
The “stranger,” even if he only “sojourned” in the land, was to
be put on
exactly the same spiritual footing as the Israelite (“One law shall
be to him that is homeborn, and unto the
stranger that sojourneth among
you.” ) if only he and his would be
circumcised, and so enter intocovenant,
50 “Thus did all
the children of
and Aaron, so
did they.” The Israelites, at their first Passover, acted
in accordance
with these
precepts, especially in admitting
to the feast all circumcised persons,
whether
natives or foreigners, and rejecting all the uncircumcised.
Passover Precepts Realized in Christian Practice
(vs. 41-50)
The precepts
were:
A HIRED
SERVANT IN A HEBREW FAMILY, SHOULD EAT OF IT.
Formally, baptism corresponds to circumcision, both of them
admitting
into covenant with God; and thus the rule of Christian
communities
generally, that the reception of baptism must precede that
of the Lord’s
Supper, is a carrying out of this precept. But it is also
carried out in
another way. Spiritually, the correspondent to the
circumcision of the flesh
is the circumcision of the spirit; and thus
all Churches which warn the
wicked from approaching the Lord’s table, do their best to
enforce the
precept, “No uncircumcised person
shall eat thereof.” Hired servants of the
Church, unless circumcised in heart, are as unfit to
communion as those
who have no external connection with Divine things. Nay, may
we not say
more unfit?
SLAVES
ALIKE, SHOULD EAT OF IT. The frequent exhortation of all
Christian Churches to all their members to receive the
Communion,
especially at Easter-time, and the general allowance of the
duty by those
who have any real sense of religion constitute a realization,
to a
considerable extent, of this precept in Christian practice.
It is to be wished
that the realization were complete. The joint participation
of freemen with
slaves has always charactcrized
the Christian Church; and though there
have been Christian communities which have acted
differently, the cases
are too exceptional to deserve much notice, and are
disappearing as slavery
disappears.
IT CARRIED
carrying forth of the holy elements to the bedsides of the
sick, break at any
rate the letter of this precept. But the Reformed Churches,
which disallow
even reservation, keep close to it.
can only be spiritually observed, for in the Christian passover, the “flesh”
to be eaten has no “bones.” But it is
spiritually kept wherever
communicants are warned against dividing Christ in their
thoughts, against
separating His humanity from His Divinity, or against practizing special
devotion to any separate portion of His person, as to His
“Sacred Heart” or
His “Five wounds.” It was the essence of one of the early forms of
heresy
to “divide Christ;” and on this
account the Church of England protests in
her second article of religion, that in Him “two whole and
perfect natures
are joined together in one person, never
to be divided, whereof is
ONE
CHRIST!
51 “And it came to pass the selfsame day, that the LORD did bring the
children of
This verse
should be transferred to the commencement of the
next chapter,
which should run as follows: — “And it came to pass — on
the
self-same day that the Lord brought the children of
etc. The
word “armies,” which at first sight may seem
inappropriate,
occurs also
in ch. 6:26. It is probably intended to mark that the
people
were
thoroughly organized, and marshaled in divisions resembling those of
an army.
The Passover (vs. 1-28;
43-51)
“It is the Lord’s Passover” (v. 11). After
Pharaoh’s refusal to see Moses again,
Jehovah
comes more manifestly into the history, in the last judgment and deliverance
of His
people. Three great events crowd now into a single night:
o the
Passover,
o the slaying
of the first-born, and
o the march
out.
Consider
now the Passover.
ü
through all Hebrew history from the time of
Abraham to this hour. But to a
large extent
catching the plagues of its idolatry and sins.
Great separating acts are
necessary — e.g., as in:
Ø
some of the earlier visitations,
Ø
in the killing of the firstborn,
Ø
in the passover,
Ø
in the exodus, and
Ø
in the
ü
To this end
was a miracle of pure judgment: for
an
atonement was necessary. That atonement was the Passover.
Ø “A pass-over
unto Jehovah:" (v. 12),
Ø
"a sacrificial-slaying of
pass-over unto Jehovah:” (v.27),
Ø
“The sacrifice of the feast
of
the passover,” (ch. 34:25)
Here we have four
distinctive ideas.
ü The Objective of the
pass-over was God. “Unto Jehovah.” Like
prayer
intended to benefit man, but its objective God. Herein lies
the distinction
between Scriptural and unscriptural ideas of atonement.
ü The pass-over was a Sacrifice.
ü The result was a Passing-over. The stained
lintel was a bridge over which Jehovah was to pass in dread judicial progress
through the land.
ü And a more remote result, the ushering in of a Festal Life for
The festival of the passover foreshadowed the coming life
of liberty.
the following truths will emerge in relation to the
antitype.
ü
The objective of the death of Christ is God. The Socinian formula runs:
“The death of Christ was not to reconcile God to
man, but man to
God.”
The scriptural doctrine is that the atonement does
both: but reconciles man
to God, by first atoning God with man.
ü
CHRIST is “without blemish and without spot.”
ü
The atoning
Christ was deliberately selected, and fore-appointed.
("the Lamb
slain before the foundation of the world." -Revelation 13:8)
ü
Kept in view of
the world, that His worth, beauty and destiny might
suitably affect men; as the lamb went in and
out, for four days, the homes
of
ü
Slain.
ü
The death was SACRIFICIAL!
ü
The result a Passing-over of JUDICIAL
WRATH!
ü
But the sacrifice
must be APPROPRIATED! The blood on the
posts of the
door a sign of the appropriating faith of the
people. Here may be brought
out the idea, that the door was the only
possible altar at that moment of
history. The idea of sacrifice had come down from
patriarchal times; but
there was no law of sacrifice, for as yet there
was no nation to which to
give it, and therefore there was NO TEMPLE, and so NO ALTAR. Every
family must be atoned for apart; every house was
then a temple, and every
door an altar.
ü
Then, faith in CHRIST'S
ATONEMENT begins for us high Festival.
ü
The Atoning Christ is the Food of the Soul (John 6:51). This for the
very simple reason, that the truth of the
atonement is central, supreme, and
comprehensive.
ü
An UNCORRUPTED CHRIST! The lamb was roasted, i.e., was pure flesh
acted on by fire; not sodden, diluted with
water, or any way corrupted.
ü
A PERFECT CHRIST - no bone broken. So on the cross a Christ divided
is not
sufficient for the nourishment of the soul, e.g., Christ as an “elect spirit of
the race;’ or as one in whom the
“God-consciousness ‘ received high
development; or as example; Teacher, etc. Christ
in his whole nature,
character and office.
ü
The enjoyment of Christ and of His salvation
will depend on the memory
of the slavery of sin. “Bitter herbs.”
ü
The Christian life is to be characterized by simplicity and sincerity. Note
that unleavened bread is simply pure meal, all
water parched out by the
action of fire. For the significance see the
Christian Rabbi, Paul,
I Corinthians 1:6-8.
ü
The end of soul nutriment is the Pilgrim-Life. Each with staff in hand
that night.
ü
To the banquet, to the Exodus, to the
Pilgrim-Life, all are welcome, on
conditions, vs. 43-45. In that case, first
circumcision; then coming under
the sprinkled blood, were needful. The analogy
is clear. Note! at the
moment, when the distinction between
then did the universality of true Judaism most
appear. In Abraham all
mankind
was to be blessed.
The
Law of the Passover (vs. 43-51)
ü God demands
purity of communion. No stranger is to cat of it.
Ø Our holy
things are not to be profaned. The life of Christ is
lowered and endangered by indiscriminate
admission to the
Lord’s table.
Ø They are
not to be degraded into superstitious rites. When
they are given as
if salvation resided in them, we are
substituting
idols for the unseen Savior. The only safeguard
for purity of
worship is purity of communion.
ü It is not
to be carried out from the midst of the household of faith.
The peace and
fellowship of the Gospel are only for the circumcised
in heart.
ü Communion
with Christ to be characterized by reverence and holy
awe: not a bone of Him is to be broken.
ü Every wall
of partition is removed. All who believe have a right to join
in the feast (vs.
41-49); but they must come with the mark of God’s
people, — a circumcised heart.
SAFETY
BUT ALSO WITH DELIVERANCE. “Thus did all the children
of
Fellowship with Christ is
deliverance from the bondage of evil.
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