Address on Exodus 12:1-151And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 4And 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. 5Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: 6And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. 7And 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. 8And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. 10And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. 11And 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. 12For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. 13And 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 land of Egypt. 14And 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. 15Seven 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 Israel. (Exodus 12:1‑15) and 1 Peter 1:18-1918Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (1 Peter 1:18‑19)
"Vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers" is a remarkable expression. These people had never been heathen. They were Israelites—converted Israelites, it is true. They had been redeemed. "Vain conversation"—"vain manner of life." It was a religious manner. The passage is very striking. They were not Gentiles without the knowledge of God; they had a certain knowledge of God.
The Christian has two birthdays; if he hasn't two, he is not a Christian. The Christian is born of God, and his history with God, as one of His children, begins with redemption. "Redemption" is a large and blessed word in the New Testament, and in the Old Testament too. Redemption takes the redeemed one out of one position and one state and brings him into another.
"This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you." To whom was that day, that date, the beginning of months? Nobody else knew anything about it throughout the whole world. We generally know the day of our first birth, but cannot always tell the date of the second. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." John 3:88The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8). It is the sovereign action of the Spirit of God.
What we do know is, after a certain exercise of soul, when we have been brought into peace with God. That we know. We may know when we first come into the knowledge of this salvation. Then we know that we have been born again.
"This month [this day] shall be unto you the beginning of months." It was a particular day—day of redemption. God brings souls into peace gradually. In the case of the Lord Jesus giving life to the dead, there are three cases recorded. In His giving sight to the blind, there are three cases recorded, and three only. We know that to many that were blind He gave sight. "Go...and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised." Those three cases are selected cases, and selected for a purpose. We might recall the cases of giving sight to the blind. The first is blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46-5246And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimeus, the son of Timeus, sat by the highway side begging. 47And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 48And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 49And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee. 50And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. 51And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. 52And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way. (Mark 10:46‑52). He hears a commotion as he sits by the wayside begging—an unusual commotion—and he asks, "What is this commotion?" The answer is, "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." (The Lord's history upon earth was about to close. He was going to Jerusalem for the last time.) Immediately when he hears that he says, "Jesus" (not of Nazareth, but) "Son of David" (what dignity!) "have mercy on me."
The Lord stands still and commands the man to be brought. There are a number of details such as his casting away his garments, all instructive, if one were preaching the gospel, but we do not speak of that now. Those that went before told him to be quiet, but so much the more he cried out, "Thou Son of David, have mercy on me." It is a picture of a soul thoroughly awakened as the One who can meet that need is passing his way. They cannot silence him. Presently they say, "Be of good comfort, rise; He calleth thee." He, casting away his garments to get there as quickly as he can, comes and stands in the presence of the Son of David. "What wilt thou?" "Lord, that I may receive my sight." "And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight." He received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. What a decided work there!
The next case is altogether different. A certain blind man is brought to the Lord in the city of Bethsaida in Mark 8:22-2622And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. 23And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. 24And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. 25After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. 26And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town. (Mark 8:22‑26). The Lord takes him by the hand and leads him out of the town. When He has him out of the town, He works and asks the man if he sees aught. He looks up and says, "I see men as trees walking." Light is dawning, but it is very indistinct. The Lord operates again, and he sees every man clearly. There is a soul gradually b:.ought into the light, not like Bartimaeus who received it at once.
The third case is altogether different from that. That isn't a blind man calling out, and not one being brought, but there the Lord is passing by, and He sees a man born blind. He goes to that man, spits on the ground, and makes clay of the spittle, puts it on his eyes and says, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam." That is blessedly instructive. We are born blind. We are all in the dark as to God until we get sight. Our thoughts of Him are that He is "a hard man, reaping where Thou hast not sown, and gathering where Thou hast not strewed." Why does the Lord act in that peculiar way? He is teaching in all those things. Why send him to the pool of Siloam to wash? The man said, "I went and washed and I received sight." "A man ...called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes...and I went and washed and I received sight."
What is the meaning of Siloam? We are told in the passage it is "Sent." Just as soon as I get the truth that God sent His Son into the world to be the Saviour of the world, (that is John's testimony—"God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved"), the darkness is gone. I may have known something about the God who spoke to His people at Sinai, giving them the law, and I may have a sense in my soul that I haven't kept it, but when I see He sent His Son to be my Saviour, the darkness is all gone, and I get the "true light." One thing was true of all: They were all blind. One thing was true of all: They all got their sight, not in the same way, but by the same blessed Person. There we have the way in which God deals with souls.
Take the cases of the dead who were raised. There are three recorded cases because in Scripture three is fulness of testimony, not only competent, but fulness. What is the first? It is a young girl twelve years of age, beautiful, we will say, in death. She had just died. "Thy daughter is dead; why troublest thou the Master?" The Lord goes to her and says, "Talitha cumi; Damsel, (I say unto thee) arise." And she arose straightway, and He commanded to give her food. Mark 5.
The next is not a young girl or a young woman who has just died, but a young man dead and on the way to the grave. The Lord meets the funeral procession and is touched by the tears of that widowed mother. He is the only son of a widowed mother. It says, "The Lord . . . had compassion on her." He went to her and said, "Weep not." They that bore the bier stood still. "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise." He sat up and He restored him to his mother. He was not only dead, but on the way to the grave. Luke 7.
The third is one dead, in the grave and stinkingLazarus. "Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days . . . . Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes." John 11.
One thing characterized the three: they were dead. It is true one hadn't been dead as long as the other—one not as far in corruption as the other, but all were dead. The outcome was that all were alive, and all got life from the same blessed Person. It should be precious to our souls, those three selected cases from many. "There is no difference, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." That young girl has just died, yes, but she is dead. That young man on the way to the grave is dead, as dead as Lazarus who has been in the grave four days. There is no difference in that way. That is the great lesson to be learned.
Suppose you owed sixty pence and I owed five hundred pence and neither had anything to pay. You have to go to prison for your debt as much as I, and, according to the law, stay there until it is paid. You have to stay there as long as I because you cannot pay it and I cannot either. The Lord says to Simon that you are both bankrupt and have nothing to pay. Luke 7. I think that is very blessed.
"Begotten of God" and "born of God" is the same word. "Canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth" refers to the operations of the Spirit of God and not to salvation. It refers to being born again— "So is every one that is born of the Spirit." We must keep Scriptural truths in their Scriptural connection, and when it speaks about being born again, it is not speaking about salvation. That is where we get into such confusion. When it is a question of being born again, it is not the forgiveness of sins and cleansing by the blood; it is about a new nature being communicated—a distinct line of things.
Saul, in the 9th of the Acts had been born again before Ananias went to him. He passed through deep exercise of soul, was three days and three nights without sight and food. When the Lord revealed Himself to Saul from the glory and prostrated him, Saul said, "Who art Thou, Lord?" The Lord said to him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" "Who art Thou, Lord?" That is surrender. "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." "What wilt Thou have me to do?" That was three days before Ananias went to him. Ananias went to him to loose him and let him go. He sent the word of liberty—not life—to Saul by Ananias. Very beautiful it is too. There is Ananias, that servant of God, in Damascus. To him the Lord said, "Ananias." "Here am I, Lord." "Go into the street called Straight and inquire...for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth." "Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: and here" (120 miles or more from Jerusalem) "he hath authority . . . to bind all that call on Thy name." The Lord said, "Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear Me name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel." Ananias goes into the house where the blind man is, and he hasn't eaten anything for three days, and he says, "Brother Saul," what do you think of that? "The Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." "Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins." His sins were gone judiciously before God, but not before men. He was to take a new place before men. And the next thing, he was preaching Jesus Christ as He had never been preached before: "that He is the Son of God."
The character of the second book (Exodus) of the Bible is redemption. In the 3rd chapter we find the blessed God come down in the burning bush, and He says to Moses, "I am come down to deliver." "I have ...seen...and have heard. And I am come down." In Exodus 33-34 we have God dwelling in the midst of His redeemed people, pitching His habitation among them.
In our chapter (Exodus 12), we get the way in which He did it. The first thing was to shelter that people from judgment. That could be done only by the blood of the Lamb. The first thing God gives a soul to know when really exercised, is security from judgment under the blood of Christ; but we must not stop there. Look at the first of Ephesians, speaking of Christ as the Beloved. The 7th verse says, "In whom" (that is Christ the Beloved) "we have redemption . . . the forgiveness of sins."
In Ephesians 2:12-1312That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:12‑13) we find that we were "without Christ . . . and without God in the world: but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." That redemption which we have in Christ through His blood brings with it the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. It gives something else too: it takes me out of the old condition and gives me a place of nearness to God Himself. So we must not stop with being secured from judgment.
That blood on the two side posts and the lintel told that death had come in. It told the stroke had fallen on a victim—a life had been given.
In that passage we read in 1st Peter, it says, "Forasmuch as ye K-N-O-W." The Christian K-N-O-W-S that he is redeemed. According to Scripture it is the normal condition of the Christian. There are those who have had faith in the Lord Jesus who do not know much about the blood—about being covered. "The blood shall be to you for a token"; that is something for those inside the house. "When I see the blood, I will pass over you" has been dwelt upon almost to the exclusion of "the blood shall be to you for a token." God sees the blood, but it is my seeing it that brings me into peace. The blood speaks to the soul inside and wards off the stroke outside. It is the soul seeing the blood for himself that brings him into the knowledge of safety.
In the 3rd chapter God had come down, and what had brought Him down was the bondage, misery, groaning and oppression of His people. There He appears in the midst of the burning bush. By way of comparison turn to the first of Leviticus. In the 3rd of Exodus "God called unto Moses out of the midst of the bush." In Leviticus "The Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation." What a contrast! That gives the character to these two books. God comes down to deliver; after He delivers, He sets His habitation in the midst of His people. Out of the midst of that habitation He appears and tells them how to approach Him. The subject of Exodus is redemption; the subject of Leviticus is the redeemed drawing near to God, the Redeemer.
There is more order in the Word of God than most people think. It is not brought together at random. Numbers gives us the wilderness journey. It is a redeemed people, and they are not in Egypt nor in Canaan, but in the wilderness, journeying on to Canaan.
The book of Deuteronomy answers to the judgment seat of Christ. "Thou shalt remember all the way." We will have a rehearsal when we get into our Canaan before we have entered fully into it. We Christians have a Deuteronomy before we get into the land too. We are in Numbers. Redemption has brought us into Numbers. We know all the way God has led us since He brought us out of Egypt. It must have been very humiliating as Moses called their attention to all their ways. But as it humbled them, it magnified the grace and goodness of God, and that is what our Deuteronomy will do too.
The 14th verse says, "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 forever." The feast lasted seven days. That and the passover are distinct, but the feast is founded on the passover, and it is the feast of the pass- over. The passover is an accomplished fact. "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." The feast is not an accomplished fact. We are keeping it now. It will not be an accomplished fact until we get into the land. When we get to heaven, we shall have finished with the feast of the passover. How happy it would be for us if we realized more fully that the present dispensation for the Christian is the feast of the passover. The church of God is keeping two of the seven feasts now. It is keeping the feast of the passover and the feast of Pentecost. The feast of Pentecost began in the 2nd of the Acts, the coming of the Holy Spirit.
In the 16th of Deuteronomy we find three feasts separated from the seven which are given in other parts of Scripture. Those three are the feast of the passover, the feast of Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles at the end of the year. The church is keeping the feast of the passover and Pentecost and is going to keep the feast of Tabernacles. The feast of Tabernacles is a feast characterized by two things: rest and joy. All God's people, earthly and heavenly, will keep the feast of Tabernacles together! It is a feast characterized by rest and joy and remembrance of God's ways with us.
In the days of Nehemiah, after the remnant returned from the captivity, when there was a happy returning to the word of God, they kept the feast of Tabernacles (poor things in their circumstances!), but they did it according to God in a way it had never been kept since the days of Joshua. The people went up into the mountains and brought down branches of trees and made themselves tents—a practical reminder of God's ways with them. That is beautiful. Since the days of Joshua it had not been done, not that they had not kept the feast since then, but not in that way, getting away from all comforts.
Then we get instructions as to what was to be done with the lamb whose life had been given. They were to eat it. What is eating, for instance, eating the flesh of the Son of man, and drinking His blood? To eat a thing, physically, it becomes a part of ourselves. So faith appropriates the death of Christ, not only sheltered by the blood, but the soul enjoying the One whose blood shelters it.
In our chapter, Exodus 12, we get the "how" to eat the passover and the "who" were to eat it, and in the 16th of Deuteronomy the "where" it was to be eaten. No unconverted person can truly keep the passoverfeed upon the death of Christ in the consciousness of being sheltered by the blood.
The "how" we get in the 11th verse: "And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded." The 8th verse says, "And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 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." How beautiful that is— typical you know. "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. 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." There we get the "how."
Why not "raw nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire"? The reason is that it is typical of Christ, the Lamb of God, enduring the fire of God's judgment without any mitigation. No water came between the victim and the fire. The head is intelligence; the legs are the ways; the purtenance is the affections. All is perfect; the soul feeds on that, the affections of Christ, devoted to God.
"That which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire." The feeding on the victim must not be too far separated from its death. All is intimately connected. You get it in the peace offering and the ram of consecration. It is a very solemn thing for this day. The worship of God's people is so far separated from the cross of Christ, the ground of worship. In many of those popular hymns, how much do we find in them about the death of Christ for atonement of sin?
How sweetly Watts comes out on that in:
"Not all the blood of beasts,
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace, Or wash away its stain.
"But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Took all our guilt away,
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they.
"Our souls look back to see
The burden Thou didst bear,
When hanging on th' accursed tree,
For all our guilt was there."
(Watts wrote it "and hopes his sins were there.") Again he wrote,
"Alas, and did my Saviour bleed?
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head,
For such a worm as I?
Was it for crimes that I have done, He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
"Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut His glories in,
When the Incarnate Maker died
For man His creature's sin."
One almost envies that devotedness. That is what we believe we have in "Let nothing remain until the morning."
Every morning and every evening there was the lamb of the burnt offering, and on the Sabbath two. God, in that typical people, that earthly redeemed people, kept ever before Him the coming death of Christ as the ground of His relationship with that people.
"Thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand." The Christian position is to be ever ready to leave. He hasn't to gird his loins and put his shoes on. "And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord," waiting for that word to depart.
"Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." It is an accomplished sacrifice. The Paschal Lamb has been sacrificed. "Therefore, let us keep the feast." The point in 1st Corinthians is this: the feast is to be kept in consistency with this truth that Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us. What is not consistent with that, is not to be allowed.