Exactly forty years before the children of Israel encamped at Gilgal they were slaves toiling in the house of bondage, and God had so arranged their entrance into Canaan, that the first feast they kept there was the remembrance of their deliverance.
The passover and the feast of the passover were distinct; one was the deliverance itself, the other the memorial of the deliverance. In the first, Israel were occupied with their escape, in the other, they meditated upon the means by which God had brought them out.
They now rejoiced before God in a manner impossible heretofore, for being in Canaan they had no destroying angel to fear as in Egypt. And for them who are in Christ Jesus, who have passed from death unto life, there is now no judgment. Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. Let us keep the feast; let us meditate with thanksgiving upon our ransom, and upon the dying love of our Saviour. God has given our conscience rest, and He would have our affections in constant exercise. In proportion as we contemplate the sacrifice of Christ, our hearts grow in communion with God the Father.
If we had not passed from death unto life we could not remember the death of the Lord Jesus, and the more we know of eternal life in Christ, the greater the value we set upon His death.
There was a testimony in the sight of God when His redeemed people, whom He had brought into the land, kept the passover feast. “And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes” (Ex. 13:5-105And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month. 6Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. 7Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters. 8And thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. 9And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt. 10Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year. (Exodus 13:5‑10)). And in the remembrance of the death of Christ by His redeemed ones, who are set in Him in the heavenly places, God is glorified.
As Israel encamped in Gilgal, the place of perfect liberty, God spread this table for them in the presence of their enemies “in the plains of Jericho.”
But this was not all; “They did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover ... And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year” (Josh. 5:11-1211And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. 12And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. (Joshua 5:11‑12)). Until the land was entered the old corn could not be eaten. The old corn of the land figures the Lord Jesus risen from the dead. Risen with Him, we have entered in Him into the heavenly places, and He is the strength of our souls. If we would grow up into the apprehension of our heavenly inheritance, it must be by our communion with the ascended Saviour. He is our heavenly object, and we can only in any degree appreciate the riches of the “things above” by intimacy with Him through the grace and power of the Spirit.
The daily need of the believer casts him upon the Lord Jesus, who was once humbled and rejected here. We require suited grace for the day, and must go to Him, who has Himself passed through the wilderness, as the One who can succor and strengthen us, and thus we learn of Him as “the bread from heaven,” as the Manna.
As to the mortal body the believer is in the wilderness, but “your life is hid with Christ in God,” and the supplies for this life are all found in the person of Christ. We need to know Christ both as the Manna, and as the Old corn of the land.
Unleavened bread accompanies these feasts. “There shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters.” “They did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.” It is impossible to realize the presence of Christ, to feed upon Him, and at the same time for wickedness to be sweet in the mouth, to be hidden under the tongue. When we have communion with Christ, this also is known in “the selfsame day.” Let us keep the feast with the “unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Henceforth the land of Canaan supplies Israel with food, “they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.”
But let us mark the divine order – the old corn first, the fruit of the land afterward; Christ first, the joys of heavenly things next.
Is there one who reads this page unmindful of heavenly blessings, having no relish for divine things? He has not yet tasted that the Lord is gracious. He is satisfied with the world. The full soul loatheth the honeycomb, so does the heart of the worldly man turn from Christ.
Israel’s feasts were held yearly, they were but fleeting shadows of the eternal substance. Our feasts are eternal. Our passover is “a feast to the Lord” “forever,” the heavenly corn of our heavenly land food for evermore.