It is well to distinguish, for our souls' profit, the difference between the Passover and the Red Sea.
In the Passover God appears as a Judge; in the Red Sea He manifests Himself as a Deliverer, but up to this latter the people are still in Egypt.
In the former character God is satisfied through the blood that is before Him. That expiatory blood of redemption secures all sheltered by it infallibly from judgment. It bars the way to God as Judge, for He does not enter within, but seeing it, says, " When I see the blood I will pass over." Note well, it is not said, When you see it, but when I see it. Oftentimes the soul of an awakened person rests, not on its own righteousness but, on the way in which it sees the blood. Now, precious as it is to have the heart deeply impressed with it, this is not the ground of peace. Peace is founded on God's' seeing and valuing it aright, for, Jesus " offered Himself without spot to God". God (who abhors and has been offended by sin and who alone has a true estimate of its horribleness) cannot fail to estimate at its full and perfect value the blood of Jesus, for it answered everything that was perfect in His being, and so He says, " The blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from all sin " (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)). It may be said, But must I not have faith in its value? This is faith in its value, seeing that God looks at it as putting away sin; your value for it looks at it as a question of the measure of your feelings. Faith looks at God's thoughts, and His word gives them. " Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God " (Rom. 10:1717So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)).
But the blood, which kept the people from God's judgment, meant something far deeper and far more serious than even the Red Sea, though judgment was executed there too. The blood signified the moral judgment of God, and the full and entire satisfaction of all that was in His being. God, such as He was, in His justice, His holiness, and His truth, could not touch those who were sheltered by that precious blood. But let us remember that if " God is light," as He is (and what has been said above refers to Him in that aspect of His character), blessed be His name, " God is love " too, and " Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that Be loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins " (1 John 4:1010Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)); and again " God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ (the dearest Object of His own heart) died for us " (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)). If it was the blood of the Lamb that met all the requirements of God's character as Light—that Lamb was the gift of God's own heart, as being " Love." Nevertheless God, even in passing over is seen as Judge; hence, so long as the soul is on this ground, its peace is uncertain though the ground of it be sure. Though truly converted, its way is still in Egypt, because God has still the character of Judge to it, and the power of the enemy is still there.
Now at the Red Sea God acts in power according to the purposes of His love; consequently the enemy, who was closely pursuing His people, is destroyed without resource. The Passover delivered them from God's judgment, the Red Sea from their enemies.
As a moral type, the Red Sea is evidently the death and resurrection of Jesus, so far as the real effecting of the work goes in its own efficacy, as deliverance by redemption, and of His people as seen in Him; God acting in it, to bring them, through death, out of sin and the flesh, giving absolute deliverance from them by death, into which Christ had gone, and consequently from all the power of the enemy. As to our standing and acceptance we are brought to God: this is our actual position in the world, which then becomes the wilderness on our way to glory. We are made partakers of it already through faith. Sheltered from the judgment of God by the blood, we are delivered, by His power which acts for us, from the power of Satan, the prince of this world. The blood keeping us from the judgment of God was the beginning. The power which has made us alive in Christ, who has gone down into death for us, has made us free from the whole power of Satan who followed us, and, as to conscience, from all his attacks and accusations. We have done with the flesh as our standing, and Satan's power, and, being brought to God, are in the world with Him.
The world, who will follow that way, is swallowed up in it. This is a solemn warning: for the worldlings, who call themselves Christians, do take the ground of judgment to come, and the need of righteousness, but not according to God. The true Christian goes through it in Christ, knowing himself otherwise lost and hopeless; the worldling in his own strength, and is swallowed up. Israel saw the Red Sea in its strength, and thought escape was hopeless: so an awakened conscience, death and judgment. But Christ has died and borne judgment for us, and we are secured and delivered by what we dreaded in itself. The worldling, seeing this, adopts the truth in his strength, as if there were no danger, and is lost in his false confidence.