The Passover
Exodus 12:1-41And 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. (Exodus 12:1‑4)
Leviticus 23:4-84These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. 5In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's passover. 6And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. 7In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. 8But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. (Leviticus 23:4‑8)
Numbers 28:16-2516And in the fourteenth day of the first month is the passover of the Lord. 17And in the fifteenth day of this month is the feast: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten. 18In the first day shall be an holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work therein: 19But ye shall offer a sacrifice made by fire for a burnt offering unto the Lord; two young bullocks, and one ram, and seven lambs of the first year: they shall be unto you without blemish: 20And their meat offering shall be of flour mingled with oil: three tenth deals shall ye offer for a bullock, and two tenth deals for a ram; 21A several tenth deal shalt thou offer for every lamb, throughout the seven lambs: 22And one goat for a sin offering, to make an atonement for you. 23Ye shall offer these beside the burnt offering in the morning, which is for a continual burnt offering. 24After this manner ye shall offer daily, throughout the seven days, the meat of the sacrifice made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord: it shall be offered beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering. 25And on the seventh day ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work. (Numbers 28:16‑25)
Deuteronomy 16:1-81Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the Lord thy God: for in the month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. 2Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the Lord thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the Lord shall choose to place his name there. 3Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. 4And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning. 5Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee: 6But at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt. 7And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents. 8Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work therein. (Deuteronomy 16:1‑8)
In each of the four passages read we are given different important details about the passover. In Exodus we learn the origin and how it was to be kept. In Leviticus we find that it is one of the offerings that God was pleased to call "My offerings." In Numbers we're told what was to be offered when the people were in the promised land. And finally in Deuteronomy we're instructed where the Lord had chosen for the passover to be kept.
The "passover" is a memorial—something to remember something by, a memorial of our redemption. In a certain way these people were God's people before He redeemed them; that is, they were His people in purpose, but not in actuality. They were His people in actuality after He had redeemed them, and only so could they be His people. If God is to have a people for Himself, taking them out of the midst of a fallen, ruined, sinful people, it must be upon the ground of redemption. That is blessed and very important to remember. As the people of God we are a redeemed people: "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (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)).
This feast was a memorial of that, and the way in which this first passover was kept is the way in which God's people always begin the keeping of the pass- over. They were in the land of Egypt where the sword of judgment was about to fall. Egypt is a well-known type of the world in power and independency of God; it was not dependent upon the God of heaven for rain. They watered their fields by foot—irrigation. There is a good deal of irrigation today. It tells of man's independency of God.
Though they were there, they were secure from the stroke coming upon the land. God was about to smite. He says, "I will smite the land of Egypt," etc. That is one simple, solemn lesson for the Christian. He is in the world upon which the judgment of God is coming—a very difficult thing to keep in mind, especially in days like these when there is a great amount of human energy, schemes of men and exclusion of God. How much there is in every way to blind the soul to the truth of the real state of things in this world before God.
There they were, and here we are—in the world as much as anyone. I do not mean as to the state of our souls, but as to our actual bodily presence, in the world, but not of it. We are secure from the stroke that is about to fall. The Israelites also were secure from the stroke of judgment that was about to fall. Their security was just one thing: they were under the shelter of the blood of the lamb. There was just one thing that secured them from judgment and that was not the shed blood, but the sprinkled blood.
God gave the shed blood, but God did not sprinkle the blood! Christ has died for all, and the death of Christ for all is God's provision for all. "Who gave Himself a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:66Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (1 Timothy 2:6)), but it is only those who avail themselves of the provision made who escape the stroke. Further than that we do not go in the 12th of Exodus. We see there security from judgment.
The young Christian begins there as he partakes of the memorial of redemption, called the "Lord's Supper." "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5:77Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: (1 Corinthians 5:7)). The young Christian says, "I am sheltered from the judgment that is coming upon this world by the blood of Christ."
There they are, and we picture to ourselves, as we should, how they kept that passover. They were under the shelter of the blood, secure from judgment, just what the Christian ought to be doing: feeding upon the One who secured him from judgment. They were feeding upon Him "with shoes on their feet and staff in their hand." What a peculiar but instructive sight we would have seen if we could have looked into one of those houses where the two side posts and lintel were sprinkled with the blood of the passover lamb and have seen them keeping the passover according to instructions! We would not have seen them seated around a table, but standing, their loins girded, their staff in their hand, shoes on their feet and eating in haste! It is a peculiar feast, is it not? All that is solemnly and blessedly typical. How far we are answering to it is another thing! But that is one attitude of the Christian's position in this world.
As they fed, as they ate that lamb, under those circumstances, they were waiting for the signal to move! How solemnly blessed to see God giving us all this in those ages past: waiting for the signal, and that signal was for them to be gone!
The Christian is here in this world, secure by the blood of Christ from the judgment that is coming. The Lord's own word is, "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding . . . Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching" (Luke 12:35-3735Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 37Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. (Luke 12:35‑37)). That is a simple happy picture of the Christian's position.
There is another thing given us as to the passover lamb which is equally solemn and precious, (vs. 8) "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." What are we to learn from that? "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." "Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water." What are we to learn from that? There is no redemption in a living Christ, or in Christ the other side of death, infinitely precious and perfect as the life of Christ was, a sweet savor continually to God. God's redeemed people now share with Him that sweet savor as the other types tell us, and our redemption was accomplished by the death, not the life, of Christ. The very fact that the blood was there tells that too. I call attention to this because one mark of the day and of the apostasy is forgetting the truth that "the wages of sin is death" and "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23), Hebrews 9:2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)).
"Nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire." How solemnly blessed that is! What is typified by that is this: it is Christ our passover bearing the judgment of God without the least mitigation—nothing coming between. "Roast with fire"—no water—nothing coming between. It is the consuming fire of the judgment of God. The soul meditates upon Christ as his Redeemer and upon the way in which He is his Redeemer. "And hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood," etc. (Rev. 5:99And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; (Revelation 5:9)).
"His head with his legs, and with the purtenance [inwards] thereof." That is all the intelligence and all the ways and all the affections. Intelligence is the head; ways are the legs; affections are the inwards. All has been tried by the judgment of God and found perfect!
It is instructive too that the Israelite was not left to his own mind or judgment as to how to keep this pass- over, v. 11: "And thus shall ye eat it." Christ under those conditions was before them, or is before us when the memorial of the passover is before us. "And this day shall be unto you 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."
That is where we begin. God starts His people out on their heavenward journey with the knowledge that they are a redeemed people. Redemption is a wide and blessed word for the Christian. There are different phases of it and truths connected with it, but here it is the general truth, "Forasmuch as ye know" (the Christian knows he is a redeemed person) "not with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." God starts us on the journey in that way.
"And the blood shall be to you for a token." When God passed through the land with drawn sword, He did not look inside the houses at all. He took no notice of what was going on inside. That had its place. What He looked at was the outside—the two side posts and the lintel—and if they were sprinkled with the blood of the lamb, He passed them by. It is presented in another way sometimes: "And will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you." It is as though God passes the judgment and there is the actual executor. "The blood is sprinkled there; do not touch that one. There is no blood on this one, smite!" Why pass over one and smite the other? It is simply because the blood was not there! It was a stroke of judgment and the only thing that could shelter from judgment was a Substitute. The blood told of the judgment having fallen on a substitute, and that was the security of all that were beneath it and the peace of all that believed what God said about it.
It is well to remember that security and peace are two different things. I have tried to illustrate it by calling attention to three families in the land of Egypt; two of the three families are under the shelter of the blood of the lamb. Inside the house of one the whole family is calmly and solemnly keeping the passover. They are so calm and peaceful, knowing as they do, that at midnight the stroke of judgment is to fall but they are under the protection of the sprinkled blood. I do not say shed blood. Their next door neighbor is keeping the feast too. The blood is sprinkled, but all the faces of this family are pale with fear and they are all trembling. The one family is calmly, peacefully and thankfully keeping the passover. The one doing it and trembling from head to foot is as secure as the other. The difference is that the one believes what God says about it and the other is not so sure. One would question that family keeping it calmly and peacefully, "Are you not afraid for that firstborn? Do you not know that God is going to smite the firstborn in the land of Egypt tonight from the firstborn of Pharaoh on the throne to the captive in the dungeon?" "Yes, we know it," they reply. "Are you not afraid?" "No." "Why not?" "God has said, 'When I see the blood I will pass over you.' We sprinkled the blood, and we know God means what He says."
Of those two houses one is as secure as the other. You ask the other family, "Why are you trembling so—so full of fear?" "Oh," they say, "do you not know that at midnight God is going to smite the firstborn?" "Yes, but have you not sprinkled the blood?" "Yes." "Has not God told you when He sees the blood, He will pass over you?" "Yes." "Then why are you so full of fear?" "Oh, but—" Oh, but what a difference there is in their faith in what God has said. That is the difference between peace and security—the difference between the unbelieving believer and the believing believer.
But there is the third house. There is no blood sprinkled; you look inside and there they all are keeping the feast in perfect order, not the least concerned—not the least afraid! You say to the head of the house, "Do you not know that at midnight God is going to pass through and smite the firstborn? Are you not afraid?" "Oh no, we are keeping the passover just as God commanded." "Has God said, 'When I see the blood, I will pass over you?' " The answer is, "We do not put so much stress on the blood; we are keeping the passover." When the destroyer comes through, both the sheltered houses are passed by, but the unsheltered one is smitten. Why? The two are under the shelter of the blood and the other is not! Keeping the passover unsheltered by the blood is dishonoring to God.
There is a fourth house: that will take in our own Egypt. There is no blood, and there is no eating the passover. You seek to warn and alarm. They say, "Oh, we do not believe any such stuff." When the midnight hour comes, the firstborn is smitten. One of the two smitten houses is the house of the ritualist and the other the house of the rationalist. The firstborn in each falls. One is keeping the passover perfectly as they ought to, but there is no blood there. The ritualist is no more sheltered by the blood than the rationalist!
God starts the believer out as Romans 8 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." But we must not stop by simply keeping the passover as it is kept in Egypt. We must go on to learn more and so we get other passages, especially the passage in the 28th of Numbers. This is the way we Christians should be keeping the passover not merely with a knowledge of security from judgment.
Read the firs, verse of the 28th of Numbers. These Scriptures suppose the children of Israel out of Egypt; they suppose them in the land really.
"And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering, and My bread for My sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savour...shall ye...offer unto Me in their due season." Then we get the daily offering, the sabbath offering, and the new meat offering. I think it is sweet there as God claims these offerings. He says, "My offerings and My bread." God's food is that by which the Christian is redeemed. All these sacrifices speak of Christ and the work of Christ. They are God's offerings and the bread of His offerings—what He Himself feeds upon. We know from other types He calls us to share with Him in His offerings—the offerings that are His.
In Leviticus we have the same thing: "My offerings"—"My sacrifices." After the daily offering, the sabbath offering and the monthly offering, we come down to the 16th verse, the passover. Read verses 16-22. How instructive that is! Not merely is Christ known in His death as the security—the hiding place— for the sinner, but he is sheltered from judgment because redemption is found through His blood. These offerings tell of every aspect of the work of Christ.
What does the "burnt offering" speak of? Why is it called "the burnt offering"? Just simply this: the whole was consumed except the hide which the priest got who offered it. It is Christ wholly devoted to God. It is the claims of the glory of God in connection with sin rather than the sinner's need as the first thought; God's glory is made good by the offering of Christ as the burnt offering. That offering was an offering of a sweet savour.
There are five offerings. In Leviticus we have the way in which God's redeemed people approach Him, so that book opens with five offerings. Three of those offerings are sweet savour offerings; the others are not, but what is said about the two others is not said about the three, or at least about two of them. The sweet savour offerings are the burnt offering, the meat offering, and the peace offering—all are sweet savour offerings. The other two that are not sweet savour offerings, or are not said to be so, are the sin and the trespass offerings. First, the glory of God is made good in the life and death of Christ. That is chapters 1 and 2. The third is the peace or communion offering—the believer in communion with God about that death of Christ that has glorified Him.
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." We do not stop there. We go on and learn, not what there is not, but what there is! We start out with what there is not, but we are learning all our lives what there is in Christ Jesus—first, under the shelter of the blood and then feeding upon the Lamb as the One roast with fire, but we do not stop there. We see what we have as security in Christ through His death and go on and see what God has.
There is another thing about the 12th of Exodus. Nothing was to be allowed to remain until the morning. If it were not eaten, it must be burned with fire. We find that all through Leviticus in different ways. After the set time, which was a little longer in connection with the peace offering or thanksgiving offering, it was not to be eaten, but burnt with fire. The peace offering was good for three days; the thanksgiving offering was not so long.
We are to learn a very solemn lesson from that space between the time when it was sacrificed and when that which was sacrificed could be accepted by God, really a sweet savour to Him, after which time to eat it was sin. Do not separate worship too far from the death of Christ, or it will lose its sweetness. Suppose we leave out the sacrifice of Christ in our praise, or it is too much separated from it? That is another solemn mark of this day. Observe in the most popular hymns how little there is of the sacrifice of Christ. We must keep the sense of our relationship in our souls founded upon the death of Christ and not separate our thanksgiving and praises from it, forgetting the ground of our relationship. The death of Christ is the ground of communion with God—peace with Him and communion with Him.
The first little hymn in the Little Flock Hymn Book:
"Of all the gifts Thy love bestows,
Thou Giver of all good!
Not heaven itself a richer knows
Than the Redeemer's blood."
This hymn does not separate praise too far from sacrifice, does it? That hymn of Watts':
"Not all the blood of beasts,
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away its stain.
"Our souls look back to see
The burden Thou didst bear
When hanging on th' accursed tree,
For all our guilt was there.
"Believing, we rejoice
To see the curse remove;
And bless the Lamb with cheerful voice
And sing redeeming love."
This hymn does not separate worship too far from the death of the victim.
Although the sin and trespass offerings are not said to be offerings of a sweet savour (the meat offering is), what is said about the meat, sin and trespass offerings is not said about the burnt or peace offerings. "It is most holy" is said of the meat, trespass and sin offerings. The meat offering is the Lord in His own holy nature—Manhood—most holy. When we see the Lord Jesus in Manhood, we see a most holy Man. Then when we see Him made sin and bearing sin, forsaken of God, we see One who is in that position who is most holy. God has guarded the Person of Christ in His Manhood and in His atoning work for sin and sinners by adding those words: "It is most holy." These types become exceedingly precious.
As the saint is meditating upon the Lord as the One consumed under the fire of God's judgment,-he says, "It was for me." That is the bitter herbs. The unleavened bread is separation from what is not agreeable to that truth. Leaven in Scripture is always evil. We read of the "leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy." We get leaven morally in the 5th of 1 Corinthians; doctrinally in the 5th of Galatians; then another kind of leaven of Herod. That was a mixture of the world and religion. The Herods were neither Jew nor Gentile. They were Idumaean; they came from Esau.
Deuteronomy 16 practically covers all. In a general way we read from Exodus 12 how the passover was to be kept and where it was to be kept. It was to be kept in the place in which God had been pleased to place His Name. That was in Jerusalem. All their males after a certain age had to go to Jerusalem three times a year. The first time was the passover; the second, Pentecost; and the third, the feast of tabernacles. They all come in this chapter.
Are you and I exercised—concerned—about where we keep the passover? not how, but where? There is a great deal of latitude about that thing. In how many places has the Lord been pleased to place His Name or in how many companies?
The Lord has been pleased to place His Name where the company makes His Name the center of their gathering. The Lord's presence is where the Lord's Name—the Lord Himself—is the Center. The test as to whether the Lord is with us personally is, is what is due to His Name maintained doctrinally and morally? First, who is He? He is the eternal Son of God. The Word was with God, and was God, by whom all things were made and without whom was not anything made that was made. The next thing is "The Word became flesh," the Deity and Manhood of Christ, the Deity and Humanity of Christ. The Everlasting One made flesh: that is to be maintained—the truth as to His miraculous birth. Those who deny that, deny His Name. Those who deny His divinity deny His Name. Those who deny practically or otherwise, the Headship and Lordship of Christ, deny His Name—what is due to Him from every point of view.
Deuteronomy 12:10-1510But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety; 11Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the Lord: 12And ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you. 13Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest: 14But in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee. 15Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart. (Deuteronomy 12:10‑15) presents a most important principle as to the where as well as the how. It may be difficult to find the place in these days where one's soul can be sure the Lord has been pleased to place His Name because there are many influences and many places but there is that portion in John's gospel: "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." The first necessary thing is, Do I really want to know where the Lord has been pleased to place His Name?
God chose to place His Name in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is not in the center of the land. The tribe at the extreme north of the land was much farther from Jerusalem than those at the south of the land, not east and west, for that was comparatively short; the land of Palestine is a strip. Ephraim and Benjamin are right around the temple, but look up where Naphtali and Zebulon are! What a journey they have to make! But they have to make it; they cannot bring Jerusalem to their tribes. That is important. It has cost those at the extreme ends of the land to come, and God takes that into account. There might be a number of persons in a meeting, and for some of them it is quite easy to get there and for others it is very difficult. The Lord notes as each one comes, where he comes from, and what it cost him to get there. That is very encouraging. In the 84th Psalm it says, "They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God." The margin says, "from company to company." As those from the extreme ends of the land start out, there are just a few, but they join others on the way, and as they near Jerusalem the company becomes larger; they go from company to company, and every one of them appears in Zion before God. That is the way I take that passage in Psalm 84.
As we consider all these things, we think how much time those people spent in the things of God: all those offerings and feasts three times in a year. We get these three feasts brought together in the 16th of Leviticus. Two of them the church of God is keeping: the feast of unleavened bread—"Christ our passover is sacrificed for us," and Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. The church too is waiting to keep the feast of tabernacles when the Lord comes, sometimes called the feast of ingathering.