IT has been seen that God's sabbath of rest depended on the person and work of His beloved Son, in order that others might share it. It will be no less clear that the sacrifice of Christ alone settles the question of sin, and gives souls a new beginning with God, as well as a holy and righteous title to present peace and coming rest.
The Passover, whether looked at as following or apart from the Sabbath, ranks first in importance even in the typical order. This Israel as a nation had already been taught in their start with Jehovah. Ex. 12 speaks minutely of their appointed beginning with the sacrifice and shed blood of the Paschal Lamb. This was the only ground of difference between them and the Egyptians, as well as the exclusive means of escaping the righteous judgment of God. Typically it raised the question of sin, and settled it on behalf of the guilty who bowed.
Their part was obedience to the divine command; to sprinkle the blood of the slain lamb upon the lintel and side-posts of their houses, and inside to eat its roasted flesh with bitter herbs. Thus, and only so, were they secure from the destroying angel, who, seeing the sprinkled blood, passed over them as assuredly marked off for Jehovah's mercy.
Judgment being settled, the feast of Unleavened Bread, in its most important connection, follows. But the typical appointment of the Passover remains in the order of the Feasts of Jehovah, as well as its blessed and perfect antitype, for the believer in this day. The lamb slain and the blood sprinkled, on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month, laid the foundation of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, as with it came the hour of solemn judgment executed on the Egyptians. It may well be spoken of as a night to be long remembered. Indeed the Passover was instituted, to be kept henceforth by Israel as a memorial throughout their generations. It was observed in Egypt, the place of judgment, enjoined upon them in the wilderness, and kept by them on their entrance into Canaan, under the very walls of Jericho. In the course of their national history the keeping of the Passover retained its fundamental significance.
Alas! like all other divine appointments, it was neglected, though revived from time to time when the power of the written word called them to Jerusalem to keep this feast. When they were under the empire of the Romans, their going up to Jerusalem to keep the Passover is frequently spoken of in connection with Jesus. He who came according to promise and prophecy, and proved His presence by many signs of power and grace, was despised and rejected with hatred even unto death. That hate was willfully carried out, in the full energy of flesh and Satan, when the Lord Jesus spoke of keeping the last Passover with His disciples.
So Luke 22 solemnly declares when the precious details were gone into by Him who knew all from the beginning to the end, with the crowning fact that He who was about to become the antitype to Israel's paschal lamb touchingly said, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer.” His sufferings were in obedience unto death, even the death of the cross; His body given and His blood shed, when He through the eternal Spirit offered Himself as the spotless victim to God.
Then again, as the one and only true sacrifice, when suffering on the cross the righteous judgment of God due to sin, He became the antitype of the paschal lamb; yea, the Lamb of God, to bear away the sin of the world. There, in and by Him, judgment was exhausted when, so to speak, the action of the fire spent itself on Him who knew no sin and yet was made sin, suffering once for sins, Just for unjust. This being once and forever accomplished, it is no longer Israel's feast pointing onward to Christ; for the appointed Savior has not only come and died, but God has raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand: the proof that the question of sin is settled, leaving no further offering for sin.
Indeed, Rom. 3 plainly states how and by what means God showed His forbearance in “passing over” believers in the past through the blood of His Son. Now it is added that He is just and the “justifier” of him that believes on Jesus. Moreover, the apostle Peter writes, giving peaceful certainty in the knowledge of present redemption by the precious blood of Christ, who was without blemish or spot. Such was the Lamb fore-ordained before the world was, or sin entered it, but manifested for all that by Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, that their faith and hope might be in God (1 Peter 1:19-2119But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. (1 Peter 1:19‑21)): an advance truly on the type of the slain lamb, with its sprinkled blood, which shut God the Judge out. For the believer is now cleansed and justified by God through faith of Jesus in redemption with the added proof of the Lamb risen and in glory.
The Passover having run its typical course, and redemption being accomplished by Christ the Lamb of God, the feast of Unleavened Bread necessarily follows in its intimate connection, as will be seen both in type and antitype. On the same evening as the Passover, Israel was commanded to keep the feast for a whole week, in both a negative and a positive way. No leaven was to be allowed in their houses, and from the fourteenth till the one-and-twentieth day of the month, they were to eat unleavened bread. Already, on the night of the Passover, had they eaten of the roasted lamb, unleavened bread and bitter herbs, with feet shod, loins girded, and staff in hand, ready to quit the place of slavery. Henceforward they must shape their ways and feed on what God their Savior appointed for them. It was no question of choice or opinion on their part. Jehovah's mind was clear and express: no leaven allowed through all the seven days, and only unleavened bread to be eaten. To neglect either would involve, not only the loss of privilege, but cutting off from the congregation. None could with impunity despise the appointed memorial that Jehovah brought them out of Egypt, as He declared: “Therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever.”
This is confirmed when again commanded in Deut. 16, where obedience is laid down in view of entering Canaan, to which is added the place of Jehovah's choice, where the Feasts should be kept, as well as the unleavened bread should be eaten (as the bread of affliction). Leavened bread was absolutely excluded. “Neither shall any of the flesh which thou sacrificedst the first day at even remain all night until the morning.” The lamb's flesh must not become ordinary food but be treated as holy.
Thus is shown the intimate connection of these two feasts, in privilege and responsibility as clearly appears in the antitype. Indeed, 1 Cor. 5 will at once manifest the way the Spirit of God applies it both to awaken the church of God at Corinth to its slighted privilege, losing the sense and object of the sacrifice of Christ, and also to the holy obedience proper thereto in the exclusion of all leaven. He who laid down what Israel should do, and what they should not do, fully understood its significance, and it was only for them to obey His word in the way and time appointed. Now that Christ, the antitype, has come, it is no longer the shadow or figure of truth, but the abiding reality made good by Him in and by whom God was perfectly glorified at the cross, where the leaven of evil was fully judged, and holiness as well as righteousness everlastingly established.
Such is the mighty sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb, who maintained what God is, and met all that His people needed. Hence it cannot be wondered at that such a death should be the God-given basis of life in holiness and truth. To allow sin, which leaven implied, defiled the assembly at Corinth, and testified that holiness in practice was wanting. But this is to deny what the death of Christ claimed in life, walk, and associations. Therefore they were not keeping the antitypical feast of unleavened bread; for known leaven was allowed in their midst. Being truly a redeemed people, they were unleavened before God; and such was their obligation to be as an assembly before the world. Hence they must put out the leaven, as it is written, “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed [for us], therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:7, 87Purge 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: 8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:7‑8)).
Clearly here the combined feasts of Ex. 12 have their practical antitype, and explain their intention as to purity of walk and conduct, measured by Christ and His sacrifice, where holiness and truth were seen, and maintained in perfection, to the glory of God, for life and salvation to His people. Infinite is the grace to be thus bound up with the person and work of Christ, so as to have a holy and righteous beginning with the living and true God, and a secured title to eternal bliss and glory. No less, throughout the complete earthly pilgrimage as set forth in the seven days, are we to keep the feast, guarding against all evil on the one hand, and walking in the fear of God and true sanctification on the other, whilst we cherish that deliverance known by the death of Christ, God's own Lamb, the foundation of all.