The passing over of Jehovah, when He smote the firstborn of the Egyptians and delivered His people from the slavery of Pharaoh, is an image of our deliverance; for we were slaves of Satan, the prince of this world, and have now in Christ redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Such is what the condition of the sons of Israel in Egypt represented, when God intervened at the passover.
In one sense Satan has right over us as sinners; and God as righteous is against us, for God had said to man, In the day that thou eatest thereof [that is, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] thou shalt surely die. Thus Satan can accuse men. But more: Satan says on the contrary, Ye shall not surely die. Your case is not so entirely ruined as Christians say. Satan is always the same liar. God, who is true and just, cannot say to the sinner as such, Thou shalt not die. But to deliver us it is necessary that He should maintain truth and righteousness, and take full account of sin. So too it is necessary that we should own our sins and bow to His judgment of all in the cross.
Pharaoh had power enough to keep the Israelites, because they were accustomed to slavery and to a hard slavery. Pharaoh had no true rights any more than Satan, who meanwhile deceives men. Such is the state of this world, that the higher one's position is in the world, the more is one its slave. A poor man can do many things in the street without being on his guard. The rich dare not wound social habits or usages. Our will contributes also to our slavery. If he told us that we are directed, controlled, fast bound by Satan, we should not agree to it. In fact he employs the things of the world to ensnare us into sin. Judas was drawn into his worst sin because he loved money. Satan entered into him to harden his conscience and to strengthen him to go on. in sin, taking away from him at last all hope of God's mercy. Thus there is first lust; then Satan furnishes the occasion and the means of satisfying it; then he enters the man. Again, he prompts to throw the blame of the sin on others; just as Adam said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat, making an excuse from his heart for the evil his hand had done.
In Egypt Israel becomes the object of controversy between God and Pharaoh who represents Satan. You have no right, says the enemy, to claim them: they are sinners. This is too true. For, “All have sinned.” Man then must own in the most complete and absolute manner the justice of God which condemns him. If one is convinced of being lost, impossible not to seek salvation—perhaps blindly; but one seeks it every time that conscience is aroused. Without this men say that God is good, that is, that God should take no account of sin. But ought God to turn heaven into what the world is? And is not this what would be if sin were to enter there? Could man give a measure to indicate to what length one might go, and how much one might safely sin? But our consciences also accuse us and tell us that we cannot get rid of sin. Now sin, when it is finished or full grown, brings forth death.
God has already been dishonored by sin; and in this world God is still from day to day thus dishonored. Here on earth is there a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men, of that which dishonors God. It is here they see Satan degrading the whole creation.
Jehovah said, Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. But He secured His people from judgment by the blood of the Lamb. For us Christ is the paschal lamb sacrificed for our sins. “And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Our faith rests on God's estimate of His precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. There is our passover. If the blood is on the door-post, can I see it? This is not the point. In faith I put it there; but God sees it. My affair is to keep within the shelter of the blood in whose virtue I believe.
Once the Red Sea was crossed, there was no more pursuit of Israel. They were set free. This was deliverance for the people—not blood only but resurrection by power according to the purposes of God's love, that His people might now sing for joy. The blood met God's eye as Judge; the Red Sea crossed was the death and resurrection of Jesus which annulled Satan's power and delivered those who had been in thralldom. “Thus Jehovah saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.”
Christ is presented to us under three aspects:
1. The blood of the lamb sprinkled on the doorposts staid the judgment of God by the destroyer. In His grace toward sinners God provided the Lamb; but His blood was shed for sins as a propitiation which met His holy nature and His righteous character who could not pass over sin with the least allowance. Faith looks to God's value for Christ's blood on our behalf He was glorified in all His moral being even as to sin in the cross of the Son of man. (John 13)
2. But there must be the eating of the lamb. “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. 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 is no question here of having an appetite for the lamb's flesh. Doubtless he who has an appetite enjoys more, and so much the worse for him who has little appetite. But this is not a condition for eating the lamb. The unleavened bread is the essential accompaniment, His person sinless and holy; and His life is ours as we are called thenceforward to walk as He walked. The Israelites were also to eat of the lamb “with bitter herbs,” as we cannot believe in Christ without repentance toward God. When the Spirit recalls to us what we are, there cannot but be bitter self-judgment as we feed on Christ. And while we are in the world, we cannot let our habits flow freely. The loins were to be girded, shoes on the feet, staff in the hand. Pharaoh would pursue. Israel was still in Egypt. It was rest neither for God nor for His people as yet. They were to be pilgrims and strangers, but no longer slaves for Pharaoh.
3. The Red Sea crossed, Christ is risen in figure before God. Sweet thought! The deliverance is complete in the eyes of God. We have Christ risen and before Him. The deepest expression of God's judgment of sin is in the cross of Christ; and now He is risen. The thunderbolt has fallen. For the unbeliever the divine judgment on sin is exhausted. Heaven is pure and calm; and we, having Christ as our life and united to Him by the Holy Spirit, are of heaven, not of the world.
Whenever God called a people, it was to be the “habitation of God.” It was not so in Paradise. God came to have intercourse with Adam, but not to dwell in Adam; for this he must have had the knowledge of good and evil. Thus in Ex. 29, when Israel were brought out of Egypt, they were to be the habitation of God. In Eph. 2 we have our place in Christ before God, and God has His place in us before men.