Exodus 12:1-15; 1 John 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18-19
The Christian has two birthdays, and if he hasn’t two, he is not a Christian. The Christian has new birth—is born of God, and his history with God as one of His children, begins with redemption. “Redemption” is a large and blessed word in the New Testament, and in the Old too. Redemption takes the redeemed one out of one position and one state, and brings him into another.
“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.”
To whom was that day, that date, the beginning of months? Nobody else knew anything about it throughout the whole world.
We generally know the day of our first birth, but cannot always tell the date of the second. I do not think we can ever tell. From that word in John 3 no one knows.
“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”
Now, what we do know is, after a certain exercise of soul, when we have been brought into peace with God. That we know. We may know when we first come into the knowledge of this salvation. Then we know that we have been born again, which is the sovereign action of the Spirit of God.
“This day shall be unto you the beginning of months.”
It was a particular day—day of redemption. God brings souls into peace gradually. I think it important that we notice, in the case of the Lord Jesus giving life to the dead, there are three cases recorded and three only. Now, we know that to many that were blind He gave sight.
“Go and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised.”
Those three cases are selected cases, and selected for a purpose. The first is blind Bartimaeus. He hears a commotion as he sits by the way-side begging—an unusual commotion—and he asks, “What is this commotion?” The answer is, “Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.” Immediately he hears that, he says, “Jesus” (not of Nazareth) but “Son of David”; (what dignity!) Not “Jesus the Nazarene” but “Son of David, have mercy on me.” The Lord stands still, and commands the man to be brought. There are a number of details such as his casting away his garments, all instructive if one were preaching the gospel, but I don’t speak of that now. Those that went before, told him to be quiet, but so much the more he cried out,
“Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”
It is a picture of a soul thoroughly awakened as the one that can meet that need is passing his way. They can’t silence him. Presently they say, “Arise, be of good cheer, He calleth thee.” He, casting away his garments to get there as quickly as he can, comes and stands in the presence of the Son of David.
“What wilt thou?”
“Lord that I might receive my sight.”
“And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight.” He received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. What a decided work there!
Well, the next case is altogether different. A certain blind man brought to the Lord, and brought to the Lord in the city of Bethsaida. The Lord takes him by the hand and leads him out of the town and when He has him out of the town, He operates and asks the man if he sees aught. He looked up and said,
“I see men as trees walking.” Light is dawning, but it is very indistinct. The Lord operates again, and he sees every man clearly. There is a soul gradually brought into the light; not like Bartimeaus who received it at once.
The third is altogether different from that. That isn’t a blind man calling out, and, not one being brought, but there the Lord is passing by, and He sees a man born blind. He goes to that man and spits on the ground and makes clay of the spittle and puts it on his eyes and says,
“Go and wash in the pool of Siloam.” Why that? That is blessedly instructive. We are born blind. We are all in the dark as to God until we get sight. Our thoughts of Him are that His is “an austere man, gathering where He had not strawed, and reaping where He had not sown.” Why does the Lord act in that peculiar way? He is teaching in all those things. Why send him to the pool of Siloam to wash? The man said,
“I went and washed and received sight.” “A man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and I went and washed and received sight.”
What is the meaning of Siloam, We are told in the passage it is “Sent.” Just as soon as I get the truth that God sent His Son into the world to be the Saviour of the world, “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved,” the darkness is gone. I may have known something about the God who spoke to His people at Sinai, giving them the law, and I may have a sense in my soul that I haven’t kept it, but when I see He sent His Son to be my Saviour, the darkness is all gone and I get the “true light.”
One thing was true of all: They were all blind. One thing was true of all: They all received their sight. Not in the same way, but by the same blessed Person. There we have the way in which God deals with souls.
Take the cases of the dead raised. There are three recorded cases, because in Scripture three is fullness of testimony; not only competent but fullness. What is the first? It is a young girl twelve years of age, beautiful, we will say, in death—just died. “Trouble not the Master, thy daughter is dead.” The Lord goes to her and says,
“Talitha cumi, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.” And she arose straightway, and He commanded to give her food. All natural.
What is the next? The next is not a young girl, nor a young woman, who had just died, but a young man dead, and on the way to the grave. The Lord meets the funeral procession, and is touched by the tears of that widowed mother. He is the only son of a widowed mother. It says, “He was moved with compassion.” He went to her and said,
“Weep not.” They that bear the bier stood still. “I say unto thee, youth, arise.” And he sat up and He restored him to his mother. He was not only dead, but on the way to the grave.
What is the third? That is one dead, in the grave and stinking, Lazarus.
“Lord, by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four days.”
“Lazarus, come forth, and he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes.”
Now, what do we have there? One thing characterized the three. What was that? Everyone was dead. No difference. It is true one hadn’t been dead as long as the other—one not as far in corruption as the other, but all were dead. What was the outcome? All alive and all got life from the same blessed Person.
Of late that has been precious to my soul, those three selected cases from many. “There is no difference, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” That young girl just dead, yes, but she is dead. That young man on the way to the grave is dead, and as dead as Lazarus who has been in the grave four days. There is no difference in that way.
Suppose Brother F. owed 60 pence and I owed 500 pence and neither of us has anything to pay. He has to go to prison for his debt as much as I, and according to the law, stay there until it is paid. He has to stay there as long as I, because he can’t pay it, and I can’t either. The Lord as much as said to Simon, you are both bankrupt and have nothing to pay. I think that is very blessed.
(To be continued)