Exod. 12:1-15 Pet. 1:18, 19
What is the character of the second book of the Bible? Redemption. In the third chapter we find the blessed God come down in the burning bush, and He says to Moses, "I am come down to deliver." "I have... seen... and have heard... and I am come down." Go to the end of Exodus, 33rd verse of the 40th chapter. What have we there? God dwelling in the midst of His redeemed people, pitching His habitation among them. We get in the 12Th and 15th chapters, the way in which He did it. The first thing was to shelter that people from judgment. That could only be done by the blood of the Lamb. The first thing God gives a soul to know when really exercised, is security from judgment under the blood of Christ, but we must not stop there.
Look at the first of Ephesians-just a word, speaking of Christ as the Beloved. 7th verse, "In whom" (that is, Christ the Beloved) "we have redemption." How far does that go? "the forgiveness of sins." Now go to the second chapter, 12Th verse, "without God in the world," "without Christ." I trust that it is not the condition of any who read this article. "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Don't you see there are two things there. First the forgiveness of sins. That redemption we have in Christ through His blood, brings with it the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. It also gives something else: takes me out of the old condition, and gives me a place of nearness to God Himself. You see the difference there. One is in advance of the other, so we must not stop with being secured from judgment.
That blood on the two side posts and the lintel, told that death had come in. It told the stroke had fallen on a victim-a life had been given. There is another thing in that passage we read in 1 Peter. "Forasmuch as ye know." The Christian knows what? That he is redeemed. According to Scripture it is the normal condition of the Christian. There are those who have faith in the Lord Jesus, who do not know much about the blood-about being covered. That was my own experience. I accepted the Lord Jesus, but did not know my security or much about the blood until later on. I think there are those who are saved, though they do not have the full assurance of it at first.
What is the force of that word in the 13th verse of the 12Th of Exodus, "The blood shall be to you for a token"? God sees the blood, but it is my seeing it that brings me into peace. The blood speaks to the soul inside, and wards off the stroke outside. It is the soul seeing the blood for himself that brings into the knowledge of safety.
In connection with the children, when they asked what was meant by this service, they were told how to answer them. In Exodus the 3rd chapter, God had come down, and what had brought Him down? It was the bondage, misery, groaning and oppression of His people. I have "heard," I have "seen"-that had brought Him down to deliver. There He appears in the midst of the burning bush.
Now open to the 1St of Leviticus and compare that with the 3rd of Exodus. "God called unto him Moses out of the midst of the bush," in Exodus. In Leviticus, "The Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation." What a contrast! That gives the character to those two books. God came down to deliver. After He delivers, He sets His habitation in the midst of His people. Out of the midst of that habitation He appears and tells them how to approach Him. The subject of Exodus is redemption. The subject of Leviticus is the redeemed drawing near to God the Redeemer. There is more order in the Word of God than people think. It is not brought together at random.
What is the character of the book of Numbers? It is the wilderness journey. It is a redeemed people, and they are not in Egypt nor in Canaan, but in the wilderness, but journeying on to it. Egypt behind, Canaan before, and they in the wilderness. Now, that is the book of Numbers.
What is the book of Deuteronomy? That answers to the judgment seat of Christ. "Thou shalt remember all the way," etc. We will have a rehearsal when we get into our Canaan, and before we have entered fully into it. We Christians have a Deuteronomy before we get into the land, too. We are in Numbers. Redemption has brought us into Numbers. We know all the way God has led us since He brought us out of Egypt. "Thou shalt remember," etc. It must have been very humiliating as Moses called their attention to all their ways. But as it humbled them, it magnified the grace and goodness of God, and that is what our Deuteronomy will do, too. There was some reason for this being given to them. "And this day shall be unto you for 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." Exod. 12:14.
The feast lasted seven days. That and the passover are distinct, but the feast is founded on the passover, and it is the feast of the passover. The passover is an accomplished fact. "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." The feast is not an accomplished fact. We are keeping it now. It won't be an accomplished fact until we get into the land. When we get to heaven, we shall have gotten through with the feast of the passover. How happy it would be for us, beloved brethren, if we realized more fully that the present dispensation for the Christian is the feast of the passover. The Church of God is keeping two of the seven feasts now. It is keeping the feast of the passover and the feast of Pentecost. The feast of Pentecost began in the 2nd of Acts, the coming of the Holy Spirit.
In the 16th of Deuteronomy we find three feasts separated from the seven which are given in other parts of Scripture. Those three are the feast of the passover, the feast of Pentecost, and the feast of Tabernacles at the end of the year. The Church is keeping the feast of the passover and Pentecost, and is going to keep the feast of Tabernacles. The feast of Tabernacles is a feast characterized by two things: rest and joy. All God's people, earthly and heavenly, will keep the feast of Tabernacles together. It is a feast characterized by rest and joy, and remembrance of God's ways with us.
In the days of Nehemiah, after the remnant returned from the captivity, when there was a happy returning to the Word of God, they kept the feast of Tabernacles, but they did it according to God in a way it had never been kept since the days of Joshua. These people went up the mountains and brought down branches of trees and made themselves tents-a practical reminder of God's ways with them. I think that beautiful. Since the days of Joshua it had not been done. Not that they had not kept the feast since then, but not in that way, getting away from all comforts and all that.