Ex. 12.
THOUGH God appeared to have ensured (from the first two verses in the chapter) a continual remembrance of the Passover, yet we find Israel frequently told that it must be a continual thing, as chap. 13:5, 10. Though everything was to take its count from that Feast, and it was to be “the beginning of months unto them,” yet they are often reminded to keep it.
The truth that presses on my mind in connection with this, is the distinct character of remembrance God has affixed to the Feast. (1 Cor. 5) “Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the Feast,” &c. “This do in remembrance of Me.”
There is no injunction, after the first celebration of the Passover, to have the sprinkling of the blood again, for God to look at and be appeased by. It was never repeated. It was done once on the door posts and lintels in Egypt, and done forever: and the power of that is clear to all our hearts.
You have another place fixed in chapter 13:9― “the hands, eyes, mouth.” It was once affixed to the place of abode, and it was a place of safety forever; but after that first blood-shedding, it was never again put on the doors. It is easy to discern the propriety of this; no deliverance was afterward to be gained, they were never in Egypt again. They were the freed men of God forever; that would show the propriety of the silence of Scripture about it.
There is not a single word in Scripture as to how the sacrifices were brought in: they come in in silence. We find Adam, after he sinned, clothed in “coats of skins,” and Cain and Abel spoken to as if they had heard of it before; and this is the wonderful and clear way in which God shows us His mind. Sin comes in, and sacrifice comes also in as a matter of essential necessity; we are left without a question that blood must come in between Adam and God.
God has had His portion in everything from everlasting. We ought to have more understanding of the bosom of the Father, and that which has origin there; more acquaintance with what is going on in heaven. This is, in fact, the distinguishing characteristic between Israel and the church. They had to do with outward enemies, we with hidden ones―with the principalities and powers in heavenly places. We are to be occupied now with what is going on up there; assuredly, the fullness of salvation has called us to it. If our hearts were more familiar with this, there would be more power in worship; but we are, alas! more occupied with the things of earth than the things of heaven.
The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper is especially typified by the Passover. It is an ordinance of remembrance. Whenever there is a thing to be remembered by God, it is a thing of perfection―a complete thing, not of progression at all.
The great power of the ministration of the Holy Ghost to us is in bringing to remembrance. There is where we are cheated of our reward; we have not ability to remember the things freely given to us of God. All the power of the world and of our failure, is set against us to prevent this remembrance: for instance, we are often filled with other thoughts; and one great end of such, is to weaken our remembrance of what is done for us in Christ.
“The worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.” (Heb. 10:22For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. (Hebrews 10:2).) There is a great difference between a conscience and consciousness of sin. The former would be dreadful, but I ought to have a consciousness of sin. The place of memorial now is in our habitations, the blood having been shed once, and forever―shed once, and perfected forever―we should bear about this stupendous sacrifice day by day. We show forth no new death, but we want to remember the Lord’s death constantly, and what we are made in consequence of what He suffered. It should be a sign upon everything we put our hands to, “a memorial between the eyes,” for there never will be a separation from that blood-shedding.
“That the Lord’s law may be in thy mouth.” If this is not the case, if I am not able night and day to be telling forth of the Lamb slain, why is it? Because the Passover is not remembered by me. They were to be able to answer every enquirer in time to come, and this is the sort of thing Satan would cheat us of. Do we remember that there was one deliverance from Egypt? once the manifesting the memorial to man and to God, and now, it is to be on our hands and on our mouth.
“Let us keep the Feast,” &c. (1 Cor. 5) makes it most definite that this is the character of this Dispensation. We are in the Passover, the Lord’s Passover. God’s ability to pass over Israel in their habitations, made it a Feast to the Lord. The Passover was a Feast of fat things to God. They kept it, but to the Lord. It was a joyful day in Egypt, but it was a greater Feast to Him than to them.
The preciousness of the Blood of Jesus is ever blessed before Him―the Lamb who was slain; and knowing that, all that is marked upon me is blessed. Is my hand in all its acting’s, bearing this impress? Am I pleasing God? or am I thinking of sin to be put away? There should be the power of walking with a cleansed conscience, therefore the connection “Holding faith, and a good conscience.” (1 Tim. 1)
True worship is connected with having no more conscience of sins. Is it to be sprinkled in virtue of what He is doing now? No! it is an utter mistake. I am afraid that in many a heart there is a serious and radical defect on this point―looking at the work of Jesus now, as savoring of that which was His work when He shed His precious blood. Therefore supposing themselves without the door, while the blood was inside the house.
“By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” Hence we may have settled, happy confidence in the remembrance of His death―the perfection of what He did, and what He was― and we are thus led into the heavenly places as contemplators of the scene there, ―and should be able to bring down tidings to each other of what is passing in the heart of the Father and of the Son.
We are indeed very strangers to intimacy there, and yet we are there.
Why is there failure? Because the true character of remembrance is not the sufficient food of our hearts. The Lord stir us up to examine more these things.