In the dealings of God with an earthly people there are many important samples given of what sovereign grace is, and what it provides as to evil and good; so that freedom from the former may with positive certainty be known, and decided blessing in the latter enjoyed. That souls are rarely to be found thus blessed cannot be denied. Hence it is desirable to see that truth is calculated by the blessing of God to establish them in divine grace, and lead them to peace, joy, and satisfaction in God Himself:
The first thing that Jehovah gave the children of Israel was “Shelter from Judgment” —all-important then for them, and for souls now, to be established in. The question of the judgment of a sin-hating God should be, yea is, a settled thing to faith, so that it never rightly can be raised again. Let it be clearly understood that this is what God willed and God provided when taking up even an earthly people. The truth recorded in Ex. 12 declares that Israel had no real standing with Jehovah till then. Indeed, only from this memorable Passover did they date their history; as it is written, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months.” If Israel thus started with God, the unmistakable voice to man by it is, that nothing can give any soul a recognized beginning with God except what that never-to-be-forgotten time set forth. Whatever their previous life, this definite statement acted like the flaming sword, turning every way; all went for nothing until God raised the question of sin, and Himself provided for its settlement.
Weigh this well, dear reader: let nothing keep you from facing it fully, so that there may be a sound and solid start with God. That He is the Judge of sin, that all are alike sinners before Him, is clearly shown in His dealings with Israel; moreover that there was no difference as to this between them and the Egyptians until the Lord Himself made it in grace.
This important fact should ever be borne in mind lest any experience, past, present, or future, should be used to displace the sovereign grace of God in its adequate provision for the soul. Note then the solemn attitude that God takes at the outset. He declared that He would pass through the land of Egypt and by His destroying angel smite without distinction wherever His appointed provision was not appropriated. Hence to escape the judgment already pronounced was the all-absorbing point. To be occupied with any other object, when the destroying angel was at the door, would have been worse than madness. If such was the state of things in Israel's day when types and shadows spoke most closely, is the lesson less distinct in the day when man's moral end is come? Scripture declares that Jew and Gentile are equally sinners under condemnation; yea all are guilty before God, and subject to judgment (see Romans 3:1919Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (Romans 3:19)).
Further, it is also written that “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)). The truth and circumstances of Egypt in the past and those of the world today are in reality one, so that what Israel needed in type man really needs; and for this God has provided in the Antitype. The obedience of faith only is wanting to use the bounteous remedy for escape from judgment. But alas! alas! to start with God about his sins is the last thing man thinks of; yet only thus will God have to do with him. Jehovah alone appointed the means of shelter for Israel, by telling them to “Take to them every man a lamb” —one without blemish, which was to be kept up from the tenth day until the fourteenth day, and then between the two evenings to be killed. Associated with this was the appointment of what would meet Jehovah's eye: hence the command to “Take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts, and on the upper door posts of the houses,” adding “The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are.” This was crowned with the significant words, ever to be noted by the reader, “And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.”
A clear emphatic statement by which the Lord Himself pledged the safety of all who were beneath the virtue of the sprinkled blood. True, the experience and feelings of the sheltered ones within might be most varied, either as to the solemn judgment, or the provision in its divinely assured power to deliver from it. But the word had gone forth, the word of the living God; and hence it was strictly fulfilled. The blood, and God's word accepted respecting it, formed a sure meeting place, with the blessed result that not an Israelite perished, whereas into every house of the Egyptians death entered. So began the history of God's earthly people, who could rest in perfect peace, knowing that His eye saw the blood, which was both their safeguard and the ground of all their future blessing.
The glorious Antitype to Israel's lamb is now no longer God's reserve, but is set forth as “The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” The answer He is to the early statement, “God will provide Himself a lamb” —in due time to become the victim to die for sin and sinners. He it is of Whom the Gospel of John blessedly speaks as the Word that was with God, yea, was God. He was “the only begotten of the Father,” yet “made flesh.” it is the very One who in chapter 3 speaks of Himself as the Son of Man Who must be lifted up; weighty words, declaring the inexorable claims of holiness, and the desperate need of man, both of which significantly met in the cross of Christ. There love and holiness shine, where all that was due to sin spent itself upon the spotless Person of Jesus, the Lamb slain, fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but now manifested. Not only so, but God has raised Him from the dead and given Him glory, the abiding proof that all claims are met, so that the question of sin cannot again be raised, seeing that the Lamb of the altar is in the presence of God where sin cannot be.
In the application for Israel's safety, it has been shown that they took a lamb, then slew it, and sprinkled the blood upon the houses where they were. But it is not so for souls in this day of the full light of the gospel of God, when Christ has not only come and died, but entered heaven, having obtained eternal redemption. Indeed, since Christ has gone in, God has come out in the fullness and freeness of His grace, taking the place of the Justifier, as Romans 3 clearly shows that He is both Just and Justifier of all who believe in Jesus. Instead of the blood on the lintel, and God the righteous Judge shut out, the righteousness of God is declared in justifying freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, God Himself setting forth Christ as the “Propitiatory” by faith in His blood, the all-sufficient, yea bounden reason for so acting toward the believer. Thus, whether the sins of believers in the past ages, or the sins of believers in the present time, they all find a free, full, and everlasting pardon through the precious blood of Christ. And can we wonder that it should be so, when the eye of a holy God and the faith of the poor trembling soul in its conscious guilt, rest upon the blood—the blood of God's own Son?
This is the way souls are called upon to begin their history, having the question of their sins forever settled, knowing God to be the Justifier, and that in perfect consistency with the rights and majesty of His throne. Is this the happy case of the reader, assured of having started with God? Short of this there can only be the dread of God, Who is ever the Judge of sin, rather than present peace founded on the unchanging value of the blood of Christ, shed and accepted once for all.
God grant that souls may rest where He Himself rests, to the honor and praise of Jesus their Savior, and the glory of His grace. G.G.