Ex. 12
ON the Paschal night, when Jehovah struck the firstborn of the Egyptians, and passed over those of Israel, a groundwork was laid for the deliverance of Israel from their bondage to Pharaoh: a lively image of Christ, the Passover sacrificed for us; for we were slaves of Satan, as Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was prince of this world, and the -people of God his bondmen. But God was taking notice of the state of His people, visiting them, and about to deliver them.
Jehovah said, " I will pass through the land As Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am Jehovah. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: 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 ". (vv. 12, 13).
This was not the DELIVERANCE of Israel, like the passage of the Red Sea, but it was the ground of it; and of the two the Passover was really the more solemn morally, though then Red Sea displayed God's saving power more gloriously on behalf of His people and against their foes.
But on the Paschal night it was a question, how God could pass over the guilty, even if His people; and the blood of the lamb sprinkled on Israel's door-posts declared that.
God, though expressly judging, could not touch those screened thereby. His truth and justice were stayed and satisfied before that blood. The destroyer was kept from entering.
Not an Israelite perished within the blood-sprinkled lintels. It was a question of arresting God's judgment here, of destroying Satan's power in the type of the Red Sea; but the blood of Christ laid the foundation for the-victory displayed in His resurrection.
Once the Red Sea is crossed, Israel are pursued no more. They are redeemed, they can sing. It was not so when they supped on the lamb in Egypt, yet were they screened' from God's judgment of their evil. Their-deliverance from Pharaoh followed.
“But must not I see the blood?" says many a distressed soul.
It is well for me to estimate its value aright and growingly, but no person could have solid peace on this ground. Nor was it what God told His people. It was indeed a token to them; but their assurance was built on this, that “when I [Jehovah] see the blood, I will pass over you.”
The Israelite's business was not to look at it for his safety, but to keep within the shelter of the sprinkled blood to which God had thus pledged Himself. It is He who sees the blood, and passes over. God alone estimates perfectly the blood of the Lamb; and faith means not our estimate of it, BUT OUR CONFIDENCE IN HIM.
The blood is the token which recalls to us, the love of God, as well as His righteousness; but what is shed for sin looks to God, and is for God to look on.
Christ, then, presents God to us under three aspects:
(1) His righteousness, that strikes the Substitute for us;
(2) His love, that provides the Lamb for us;
(3) His glory, that has raised Him up from the dead when all was clear for us. There is thus ENTIRE DELIVERANCE. We are in Christ before God. The greatest expression of divine hatred of sin is found in His cross.
The stroke of judgment fell; the thunder and lightning are exhausted; the sky is pure and calm for those who BELIEVE. J. N. D.