The fact is remarkable that while the Passover month was to be henceforward the first in the year to the people of Israel, the lamb was not appointed to be slain on the first day of that month. One might almost have supposed that Jehovah would have commenced the new reckoning with the great fact of redemption. Yet this is what we read in Exodus 12:3, “Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb.” Ten days were thus to run their course ere the victim was drawn from the flock for death.
Numbers are used in Holy Scripture with divine significance The frequent occurrence of “seven” and “twelve” in the book of God is sufficient to suggest this to every observant reader. This is scarcely the place in which to show the meaning of all the numerals divinely employed; for our present purpose it is enough to say that “ten” represents the full measure of human responsibility. Thus we have ten commandments in Exodus 20, ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13, and ten pounds in Luke 19:13. The ten days of Exodus 12:3 speak to us therefore of the ages of responsibility (or probation) which ran their course ere God sent forth His beloved Son to be the Lamb of God, the taker away of the sin of the world.
The preceding ages of responsibility were divinely designed to teach men their deep need of a Savior, that thus they might be disposed to welcome Him with adoring appreciation at His appearing. Taking Archbishop Usher’s chronology (which cannot, however, be insisted upon) men were being thus disciplined during forty centuries. During that long period God’s ways with His fallen creatures varied considerably. Until Noah’s day men had the testimony of creation and the voice of conscience. No Scriptures existed, and there was neither sovereign nor magistrate to call evil-doers to account. The end was the Deluge, the earth having become full of corruption and violence. When Noah and his sons were re-established in the cleansed earth, God set up the principle of human government (Gen. 9:6)-a merciful provision intended as a curb upon wickedness. This quickly failed; Noah’s drunkenness, Nimrod’s tyranny, the building of the tower of Babel, and the idolatry which soon covered the earth proving only too sadly that magistracy (however excellent as an institution) is inefficient as applied to so rebellious a being as man.
Later there was the giving of the law, with its solemn “Thou shalt not’s,” and its accompanying threats and curses for all who were disobedient thereto. The law was given to Israel only (Ex. 20:2; Psa. 147:19—20); for God would demonstrate in that nation the moral condition of flesh everywhere. The commandments had scarcely gone forth from Jehovah’s lips before the first was violated by the setting up of the golden calf and this was but the commencement of a long history of transgression culminating at last in the murder of the Son of Man, who was constrained by lawless men to tread the same path of blood as all others who had ever sought to bring God before their consciences. The parable of the husbandmen in Matthew 21:33-46 declares the wretched story vividly.
Thus men proved, during forty centuries, that under every variety of circumstances and conditions there was nothing but evil in their hearts. This terrible fact having been fully demonstrated, God sent forth His Son. “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). God’s “due time” is set forth typically in “the tenth day” of Exodus 12:3. Oh, that men everywhere understood the lesson of it, for then would they renounce all pretension to goodness and strength in themselves, and glory in Christ alone!