“This night thy soul shall be required of thee.”―Luke 12:20. “I will pass through the land of Egypt this night.”―Ex. 12:12.
“THE ground of a certain rich man,” says the Lord Jesus, “brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”
Dear reader, such was the history of one whose mind, and heart, and thoughts, and affections, were so engrossed with this world, that he had omitted God in his calculations. Entirely occupied with himself, and his interests, determined to make the best of this world and what it contained, he would seem to have forgotten God, and His existence altogether. His eyes were upon the earth; everything went well with him; of money he had plenty; his property was his own, and his crops were abundant. Occupied solely with these things, his one thought was to make himself comfortable in the earth, and enjoy what it afforded. He had never thought of God at all. Everything he looked at apparently belonged to him; he looked on the world as a scene, not only of present but future happiness; and he made his arrangements for “many years” of “ease,” luxury, and happiness. Practically he denied the existence of a God. Poor soul! How many there are in the world at the present time just like him! Perhaps the eye of one such may rest upon this paper. Dear reader, allow me to address a word pointedly to you. Are you at the present time making your arrangements for passing “many years” here? Perhaps you are a landowner with a fine estate, having tenants who discharge their liabilities regularly. Perhaps you are a member of Parliament universally respected both by your compeers, as well as by your constituents. On the one hand, doubtless, you are engrossed with improving the property that you consider in all human probability may be in your hands for the next twenty years; on the other, perhaps, you look with satisfaction at the list of voters that you can count upon as likely to support your interests through many a contested election to come.
Or perhaps my reader may be of the humbler classes―the tenant farmer of twenty acres, the small shopkeeper in a country town, or the lone widow with a large family, who is hard put to at times to make both ends meet.
The farmer from sunrise to sunset views the corn and root crops with the greatest satisfaction, his rent is a matter of no concern to him; he looks before him and sees a bright vista of many years of good prices and beautiful seasons; and he says, “This world is a pleasant place, and I’ll let the future take care of itself.”
The shopkeeper serves his customers with a smiling countenance; he can afford to give long credit; he is universally popular, and he spends the evening over the fire with his family, and of course never thinks of an eternity to come.
The widow sees it is no use now mourning for her departed husband; her children are growing up about her, they must be provided for; and as she works late and early she turns it over in her mind where this one and that one will get a place, or what trade they are to follow as their years capacitate them for it. She forgets that ere long she may follow her husband.
Dear reader, if God were to say to you, “This night thy soul shall be required of thee,” wouldest thou be prepared to meet Him?
Ponder it well, I pray you, ere you throw this paper aside, and think of the eternity that is before you. Twenty years seems a long time, ―one hundred years, a thousand years, are lengthy periods, ―but think of an eternity of woe in the place where “the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Think of your soul’s welfare for a moment, I beseech thee, ere it is too late, and God has to give you up to your heart’s desire because you have “rejected knowledge.”
Take warning by the man of whom Jesus spake, take warning by Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt; message after message, warning after warning, had been sent to them, and they regarded it not. Pharaoh had but one reply, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:2.) “The Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts” (1 Samuel 6:6), and therefore “God gave them over to a reprobate mind” (Romans 1:28); and when the night of judgment came, they were found unprepared. What a solemn night that was! “At midnight,” at the very moment of their deepest slumber, the angel of the Lord went forth; and “there was a great cry, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.” (Exodus 12:29, 30.)
Dear reader, this night may terminate your existence here; are you ready?
There were some ready even in Egypt. With God “mercy rejoiceth against judgment” (James 2:13), and there never was a scene of judgment where His loving hand did not spare a remnant. So here, and so even at the present time; as in those days there was a way of escape, so in these God has devised a “means whereby His banished should not be expelled from Him.” Let us contrast the two.
“Speak ye unto the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house.... according to the number of the souls ... . Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year.... and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it ... . 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.”
Such was God’s remedy for Israel, and thankfully did they without a moment’s hesitation avail themselves of it; they took the lamb, they slew it, they sprinkled the blood; and then calmly resting on the promise of the God in whom they believed, they sat down to feed upon the lamb in peace; their security was this, that God had said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”
What is the sinner’s mode of escape from judgment now? Is it not even this, that Jesus “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” has been “brought to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7), has “by His own blood entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us”? (Hebrews 9:12.) As Peter says, we “are not redeemed with corruptible things.... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and without spot.” (1 Peter 1:19.)
From His side has flowed forth the blood that made peace with God. (Colossians 1:20.) God’s eye has rested on that blood, and whosoever, seeing their need of shelter from the coming judgment, accepts the remedy that God has provided, is secure from all condemnation; because God himself has said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”
Dear reader, do you tremble at the thought of death? learn that “the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanseth from all sin” has met every claim a God of judgment has against you.
But a God of love could not be satisfied with merely sheltering Israel from judgment; and He therefore devises a way whereby He may have them around Himself in an entirely new position.
He opens a way for them through the Red Sea. Their necessity is His opportunity; and He gives them a perfect and entire deliverance from all their enemies, bringing them out in triumph through the depths of the Red Sea. Thus were they not only a people sheltered from judgment, but as it were alive from the dead; for they had come out of what was a grave to their enemies on to new or resurrection ground.
Has not this likewise its counterpart with us? Christ has made a channel for us to pass through the waters of judgment. He has wrought a victory over our Egyptians, our enemies; He has gone down into the depths for us, and in His grave we may see the end of our sins, the close of our transgressions. He has risen from the dead, and in Him risen, we who believe have life, eternal life; we are “alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord;” not only shall we “not come into condemnation,” but we have “passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24.) We have through faith, life in a risen Christ―His own life.
The Israelites left the Red Sea behind them never to return to it again; we possess a life on the other side of death, and can never now die. Our earthly tabernacle may be dissolved; we may be absent from the body, and present with the Lord; but we never can return to the condition of death from which God has saved us.
More than this, the cloud overshadowed Israel; they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud; they were, as it were, already half enveloped in that which was the dwelling-place of Jehovah, the abode of the glory.
Is it not so with those that believe now? their feet are on wilderness ground, they journey through a dry and thirsty land; but already by faith the Father’s house of many mansions half envelopes them, and they long for the time when they shall be with Him where He is beholding His glory. (John 17:24.)