At the opening of Ex. 12, we find the beginning of the year changed. It is not said why this was to be, but simply, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year unto you.” This was an intimation to the people of Israel, that they were to enter on some fresh connection with God, to take up some new character before Him, or to be recognized in some new relationship: and that this was necessary. “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months.” And this was said to them while they were still in Egypt, the place of death and judgment, the place of nature or of the flesh.
The intimation thus given at the very outset, was very quickly explained. “God is His own interpreter. For the very next moment the congregation are introduced to the Lamb of God, whose blood was to shelter them from the sword of the angel; that is to be their full plea and answer to the throne of judgment where righteousness sits.
This is simple and clear and blessed. Israel are at once taught this—that the new character in which they were now to walk with God was that of a blood-bought people, a redeemed ransomed generation. This was the form which the new life, the new year, on which they were now entering, was to take. This was their new creation, their second birth. They were new creatures, being sinners reconciled.
This truth takes a New Testament form in 2 Cor. 5:16-1916Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. 17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:16‑19). The new creature is the believer who walks with God in the faith and sense of reconciliation. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ.” This is man beginning the new year, entering on a new life, being a new creature, as a sinner reconciled by the paschal blood of Jesus. So in 1 Peter 1:2525But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:25). He is declared to have been born again by the word which the gospel has preached to him; and that gospel is the message of redemption through the blood of the Lamb. By this he becomes a kind of firstfruits of God's creatures. (James 1)
The early intimation of new creaturehood, which we had here in this twelfth of Exodus, is thus soon interpreted; and the interpretation is confirmed by one and another scripture in the New Testament. But there, is much more than this in analogies between these chapters and New Testament Scripture.
At the close of chapter 12 we find Israel, now redeemed themselves, acting upon others. They are taught how to deal with “strangers.” They were to tell them, that they were as welcome to come into the regions of the new creation as they had been—that they might eat of the Passover with them, or celebrate redemption with them; only they were to be circumcised as they had been. They must renounce themselves in the flesh, or in the old-creation condition, and then they may enter on the new year with them, the new life, the new-creation of God in Christ Jesus. There must be no confidence in the flesh, but a rejoicing in Christ Jesus—this is the true circumcision. (Phil. 3:33For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3).)
The Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament is the leading formal witness and depository of this evangelic ministry of the redeemed. There the saints are seen addressing themselves to “strangers,” and doing so in the simple style of this Scripture—12:43-49. So that we are still breathing the atmosphere of the New Testament when we read these verses. We are in company with the Spirit which afterward animates the Book of the Acts. In the reconciliation of the paschal blood, the blood of the Lamb of God, we tell all around us, that the kingdom is theirs on their being born again, on their faith in the One who died for our sins, and was raised again for our justification. “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us,” we still say to “strangers,” “be ye reconciled to God.” (See the chapter already quoted, 2 Cor. 5:20, 2120Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:20‑21).)
How sweet, how convincing, how precious it is, thus to find ourselves in the mind and with the principles of the New Testament, as we read these very early oracles of the Old! But there is more than this.
The saint is to take heed to himself, as well as to address himself to “strangers.” And to take heed to himself, order his ways, and nourish his soul, in the peculiarities of the calling of God, and after the mind of the Spirit. This we next find in chapter 13; and this we also find, formally and characteristically, in the Epistles of the New Testament.
In chapter 13 we see the Israelite of God, now redeemed by blood, and thus set in God's presence and fellowship, carrying himself according to this his place and calling. He finds his springs in God, his motives and sanctions, and secret effectual virtues in that which God has done for him He purifies himself—keeping the feast of unleavened bread; he devotes and dedicates himself—rendering up his first-born and his firstling to the Lord; and if he be inquired of, why all this cleansing of himself, why all this devotedness, he simply pleads what the Lord had done for him when he was in Egypt, a bondsman there in the place of death and judgment. This is all he has to say, though he be challenged again and again. His springs of moral life are known to rise in the salvation of God.
This is truly blessed. This says to the living God, “All my springs are in thee.” And this is the language of the new creature in Christ Jesus, as we see him in the Epistles of the New Testament. So that in this thirteenth chapter, we are still as I have said, in the New Testament atmosphere. For there it is the mercies we have received, promises which have been made to us, the grace which has brought salvation, the fact that we are bought with a price, the great gospel message that we are washed from our sins, a sprinkled redeemed sanctified people, which are recognized as the springs of all moral behavior and personal devotedness—of course to have their efficacy in us by the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. (See Rom. 12; 2 Cor. 7: Titus 2 Cor. 6; Rom. 6)
And another remembrance of the temper which we find in the New Testament is in verses 3, 4, of this same chapter. There, Israel is told to “remember” the day of their deliverance. This is surely, as I say, in the temper or spirit of the New Testament. So much so indeed, that the standing ordinance, in the midst of the saints in this evangelic age, is a feast of remembrance. (1 Cor. 11:23-2623For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: 24And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. (1 Corinthians 11:23‑26).) And other scriptures of the same New Testament teach us, that this remembering is to be the very business of eternity, or of the life of the redeemed in glory. (Rev. 1:5; 5:95And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, (Revelation 1:5)
9And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; (Revelation 5:9).)