As we read in the Book of Exodus of the institution of the Passover, we meet for the first time with blood in connection with sacrifice, and we learn the value of redemption.
God’s wrath was to be poured out on the Egyptians, but Israel were to be sheltered from it. In the land, at the very moment of the divine visitation, they were to be exempted from its desolating power. The angel of death would be busy around them, but they would be secure, and would know it also, from all risk of his entrance into their dwellings. God had announced, by Moses to Pharaoh the hour of the terrible judgment (11.), and to Israel the day when it would take effect. (12.) Midnight, when all would naturally be asleep, was the appointed hour for Pharaoh and the Egyptians to feel the weight of God’s arm. On the 14th day of Nisan the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt would take place.
Twice before had God signally interposed to rescue His people from a judgment impending over the ungodly. He saved Noah in the ark, and drew Lot out of Sodom. Now He would manifest something different, viz., the security of His people in the midst of judgment, by virtue of the blood of the lamb. Noah and his family entered into a hiding-place of God’s appointment, shut in by the Lord before the windows of heaven were opened. Lot and his two daughters were drawn outside the area about to be visited by the fiery rain. But Israel remained in their dwellings, their abode for two hundred years, awaiting in confidence the passage through Egypt of the Lord and the angel of death.
What gave them this confidence? Of Noah God had said that he was righteous. Lot, too, was righteous, as Peter testifies. But what of Israel They were defiled with the idolatries of Egypt, (Ezek. 20:6-86In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands: 7Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. 8But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. (Ezekiel 20:6‑8)) and in heart and practice were no better than their oppressors. As to righteousness they had none. As to hope of deliverance from anything they could plead in extenuation of their sins there was none. But God’s righteousness, as faithful to His promise, was manifested, and the obedience of faith was exemplified, as the people sprinkled the blood outside on the lintel and the two side posts. It was a new position in which they found themselves. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had proved the faithfulness of God, but had never waited in the scene of His judgment, assured that it would not fall on them. This Israel did, resting on the word of the Lord.
“I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord.” (12:12.) They knew then what would take place. Neither man nor beast would be exempt. God was visiting Egypt in anger and sore displeasure, and the very beasts would feel the consequences of man’s sin. A terrible hour it surely was for all who realized it. All ranks of Egyptians would feel it, and neither the power nor wealth of Pharaoh could avert the death of his first-born; nor the miseries already endured by the captive in the dungeon avail to spare his child. For when God executes judgment on man neither human power can successfully resist the blow, nor worldly wealth purchase immunity from its visitation, nor previous suffering mitigate the severity of the stroke. The captive in the dungeon must participate with the king in the punishment God awards to man. It is well to remember this, for men are prone to forget it, hoping that suffering on earth may be pleaded as a set-off against the endurance of the just judgment of. God. It was not so in the day of Egypt, it will not be so in the day of the Lord.
But whilst the king and the captive must feel the anger of God, there were those who would be sheltered from it, but sheltered by blood. Accordingly one marked feature in this history is the prominence given to the blood, here for the first time spoken of in connection with a sacrifice. The blood of Abel had cried to God for vengeance against Cain; and the blood of any man, whether killed by his fellow or a beast, God would surely require. In these cases the blood shed claimed vengeance on the slayer, but in the paschal rite it exempted from divine wrath all who took shelter behind it. “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.” Such was God’s promise to Israel, and that all should know how to sprinkle the blood on the house Moses was directed to say, “Ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He seeth the blood upon the lintel and on the two side-posts the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.” (12: 22, 23.) All then for Israel depended on the blood, and that outside the house. It was the blood the Lord would look for, and the blood would be the only barrier against the entrance of the destroyer. Had any in Israel sat within, saying they believed what Moses had said, yet refused to sprinkle the blood as directed, the destroying angel would have found his way to the first-born of that family. Assent to the truth without a corresponding action was valueless to ward off the blow. Had any one sprinkled the blood inside instead of outside, the Angel of Death would have made known his presence within that house, for man had no choice left him as to what he would do. He had to obey implicitly the command of the Lord by Moses, and await in confidence the result. The blood God was to look at, not man. It was a new method of escape, but a sure one, a plan which man had not devised, but God; for the judgment to be averted was the judgment of God.
So all Israel were preserved from the loss of their firstborn. With unerring precision did the destroyer pass through the land, entering each house inhabited by the Egyptians, and notifying by the death of the first-born the fulfillment of the word of the God of Israel. Every house of the children of Israel the Lord passed over, for the blood outside showed clearly who were within. What a picture of security have we here, as with closed doors the household awaited the visitation of God. For what were they doing? Cowering from fears Praying for deliverance? Very different was their occupation, for they were eating of that lamb whose blood had been sprinkled on the door-posts. To revel in the prospect of impending desolation, uncertain of deliverance, is the act of a fool; but to eat when divine wrath is to be poured out, knowing it will not reach one, becomes the man of faith! This Israel were doing, for God’s word was their authority; and, observe, it was not their estimate of the blood which barred the entrance of the destroyer, “When I see the blood,” etc., the Lord had said. Which of them could value it aright? Who amongst them knew what it spoke of? Had their security depended on their apprehension of its value, in common with the Egyptians, must they have been found lamenting their bereavement of their first-born. We know what they doubtless did not, to whose sacrifice it looked forward; but which of the sons of men can even now fully appreciate the value of the blood of God’s Son? As they were sheltered because they acted as directed, apart from the question of their appreciation of the value of the blood, so with souls now. To wait till we can fully estimate it, will be to wait forever; but to be saved at all, to be saved forever; to be saved now there is needed only the obedience of faith. Beautifully simple is all this, and the position of the children of Israel on that night is a clear illustration of the principle of salvation by faith. The immediate object of faith is now different, but the principle is the same; they rested on the blood of the paschal lamb—we rest on the precious blood of Christ.
And this leads us to another point. They were delivered, but there was more than deliverance-they were redeemed. Deliverance may be often repeated, Redemption once settled is a question which can never be re-opened. Past deliverances afford no sure ground for expecting future ones. Israel’s past history illustrates this. The captivity of the Ark by the Philistines: and the long continued exile of Israel from their land, alike prove this. But, if redeemed once, they are redeemed forever and on that ground can count on that final deliverance which will one day take place.
The saints of old understood something of redemption. In the darkest hour of Israel’s history in the wilderness, Moses pleaded with God for the people He had redeemed: “O, Lord God, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed, ‘ &c. (Deut. 9:2626I prayed therefore unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. (Deuteronomy 9:26).) In the height of David’s glory he reminds God that Israel are His redeemed people, “Thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people forever; and thou Lord becamest their God.” (1 Chron. 17:2222For thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people for ever; and thou, Lord, becamest their God. (1 Chronicles 17:22).) He felt the everlasting security which redemption by blood afforded, and the special position in which they stood to God. “Thy people,” “Thine inheritance.” Conscious of the weakness of the returned remnant, Nehemiah takes up the same plea, (1:10) as he prays in Shushan for those in trouble at Jerusalem. Jeremiah, whilst prophesying of Judah’s captivity, looked forward to their final restoration, assigning as the reason for his confidence, “for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.” (Jer. 31:10,1110Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. 11For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. (Jeremiah 31:10‑11).) He knew for himself the value of redemption; but writing by the Spirit’s direction, he announced to the Gentiles, in the time of Israel’s humiliation, the future in store for that people they were about to trample on and oppress. These instances show us how those of old understood it.
Let us turn now to Psa. 74:1,2,1<<Maschil of Asaph.>> O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? 2Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt. (Psalm 74:1‑2) to learn how the people in a future day will make use of it: “Remember thy congregation which thou halt purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance which thou hast redeemed; this Mount Zion wherein thou hast dwelt.” Governmental dealing with the people can take place, but it is only governmental, because atonement has been made) and they are redeemed. The consequences of their willfulness and sin they must feel, for God cannot overlook the iniquity of His people; but an end to chastisement will surely arrive, because He has purchased them to be His people forever, nothing being more sure on earth than this, that redemption once accomplished stands good forever.
Two points more must be briefly noticed. Whilst redemption places the subjects of it on ground of unchallengeable security, it makes them at once strangers where formerly they were at home. The people eat the passover, but with girded loins, sandaled feet, and staff in hand. In haste did they partake of it, ready to march forth at a moment’s notice. Stranger ship was now their position in Egypt—which for so many years had been their home. Their very attitude, whilst feeding on the lamb, proclaimed the altered condition in which they found themselves. The link with Egypt of two hundred years duration, was snapped at once, and they marched that very night from Rameses to Succoth, with their wives, their children, their cattle, their substance, even all that they had, “with the dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up with their clothes upon their shoulders.” But owning themselves to be strangers in Egypt, they learned what it was to be the Lord’s people, they went out, but He went before them.
They marched along, because the Lord had brought them out. They were His as redeemed, and He charged Himself with the providing of all they wanted by the way. “The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in it, pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night.” How altered was their condition now! Lately slaves, now free; pilgrims and strangers in the only land they had ever known as home, with no symbols among them of earthly majesty to rally round, so long associated in their minds only with oppression, but preceded by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, those sure marks of God’s presence with them, they started on the road to the land of their inheritance. Redemption by blood they learned was a glorious reality.
The lesson they learned has to be learned still. “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” (Rom. 1:1818For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; (Romans 1:18).) As surely as the threatened blow fell on the first-born of the Egyptians, so surely will God’s wrath be poured out on all who are not sheltered from it. He revealed the former by Moses, He has reminded us of the latter by Paul. Similar then as the position of man is now to that of the Egyptians before that fourteenth day of Nisan, being forewarned of the coming judgment; similar too is the manner of escape. By the blood of the lamb alone was there deliverance then, by the blood of God’s Lamb is there deliverance now. But there is a difference to be noted. Moses told Pharaoh and his princes of the stroke that would fall on them, but did not, as in the previous plague of the hail, offer any of them an opportunity of escaping it.
To Israel he announced the judgment, but with it he disclosed the divine plan of exemption from its infliction, as it is now declared to all in the gospel. And greater interests are at stake now than then. The death of one’s first born is a grievous blow, but the everlasting ruin of one’s soul is a more awful calamity. That men should be saved from this last, God has spoken, and pointing all to the blood of the Lamb, tells us, that He “gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish; but have everlasting life.”