“And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, ‘Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season. In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.’ And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover. And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at even, in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.” (Ver. 1-5.)
There are three distinct positions in which we find this great redemption-feast celebrated, namely, in Egypt (Ex. xii.), in the wilderness (Num. ix.), in the land of Canaan (Josh. v.). Redemption lies at the foundation of every thing connected with the history of God’s people. Are they to be delivered from the bondage, the death, and the darkness of Egypt? it is by redemption. Are they to be borne along through all the difficulties and dangers of the desert? it is on the ground of redemption. Are they to walk across the ruins of the frowning walls of Jericho, and plant their feet upon the necks of the kings of Canaan? it is in virtue of redemption.
Thus the blood of the paschal lamb met the Israel of God amid the deep degradation of the land of Egypt, and delivered them out of it. It met them in the dreary desert, and carried them through it: it met them on their entrance into the land of Canaan, and established them in it.
In a word, then, the blood of the lamb met the people in Egypt, it accompanied them through the desert, and planted them in Canaan. It was the blessed basis of all the divine actings in them, with them, and for them. Was it a question of the judgment of God against Egypt? the blood of the lamb screened them from it. Was it a question of the numberless and nameless wants of the wilderness? the blood of the lamb secured a full provision for them. Was it a question of the dreaded power of the seven nations of Canaan? the blood of the lamb was the sure and certain pledge of complete and glorious victory. The moment we behold Jehovah coming forth to act on behalf of His people, on the ground of the blood of the lamb, all is infallibly secured, from first to last. The whole of that mysterious and marvelous journey, from the brick-kilns of Egypt to the vine-clad hills and honeyed plains of Palestine, served but to illustrate and set forth the varied virtues of the blood of the lamb.
However, the chapter which now lies open before us presents the passover entirely from a wilderness stand-point; and this will account, to the reader, for the introduction of the following circumstance: “There were certain men which were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day; and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.”
Here was a practical difficulty—something abnormal, as we say—something not anticipated, and therefore the question was submitted to Moses and Aaron. “They came before Moses”—the exponent of the claims of God, “and before Aaron”—the exponent of the provisions of the grace of God. There seems something distinct and emphatic in the way in which both these functionaries are referred to. The two elements of which they are the expression would be deemed essential in the solving of such a difficulty as that which here presented itself.
“And those men said unto him, ‘We are defiled by the dead body of a man; wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of the Lord in his appointed season among the children of Israel?’” There was the plain confession as to the defilement, and the question raised was this: Were they to be derived of the holy privilege of coming before the Lord in His appointed way? Was there no resource—no provision for such a case?
A deeply interesting question, surely, but one for which no answer had as yet been provided. We have no such case anticipated in the original institution, in Exodus xii, although we have there a very full statement of all the rites and all the ceremonies of the feast. It was reserved for the wilderness to evolve this new point. It was in the actual walk of the people—in the real practical details of desert life, that the difficulty presented itself for which a solution had to be provided. Hence it is that the record of this entire affair is appropriately given in Numbers, the book of the wilderness.