1. The words carry us back in imagination to the last night of Israel's bondage in the land of Egypt. That was a season of horror and anguish to the Egyptians, for at midnight the first- born of every household was killed by the Angel of the Lord. It was a memorable night to Israel also, though they passed it in perfect safety. The Hebrews had been informed by Moses and Aaron of God's purpose to slay the first-born of the Egyptians, and had been instructed as to the mystic ceremony by the observance of which they would protect themselves from being overtaken in the same terrible doom. On the night of the Exodus the head of each household was to kill in sacrifice a lamb, or a kid of the goats. He was to put the blood in a basin, and afterwards sprinkle it with a sprig of hyssop on the upper door-post and the two side-posts of his house. The lamb was then to be roasted whole, and eaten with unleavened bread and a salad of bitter herbs. The family were to eat it in the attitude of pilgrims about to set out on a long journey — with their loins girded, their sandals strapped on their feet, and their staves ready in their hands. All this was done in the evening; and a few hours later, at midnight, the first-born of every Egyptian family was smitten by the Angel of Death. But no one died that night in any Israelitish house the door of which was marked with the blood of the paschal lamb. In giving the command about the sprinkling of the blood, the Lord had added this gracious promise : " 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." And God announced that the Passover was to be to the Jews an ordinance for ever ; it was to be an annual festival commemorative of the deliverance of their fore- fathers from Egypt ; the people were to observe it with solemnity and gladness; and parents were to teach their children its significance.
2. There are three thoughts contained in the statement that Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us.
1 84 FOR THE FEAST
(1) It emphasizes, with each great approach of the redeemed people to God as their covenant Lord, that a "Passover" is necessary. It becomes a memorial to be kept at Sinai, at Gilgal, and again with special solemnity after periods of backsliding from God, as in the great Passovers under Hezekiah and Josiah, and at the return from the captivity under Ezra, after their separation from the filthiness of the heathen. Besides this, it is the annual covenant feast to be kept unto the Lord throughout all their generations. Thus it bears witness through all the Old Dispensa- tion to man's need of redemption and God's pledge to meet that need, till that day when the disciples asked the great Antitype Himself, " Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover ? "
^[ Think of these two chains which have always fettered the spirit of humanity, and say whether Christ accomplished nothing for man's redemption in breaking them — the sense of guilt on the conscience and the fear of death. I do not mean to say that men have actually been delivered from these. We are too ignorant of our own franchise, like the poor Israelites who despised their freedom, and perished through their unbelief in the wilderness. But the chains are broken for those who will enjoy their freedom ; and countless multitudes have tested to the full their emancipation, and all Christendom feels some common benefit from the deliverance.1
(2) It offers, next, the Divine provision for that need. If we ask, " Where is the lamb for a burnt offering ? " we receive the answer : Not in that ancient service with its filaments stretching back into the remote past, not even in its great Christian counter- part, which unites in one link of loving rite the Lord's Supper with the Jewish Passover, but in that of which both alike speak so clearly, " the death of the Cross." Christ by His own blood has " entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."
If Christ hath died His brethren well may die, Sing in the gate of death, lay by This life without a sigh : For Christ hath died and good it is to die; To sleep when so He lays us by, Then wake without a sigh. 1 J. LI. Davies.
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Yea, Christ hath died, yea, Christ is risen again: Wherefore both life and death grow plain To us who wax and wane; For Christ who rose shall die no more again: Amen: till He makes all things plain Let us wax on and wane.1
(3) It also expresses the simple appropriation of faith, whereby alone the blessings of Christ's Passion can become ours. The paschal lamb was offered, not as in any way worthy of God's accept- ance ; but, being looked on as a substitute for the family, it saved the first-born from death. God did not wish to smite Israel, but to save them. But He did not simply omit the Israelite houses and pick out the Egyptian ones through the land. He left it to the choice of the people whether they would accept His deliver- ance and belong to Him or not. The angel of judgment was to recognize no distinction between Israelite and Egyptian save this of the sprinkled, stained doorposts. Death was to enter every house where the blood was not visible ; mercy was to rest on every family that dwelt under this sign. God meant that all should be rescued, but He would not force any — we may say He tould not force any — to yield themselves to Him.