clip the hyssop in the blood, and by faith apply it to our own hearts and consciences, or else we can have no benefit from it, no interest in it ]
3. They must abide in their houses —
[This was appointed, that they might know to what alone they owed their safety, namely, to the blood sprinkled on their houses. If, presuming upon their descent from Abraham, or upon their having killed the passover, any of them had ventured abroad before the morning, they would, in all probability, have perished, as Lot's wife did after her departure from Sodom, or as Shimei afterwards did by going without the walls of Jeru- salem14. The injunction given to them, teaches us, that we must " abide in Christ1 ;" and that, to venture for one moment from under the shadow of his wings, will involve us in the most imminent danger, if not in utter ruin. We have no protection from the pursuer of blood any longer than we continue within the walls of the city of refuge m ]
Let us now take a view of, II. The deliverance vouchsafed —
The deliverance itself was truly wonderful —
[Throughout all the land of Egypt, the first-born of every person, from the king on his throne to the captive in the dun- geon, was slain by an invisible agent. By whatever means the various families were awakened, whether by any sudden im- pression on their minds, or by the groans of their first-born smitten by the destroying angel, there was at the same hour throughout all the kingdom a cry of lamentation and of terror ; of lamentation for their deceased relatives, and of terror on their own account, lest a similar judgment should be inflicted on them also. What dreadful consternation must have prevailed, the instant that the extent of this calamity was seen ; when every one, going for relief and comfort to his neighbour, saw him also overwhelmed with similar anguish ! But though the first-born of men and cattle was destroyed amongst all the Gentiles, not one, either of men or cattle, suffered amongst the Israelites. How must the whole Jewish nation be struck with wonder at this astonishing display of God's mercy towards them !
But a greater deliverance than this was shadowed forth. There is a day coming when God will put a more awful differ- ence between his friends and enemies ; when his enemies,
k 1 Kings ii. 41 — 46.
1 John xv. 4 — 7. N.B. Five times in four verses is this truth repeated.
m Numb. xxxv. 26 — 28.