The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 278

epoiling the Egyptians, getting gold and silver and raiment from them in profllllion and with the utmost good-will. ' V. ALL THE OTIIER PREPARATIONS FOR JEHOVAll1B VISIT WERE TO BE CROWNED BY MAKINO FULL PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. Jehovah was coming to open the prison- doors and strike off the fetters; and he would have the captives ready to march 011 tho i11stant. Ho is the God who makes all things to work together for good to them who o.re called according to his purpose. 'I'o him who is truly and devoutly obeying God, nothing comes but ho is able to meet it. The obedient is never taken at a dis- 11.dvantage; he is never defrauded of a great opportunity. The children of Israel were to eat the lamb in full readiness for the journey; even though it might plausibly be said that it was a making ready before the time. The lesson is, obey God in every- thiug where as here the terms of his requirement are plain to the understanding and imperative to the conscience. Reasons are not for you, who know only in part, but for him to whom the darkness and the light are both alike.-Y. I. THE DA y OF DELIVERANCE THE BE<llNNINO OF A NEW ERA IN THE HISTORY OF GoD's PEOPLE (vers. 1, 2). I. It was then only that the history of the nation as the people of God began. Before they had been told of God's favour towards them; they now knew it. "Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves" (John iv. 42). 2. God's final deliverance begins a new era for his people. "Behold I make all things new." 3. This has its correlative type in Christian experience now. The true life of the servant of God dates from the hour of his deliverance from the bondage of sin. "If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature: old things are passed away: behold all things are become new." Before Israel lay the experience of God's care and 1ove, Sinai, the giving of the law, etc. Before us lies the deepening knowledge of his love, and of his will, the priestly service, etc. ll. THE COMMAND TO MAKE IT THE BEGINNING OF MONTHS. 1. The remembrance of God's grace makes the soul the dwelling-place of humbleness and trust. 2. It is joy and strength for service. 3. It is consecration; in the brightness of that unmerited grace the life is claimed for God ; the ear is opened, the heart is touched and changed ; we forget things that are behind, and reach forth to things that are before.-U. Vers. 3-6.-Tlte Passover lamb a prophetic picture of Christ and his salvati011. I. Foa WHOM THE SACBIFIOE Av AILS. 1. 'l'he fa1nilies of Israel, the household of faith. There is no other bulwark against the visitation of the angel of death, and it shields these only. 2. Those who feed upon him. Saving faith must be a real, appropriating faith. Mere assent to a form of words avails nothing, neither can a mere intellectual conviction of the truth of Christianity or apprehension of the plan of salvation ; it must be the soul's food. II. THE CHARACTER OF THE SACRIFICE. A lamb without bleinish; gentleness a.nd blamelessness. He who dies for us is accepted, because he is faultless. The sin-bearer must be sinless. This is redemption's great central mystery. But though the eternal reasrn of it may not be understood, the wisdom of it is shown iu our experience. The power which changes us lies in this, that Christ died not for sins of his own, but _solely for ours. "He bore our sins, in his own body on the tree." III. Hi:s STORY. 1. The lamb kept for four days within the house foretold that God's accepted sacrifice should come forth from the homes of Israel. The four days may symbolise the nearly four years of our Lord's ministry. 2. The day and hour of the Saviour's death (ver. 6). 3. His death was to be Israel's act; "the whole assembly" were to slay it. (1) Our sins nailed him to the tree. He was slain by our iniquities. (2) Israel's act in the murder of the holy and just one was the expression of the sin which is iu us all. None are free from this awful blood guiltiness, save the repentant and pardoned.-U. Vers. 7-13.-0hrist his people's salvation and strength. I. 'l'HE MEANS OF SAFETY (vers. 7-13). 1. They took the blood and struck it on the door posts and the lintel \Vo must appropriate Christ's atonement. We must say by faith, "he died for me." 2. They passed within the blood-stained portals. Christ's blood must stand between us and condemnation, between us and sin. Our safety li~s i~ settinl?i that between our soul and them. The realising of Christ's death/or our sins 1s salvation. !?72 THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [err. xu. 1-61.