The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 279

IT. THE MEANS OF STRENGTH FOR THE ONWARD WAY, Feeding upon Christ. While Egyrt was slumbering Israel was feasting. While the world is busy with its dreams we must feast upon the joy of eternity, and, comprehending with all saints the infinite love of Christ, be filled with all the fulness of God. "Except ye eat the flesh of tho Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." III. How CHRIST MUST BE PARTAKEN OF. 1. With unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The old leaven of malice and wickedness must be put away, and the feasting on Christ's love must be accompanied with repentance and self denial, There may be now and again a momentary glimpse of Christ's love where sin is not parted with, but there can be no communion, no enduring vision. 2. Christ must be taken as God has set him before us, in the simplicity of the Gospel, with nothing of man's invention, addition, or diminution. 'l'he Gospel remedy avails only when taken in the Gospel way (vers. 9, 10). 3. He must be parta.ken of in the union of love. The Passover is o. social, 11, family feast. Those who refuse to seek church-fellowship are despising God's arrangements for their own salvation, and proving themselves devoid of the spirit which, loving him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. 4. He must be partaken of with the pilgrim spirit and preparedness (ver. 11). They who will be saved by Jesus must take up their cross and follow him.-U. Vers. 14---20.-The Passover feast the type of the <Jhrutian life. I. THE Cmt.ISTIAN's LIFE IS AN UNCEASING FESTIVAL. 1. It is unending, deepening joy. Other joys fade, this brightens. 2. It is a growing appropriation of the Lamb of God. Our union with him grows ever closer, fuller. Is this our experience? A nominal Ch.tistianity will never save us. Are we feeding on Jesus? Are we in him and he in us? Il. lT IS THE KEEPING IN REMEMBRANCE OF A PAST DELIVERANCE, AND THE ANTICIPA- TION oF A GREATER. 1. There was present safety from the destroyer. 2. On the morrow there was to be the passing out from amidst the broken bonds of Egypt to the promised inheritance. The feast pointed backward, the types onward. We have forgiveness through the blood of Jesus, and the expectation of his coming the second time without sin unto salvation. Faith, and love, and hope the threefold glory of Christ's people. Ill. IT IS A LIFE OF BOLTh""ESS. From the beginning to the end of the feast the old leaven was not to be found in the dwellings of Israel. The soul that turns back to sin is cut off (vers. 15, 18-20). What was a mere accompaniment in the type, is a fruit of life in Christ. IV. IT IS A FELLOWSBil' OF ALL BELIEVERS. It was not only a family feast. It began and it closed with an assembly of the whole congregation. There are separate churches still, as there were families then. But the union of all believers must be recognised and rejoiced in.-U. Vers. 1-28 • 43-51.-The Passover. "It is the Lord's Passover" (Ex. xii. 11). After Pb.a.raoh;s refusal to see Moses again, Jehovah comes more manifestly into the history, in the last judgment and deliverance of ~is people. Three great events crowd now into a single night, the Passover, the slaymg of the first-bom, the march out. Consider now the Passover. . L ITS :NECESSITY. 1. Israel mw;t be separated from Egypt. This idea of separation runs throuuh all Hebrew history from the time of Abraham to this hour. But to a large extent Israel had now become mergC?- into the Egyptian race, cakh~ng the plagues of its idolatry and sins. Great separatmg acts necessary-. g., as m some of the earlier visitations in the tenth, in the passover, in the exodus, in the Red Sea. 2. 'l'o this ena Israel ~ust be atoned afresh with God. The tenth plague was a miracle of pure judgment: for Israel to escape the penalty of its sin, ,an atonement necessary. Th&t atonement was the passover. II. ITs DESIGNATIONS. They were these: " A pass-over unto Jehovah : " " a sacrift- cia,l- 67,a,ying of pass-over unto Jehovah:" "The s~ri~ce. of !he feast o[ the _pa~s- over," :xii. 11, 27; :x:x:xiv. 25. Here we have four distmct1ve ideas. 1. 'lhe Ob;ectwtJ of the pass-over was God. "U:nto Jeh~v3:11.". Like prayer i~tended to benefi! man, but its objective God. Herein lies the distmct10n between Scnptural and unscnptural u,as of atonement. 2. The pass-over was a Sacrifice. [For the argument, soo l'.l!I, XIL 3-11,] THE BOOK OJ!' EXODUS. 2i3