The longsuffering of God had waited on Pharaoh in vain, so far as he was concerned. Through many and grievous plagues God had preserved him, to show His power in him, that the name of God might be declared throughout all the earth. And truly the power of God was manifested, and manifested, as it always is, for salvation; but Pharaoh would not believe, and so it was ineffectual in his case.
Delay was no longer of any avail. Judgments were unheeded, and mercy was despised; and the Lord was about to send all His plagues upon the heart of Pharaoh, and to put him off from the earth. Yet one more chance would be given him. By one act every person, both of the children of Israel and of the Egyptians, might show their faith in God if they had any.
Directions were given concerning the preparation of a lamb. Each family was to have one, and to kill it in the evening. And so the order ran: "They shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses wherein they shall eat it. ... It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the blood shall be to you a token upon the houses where you are: and 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." (Exodus 12:7,11-13)
The directions were very specific. Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and told them how to kill a lamb, and continued: "You shall take of a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you." (Exodus 12:22-23)
Here was perfect equality. There was no difference made between Jew and Gentile, because "the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him." (Romans 10:12)
If the Jew did not believe, he would suffer with the unbelieving Egyptians; and by the same rule if the Egyptians believed, he would be saved with the believing Jew. Faith is the distinguishing mark of the true Israelites.
What is all this to us? What interests have we in the history of that affair that took place nearly thirty-five hundred years ago? Just this: "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." (Romans 15:4)
The lamb that was slain signified Christ, who is our Passover, and who is sacrificed for us. "For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." (1 Corinthians 5:7)
God's people are still in Egypt, and the Lord has set His hand again the second time to deliver them from the house of bondage. "And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry-shod. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt." (Isaiah 11:15)
The darkness that covered the land of Egypt was but a sign of the darkness that covers the earth, and the gross darkness that covers the people, when the Lord shall arise upon them, and His glory shall be seen upon them, (Isaiah 60:1-2) as the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in His wings. (Malachi 4:2) Therefore we come to "Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling." (Hebrews 12:24)
We are not redeemed from our vain manner of life by "corruptible things, as silver and gold, ... but by the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot." (1 Peter 1:18-19)
We have all sinned, and therefore sentence of death has been passed upon us, (Romans 5:12) but we are justified freely by the grace of God, "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood, to show His righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God." (Romans 3:24-25, RV)
The blood is the life, (Deuteronomy 12:23) and this is what Christ poured out to us and for us on the cross.
"Being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5:9-10)
"He died for all," (2 Corinthians 5:15) so that all, without exception, may appropriate the blood. And He lives for all, so that all may take shelter under His life. Faith takes hold of the sacrifice, made "once for all," (Hebrews 10:10) and appropriates it. Everywhere we may see it, for the drops of blood shed by Christ have fertilized the soil even of the sin-cursed earth, so that it brings forth bud, and flower, and fruit, the stalk and the ear and the full corn in the ear. But for that blood, which flows from the throne of God in a "pure river of water of life, as clear as crystal," (Revelation 22:1) and distills to the earth in the dew and the rain, the earth would be but a desert--a chaotic mass. Christ himself has sprinkled the blood upon us; for, "as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Romans 5:18)
What have we then to do? Abide in the house! God is and has been "our dwelling place in all generations." (Psalm 90:1)
Live only by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for each one of us. (Ephesians 5:2)
"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." (2 Corinthians 5:19)
Hence He has purchased us "with His own blood." (Acts 20:28)
If we abide under the blood,--the life of God,--He must pass over us when He goes out to destroy, for, "He cannot deny himself." (2 Timothy 2:13) "He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty," (Psalm 91:1) and be as secure as He is. Living by faith in Him, it is no longer we, but God living and working in us, so that He sees not us, but His own life. What a sure dwelling place!
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save me from its guilt and power.
(Augustus Toplady, Hymn: Rock of Ages, 1776.)
--Present Truth, November 23, 1899--Exodus 12:7-23.
E.J. Waggoner