“A lamb”, “The lamb”, “Your lamb”, such is
the suggestive progression in verses 3, 4 & 5, as they speak of the shadow
and type of the Lamb of God. Surely in
every heart there is the prayer that Christ shall become increasingly the great
central and personal factor. That from A Saviour, we may have passed to The Saviour, and not have rested until
we can also say My Saviour.
“The whole congregation of Israel shall
kill IT” (Exod. xii. 6).
So merges the type, the many lambs, into
one “it”, the one great Passover of God.
“Your lamb shall be without blemish”
(Exod. xii. 5).
The law in Leviticus is most particular,
descending to minute details, that the holiness and perfection of the great
Antitype should ever be before the mind of the faithful:--
“Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a
wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, . . . . . that which is bruised, or crushed, or broken,
or cut” (Lev. xxii. 22-24),
all
such are set aside.
“Whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye
not offer: for it shall not be
acceptable for you . . . . . IT SHALL BE PERFECT TO BE ACCEPTED” (Leviticus
xxii. 19-21).
The lamb was to be taken on the tenth day
of the month, and sacrificed on the fourteenth.
This would give time and opportunity for careful inspection. Luke
xxiii. contains the finding of those who
examined the true Lamb of God.
PILATE. = > “I
find no fault in this man.”
= > “I
have found no fault in this man.”
HEROD. = >“No,
nor yet Herod: for I send you to him,
and lo, nothing
worthy of death is done unto Him.”
PILATE. = > “What
evil hath He done? I have found no cause of death in Him.”
The “We receive the due
reward of our deeds,
MALEFACTOR. but this man hath done nothing amiss.”
The CENTURION. “Glorified God saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.”
Matthew xxvii. adds further evidence.
JUDAS. “I
have betrayed innocent blood.”
PILATE’S WIFE. “Have thou nothing to do with that just man.”
Scripture everywhere teaches and assumes
the holiness and spotless sinlessness of Christ the Lamb of God. If doctrine necessitates the tremendous
statement that Christ was “made sin for us”, it immediately adds “Who knew no
sin” (II Cor. v. 21). If it is
emphasized that Christ as Kinsman-Redeemer actually took our human nature, it
is careful to say that while He actually was
made flesh, it was in the likeness of
sinful flesh that He came (Rom. viii. 3).
Before Peter says, “Who His Own self bare
our sins”, he writes of Him, “Who did
no sin” (I.Pet..ii.22-24), and in the same epistle Peter speaks of
redemption as being by “the precious blood of Christ, as of lamb without
blemish and without spot” (i. 18, 19).
If
Hebrews iv. declares that Christ
was touched with the feeling of our infirmities and in all points had been
tempted like as we are, it does not omit to add “sin excepted”. There is need
that every believer should hold with no shadow of uncertainty that Christ was
“holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners”. “It shall be PERFECT to be accepted.” Such is the Lamb of God, such is our Saviour.
“And the blood shall be to
you for a token upon the houses where ye are:
and when I see the blood, I
will pass over you” (Exod. xii. 13).
The word “token” will repay a little
study. It first occurs in Gen. i. 14
“Let them be for signs”. Genesis iv. 15 A.V. reads “The Lord set a mark upon Cain”; it should read “The Lord set a token for Cain,
lest any finding him should kill him”.
It was a token for Cain’s safety.
The bow in the cloud is called “the token of the covenant” (Gen. ix. 12)
as also is circumcision (Gen. xvii. 11).
Many times the word translated “sign” in
Exodus is this word, and indeed this is its most frequent translation. “The blood shall be to you for a sign.” The blood signified something. It signified life laid down:--
“The soul of the flesh is in the blood,
and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement
by reason of the soul” (Lev. xvii. 11).
The blood atoned for “YOUR SOUL”
“BY REASON OF THE SOUL” in
it. The blood sprinkled upon the
doorpost was a “sign” that redemption had been made. Nothing else was a “sign”, nothing else did
the Lord “see”. No genealogy showing
direct descent from Abraham could be a “sign”, no promises, vows, prayers,
nothing but the sprinkled blood.
The words “I will pass over you” must also
be considered. As they stand, they give
the mind the impression that the Lord “passed over” the houses of Israel
without smiting them, and went on to the houses of the Egyptians. In verse 23 however this idea does not seem
fully to fit the statement there made:--
“The Lord will pass over the door, and
will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.”
The “passing over” here is synonymous with
protecting. In I Kings xviii. 21 we meet the word in the question of the
prophet “How long halt ye between two
opinions”. The idea of “hovering” or
“suspense” suits the thought better than “passing over” and leaving. Isaiah xxxi. 5 says:--
“As birds flying, so will the Lord of
Hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also
He will deliver it; and passing over He will preserve it.”
The allusion to Deut. xxxii. 11 here seems clear.
“As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings.”
Instead of repeating the words “fluttereth
over”, Isaiah goes to Exodus xii. for a synonym, and says “passing over”. This gives us the blessed meaning of
“Passover”. The Lord, like the eagle,
spread abroad His wings, hovered over the house, and protected it from the
destroyer that went through the land. Psalm xci. 4
expresses the feeling of pasach “To
pass over” without using the word.
“He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou
trust.”
We would not suggest any alteration in the
A.V.; the words are too precious and
have too sacred associations, but we can keep in mind the meaning as we read as
being “When I see the blood I will PAUSE over you, (not PASS over you)”. “The two side
posts and the upper door post”
were sprinkled with the blood, but not the threshold, not the floor. The apostacy is characterized by “Trampling
under foot the Son of God, and counting the blood . . . . . common” (Heb. x.
29).
The Jews reckoned a double evening, the
first from noon to three, the second from three until sunset. In Exod. xii. 6
the margin shews that the Passover Lamb was killed “between the two
evening”, which would be at three o’clock. Matthew xxvii. 46 shews that the Lord Jesus died at the ninth
hour, and after that “when even was come” Joseph of Arimathea begged of Pilate
the body. The sixth hour was noon, the
ninth hour was 3.0p.m. Even such a detail as the exact time was
fulfilled. John xix. 36 draws attention to yet another feature which
links type and Antitype together.
“These things were done that the Scripture
should be fulfilled, A bone of Him shall not be broken.”
Roman practice must give place to the sure
word of prophecy. The Roman soldiers
must bear their testimony together with the Centurion that “this was a
righteous man”, for Psa. xxxiv. 20 speaking of the righteous says:--
“He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken.”
When David was led to see his sinfulness before
God, instead of saying, “i am unrighteous”, he said:-
“Make me to hear joy and
gladness, that the bones which thou
hast broken may rejoice.”
Unblemished in life, unbroken in death,
God’s true Passover Lamb was perfect,
and in Him alone can we find redemption and acceptance.
No comments:
Post a Comment