For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth 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 12:23
And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
— 1 Thessalonians 1:10
And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
— Luke 22:19
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
— 1 Corinthians 5:7-8
Devotion for March the 19th, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The Scripture is taken from Exodus 12.
When I see the blood, I will pass over you.
Spurgeon says, Israel’s deliverance from Egypt was a redemption both by blood and by power. In the following chapter, we read of the redemption by blood.
Exodus 12 verses 1 to 15. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Spurgeon says, To be redeemed is the greatest event in one man’s history, in a man’s history. The day in which we realise redemption must be the pearl of days to us forever.
Verse 3, Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for their house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats.
Spurgeon says Jesus was perfect and in the fullness of his strength when he became the lamb of our Passover.
Verse 6
And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. Spurgeon says it was both in the evening of the day and in the evening of time that by the general voice of the nation Jesus was put to death.
They shall take of the blood and strike it upon the two side posts and on the upper door posts of the houses wherein they shall eat it not on the threshold spurs and says for woe unto the man who tramples on the blood of christ verse 8 and they shall eat the flesh in that night roast with fire and unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it spurs and says do these bitter herbs signify our repentance of the redeemer’s woes perhaps both.
Verse 9
Eat not of it raw nor sodden at all with water but roast with fire, his head with his legs and with the pertinence thereof. Spurgeon says our Lord’s sufferings are well symbolised by the fire before which the lamb was roasted. Verse 10, and ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning, and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.
Spurgeon says we must feed upon Christ and upon a whole Christ.
Verse 11
And thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the LORD 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, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt.”
Spurgeon says, mark that word when I see the blood. Our sight of the Atonement brings us comfort, but the Lord’s own sight of it is the true reason for our salvation, and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread. Even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses, for whosoever eateth leavened bread from that day shall, until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.” As the president says, sin is that sour leaven which must go from the heart where Jesus is the Saviour.
The Apostle Paul puts this more at length in 1 Corinthians 5 verses 6-8. Know ye not that a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump, spurs and says, it is a spreading thing and if any be left it will speedily multiply itself.
Verse 7
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice or wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Spurgeon says, may the Holy Spirit grant us grace to accomplish this sweeping of the house where the precious blood is sprinkled, no sin can be tolerated.
The hymn is, Saints, behold your paschal lamb, trust his blood and praise his name, keep the sacred feast and be now from guile and malice free. Stand as pilgrims staff in hand, quitting soon this servile land, follow on where Christ has trod, till he brings you home to God. Amen.
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