MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 12:21-23
THE CELEBRATION OF THE PASSOVER
I. In this incident we have a clear recognition of the principle of vicarious suffering. The lamb was slain instead of the Israelites; the life of the former was taken instead of that of the latter. In this there was substitution. The death of the one secured the safety of the other. If the lamb had not been slain on behalf of the Israelites, and its blood not sprinkled on their door-posts, they must have perished by the stroke of the destroying angel. Hence in this incident we have the principle of vicarious suffering; and this principle extends all through the social life of men. It is seen in the birth of the infant, in the history of the family circle, in the events of everyday life, but supremely in the Cross of Christ. In the Cross of Christ it is seen in its highest embodiment, in its truest meaning, and in its most glorious possibility. There is the innocent dying for the guilty, the God-man suffering for the race. Sometimes this principle is denounced as unjust, but it is a habitual ordination of life, the inevitable outcome of our social and moral relationships. But as regards the Cross of Christ, the principle of substitution, as there manifested, is unique, and has no parallel in the history of men. It is not right for any man to die for another, because no man has a life of his own to give; it does not belong to himself, but to his country and to his family; but Christ, being Divine and from heaven, possessed a life inherently His own, and therefore could lay it down for mankind. Hence the sublime justice and mercy of the act, and the glory of the cross; of this instance of vicarious suffering the Paschal lamb was but a faint emblem.
II. In this incident we have a clear recognition of the need of falling in with all the requirements of the great scheme of salvation. The method whereby the Israelites were to be protected from the stroke of the destroying angel was Divinely originated, clearly revealed, and imperative in requirement. The Israelites would never have invented it themselves; such an idea would never have entered their minds. It was made known to them by Moses and Aaron, and that with due authority and proper emphasis. And by no other way could they have been saved. No doubt many of the Israelites would consider this a very peculiar method of deliverance; they would hardly be able to understand it; but they must obey or die. They may pursue some other course. They may stock the house with medicine ready for pestilence; but vain is their effort. They must obey the Divine command, and that to the very letter; for even if they kill the lamb and omit to sprinkle its blood upon the lintel of the door, they will perish in the coming doom. In all this we are clearly taught the necessity of falling in with all the requirements of the Divine method of human salvation. The sinner must be saved in God’s way, and not after his own. He may reason about the peculiarity of the method of salvation; he may think that other means will be more effective to the end desired; but if he at last is found out of the Divine way of safety, he will inevitably be lost. The blood of Christ sprinkled on the heart is the only sign the destroying angel will recognise, and regard as the token of safety.
III. In this incident we have a clear recognition of the fact that the Divine method of salvation will avert the most awful peril. By being obedient to the requirements of God, as made known by Moses, the Israelites were saved from the destruction that came upon all the first born of Egypt. Not one of the Israelites perished in the awful retribution. Hence we see that the method of God is effective to the salvation of men. And the way of human redemption by the Cross of Christ is effective to the moral safety of all who comply with its conditions. Not one soul has ever been lost that reposed its confidence in the atonement of the Saviour. The trustful soul shall not be hurt by the second death.
IV. In this incident we have a clear recognition of the fact that the efficacy of the Divine method of salvation should be associated with public religious ordinances. (Exodus 12:24.) Thus the Israelites were to associate their safety through this great danger in after-years with their religious ordinances; in this way they would be reminded of their past condition; they would be grateful for their present circumstances, and hopeful of the future. Hence the deliverance wrought by God for the soul of man should be commemorated by public ordinances in the house of God.
V. In this incident we have a clear recognition of the fact that the good should be able to give an intelligent explanation of their moral safety. (Exodus 12:27.) The Israelites would be able to explain the method of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage and from the stroke of the avenging angel; and so those who are safe through the redemption of Christ should be able and willing to explain and make known the rich mercy of God to them.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exodus 12:21. Faithfulness in God’s ministers binds them to present obedience and discharge of trust.
Men called of God to rule and teach the Church may call others to assist them.
Multitudes of souls cannot be informed of God’s rule without cause, order, and arrangement for their instruction.
Passover preparation and administration must be made by God’s rule.
Exodus 12:22-23. Faith is the true bunch of hyssop to sprinkle souls with Passover blood.
Doors and posts are sprinkled only with regard to souls within.
Such as expect God’s salvation must keep in that place where God will give it.
God has His pass of vengeance as of mercy.
God’s eye is upon His covenant when obediently observed for good.
No destroyer can smite until God grant a commission to him.
Exodus 12:24-25. God’s redeemed Israel are bound to observe His statutes.
All that God’s law requires must be returned to Him without failing in anything.
The ordinances of God are for all generations.
God’s performance is exact, according to the word that He has spoken.
God’s promise performed requires souls to observe the duty commanded.
Exodus 12:26-27. God’s wisdom foreseeth the succeeding generations of His Church and provides for their instruction.
It is accounted meet by God that children should ask and receive instruction about His holy worship.
It is God’s mind that the children of the Church should from infancy be taught to serve God with intelligence.
Parents are bound to know the nature of God’s ordinances, and to teach their children.
The doctrine of sacraments must be declared, as well as the signs used, to make them true.
Not only worship, but the reason of it, must be known by all who will render God reasonable service.
THE NEED OF AN INTELLIGENT APPREHENSION OF THE SERVICE AND WORSHIP OF GOD
I. It is necessary in order to the true performance of religious service and worship. Merely going through the service of God is not worship. There can be no devotion without an intelligent understanding of the service performed; without this, it is superstition. Knowledge is an essential element in devotion, as men cannot be in the highest sense devotional unless they know what they are about, and the meaning of the service in which they are engaged. There are thousands in the sanctuary engaged in a worship they do not really and fully comprehend; they are too careless to inquire into, they are too slothful to study, the solemn truth and ordinances of God.
II. It is necessary in order to the true performance of parental duty and instruction. Children will ask questions; it is right they should, and careful attention will ever be paid to them by the true parent. They will ask questions about God and about His worship; the answers to these inquiries should be instructive and explanatory, and in order to this, parents must themselves be acquainted with the meaning of the Divine service and worship. In many instances such home instruction is neglected because of the sad ignorance of the parents concerning the things of God.
III. It is necessary in order to refute and silence the sceptical reasonings of men. There might in the future be those in Israel who would object to the reasonableness and necessity of the celebration of the Passover, and to silence these it would be necessary to have a thorough knowledge of the ordinance in its origin and meaning. Christian people ought to be able to explain and defend their service and worship. There would be much less infidelity in the land if Christian people were instructed as they ought to be in the ordinances of God.
Exodus 12:28. God’s revelation of Himself in grace and ordinances deserves praise from His people.
Worship of God and obedience to Him are well coupled.
Despatch in obedience is very requisite to God’s Israel.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Sprinkling Symbolism! Exodus 12:23. A most significant allusion to the figurative significance of the passover-blood occurs in the prophecies of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 9), where the man clothed with linen is directed to set a mark upon the foreheads of the godly to preserve them from destruction. The same symbolic reference and command occur in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 7), in regard to those who have been sealed as the servants of our God in their foreheads. As has been aptly remarked, Egypt was but a symbol—a glass, into which, if we steadfastly look, we shall see a greater tragedy enacting. We see the great drama of the apocalyps—not the valley of the Nile, with its pyramids and temples; but Europe, with its ten kingdoms and white Alps. We see, not Moses demanding the liberty of the Hebrew captives in the name of Jehovah; but the Reformation walking along the highway to the seven-hilled city, and requiring the liberation of Europe, as he stands on the marble threshold of the Vatican. We see not the ten successive plagues culminating in the slaughter of Pharaoh’s first-born; but the fearful judgments of God upon her ten vassal-states. And we see not Egypt’s first-born; but that crowning scene of terror—the last awful and nameless plague, prior to the Final Exodus of God’s Church, whose members are sealed with the “Blood of the lamb,” to secure them from the coming slaughter, and to ensure their entrance—
“Into the new Salem’s palace hall,
Their everlasting home.”
—Bonar.
Crisis-Emotions! Exodus 12:21. The night before any decisive conflict is a solemn and anxious season. On the night before the battle of Ivry, says Hamilton, which was to decide whether Henry should lose his life, or gain his crown, as he eat pondering a map of the battle-field, the hair on one side of the king’s head turned grey. We know also how the commanders felt on the night which raised the siege of Leyden—on the night before Pharsalia, and on the eve of Blenheim of Waterloo. Moses has not told us how he left on the night before the Exodus; but he has given us some interesting glimpses of the scene, or rather the data for introducing it. Chief amongst the natural facts is that it was April, and the night of the full moon. The soft and silvery light fell on the white backs of the African mountains far away, and streamed almost perpendicularly on the mighty pyramids, which, like the spells of the old necromancers, invoke a host of spectres from the shadowy graves of the past,
“Far in whose realm withdrawn,
Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom,
And glorious ages gone,
Lie deep within the shadow of whose tomb.”
—Bryant.
Hyssop! Exodus 12:22. When an eastern traveller Visited the city of Sidon, its French consul, who was an enthusiastic botanist, exhibited two varieties of hyssop, one of which he thought was the plant used by Israel. It was a very small green plant, like a moss which covers old walls in damp places. Another, called by the Arabs Z’atar, and having the iragrance of thyme, with a hot pungent taste, and long slender stems, looked more suitable for sprinkling the paschal blood on the lintels, &c. This also grows on garden walls, and is distinct from the hyssop of English druggists and herbalists—a neat, fragrant, labiate plant. It is not found growing on the walls of Palestine, but wild on barren and dry spots of land. Rosenmüller said that the true hyssop was in reality a marjoram—an aromatic plant with while flowers. But Dr. Boyle regards the caper-plant as the missing hyssop, which certainly is to be found in Lower Egypt, where Israel was, as well as on Mount Smai, and plentifully around the ruins of the Holy City. It is a trailing shrub with broad smooth leaves and white flowers, and hangs in festoons from rocks and walls. Perhaps it was employed not only to denote lowliness of spirit, but likewise to signify cleansing property, since from the time of Hippocrates, the caper-plant has been regarded as having cleansing properties useful in curing diseases closely allied to leprosy. Here, however, it implies humility. Each Israelite who grasped it with the hand of faith, as he sprinkled the doorposts of his house, seemed to say—
“Give me the lowest place; not that I dare
Ask for that lowest place, but Thou hast died.”
—Rossetti.