Our interest in the Passover, as in most of the other institutions of the Levitical economy, consists in its relationship to higher institutions, and to a more hallowed provision; it consists in the prefiguration by them of our Surety and Saviour, who is at once the Surety and Saviour of universal man. There are three points in the analogy to be considered.
I. We, like the children of Israel aforetime, are in circumstances of sorrow. (1) They were in bondage. We also have been brought under bondage to sin, and our yoke is harder than theirs, for ours is heart-slavery, the iron has entered into our soul. (2) The Israelites were in circumstances of peril.
The Lord was about to execute in their sight His strange work of judgment. The transgressions of our race, the sins which we commit, expose us to consequences far more imminent, and far more terrible.
II. For us, as for the children of Israel of old, there is a remedy provided. The great doctrine of Atonement is here brought before us. As by the blood of the victim sprinkled upon the door-posts, seen by the destroying angel, wrath was averted from them and deliverance secured, so by the blood of Jesus, seen by Divine justice sprinkled upon our hearts, wrath is warded off from us, and everlasting salvation is secured. The cross is the meeting-place of God's mercy for the sinner.
III. As there is such a remedy there can be no other. For us as for them there is but one way of escape. "There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."
W. Morley Punshon, Penny Pulpit,No. 312.
References: Exodus 12:13. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. v., No. 228, also vol. xxi., No. 1251; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xiv., p. 22.