“Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them,” Hebrews 11:28.
THE FIRST STEPS TO FREEDOM
Here we have Moses taking the first steps on the journey to the promised land. by complying with that which the lord instituted
1. The Passover marked the beginning of a new era for the Israelites. “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you,” Exodus 12:2. There was instituted a ‘new beginning’ of the Jewish year. From then on their ‘religious life’ was according to a new calendar. We keep a different timetable from that followed by the world!
2. The sacrifice of a lamb marked this new beginning. How wonderfully illustrative, girls and boys, is this sacrifice which marked the last night in Egypt and the start of their journey to the ‘promised land’. Please note the references to the Passover Lamb. “A lamb,” V 3. “The lamb,” V 4. “Your lamb,” V 5. This marks the progress of personal faith. ‘The’ lamb becomes ‘your’ lamb!
3. The lamb was killed in the evening. “The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening,” V 6. It was the close of their time in Egypt. “But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself,” Hebrews 9:26. Calvary marked the evening of this present evil world. It is a long time since Calvary but only indicates that if the “LORD, shouldest mark iniquities . . . who shall stand?” Psalm 130:3.
4. The blood of the Passover Lamb provided a protective covering from judgment. “He kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.” The Passover blood preserved them from destruction, and destruction came from the ‘touch’ of the Lord.
“And 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. . . . . 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,” Exodus 12:7, 13. This pictures for us the need we have of ‘being under the blood of Christ’ if we are to escape damnation.
5. The Passover Lamb was eaten by a people ready to travel. “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,” Exodus 12:11. If you are saved today you are a ‘PILGRIM bound for Glory’!
May we learn from these words today.