260
T h e
K i n g ’ s B U S I N E S S
June 1932
m I PASSOVER
By I. M. H^LDEMAN * New York, N. Y.
[Sunday-school teachers, who will be dealing with the sub ject o f the Passover on Sunday, July 17, will welcome Dr. Haide- man s treatment o f the subject, published in two installments, of which this is the first. —E ditor .] twelfth chapter of Exodus is one of the most re markable in the Bible; In it, we have the complete foreshadowing of divine redemption. A S entence of D eath P ronounced God had pronounced sentence of death against the first-born in the land of Egypt: “ And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About mid night will I go out into the midst of Egypt: “ And all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born o f beasts” (Ex. 11: 4 , 5 ) . _ , This^ was the tenth and last plague. Concerning it the Lord said: “ And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more” (Ex. 11:6). The first-born is a symbol of the natural man. “ That was not first which is spiritual, but that which is -natural” (1 Cor. 15:46). The first-born is a symbol of all in Adam. In and through Adam, the first man, death as a sentence from God has passed upon all men (Rom. 5 :12). T he F irst -B orn of I srael U nder the S entence God had a covenant and elect people (the children of Israel) in the land, and their first-born came under the sentence of death, even as those of the Egyptians. All who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ are a cov enant people, elect of God, but were by nature children of wrath even as others, and under the same sentence of death. “ He hath chosen us [believers] in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). A S ubstitute P rovided God determined to save His elect and covenant people of Israel by providing a lamb as a substitute for them. “ They shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house” (Ex. 12:3). Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of whom the Pass- over lamb was a type. “ The next day [after our Lord’s baptism] John seeth *Pastor, First Baptist Church.
Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb o f God, which taketh [beareth] away the sin of the world” (John 1 :29). Thè Passover lamb must have certain characteristics. “ Your lamb shall be without blemish” (Ex. 12:5). Our Lord Jesus Christ was the true Lamb without blemish (1 Pet, 1:19; Heb. 4:15; 7:26) . The lapib must be a firstling of the flock, the first-born, the preeminent. O f our Lord Jesus Christ it is said that he is “ the first born of every creature . . . he is before all things . . . 1^15 *18)^ ^ ' n^S m'&ht have the preeminence” (Col. He is tire first of His kind. He is not an evolution of Adam. He is a new kind of man, the beginning of a new creation o f man. He is “ the last Adam, the second man” (1 Cor. 15: 45, 47). The lamb must be set apart on the tenth day, that is, foreordained to death (Ex. 12:3). Our Lord was foreordained as the victim of the cross (1 Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8). The lamb was to be kept up till the evening of the fourteenth day and then slain. “ And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month : and the whole assembly of the congrega tion of Israel shall kill it in the evening” (Ex. 12:6), that is, between the two evenings, between three and six o’clock o f the thirteenth. Our Lord Jesus Christ died between the two evenings. He died at the ninth hour, that is, three o’clock on Thurs day afternoon at the time when the regular evening sac rifice was offered in the temple, and at the moment when the Passover lamb was slain. When He died, He cried, “ It is finished” (John 19: 30)— literally, “ It has been fulfilled.” The death of the Passover lamb was the death o f a substitute. The death o f our Lord Jesus Christ was the death of a substitute. “ For he hath made him to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5 :21 ; cf. 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18). That is, God counted Him as our sin, our sin as be lievers, our sin both of nature and transgression, judged Him in our place as though we were on that cross being punished. F or W hom the L amb was P rovided The lamb was provided for every man: “ They shall take of them every man a lamb” (Ex. 12:3). Our Lord is provided, not as a Saviour o f society, but as an “ every man” Saviour. He is not a social Redeemer. He does not save men in bloc; He saves them individually.
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