Then, as to the practical result of all this. The cross of Christ has not only put away the believer's sins, but also dissolved forever his connection with the world; and, on the ground of this, he is privileged to regard the world as a crucified _thing_, and to be regarded by it as a crucified one. Thus it stands with the believer and the world,--it is crucified to him and he to it. This is the real, dignified position of every true Christian. The world's judgment about Christ was expressed in the position in which it deliberately placed Him. It got its choice as to whether it would have a murderer or Christ. It allowed the murderer to go free, but nailed Christ to the cross, between two thieves. Now, if the believer walks in the footprints of Christ--if he drinks into and manifests His spirit, he will occupy the very same place in the world's estimation; and, in this way, he will not merely know that, as to standing before G.o.d, he is crucified with Christ, but be led to realize it in his walk and experience every day.

But while the cross has thus effectually cut the connection between the believer and the world, the resurrection has brought him into the power of new ties and a.s.sociations. If in the cross we see the world's judgment about Christ, in resurrection we see G.o.d's judgment. The world crucified Him, but "G.o.d hath highly exalted Him." Man gave Him the very lowest, G.o.d the very highest, place; and, inasmuch as the believer is called into full fellowship with G.o.d in His thoughts about Christ, he is enabled to turn the tables upon the world, and look upon it as a crucified thing. If, therefore, the believer is on one cross and the world on another, the moral distance between the two is vast indeed. And if it is vast in principle, so should it be in practice.

The world and the Christian should have absolutely nothing in common; nor will they, except so far as he denies his Lord and Master. The believer proves himself false to Christ to the very same degree that he has fellowship with the world.

All this is plain enough; but, my beloved Christian reader, where does it put us as regards this world? Truly, it puts us outside, and that completely. We are dead to the world and alive with Christ. We are at once partakers of His rejection by earth and His acceptance in heaven; and the joy of the latter makes us count as nothing the trial connected with the former. To be cast out of earth, without knowing that I have a place and a portion on high, would be intolerable; but when the glories of heaven fill the soul's vision, a little of earth goes a great way.

But some may feel led to ask, What is the world? It would be difficult to find a term more inaccurately defined than "world," or "worldliness;" for we are generally disposed to make worldliness begin a point or two above where we are ourselves. The Word of G.o.d, however, has, with perfect precision, defined what "the world" is, when it marks it as that which is "not of the Father." Hence, the deeper my fellowship with the Father, the keener will be my sense of what is worldly. This is the divine way of teaching. The more you delight in the Father's love, the more you reject the world. But who reveals the Father? The Son. How? By the power of the Holy Ghost. Wherefore, the more I am enabled, in the power of an ungrieved Spirit, to drink in the Son's revelation of the Father, the more accurate does my judgment become as to what is of the world. It is as the limits of G.o.d's kingdom expand in the heart, that the judgment as to worldliness becomes refined. You can hardly attempt to define worldliness. It is, as some one has said, "shaded off gradually from white to jet black."

This is most true. You cannot place a bound and say, Here is where worldliness begins; but the keen and exquisite sensibilities of the divine nature recoil from it; and all we need is, to walk in the power of that nature, in order to keep aloof from every form of worldliness.

"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the l.u.s.ts of the flesh."

Walk with G.o.d, and ye shall not walk with the world. Cold distinctions and rigid rules will avail nothing. The power of the divine life is what we want. We want to understand the meaning and spiritual application of the "three days' journey into the wilderness," whereby we are separated forever, not only from Egypt's brick-kilns and taskmasters, but also from its temples and altars.

Pharaoh's second objection partook very much of the character and tendency of the first. "And Pharaoh said, 'I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice unto the Lord your G.o.d in the wilderness; _only ye shall not go very far away_.'" (Chap. viii. 28.) If he could not keep them in Egypt, he would at least seek to keep them _near_ it, so that he might act upon them by its varied influences. In this way, they might be brought back again, and the testimony more effectually quashed than if they had never left Egypt at all. There is always much more serious damage done to the cause of Christ by persons seeming to give up the world and returning to it again, than if they had remained entirely of it; for they virtually confess that, having tried heavenly things, they have discovered that earthly things are better and more satisfying.

Nor is this all. The moral effect of truth upon the conscience of unconverted people is sadly interfered with, by the example of professors going back again into those things which they seemed to have left. Not that such cases afford the slightest warrant to any one for the rejection of G.o.d's truth, inasmuch as each one is personally responsible and will have to give account of himself to G.o.d. Still, however, the effect in this, as well as in everything else, is bad.

"For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them." (2 Peter ii. 20, 21.)

Wherefore, if people do not "go very far away," they had better not go at all. The enemy knew this well; and hence his second objection. The maintenance of a border position suits his purpose amazingly. Those who occupy this ground are neither one thing nor the other; and, in point of fact, whatever influence they possess, tells entirely in the wrong direction.

It is deeply important to see that Satan's design, in all these objections, was to hinder that testimony to the name of the G.o.d of Israel, which could only be rendered by a "three days' journey into the wilderness." This was, in good truth, going "very far away." It was much farther than Pharaoh could form any idea of, or than he could follow them. And oh! how happy it would be if all who profess to set out from Egypt would really, in the spirit of their minds and in the tone of their character, go thus far away from it; if they would intelligently recognize the cross and grave of Christ as forming the boundary between them and the world! No man, in the mere energy of nature, can take this ground. The Psalmist could say, "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified." (Ps. cxliii. 2.) So also is it with regard to true and effectual separation from the world. "_No man living_" can enter into it. It is only as "_dead_ with Christ," and "risen again with Him, through faith of the operation of G.o.d," that any one can either be "justified" before G.o.d, or separated from the world. This is what we may call going "very far away." May all who profess and call themselves Christians go thus far. Then will their lamp yield a steady light. Then would their trumpet give a certain sound. Their path would be elevated; their experience deep and rich; their peace would flow as a river; their affections would be heavenly and their garments unspotted. And, far above all, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ would be magnified in them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, according to the will of G.o.d their Father.

The third objection demands our most special attention. "And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, 'Go, serve the Lord your G.o.d; but who are they that shall go?' And Moses said, 'We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord.' And he said unto them, 'Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you. Not so; go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire.' And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence." (Chap. x. 8-11.) Here, again, we have the enemy aiming a deadly blow at the testimony to the name of the G.o.d of Israel. Parents in the wilderness and their children in Egypt!

Terrible anomaly! This would only have been a half deliverance, at once useless to Israel and dishonoring to Israel's G.o.d. This could not be. If the children remained in Egypt, the parents could not possibly be said to have left it, inasmuch as their children were part of themselves. The most that could be said in such a case was, that in part they were serving Jehovah, and in part Pharaoh. But Jehovah could have no part with Pharaoh. He should either have all or nothing. This is a weighty principle for Christian parents. May we lay it deeply to heart! It is our happy privilege to count on G.o.d for our children, and to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." (Eph.

vi.) We should not be satisfied with any other portion for "our little ones" than that which we ourselves enjoy.

Pharaoh's fourth and last objection had reference to the flocks and herds. "And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, 'Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you.'" (Chap. x. 24.) With what perseverance did Satan dispute every inch of Israel's way out of the land of Egypt! He first sought to keep them _in_ the land, then to keep them _near_ the land, next to keep part of themselves in the land, and finally, when he could not succeed in any of these three, he sought to send them forth without any ability to serve the Lord. If he could not keep the servants, he would seek to keep their ability to serve, which would answer much the same end. If he could not induce them to sacrifice in the land, he would send them out of the land without sacrifices.

In Moses' reply to this last objection, we are furnished with a fine statement of the Lord's paramount claim upon His people and all pertaining to them. "And Moses said, 'Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our G.o.d. Our cattle also shall go with us; _there shall not a hoof be left behind_: for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our G.o.d; and we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither.'"

(Ver. 25, 26.) It is only when the people of G.o.d take their stand, in simple childlike faith, upon that elevated ground on which death and resurrection set them, that they can have anything like an adequate sense of His claims upon them. "We know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither." That is, they had no knowledge of the divine claim, or their responsibility, until they had gone "three days' journey." These things could not be known amid the dense and polluted atmosphere of Egypt. Redemption must be known as an accomplished fact, ere there can be any just or full perception of responsibility. All this is perfect and beautiful. "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." I must be up out of Egypt, in the power of death and resurrection, and then, but not until then, shall I know what the Lord's service really is. It is when we take our stand, by faith, in that "large room," that wealthy place into which the precious blood of Christ introduces us,--when we look around us and survey the rich, rare, and manifold results of redeeming love,--when we gaze upon the Person of Him who has brought us into this place, and endowed us with these riches, then we are constrained to say, in the language of one of our own poets,--

"Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were an offering far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my heart, my life, my all."

"There shall not a hoof be left behind." n.o.ble words! Egypt is not the place for aught that pertains to G.o.d's redeemed. He is worthy of all--"body, soul, and spirit;" all we are and all we have belongs to Him. "We are not our own, we are bought with a price;" and it is our happy privilege to consecrate ourselves and all that we possess to Him whose we are, and Him whom we are called to serve. There is naught of a legal spirit in this. The words, "until we come thither," furnish a divine guard against this horrible evil. We have traveled the "three days' journey," ere a word concerning sacrifice can be heard or understood. We are put in full and undisputed possession of resurrection life and eternal righteousness. We have left that land of death and darkness; we have been brought to G.o.d Himself, so that we may enjoy Him, in the energy of that life with which we are endowed, and in the sphere of righteousness in which we are placed: thus it is our joy to serve. There is not an affection in the heart of which He is not worthy; there is not a sacrifice in all the flock too costly for His altar. The more closely we walk with Him, the more we shall esteem it to be our meat and drink to do His blessed will. The believer counts it his highest privilege to serve the Lord. He delights in every exercise and every manifestation of the divine nature. He does not move up and down with a grievous yoke upon his neck, or an intolerable weight upon his shoulder. The yoke is broken "because of the anointing," the burden has been forever removed by the blood of the cross, while he himself walks abroad, "redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled," in pursuance of those soul-stirring words, "LET MY PEOPLE GO."

_Note._--We shall consider the contents of chapter xi. in connection with the security of Israel, under the shelter of the blood of the paschal lamb.

CHAPTER XII.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.'"

(Chap. xi. 1.) One more heavy blow must fall upon this hard-hearted monarch and his land ere he will be compelled to let go the favored objects of Jehovah's sovereign grace.

How utterly vain it is for man to harden and exalt himself against G.o.d; for, truly, He can grind to powder the hardest heart, and bring down to the dust the haughtiest spirit. "Those that walk in pride He is able to abase." (Dan. iv. 37.) Man may fancy himself to be something; he may lift up his head, in pomp and vainglory, as though he were his own master. Vain man! how little he knows of his real condition and character! He is but the tool of Satan, taken up and used by him, in his malignant efforts to counteract the purposes of G.o.d. The most splendid intellect, the most commanding genius, the most indomitable energy, if not under the direct control of the Spirit of G.o.d, are but so many instruments in Satan's hand to carry forward his dark designs. No man is his own master; he is either governed by Christ or governed by Satan. The king of Egypt might fancy himself to be a free agent, yet he was but a tool in the hands of another. Satan was behind the throne; and, as the result of Pharaoh's having set himself to resist the purposes of G.o.d, he was judicially handed over to the blinding and hardening influence of his self-chosen master.

This will explain to us an expression occurring very frequently throughout the earlier chapters of this book,--"The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart." There is no need whatever for any one to seek to avoid the full, plain sense of this most solemn statement. If man resists the light of divine testimony, he is shut up to judicial blindness and hardness of heart. G.o.d leaves him to himself, and then Satan comes in and carries him headlong to perdition. There was abundant light for Pharaoh, to show him the extravagant folly of his course in seeking to detain those whom G.o.d had commanded him to let go. But the real disposition of his heart was to act against G.o.d, and therefore G.o.d left him to himself, and made him a monument for the display of His glory "through all the earth." There is no difficulty in this to any, save those whose desire is to argue against G.o.d--"to rush upon the thick bosses of the shield of the Almighty"--to ruin their own immortal souls.

G.o.d gives people, at times, according to the real bent of their hearts' desire. "... because of this, G.o.d shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be d.a.m.ned who believed not the truth, but _had pleasure in unrighteousness_." (2 Thess. ii. 11, 12.) If men will not have the truth when it is put before them, they shall a.s.suredly have a lie. If they will not have Christ, they shall have Satan; if they will not have heaven, they shall have h.e.l.l.[6] Will the infidel mind find fault with this? Ere it does so, let it prove that all who are thus judicially dealt with have fully answered their responsibilities. Let it, for instance, prove, in Pharaoh's case, that he acted, in any measure, up to the light he possessed. The same is to be proved in every case. Unquestionably, the task of proving rests on those who are disposed to quarrel with G.o.d's mode of dealing with the rejecters of His truth. The simple-hearted child of G.o.d will justify Him, in view of the most inscrutable dispensations; and even if he cannot meet and satisfactorily solve the difficult questions of a sceptical mind, he can rest perfectly satisfied with this word, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" There is far more wisdom in this method of settling an apparent difficulty, than in the most elaborate argument; for it is perfectly certain that the heart which is in a condition to "reply against G.o.d," will not be convinced by the arguments of man.

[6] There is a vast difference between the divine method of dealing with the heathen (Rom. i.) and with the rejecters of the gospel. (2 Thess. i. ii.) In reference to the former, we read, "And even as they did not like to retain G.o.d in their knowledge, G.o.d gave them over to a reprobate mind:" but with respect to the latter, the word is, "Because they received not the love of _the truth_ that they might _be saved_, ... G.o.d shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe _a lie_; that they all might _be d.a.m.ned_." The heathen refuse the testimony of creation, and are therefore left to themselves. The rejecters of the gospel refuse the full blaze of light which shines from the cross, and therefore "a strong delusion" will, ere long, be sent from G.o.d upon them. This is deeply solemn for an age like this, in the which there is so much light and so much profession.

However, it is G.o.d's prerogative to answer all the proud reasonings, and bring down the lofty imaginations of the human mind. He can write the sentence of death upon nature, in its fairest forms. "It is appointed unto men once to die." This cannot be avoided. Man may seek to hide his humiliation in various ways,--to cover his retreat through the valley of death in the most heroic manner possible,--to call the last humiliating stage of his career by the most honorable t.i.tles he can devise,--to gild the bed of death with a false light,--to adorn the funeral procession and the grave with the appearance of pomp, pageantry, and glory,--to raise above the mouldering ashes a splendid monument, on which are engraven the records of human shame,--all these things he may do; but death is death after all, and he cannot keep it off for a moment, or make it aught else than what it is, namely, "the wages of sin."

The foregoing thoughts are suggested by the opening verse of chapter xi--"One plague more!" Solemn word! It signed the death-warrant of Egypt's first-born--"the chief of all their strength." "And Moses said, 'Thus saith the Lord, About midnight 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 maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born of beasts. 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.'" (Chap. xi. 4-6.) This was to be the final plague--death in every house. "But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast; that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." It is the Lord alone who can "put a difference" between those who are His and those who are not. It is not our province to say to any one, "Stand by thyself; I am holier than thou:" this is the language of a Pharisee. "But when G.o.d puts a difference," we are bound to inquire what that difference is; and, in the case before us, we see it to be a simple question of _life or death_. This is G.o.d's grand "difference." He draws a line of demarkation, and on one side of this line is "life," on the other "death." Many of Egypt's first-born might have been as fair and attractive as those of Israel, and much more so; but Israel had life and light, founded upon G.o.d's counsels of redeeming love, established, as we shall see presently, by the blood of the lamb. This was Israel's happy position; while, on the other hand, throughout the length and breadth of the land of Egypt, from the monarch on the throne to the menial behind the mill, nothing was to be seen but death; nothing to be heard but the cry of bitter anguish, elicited by the heavy stroke of Jehovah's rod. G.o.d can bring down the haughty spirit of man. He can make the wrath of man to praise Him, and restrain the remainder. "And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out." G.o.d will accomplish His own ends. His schemes of mercy must be carried out at all cost, and confusion of face must be the portion of all who stand in the way. "O, give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: for His mercy endureth forever.... To Him that smote Egypt in their first-born; for His mercy endureth forever: and brought out Israel from among them; for His mercy endureth forever: with a strong hand and with a stretched-out arm; for His mercy endureth forever." (Ps.

cx.x.xvi.)

"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.'" (Chap. xii. 1, 2.) There is here a very interesting change in the order of time. The common or civil year was rolling on in its ordinary course, when Jehovah interrupted it in reference to His people, and thus, in principle, taught them that they were to begin a new era in company with Him; their previous history was henceforth to be regarded as a blank. Redemption was to const.i.tute the first step in _real life_.

This teaches a plain truth. A man's life is really of no account until he begins to walk with G.o.d, in the knowledge of full salvation and settled peace, through the precious blood of the Lamb. Previous to this, he is, in the judgment of G.o.d, and in the language of Scripture, "dead in trespa.s.ses and sins;" "alienated from the life of G.o.d." His whole history is a complete blank, even though, in man's account, it may have been one uninterrupted scene of bustling activity. All that which engages the attention of the man of this world--the honors, the riches, the pleasures, the attractions of life, so called--all, when examined in the light of the judgment of G.o.d, when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, must be accounted as a dismal blank, a worthless void, utterly unworthy of a place in the records of the Holy Ghost. "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life." (John iii.

36.) Men speak of "seeing life" when they launch forth into society, travel hither and thither, and see all that is to be seen; but they forget that the only true, the only real, the only divine way to "see life," is to "believe on the Son of G.o.d."

How little do men think of this! They imagine that "real life" is at an end when a man becomes a Christian, in truth and reality, not merely in name and outward profession; whereas G.o.d's Word teaches us that it is only then we can see life and taste true happiness.--"He that hath the Son, hath life." (1 John v. 12.) And, again, "Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." (Ps. x.x.xii.

1.) We can get life and happiness _only_ in Christ. Apart from Him, all is death and misery, in Heaven's judgment, whatever the outward appearance may be. It is when the thick vail of unbelief is removed from the heart, and we are enabled to behold, with the eye of faith, the bleeding Lamb, bearing our heavy burden of guilt upon the cursed tree, that we enter upon the path of life, and partake of the cup of divine happiness,--a life which begins at the cross, and flows onward into an eternity of glory,--a happiness which, each day, becomes deeper and purer, more connected with G.o.d and founded on Christ, until we reach its proper sphere, in the presence of G.o.d and the Lamb. To seek life and happiness in any other way is vainer work by far than seeking to make bricks without straw.

True, the enemy of souls spreads a gilding over this pa.s.sing scene, in order that men may imagine it to be all gold. He sets up many a puppet-show to elicit the hollow laugh from a thoughtless mult.i.tude, who will not remember that it is Satan who is in the box, and that his object is to keep them from Christ, and drag them down into eternal perdition. There is nothing real, nothing solid, nothing satisfying, but in Christ. Outside of Him, "all is vanity and vexation of spirit."

In Him alone true and eternal joys are to be found; and we only begin to live when we begin to live _in_, live _on_, live _with_, and live _for_ Him. "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you." The time spent in the brick-kilns and by the flesh-pots must be ignored. It is henceforth to be of no account, save that the remembrance thereof should ever and anon serve to quicken and deepen their sense of what divine grace had accomplished on their behalf.

"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 a house.... Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats: and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole a.s.sembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening." Here we have the redemption of the people founded upon the blood of the lamb, in pursuance of G.o.d's eternal purpose. This imparts to it all its divine stability. Redemption was no afterthought with G.o.d. Before the world was, or Satan, or sin--before ever the voice of G.o.d was heard breaking the silence of eternity, and calling worlds into existence, He had His deep counsels of love; and these counsels could never find a sufficiently solid basis in creation. All the blessings, the privileges, and the dignities of creation were founded upon a creature's obedience, and the moment that failed, all was gone. But then, Satan's attempt to mar creation only opened the way for the manifestation of G.o.d's deeper purposes of redemption.

This beautiful truth is typically presented to us in the circ.u.mstance of the lamb's being "kept up" from the "tenth" to "the fourteenth day." That this lamb pointed to Christ is unquestionable. 1 Cor. v. 7 settles the application of this interesting type beyond all question,--"For even Christ our pa.s.sover is sacrificed for us." We have, in the first epistle of Peter, an allusion to the keeping up of the lamb,--"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was _foreordained before the foundation of the world_, but was _manifest in these last times for you_." (Chap. i. 18-20.)

All G.o.d's purposes from everlasting had reference to Christ, and no effort of the enemy could possibly interfere with those counsels; yea, his efforts only tended to the display of the unfathomable wisdom and immovable stability thereof. If the "Lamb without blemish and without spot" was "foreordained before the foundation of the world," then, a.s.suredly, redemption must have been in the mind of G.o.d before the foundation of the world. The blessed One had not to pause in order to devise some plan to remedy the terrible evil which the enemy had introduced into His fair creation. No; He had only to bring forth, from the unexplored treasury of His precious counsels, the truth concerning the spotless Lamb, who was foreordained from everlasting, and to be "manifest in these last times for us."

There was no need for the blood of the Lamb in creation as it came fresh from the hand of the Creator, exhibiting, in every stage and every department of it, the beauteous impress of His hand--"the infallible proofs" of "His eternal power and G.o.dhead" (Rom. i.); but when, "by one man," sin was introduced into the world, then came out the higher, richer, fuller, deeper thought of redemption by the blood of the Lamb. This glorious truth first broke through the thick clouds which surrounded our first parents, as they retreated from the garden of Eden; its glimmerings appear in the types and shadows of the Mosaic economy; it burst upon the World in full brightness when "the dayspring from on high" appeared in the Person of "G.o.d manifest in the flesh;" and its rich and rare results will be realized when the white-robed, palm-bearing mult.i.tude shall cl.u.s.ter round the throne of G.o.d and the Lamb, and the whole creation shall rest beneath the peaceful sceptre of the Son of David.

Now, the lamb taken on the tenth day, and kept up until the fourteenth day, shows us Christ foreordained of G.o.d from eternity, but manifest for us in time. G.o.d's eternal purpose in Christ becomes the foundation of the believer's peace. Nothing short of this would do. We are carried back far beyond creation, beyond the bounds of time, beyond the entrance in of sin and everything that could possibly affect the ground-work of our peace. The expression, "foreordained before the foundation of the world," conducts us back into the unfathomed depths of eternity, and shows us G.o.d forming His own counsels of redeeming love, and basing them all upon the atoning blood of His own precious, spotless Lamb. Christ was ever the primary thought in the divine mind; and hence, the moment He began to speak or act, He took occasion to shadow forth that One who occupied the highest place in His counsels and affections; and, as we pa.s.s along the current of inspiration, we find that every ceremony, every rite, every ordinance, and every sacrifice pointed forward to "the Lamb of G.o.d that taketh away the sin of the world," and not one more strikingly than the pa.s.sover. The paschal lamb, with all the attendant circ.u.mstances, forms one of the most profoundly interesting and deeply instructive types of Scripture.

In the interpretation of Exodus xii, we have to do with _one_ a.s.sembly and _one_ sacrifice.--"The whole a.s.sembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill _it_ in the evening." (Ver. 6.) It is not so much a number of families with several lambs--a thing quite true in itself--as one a.s.sembly and one lamb. Each house was but the local expression of the whole a.s.sembly gathered round the lamb. The ant.i.type of this we have in the whole Church of G.o.d, gathered by the Holy Ghost, in the name of Jesus, of which each separate a.s.sembly, wherever convened, should be the local expression.

"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 they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof." (Ver. 7-9.) We have to contemplate the paschal lamb in two aspects, namely, as the ground of peace, and the centre of unity. The blood on the lintel secured Israel's peace.--"When I see the blood, I will pa.s.s over you." (Ver.

13.) There was nothing more required in order to enjoy settled peace, in reference to the destroying angel, than the application of the blood of sprinkling. Death had to do its work in every house throughout the land of Egypt. "It is appointed unto men once to die."

But G.o.d, in His great mercy, found an unblemished subst.i.tute for Israel, on which the sentence of death was executed. Thus G.o.d's claims and Israel's need were met by one and the same thing, namely, the blood of the lamb. That blood outside proved that _all_ was perfectly, because divinely, settled; and therefore perfect peace reigned within.

A shade of doubt in the bosom of an Israelite would have been a dishonor offered to the divinely appointed ground of peace--the blood of atonement.

True it is that each one within the blood-sprinkled door would necessarily feel that were he to receive his due reward, the sword of the destroyer should most a.s.suredly find its object in him; but then the lamb was treated in his stead. This was the solid foundation of his peace. The judgment that was due to him fell upon a divinely appointed victim; and believing this, he could feed in peace within. A single doubt would have made Jehovah a liar; for He had said, "When _I_ see the _blood_, I will pa.s.s over you." This was enough. It was no question of personal worthiness. Self had nothing whatever to do in the matter. All under the cover of the blood were safe. They were not merely in a salvable state, they were _saved_. They were not hoping or praying to be saved; they knew it as an a.s.sured fact, on the authority of that Word which shall endure throughout all generations. Moreover, they were not partly saved and partly exposed to judgment; they were wholly saved. The blood of the lamb and the word of the Lord formed the foundation of Israel's peace on that terrible night in which Egypt's first-born were laid low. If a hair of an Israelite's head could be touched, it would have proved Jehovah's word void, and the blood of the lamb valueless.

It is most needful to be simple and clear as to what const.i.tutes the ground of a sinner's peace in the presence of G.o.d. So many things are mixed up with the finished work of Christ, that souls are plunged into darkness and uncertainty as to their acceptance. They do not see the absolutely settled character of redemption through the blood of Christ, in its application to themselves. They seem not to be aware that full forgiveness of sin rests upon the simple fact that a full atonement has been offered,--a fact attested, in the view of all created intelligence, by the resurrection of the sinner's Surety from the dead. They know that there is no other way of being saved but by the blood of the cross (but the devils know this, yet it avails them naught). What is so much needed is to know that _we are saved_. The Israelite not merely knew that there was safety in the blood; he knew that _he_ was _safe_. And why safe? Was it because of anything that he had done, or felt, or thought? By no means; but because G.o.d had said, "When I see the blood, I will pa.s.s over you." He rested upon G.o.d's testimony: he believed what G.o.d said, because G.o.d said it: "he set to his seal that G.o.d was true."

And, observe, my reader, it was not by his own thoughts, feelings, or experiences, respecting the blood, that the Israelite rested. This would have been a poor, sandy foundation to rest upon. His thoughts and feelings might be deep or they might be shallow; but, deep or shallow, they had nothing to do with the ground of his peace. It was not said, When _you_ see the blood, and value it as you ought, I will pa.s.s over you. This would have been sufficient to plunge him in dark despair about himself, inasmuch as it was quite impossible that the human mind could ever sufficiently appreciate the precious blood of the lamb. What gave peace was the fact that Jehovah's eye rested upon the blood, and that He knew its worth. This tranquilized the heart.

The blood was outside, and the Israelite inside, so that he could not possibly see it; but G.o.d saw it, and that was quite enough.

The application of this to the question of a sinner's peace is very plain. The Lord Jesus Christ having shed His precious blood, as a perfect atonement for sin, has taken it into the presence of G.o.d, and sprinkled it there; and G.o.d's testimony a.s.sures the believing sinner that everything is settled on his behalf--settled not by his estimate of the blood, but by the blood itself, which G.o.d estimates so highly, that because of it, without a single jot or t.i.ttle added thereto, He can righteously forgive all sin, and accept the sinner as perfectly righteous in Christ. How can any one ever enjoy settled peace if his peace depends upon his estimate of the blood? Impossible! The loftiest estimate which the human mind can form of the blood must fall infinitely short of its divine preciousness; and therefore, if our peace were to depend upon our valuing it as we ought, we could no more enjoy settled peace than if we were seeking it by "works of law."

There must either be a sufficient ground of peace in the blood _alone_, or we can never have peace. To mix up our estimate with it, is to upset the entire fabric of Christianity, just as effectually as if we were to conduct the sinner to the foot of mount Sinai, and put him under a covenant of works. Either Christ's atoning sacrifice is sufficient or it is not. If it is sufficient, why those doubts and fears? The words of our _lips_ profess that the work is finished; but the doubts and fears of the _heart_ declare that it is not. Every one who doubts his full and everlasting forgiveness, denies, so far as he is concerned, the completeness of the sacrifice of Christ.

But there are very many who would shrink from the idea of deliberately and avowedly calling in question the efficacy of the blood of Christ, who, nevertheless, have not settled peace. Such persons profess to be quite a.s.sured of the sufficiency of the blood, _if_ only _they_ were sure of an interest therein--_if only_ they had the right kind of faith. There are many precious souls in this unhappy condition. They are occupied with their interest and their faith, instead of with Christ's blood and G.o.d's word. In other words, they are looking in at self, instead of out at Christ. This is not faith; and, as a consequence, they have not peace. An Israelite within the blood-stained lintel could teach such souls a most seasonable lesson.

He was not saved by his interest in, or his thoughts about, the blood, but simply by the blood. No doubt he had a blessed interest in it, and he would have his thoughts likewise; but then G.o.d did not say, When I see your interest in the blood, I will pa.s.s over you. Oh, no! THE BLOOD, in all its solitary dignity and divine efficacy, was set before Israel; and had they attempted to place even a morsel of unleavened bread beside the blood, as a ground of security, they would have made Jehovah a liar, and denied the sufficiency of His remedy.