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From Eternity Past
Moses said, “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.”
The Lord declared: “I will pass through the land of Egypt this
night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man
and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment...
. 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.”
In commemoration of this great deliverance, a feast was to be
observed yearly by Israel in all future generations—“the sacrifice
of the Lord’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children
of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our
houses.”
The Passover Points to Christ
The Passover was to be both commemorative and typical, not only
pointing back to the deliverance from Egypt, but forward to the greater
deliverance which Christ was to accomplish in freeing His people from
the bondage of sin. The sacrificial lamb represents “the Lamb of God,”
in whom is our only hope of salvation. Says the apostle, “Christ our
passover is sacrificed for us.”
1 Corinthians 5:7
. It was not enough
that the paschal lamb be slain; its blood must be sprinkled upon the
doorposts; so the merits of Christ’s blood must be applied to the soul.
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We must believe, not only that He died for the world, but that He died
for us individually.
The hyssop was the symbol of purification. “Purge me with hyssop,
and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
Psalm
51:7
.
The lamb was to be prepared whole, not a bone being broken; so
not a bone was to be broken of the Lamb of God, who was to die for
us. See
John 19:36
.
The flesh was to be eaten. It is not enough that we believe on Christ
for the forgiveness of sin; we must by faith be constantly receiving
spiritual nourishment from Him through His Word. Said Christ, “Ex-
cept ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have
no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath
eternal life.” “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they