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Patriarchs and Prophets
given unto Me from among the children of Israel,” He said. “Instead
of the first-born of all the children of Israel, have I taken them unto
Me.”
Numbers 8:16
. All the people were, however, still required, in
acknowledgment of God’s mercy, to pay a redemption price for the
first-born son.
Numbers 18:15, 16
.
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.
We must believe, not only that He died for the world, but that He died
for us individually. We must appropriate to ourselves the virtue of the
atoning sacrifice.
The hyssop used in sprinkling the blood was the symbol of pu-
rification, being thus employed in the cleansing of the leper and of
those defiled by contact with the dead. In the psalmist’s prayer also
its significance is seen: “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 of it being broken:
so not a bone was to be broken of the Lamb of God, who was to die
for us.
John 19:36
. Thus was also represented the completeness of
Christ’s sacrifice.
The flesh was to be eaten. It is not enough even that we believe
on Christ for the forgiveness of sin; we must by faith be constantly
receiving spiritual strength and nourishment from Him through His
word. Said Christ, “Except 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.”
John 6:53, 54
. And to explain
His meaning He said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are
spirit, and they are life.”
Verse 63
. Jesus accepted His Father’s law,
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wrought out its principles in His life, manifested its spirit, and showed
its beneficent power in the heart. Says John, “The Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of
the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14
.
The followers of Christ must be partakers of His experience. They