The Passover

Scripture Reading: Exodus 12

The children of Israel, God’s people, had been slaves in Egypt for many years. God saw their afflictions; He sent ten plagues to punish the Egyptians in order to compel them to set His chosen people free. But after the judgment of nine plagues, the Egyptians still remained hardhearted and refused to let their slaves go. Consequently, God was ready to send them the last plague by which He would finally accomplish His salvation as well as manifest His awesome power on behalf of His people.

What we will now see is how this last plague shows us the way of our salvation. God told the children of Israel He had decided to smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, making no distinction in His command between Israelite or Egyptian: "All the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die" (Ex. 11.5a). However, God provided a way of salvation for His people. He ordered that each Israelite family should take a lamb without blemish, have it slain, put the blood in a basin, dip a bunch of hyssop in the blood, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts of the doors to their houses with the blood. At midnight, the Angel of the Lord would go through the land. If He did not see the blood smeared on the door, He would enter the house and slay the firstborn there. Midnight sounded and the Lord smote all the firstborn of the Egyptians whose lintels and side-posts had no blood on them. Those who did not die serve as a type today of the saved, whereas those who died serve as a type of the perishing.

First of all, we should know that all the firstborn in Egypt must die. Egypt was under God’s judgment; and the children of Israel who lived there were therefore also under the judgment of God. The firstborn here represent all sinners (cf. 1 Cor. 15.46,47), Egypt stands for the world, and Pharaoh serves as a type or representation of the devil. Thus all who live in the world are sinners and are slaves to the devil—and hence under the judgment of God and deserving of eternal death. All have sinned, for there is no difference (Rom. 3.22,23). And the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6.23).

Do not be careless, neither forget this fact: that you are a sinner; your sins will be punished; and the punishment to be received is eternal perdition by suffering forever in the lake of fire. You ought to reflect more upon your sins! You should consider the matter of your punishment more! Whether you are in the church or outside the church, the wrath of God rests upon you if you are not yet saved from your sins (John 3.36). Hence do not forget that God is just and He will surely judge sin.

Yet in spite of such a situation, we are not left completely hopeless and having no way of salvation. Truly in ourselves we have no way, but God has a way already prepared for us. But apart from the salvation which He has provided, there is no other way. For the Bible explicitly states that "in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved" (Acts 4.12). God commanded the children of Israel to prepare a lamb. This lamb was their Savior. The blood of the lamb delivered them from death.

Plainly, this paschal or Passover lamb points indisputably to the Lord Jesus Christ. For in various places in the New Testament God declares that "Our Passover . . . hath been sacrificed, even Christ" (1 Cor. 5.7b)—"Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1.29b)—"Knowing that ye were redeemed . . . with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1.18,19). Just as God used the Passover lamb to deliver the children of Israel in the former days, so He now uses the Lord Jesus—who is our Paschal Lamb—to save us today. Just as the children of Israel were saved by the lamb, so we are saved today by the Lamb of God—the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you wish to be saved? If you do not wish to be saved, there is nothing more we can say. But if you are willing to confess you are a sinner under the judgment of God and you desire to be saved from His righteous punishment, then let it be known to you most assuredly that God has prepared a salvation for you.

The Lord Jesus Christ has been crucified for our sins. Salvation is already accomplished. All who receive Him as personal Savior shall be saved. Just as the children of Israel had no other way to be delivered except by trusting in the blood of the Passover lamb, so we have no other salvation except by trusting in the precious blood of the Lamb of God. Jesus’ blood alone can today save sinners.

Perhaps we can illustrate it in this fashion: Suppose I were able to go with you back to an Israelite home in Egypt. We would see a father and his son sitting peacefully in the house. There I would ask the father, "I hear that by midnight tonight God is going to smite your son. How then can you sit here so calmly? Are you not afraid?"

The father answers: "Now I do not need to fear because God has prepared a lamb for us. The lamb is able to save our lives. Look how fat and white, how handsome and lovely is my lamb! Listen to how pleasant is the sound of its bleating! My lamb is certainly the best. None of my neighbors’ lambs is as good. Why should I therefore fear since I have such a good and precious lamb?"

What he says sounds good, but let me tell you that when midnight comes, his son will be killed by the Angel of God. Why is this so? Has God’s word failed to be true? Has not this man a lamb?

Indeed, he has a lamb. Yet what God wants is a lamb slain, not a living lamb. A living Christ cannot save us, only the Christ who has died can do so. The Lord cannot save us by His living on earth; He is able to redeem us only by His being crucified. Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Galilee will condemn us; only Calvary will give us eternal life.

Do not be surprised at hearing this. How many would say Jesus is our example? That He is a great Teacher, a great Rabbi? Many will praise the Lord Jesus for His beautiful character, His high morals, His great power, and His noble personality. Yet may I observe that the better the Lord Jesus looks, the worse you appear to be. His good character and noble personality will not save you; rather, it condemns you. God looks at Him and is fully satisfied; but though we may try our best to imitate Him so as to satisfy God, nevertheless, the harder we try, the more manifest becomes our inward sinful nature and our outward evil actions. Do please recognize this fact, that our works can never please God. The more we attempt to learn of Jesus, the more we are aware we cannot, and do not want to, learn from Him.

Do not be deceived. Though you may acknowledge the excellency of the personality and morals of Christ, His excellency belongs to Him alone; you have no part in Him. Let us praise and thank God that His Son does not come into the world to be our example for us to imitate until we are gradually and finally saved. No, no! He sent His Son to this earth to die for us sinners, to accomplish salvation for us. God does not require anything from us, since He has done all. We are sinners, and our penalty is death. Even so, the judgment and penalty which belong to us are now borne by the Lord Jesus. His death is substitutionary—that is to say, His death is really ours, and yet He has made it His own so that we need not be penalized for our sins: "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Is. 53.4,5).

We are sinners (see Rom. 3.9-20). We deserve to die (Ez. 18.4). So that if the Lord Jesus comes only to live, with what can He save us from our sins and perdition? Fortunately, however, He came to die and not just to live. Jesus died for us, bearing our sins and enduring our penalty. Hence due to His substitution, we need not die anymore.

And now we have the way to be saved. But if any should still insist upon treating the Lord Jesus as a model and think of getting saved by imitating Him, he will without question be eternally lost. For no one in the world is able to imitate Christ nor be saved through imitation (see Gal. 2). Only those who believe in His substitutionary death shall be saved (Acts 16.31). The word of God says that "apart from shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb. 9.22b).

But let us continue with our illustration of the Israelite homes in Egypt. Suppose I am able to visit a second Israelite home. There I ask the parents and their children if it is true that this night God will slay the firstborn. They say yes, and I ask again, "Why are you not afraid? Will not your firstborn soon be smitten?" And their reply is: "We are not afraid, because God has devised a way of salvation. He has prepared a lamb for us, and that lamb is to be killed and to have its blood poured into a basin. Look, our lamb is already slain and the blood is also in the basin. We Israelites have sinned, but this lamb has died for us. Therefore, we are not afraid!"

Nevertheless, when midnight comes, the firstborn of that family is smitten by the righteous wrath of God. And if any of you are in a similar condition, you too will perish!

We need to see where this second household also went wrong. The first home did not have the blood of the lamb; hence the firstborn must perish. But in this second house, they not only have a living lamb, their lamb was slain and its blood was shed. Why then should their firstborn die? Well, although they indeed had the blood, where was it? Let us understand that blood merely in a basin will not save anyone. The blood of the lamb must be smeared on the lintel and side-posts of the door, else it will save no one from death.

Are there not many of you who are like this family? Most likely you are members of some church. You have already heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus. You even know that He died for the sinners of the world. You have read about the truth of His substitutionary death in the Bible and perhaps in the newspaper, and have heard about it from the pulpit. But you have never specifically come to God, accepting His Son as your Savior. You understand that He died for the world, yet you have not accepted Him as the One bearing your sins. You have heard and known in your mind; nevertheless, you have not believed with your heart. You stop after you have heard and known; you do not proceed any further to seek the grace of God. You may even have become tired of hearing the word concerning the cross of Christ. Your problem is: you have not united or mixed faith with the word you have heard (Heb. 4.2). So that you are still a perishing soul. You know, but you have not believed and received the Lord Jesus as your Savior by faith; and hence your knowledge will not help you in the least. Alas, you still belong to hell. The blood which is in the basin but not on the lintel and side-posts cannot save you. What does it profit if your mind knows the gospel but your heart has not believed in the Lord Jesus (Rom. 10.10)? Knowing will not save you; it is believing that saves (Acts 16.31; John 3.16).

Let me therefore ask if you have ever had the blood of Christ sprinkled on your heart? Have you ever accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior in your heart? I do not ask how old you are or what your family background is or how advanced is your education or even how healthy you are. There is only one question in the world which is of most vital consequence, and that is—Are you saved? Do you have eternal life? Has the precious blood of the Lamb been applied to your heart? This is the most important question with which anyone will ever be confronted.

Blood in the basin but not applied to the lintel and the door-posts of the heart will not save anyone. Although you may know how the Lord Jesus has died for you, you will still perish if you do not apply his blood on your heart by faith. The dark night of judgment is approaching. The Angel of God who punishes sinners is coming soon. Eternity is before you. Life or death is everlasting. Why then not appropriate the blood immediately? For what are you waiting? Oh, may you stop and pray this sinner’s prayer: "O God, have mercy on me a sinner. I am willing to believe in the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior now. Please forgive all my sins." If you do this sincerely, the Lord will save you; therefore, come!

That evening the children of Israel dipped a bunch of hyssop in the blood and put the blood on the outside of the door. If we depend on the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, we too must not be lacking in our "bunch of hyssop." According to the Bible, the hyssop is the smallest of all plants (cf. 1 Kings 4.33)—something easily to be despised. May I speak frankly? I have never seen a proud person willing to believe in the Lord Jesus. Unless we look upon ourselves as sinners and take the place of sinners, we will not accept Him as our Savior. Accordingly, let the proud be proud no more. Prostrate yourself at the feet of the Lord Jesus, acknowledge that you are a sinner, accept His salvation, and be saved.

When the blood was in the basin, the children of Israel were not safe; only when the blood was applied to the lintel and side-posts were they secure. Similarly for us today, if we know the salvation of the Lord Jesus yet do not accept it with faith, we shall always be in danger. But as soon as anyone believes in his heart and is cleansed by the precious blood, that one is forever secure. How sad, though, that many who have believed in the Lord Jesus do not realize they are safe and will not be judged anymore!

Let us observe what happens as I go to visit another Israelite family in Egypt. I am now visiting the third household. When I come to the door, I see that the blood of the lamb has been put on the lintel and the side-posts. As I enter the house, I also see the slain lamb, the basin, and the bunch of hyssop. But the family is sitting together crying. Their firstborn is weeping and trembling. And his face is most pale. Such a sight indicates to me that a great calamity is about to befall this household. So I inquire of them why they are so grieved. They answer: "Sir, do you not know that at midnight something disastrous is going to happen? God will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. And our son is among the list of those to be slain!" As they say this, they raise their voices and cry once again.

"But has not God provided for you a way of salvation?" I say to them. "Has He not commanded you to slay a lamb and put its blood on the lintel and the side-posts? And have you not already sprinkled the blood on your door? Why then are you so worried?"

"Truly God has so spoken, and we have done accordingly," they answer, "but we now do not feel we are safe."

I try my best to comfort them and tell them not to worry nor to cry because they have the precious blood and therefore they are on safe ground. Yet they still worry anyway, for they do not consider themselves safe simply by applying the blood according to the divine instructions.

Judge for yourselves if the worry of this family is warranted. Should they be so grieved? You may laugh at their foolishness, for having put on the blood, they should now feel secure; and any worry or anxiety afterwards you may judge to be self-inflicted suffering. Yet do not you and I frequently commit the same mistake? You have believed in the Lord Jesus and have accepted Him as your personal Savior. You have applied His precious blood on your heart’s door and have already entered into a position of peace. You are now saved and shall not perish. Why, then, should you still be fearful? Why should you worry so? The moment you believe in the Lord Jesus, you are safe and secure. If you have not accepted Him as Savior, you should worry and cry because you continue to be condemned for your sins (John 3.18). But if you have believed in the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross, you have neither reason nor obligation to worry and to cry because you are already a saved person. You should rejoice and be glad for God has already saved you. You do not save yourself, but God has saved you. How amazing this grace is! You ought to begin to praise the Lord for His grace and to grieve no more. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life" (John 5.24). You are today a saved person. Heaven is indeed yours.

Many people do not understand that they are saved simply by believing in the Lord Jesus. Their difficulty lies in their not feeling saved. People often tell me they have believed in the Lord Jesus as their Savior, yet they do not feel themselves saved. I would urge all who are like this to please read Exodus 12.13b: "When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be upon you to destroy you." Who sees the blood? God, not the firstborn. This blood is put on the outside lintel and the doorposts and hence the firstborn cannot see it. What would be the use even if he were able to see it? But God affirms that He will see the blood, and that when He sees it He will not put anyone to death. Nobody really knows how precious the blood of Jesus is. We cannot comprehend how greatly God esteems the blood of His Son. Yet He declares emphatically that when He sees the blood, He will pass over. He will save all who have applied to their hearts the precious blood of His Son.

Consequently, your duty is to believe in the substitutionary death and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus on the cross. God himself will see this blood. And He will save you whether you feel good or bad. Your feeling has nothing to do with this matter of salvation, for the Bible does not say that if you feel saved you are saved, but that if you feel not saved you will perish. It simply but clearly states that when God sees the blood He will save you. For this reason, do not rely on your vacillating feeling. The word of God is alone trustworthy. He sees that you have believed in the Lord Jesus and thus He will save you. Why then be afraid? Though you may not feel anything, God has seen you. None of the children of Israel who stayed in any of the houses could see the blood on the door. It is therefore no surprise that you do not feel anything.

Some believers often worry lest they not be saved. The reason is that though they have believed the Lord Jesus to be their Savior, they frequently fall and are weak. The more they look at themselves, the more they consider themselves neither saved nor worthy to be saved. They honestly believe in the Lord Jesus and they know the grace of the Lord is great; nevertheless, when they reflect on their failures, they can hardly believe themselves to be saved. Man’s word, however, is vain; let us read instead the word of God: "When I see the blood, I will pass over you" (Ex. 12.13b). On what ground does God save us? What does He see? The Holy Spirit will answer that it is none other than the blood of Jesus. God does not save us because we have changed or we have done good works; He saves us purely because of the precious blood of His beloved Son.

The Bible does not say, "When I see your good works I will pass over you"; neither does it say, "When I see your perfect life I will pass over you"; it simply says, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." The blood is that to which we ought to pay attention. What God sees is the blood, not us, nor our good works. Whether saved or lost is a matter judged according to blood or no blood. You may be the best person in the world, but if you do not believe in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus you are a perishing soul. On the other hand, though you may be the worst person in the whole world, you will be instantly saved if you apply the precious blood of Jesus by faith. The precious blood is able to save sinners! The precious blood is especially used to save sinners! "By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory" (Eph. 2.8,9). Our salvation depends completely on the grace of God. It has absolutely no relation to our works. If you look at yourself you will deem yourself unfit to be saved, and you will have no peace. Look instead at the Lord Jesus, and trust Him wholly so that you may find peace in your heart. Though you are untrustworthy, He is trustworthy. The more you look at Him, the purer and holier you become.

The children of Israel were saved not because of their own merits, but because of the blood of the lamb. The Egyptians perished not because of their evil deeds, but because they did not have the blood of the lamb. In just the same way, our salvation or perdition depends solely on the precious blood of the Lamb of God. If there is the precious blood, we are saved beyond any doubt; otherwise, how precarious is our position!
Let us now leave the children of Israel and visit the Egyptians. Suppose I enter one of their houses and I see that this Egyptian family is enjoying itself very much. I therefore ask the members of this family how they can afford to be merry when God has said that He will smite their firstborn that very night.

"Sir, our son is different from other sons," they reply; "he has never killed anybody nor set fire to any house. He is just and honest. He does everything according to his conscience. How could God punish such a good person as he?"

"But I notice you do not have any blood of a lamb on your door," I respond. "God will surely not pass over you but will smite you instead."

"Other people may need the blood of the lamb," they retort, "but for good people such as we are, we do not need any blood."

Well, we know the story. The Angel of Death came upon that Egyptian family at midnight and their firstborn son lay dead as a result.

Let me warn you that the ultimate end of all who trust in their own righteousness and not in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus will be eternal perdition. Granted that you may be better than your neighbours and that you may be fairly honest in the eyes of men, nevertheless, do you really believe your little amount of merits can deliver you from the wrath of the most righteous God? He looks at whatever righteousness we have with utter contempt. In His eyes, we are still sinners. We shall perish if we do not have the blood of the Lamb of God to atone for us. Although the children of Israel were stiffnecked (as we see them later in their wilderness experience), yet they are saved because they had the blood of the lamb to atone for their sins. The Egyptians might be good; they nonetheless must perish because they did not have the blood of the lamb to atone for their sins.

Whether we are saved or lost does not depend on ourselves nor on our works but solely on whether or not we believe and accept the Redeemer who died for us. In reading the last book of the Bible (Revelation) you will find that the people who are in heaven are there not because of their own works but because of the precious blood of the Lamb. The saved can go to heaven because "they [have] washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (7.9-17, esp. v.14).

Day after day flies swiftly by until the hour of the judgment of God comes: "And it came to pass at midnight, that Jehovah smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt" (Ex. 12.29a). Such is the consequence of not believing the gospel of Jesus Christ! For the sake of the coming eternity, I beg you not to trust in your own works. Do not make excuse nor delay any longer. Quickly believe in the Lord Jesus. As long as there is today, come quickly: "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6.2b).

"There was not a house where there was not one dead" (Ex. 12.30c). Every Egyptian house had one dead in it, but in every house of the Israelites none died. The fact was, however, that both in the house of the Israelite and in the house of the Egyptian there was one dead. Except that the one that died in every house of the Israelite was a lamb, whereas the one that died in the house of the Egyptian was a person. Hence there must be one dead in every house. If the one dead is not a person, then it must be a lamb. How fearful and how very serious! Either a person died or a lamb was slain!

I do not know which course you prefer—whether you wish to bear your own sins and die or to believe in the Lord Jesus the Lamb of God who has already died for you. Either you die or He dies! If you do not trust Him who died, then you yourself will also die. For someone must die. But praise and thank God that "while we were yet sinners, Christ [already] died for us" (Rom. 5.8b). Today you need not die, you need not perish for your sins. If you continue to perish, it is not because you are a sinner but because you will not believe in the name of God’s only begotten Son (John 3.18). Do not let Christ say to you, "Ye will not [to] come to me, that ye may have life" (John 5.40). Yet "he that will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22.17d). How I hope you will to come. Come to God with a believing heart and pray, "O God, I am a sinner deserving to perish, but I believe in Your Son who has died for me. Please forgive all my transgressions and save me hereafter."