April 4

21 Then Moses called for all the orders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. 22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyss up, and dip it to the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel, and the two sile posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. 23 For the LORD will pass through to smote the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two sile posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. 24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. 25 And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. 26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? 27 That ye shall say, It is 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. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. 28 And the children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they

29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that rose in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle 30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt: for there was not a house where there was not one dead. 31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said. 32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. 33 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We do all dead men. 34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. 35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment. 36 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required; and they spoiled the Egyptians.

Christ was slain for us in the same sense that the Passover was slain for the Hebrews (1 Cor. v. 7, 8). It was not enough that the blood was shed, it had to be applied to every household. Christ died upon the cross, but that fact will be of no avail to any one who makes of it no personal application to himself. That precious blood will secure salvation to no one who does not get down under the cross, where some of its droppings may fall upon him.

The blood shall be for a token. "When I see the blood I will pass over you." The Israelites were spared that night, not for the sake of their works, nor for their genealogies, but for the blood. The destroying angel did not look at them, but at the blood-sprinkled lintels. He did not look at their faith, nor their repentance, but simply at the crimson stains upon the door posts. So our salvation is purchased, not by our works, nor by our faith, nor by our repentance, but by the precious blood of Christ. "Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission." Repentance and faith merely appropriate what grace has done.

"This month shall be unto you the beginning of months" (ver. 2). The keeping of this Passover marked a new departure for them. Henceforth the old system of marking the progress of the year, when they were slaves, was to be done away with now that they were to be free men. Formerly they had begun with the fall of the year—now, most appropriately, they were to commence with the spring-time! They were to start out on a new era with Jehovah. Their bitter years of bondage were as if they forever were blotted out. They were to start out upon their journey to the promised land. The chief of their months was to be that in which that journey was begun. And how closely that applies to the redemption month of the Christian! Is there any other month so dear to him, as that? Then his life ceased to be made bitter with bondage, and he became a free man in Christ. His real life dates from this new birth.

Closet Promise.—All the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.—2 Cor. i. 20.

Why should not the Fulfilier of types and prophecies that waited His coming through the hoary centuries answer human expectations and hopes through the effectual working of His power? The promises of God in the Gospel are the complement of the foreshadowing of Christ in the Old Testament; and the Old and the New are complete in Him. The certainty of the past is the pledge of the future.—C. S. Harrington, D. D.