No leaven is to be found in all your land for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day shall remain until morning. Sermons
1. Pacificatory. In their blood-sheltered dwellings, the Israelites enjoyed the presence of God, communion with God, peace with God. A feast of peace was held upon the flesh, as in the later peace offerings. 2. Purificatory. It sanctified the people in view of their departure from Egypt; and separation as a peculiar people to Jehovah - in view also of his peculiarly near approach to them in their deliverance. 3. Protective. As warding off the stroke of the destroying angel. Later Passovers, as the yearly presentation of the blood implied, were not only commemorations, but in some sense also perpetuations of the original one. The Passover, as observed from year to year, was - I. A MEMORIAL. It stood as an historical monument, testifying to the reality of the events of the Exodus. In this view of it, it is of great value. No criticism of documents can impair its witness. It is a Bible outside of the Bible, confirmatory of the Bible narratives. No one has yet succeeded in showing how a festival like the Passover could have been introduced at any period later than that to which it historically refers. It has, so far as we can make out anything in history, been observed by the Jews from the very beginning of their national existence. Note to what it testifies - 1. To the fact of the Exodus. 2. That the Exodus was accomplished without warlike resistance from the Egyptians. 3. That it was looked forward to, prepared for, sacrifice offered, and a sacrificial meal eaten, in anticipation of it. 4. That the preparations for departure were hurried, yet orderly. 5. That on the night in question a judgment fell on Egypt, from which the Israelites were exempted - a circumstance which gives to the feast its name, the Passover. The festival has thus all the value of a contemporary witness, and fully corroborates the Scripture history. The Lord's Supper, in like manner, is an historical witness, not to be got rid of, testifying to acts and words of our Lord on the night of his betrayal, and furnishing clear evidence as to the light in which his death was regarded by himself. II. A TYPE. The typological features have often been dwelt on. 1. The lamb - select, unblemished, of full age, subjected to fire, unmutilated (John 19:36), fitness of the victim to represent Christ (Isaiah 53:7). 2. The blood - atoning, need of personal application, sole shelter from death, under its shelter inviolable security (Romans 8:1). 3. The feast - the slain lamb the food of a new life (John 6:51-57); a feast of reconciliation and peace, with fellow-believers, with bitter herbs (affliction, repentance), and without leaven - memorial of haste (ver. 3), but also emblematic of spiritual incorruption, of the purity which is to characterize the new life (1 Corinthians 5:7-9); no part of the flesh to remain till morning (ver. 4), for same reason, to avoid corruption; the feast to last seven days - a week, an entire circle of time, symbolical of life-long consecration to holiness of walk. 4. The redemption - great, once for all, a redemption, by blood and by power, from wrath, from bondage. All these types are conspicuously fulfilled in Christ. III. AN ORDINANCE. 1. The first and chief of the feasts (ver. 1). 2. To be observed regularly (ver. 1). So now the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11:25). 3. At the central sanctuary (vers. 2, 5, 6). Christians should seek to realize their unity with all saints at the Lord's table. 4. With due seriousness and solemnity (vers. 2, 6). - J.O.
Thou shalt not plant thee a grove. I. IDOLATRY IS ENTICING. This on many accounts.1. By its prevalence. In some form or other it is the most popular religion in the world. Men bow down to the idols of luxury, ambition, pleasure, and avarice. "For all people will walk everyone in the name of his god" (Micah 4:5). 2. By its use. We naturally forsake God and cling to sin. Evil inclination leads to wrong choice, and men choose darkness rather than light. II. IDOLATRY IS TREASON AGAINST GOD. God is the sum of all moral qualities, the proprietor of all resources, and the giver of all existences. What more rational than to worship Him? Nothing belies God nor degrades man like the worship of images and statues. III. IDOLATRY MUST BE UTTERLY FORSAKES. We must neither join the worshippers nor sanction the worship. Plant no grove of trees, for truth loves light and reproves darkness. (J. Wolfendale.) Neither shalt thou set up any image Thus imagery is forbidden — even religious imitation and attempted reproduction of things Divine and inexpressible. We are prone to do something to show our handiwork in God's sanctuary; it pleases us to try to add something to the circle; it delights us to run one rim of gilt around the refined gold which burns with the image and superscription of God. We are told not to interfere; we must keep our hands off everything. We must learn to stand still; sometimes to do everything by doing nothing; and we must learn to rebuke our inventive faculty and become learned in the utterance of simple prayer. God will have His altar untouched: He will have human attention undistracted by any human devices. The altar is to stand alone in its simple dignity — most adorned when unadorned. There must be no attempt to link true religion and false religion, inspired worship and idolatrous worship, groves humanly planted and altars Divinely built. The Lord will have a time for Himself, and place for Himself, a gift for Himself, an altar for Himself. Why for Himself? Because He is the Lord, and because He means to train the human mind and heart without distraction towards the highest sublimity of law. Who will not set up his reason against the altar, and delight because his religion is rational? — as well hold up a candle to the sun, because all fire is of the same quality; because there is but one fire in the universe, and that is God. The sun says, Thou shalt not light a candle in my presence. We do it, but the candle is literally of no service in the presence of the midday sun. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world — the Sun of the great firmament of the soul — and He alone can light the space that is to be illumined. Who will not throw the little flower of self-approval upon the altar, saying, I am not as other men: I fast, I pay tithes, I do not practise extortion: I am not as the publicans are? The Lord has forbidden all groves and all images and all distractions. Only one man is permitted near the altar; only one soul is heard in heaven. His name? — the broken-hearted sinner!(J. Parker, D. D.). People Levites, MosesPlaces Beth-baal-peor, EgyptTopics Border, Borders, Bread, Coast, Death, Evening, Flesh, Kept, Leaven, Leavened, Meat, Morning, None, Nothing, Overnight, Possession, Sacrifice, Sacrificedst, Sacrificest, Seven, Territory, Till, YeastOutline 1. The feast of the Passover9. of weeks 13. of tabernacles 16. Every male must offer, as he is able, at these three feasts 18. Of judges and justice 21. Asherah poles and images are forbidden Dictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 16:1-4 4438 eating 7360 Feast of Unleavened Bread Library The Age of the Apostles (Ad 33-100)The beginning of the Christian Church is reckoned from the great day on which the Holy Ghost came down, according as our Lord had promised to His Apostles. At that time, "Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven," were gathered together at Jerusalem, to keep the Feast of Pentecost (or Feast of Weeks), which was one of the three holy seasons at which God required His people to appear before Him in the place which He had chosen (Deuteronomy xvi. 16). Many of these devout men there converted … J. C. Roberston—Sketches of Church History, from AD 33 to the Reformation Whether Six Daughters are Fittingly Assigned to Gluttony? Whether Pride Should be Reckoned a Capital vice? The Passing and the Permanent Obedience The Second Commandment Appeal to the Christian Women of the South The Life and Death of Mr. Badman, Deuteronomy Links Deuteronomy 16:4 NIVDeuteronomy 16:4 NLT Deuteronomy 16:4 ESV Deuteronomy 16:4 NASB Deuteronomy 16:4 KJV Deuteronomy 16:4 Bible Apps Deuteronomy 16:4 Parallel Deuteronomy 16:4 Biblia Paralela Deuteronomy 16:4 Chinese Bible Deuteronomy 16:4 French Bible Deuteronomy 16:4 German Bible Deuteronomy 16:4 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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