Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and brush the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. Sermons
I. POINTS OF ANALOGY BETWEEN THE TRUE PASSOVER AND ITS TYPE. 1. In both the death of a blameless victim. The lamb, physically blameless (ver. 5); Christ, morally faultless. A sinful world needs a sinless Saviour. It has one in Christ. The sinlessness of Christ, a moral miracle. Proofs of this sinlessness. (1) Christ asserts his own freedom from sin (John 8:29-46; John 14:30). (2) In no part of his conduct does he betray the least consciousness of guilt. Yet it is admitted that Jesus possessed the finest moral insight of any man who has ever lived. (3) His apostles, one and all, believed him to be sinless (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5). (4) His enemies could find no fault in him (Matthew 26:60; Matthew 27:23, 24). (5) The very traitor confessed the innocence of Christ (Matthew 27:4). (6) The delineation of his character in the gospels bears out the averment of his moral blamelessness. (7) The captious efforts which have been made, by fixing on a few paltry points in the gospel narratives to impeach Christ's sinlessness, indirectly prove it. "As if sin could ever need to be made out against a real sinner in this small way of special pleading; or as if it were ever the way of sin to err in single particles, or homoeopathic quantities of wrong' (Bushnell). 2. In both, the design is to secure redemption from a dreadful evil. In the one case, from the wrath of God revealed against Egypt in the smiting of its first-born. In the other, from the yet more terrible wrath of God revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Romans 1:18). "Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come" (1 Thessalonians 1:10). "Saved from wrath through him" (Romans 5:9). 3. In both, the principle of the deliverance is that of vicarious sacrifice. The lamb was substituted for the first-born. It protected the house, on whose door-posts the blood was sprinkled, from the stroke of the avenger. The substitutionary character of the death of Christ is, in like manner, affirmed in innumerable Scriptures. Jesus "died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6). He "suffered for sins, the just for the unjust" (1 Peter 3:18). He gave "his life a ransom for many ' (Matthew 19:28). His blood is a propitiation (Romans 3:25). There is just ground for the remark of Coleridge (we quote from memory) that a man who would deal with the language of his father's will, as Unitarians on this and other points do with the language of the New Testament, would be liable to an action at law. 4. In both, there was need for an act of personal, appropriating faith. "The people bowed the head, and worshipped. And the children of Israel went away, and did as the Lord had commanded "(vers. 27, 28). "Through faith (they) kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood," etc. (Hebrews 11:28). Their faith showed itself in sprinkling the blood on their door-posts and lintels, and in sheltering themselves under it. Nothing short of this would have availed to save them. So it is not knowledge about Christ, but faith in him; personal application to his blood, and trust in it as the means of salvation, which secures our safety. Faith is the bunch of hyssop. 5. In both, the slain lamb becomes the food of the new life. There was, on the part of the Israelites, a sacrificial feast upon the flesh of the lamb. This denoted, indeed, peace and fellowship with God, but it was also an act of nourishment. Similarly, under the Gospel, the new life is nourished by feeding upon Christ. We make him ours by inward appropriation and assimilation, and so are spiritually nourished for all holy service (cf. John 6.). Minor typical features might be insisted upon (male of the first year, roast with fire, not a bone broken, unleavened bread, bitter herbs of contrition, etc.), but the above are the broad and outstanding ones. II. THE SURPASSING EXCELLENCE OF THE TRUE PASSOVER. It belongs to the nature of a type that it should be surpassed by the antitype. The type is taken from a lower sphere than the thing which it represents. So completely, in the case of the passover, does the reality rise above the type, that when we begin to reflect on it the sense of likeness is all but swallowed up in the sense of disproportion. How great, 1. The contrast in the redemptions. The redemption from Egypt, though spiritual elements were involved in it, was primarily a redemption from the power of Pharaoh, and from a temporal judgment about to fall on Egypt. Underlying it, there was the need for a yet greater redemption - a redemption from the curse of a broken law, and from the tyranny of sin and Satan; from death spiritual, temporal, and eternal. It is this higher redemption which Christ has achieved, altering, through his death, the whole relation of God to man, and of (believing)man to God. 2. The contrast in the victims. That, an irrational lamb; this, the Eternal Son of God in human nature, the Lord's own Christ. 3. The contrast in the efficacy of the blood. The blood of the passover lamb had no inherent virtue to take away sin. Whatever virtue it possessed arose from God's appointment, or from its typical relation to the sacrifice of Christ. Its imperfection as a sacrifice was seen (1) In the multitude of the victims. (2) In the repetition of the service (Hebrews 10:1-3). But what the flowing of the blood of millions of lambs, year by year slain in atonement for sin could not achieve, Christ has achieved once for all by the offering up of his holy body and soul. The dignity of his person, the greatness of his love, his holy will, the spirit of perfect self-sacrifice in which he, himself sinless, offered himself up to bear the curse of sin for the unholy, confers upon his oblation an exhaustless meritoriousness. Its worth and sufficiency are infinite (Hebrews 10:10-15; 1 Peter 1:19; 1 John 2:2). 4. The contrast in the specific blessings obtained. The difference in these springs from the contrast in the redemptions. Israel obtained (1) Escape from judgment. (2) Outward liberty. (3) Guidance, care, and instruction in the desert. (4) Ultimately, an earthly inheritance. We receive, through Christ, (1) Pardon of all sins. (2) A complete justifying righteousness, carrying with it the title to eternal life. (3) Renewal and sanctification by the Spirit. (4) Every needed temporal and spiritual blessing in life. (5) Heaven at the close, with triumph over death, the hope of a resurrection, and of final perfecting in glory. - J.O.
Strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood. I. THE UNIVERSALITY OF CONDEMNATION. Israelite and Egyptian are brought under one common charge of guilt, and there they all stand, "condemned already."II. The great truth of SUBSTITUTION. The lamb instead of the firstborn. "Behold the Lamb of God," etc. III. The third truth taught is APPROPRIATION. The Israelite would not have been safe if he had merely killed the lamb; he had to sprinkle its blood on the lintel and on the two side posts. When we repose our confidence in the Person of Christ, we have taken the bunch of hyssop and dipped it in the blood, and from that moment we are safe. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.) II. Now, I should like to say, further, re-stating some simple but essential elements of gospel revelation regarding sin and salvation, that SALVATION WAS OF GOD'S DEVISING. It was altogether a matter of revelation. Nothing was left to man but bare obedience of mind and hand and foot. Mark that I do not say that God spoke irrationally; I do not say that God simply came and overmastered them with despotic tyrannical power, but I do say that God came forth out of His secret place that memorable night, and Himself devised the plan of salvation. God Himself devised such a plan that no soul needed to be lost if that soul simply believed and obeyed. It was all of God, it was all of grace; so still. III. I wish to say, further, that on this night of this divinely appointed salvation, when it was received and obeyed, there were one or two THINGS WHICH WOULD SURELY STRIKE THE RECIPIENTS, AND THOSE WHO WERE OBEDIENT TO THIS HEAVENLY REVELATION. "Draw out a lamb," says Moses, speaking for God, "draw out a lamb and kill it, and take its blood and sprinkle it on the lintel and on the two side posts." Every Israelitish father who killed the lamb, not simply with a knife and with his hand, but whose mind and heart were working behind the knife, must surely have had this thought borne upon him — "If I am not to die, something is to die." .Substitution. Oh, let me ring it out! "For me, for me," yeas bound to ring in his ears with every gurgling of that lapping blood. That again is the heart of salvation, for you and for me. If I am to go free, this innocent thing has to part with its very life's blood. "By His stripes we are healed." Bless God for this substitutionary salvation. Then this salvation on that night in Egypt, and this night for you and me, was not only substitutionary, but another very simple idea I would like to revive in your hearts and minds, and it is this: it was after all a matter of simple obedience. "Take the blood." It was not enough that it was sprinkled by every Israelitish father or head of a household who represented them all. Every Israelitish father had to take that bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood, and strike it on the lintel and pass in, he and his household, just as he was told. And there is an element, therefore, in salvation that is illustrated there. What is faith? It is a simple literal bowing of the soul in abject obedience. And, again, it comes out, contrariwise, that the very essence of unbelief now is not a want of understanding, but a want of obedience. There is a moral taint in unbelief. Now, come away to another evening away down the stream of time for centuries; and again it is becoming dark, and there is a darkness deeper than the darkness of the darkening sky. The darkness and blackness of sin, and of all time, are gathering round about that hill called Calvary. Now, watch that Saviour Christ. See that innocent holy Man, holy as a lamb, without blemish and without spot. See the soldier as he thrusts that spear into His side, and out there come blood and water. And, remember this: there is the last blood that shall ever be shed for human sins. "There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation that shall devour the adversaries." "Take you a bunch of hyssop, and strike the lintel and the two side posts." God actually condescending to tell a man how to sprinkle the blood! He left no loop-hole by which a man might be lost if he wanted to be saved himself, and to save his wife and his children. If lost, you will be inexcusable. What was the hyssop? Well, so far as I can gather from Scripture, it was a very common plant. You remember that when the range of Solomon's botanical knowledge is being indicated, it is said that Solomon spoke of trees from the hyssop that grows out of the wall to the cedar that is in Lebanon. What a poor salvation if God had said, "Take a sprig of cedar." What an easy salvation it was when He said, "Take a bunch of hyssop" — that kind of coarse grass, I suppose, that would grow out of any dyke-back — just like the grass that grew out of the thatch of your mother's house away in the country long ago — a thing so simple; do you not see that everybody could get at it? Instinctively the father's hand went for it, and used it. There is a something in the powers of your soul and mine that is common and handy, and is continually in use in this work-a-day life of ours. It is continually in use like the bunch of hyssop. And what is that? It is faith. Believe me, faith is as common as the hyssop that sprang out of the wall. With all the rack and ruin that sin has made it is here. Now, what you have to do is this. Take that faith, that confidence that you are exercising in brother-man and sister-woman every day — it is the very cement of society — society would tumble into chaos without it — take that faith of yours and give it a new direction. Give it an operation which it never had before. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Faith is common, natural, reasonable, sublime. You put it to its highest power, its loftiest use, when it is turned to trust God in the word that He has spoken, and in the love that He has displayed on Calvary. IV. And the last word I have to say is this-the last word in the text, "TAKE THE BUNCH OF HYSSOP, AND DIP IT IN THE BLOOD, AND LET NONE OF YOU GO OUT OF THE DOOR OF HIS HOUSE UNTIL THE MORNING." I hear to-day, and so do you, about "development," and "growth"; and what we hear about them gets wearisome, does it not? There was very little development that night. "Let none of you go out of the door of his house until the morning." Go in, and stay in, if you would be saved. That is to say, there was to be no advance, and absolutely no development from the simplicity of faith. That which they had begun to do saved them only as they kept it up. Human nature is the same all the world over, whether you are in Egypt or in London; and I can imagine a young Israelite, a young fellow just like ourselves, full of flesh and blood, full of natural go and glow and enthusiasm, feeling it a little irksome as the evening wore on, and as the night darkened down; and feeling that it was rather an ignoble, inglorious position to be huddled in there like sheep, with that word over them, "Let none of you go out of the door of his house until the morning." And to be saved in this simple way by the blood-red mark which they did not see, but which, being outside, could be seen by the Destroying Angel as He passed. And I should not wonder, as the Israelites and the Egyptians were not separated one from another, if the Egyptians were all round about the Israelites; and I should not wonder if some young Egyptians came round about these blood-streaked houses and cried, with scoffs and jokes, "Come out! Come out!" and laughed and said, "What are you doing in there? There is no judgment. There was never such a fine night in Egypt. Come out! Come out!" Was not that hard to bear? Is not that taunt in our ears yet — "Come out, yon stupid believers!" And I can imagine a young Israelite chafing and getting restless as the night wore on, and there came no sign of this doom, and no sign of this judgment; I can imagine him shaking himself, and saying, "I will assert my manhood. This may do for the old people"; and he is going over to the door, but his father rises, and with a voice like thunder says, "Unhand that door! Back for your life!" And he was right if he did. He was right. The Egyptians might laugh that night, and the young, restless, hot-headed Israelites might have a little trouble, but nobody laughed in the morning. And you and I, children of faith, believers in God and in God's Christ who died for sin, just for a little while have to stand the laugh, and I admit that it is against our pride. By the grace of God, and in the obedience of faith, let me charge you, hold on, my brother, as you began. Let us keep together, we who belong to "the household of faith." How that expression receives its illustration from this story. Let us keep together. Let us encourage ourselves to stay in doors until the morning. Some of you, God bless you, will not have long to wait. God bless all white and whitening heads in this assembly; you will not have long to wait. "Now is the time of your salvation nearer than when you believed." For you the morning cometh. (J. McNeill.) (J. Parker, D. D.) People Aaron, Egyptians, Israelites, Moses, PharaohPlaces Egypt, Rameses, SuccothTopics Apply, Basin, Bason, Blood, Bunch, Dip, Dipped, Door, Doorframe, Doorposts, Door-posts, Doorway, Hyssop, Lintel, Morning, None, Opening, Outside, Posts, Side-posts, Sides, Smear, Strike, Struck, Till, Touch, TouchingOutline 1. The beginning of the year is changed3. The Passover is instituted 11. The import of the rite of the Passover 15. Unleavened bread 29. The firstborn are slain 31. The Israelites are driven out of the land 37. They come to Succoth 41. The time of their sojourning 43. The ordinance of the Passover Dictionary of Bible Themes Exodus 12:22 4402 plants 5299 door Library The Passover: an Expiation and a Feast, a Memorial and a Prophecy'And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2. This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 4. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Exodus A Question for Communicants The Blood The Birthnight of Freedom Of the Practice of Piety in Holy Feasting. Of Preparation. The Reaction against Egypt The Typical Significance of the Scriptures Declare their Divine Authorship Preparation for Passover. Disciples Contend for Precedence. Bread and Wine Appendix xii. The Baptism of Proselytes The Johannine Writings Circumcision, Temple Service, and Naming of Jesus. Opposition to Messiah in Vain Sundry Exhortations. Peaceable Principles and True: Or, a Brief Answer to Mr. D'Anver's and Mr. Paul's Books against My Confession of Faith, and Differences in Judgment About Baptism no Bar to Communion. Solomon's Temple Spiritualized Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: Jesus Living at Nazareth and visiting Jerusalem in his Twelfth Year. The Prophet Amos. The Scriptures Jesus, My Rock. Links Exodus 12:22 NIVExodus 12:22 NLT Exodus 12:22 ESV Exodus 12:22 NASB Exodus 12:22 KJV Exodus 12:22 Bible Apps Exodus 12:22 Parallel Exodus 12:22 Biblia Paralela Exodus 12:22 Chinese Bible Exodus 12:22 French Bible Exodus 12:22 German Bible Exodus 12:22 Commentaries Bible Hub |