Exodus Types: 1. The Passover, A Type of the Cross
(Exodus 12-13) The Passover was to the Jews their day of
independence, even
as the cross of Christ means to the
Christian his freedom from the bondage of sin. "And the Lord
spake unto Moses and Aaron in
the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the
beginning of months: it shall be
the first month of the year to you" (Exodus 12:1, 2).
Passover was like New Year’s Day or like
the American July Fourth or Independence Day. On this day
they celebrated deliverance from
Egyptian bondage. And because of the cross, the Christian
has deliverance from bondage to sin.
"Whosoever committeth sin is the servant [slave] of sin"
(John 8:34). "If the Son therefore
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).
"But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
the world is crucified unto me,
and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14). Because Jesus died
upon it, the cross has been
transformed from a thing of shame to a thing of glory.
The Passover provided salvation for the Jewish household,
even as Christ provides salvation for
the family of the believer. "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" (Exodus 12:3). "Then Moses
called for all the elders of Israel,
and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according
to your families, and kill the
passover" (Exodus 12:21). Killing the Passover lamb was a
family matter, providing protection
for the family against the loss of its firstborn. Even so,
the salvation of Jesus makes salvation
possible for all the household of the one who believes in
Jesus. "And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house"
(Acts 16:31). Is your home
covered by the blood of Jesus?
Beneath the blood-stained lintel I with my children stand;
A messenger of judgment is passing through the land;
There is no other refuge from the destroyer’s face -
Beneath the blood-stained lintel shall be our hiding-place.
the tenth to the fourteenth day before it was slain; and
Jesus was the fulfillment of all this. "Your
lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye
shall take it out from the sheep,
or from the goats: and ye shall keep it up to the fourteenth
day of the same month" (Exodus
12:5, 6).
As the Passover lamb was to be a male of the first year, so
Jesus died at the age of thirty-three in
the prime of His manhood. Like the lamb, Jesus was without
blemish, morally. The lamb was
kept until the fourteenth day under scrutiny looking for
possible faults. Even so, Jesus was under
scrutiny the last few days before His crucifixion, yet
Pilate said of Him, "I find no fault in him"
(Luke 23:4).
The Passover lamb was killed the same time of day as Jesus
was put to death by crucifixion.
"And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall
kill it in the evening" (Exodus
12:6). "In the evening," means literally in the Hebrew,
"between the two evenings." The first
Jewish evening began at noon, and the second at sunset. The
lamb was slain midway between
noon and sunset or about three o’clock in the afternoon.
Jesus hung on the cross from the third
hour to the ninth hour, or six hours. He was in three hours
of light from nine o’clock till noon,
and in three hours of darkness from noon till three o’clock.
He died at three o’clock.
The sprinkling of the blood of the Passover lamb is a type
of the application of the blood of Jesus
to the heart of the believer. "And they shall take of the
blood, and strike it on the two side
posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they
shall eat it" (Exodus 12:7).
"And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the
blood that is in the basin, and strike
the lintel and the two side 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" (Exodus
12:22).
The Israelites showed their faith in God’s provision for
them by sprinkling the blood as
instructed. This is a type of the Christian’s appropriation
of Christ’s blood for his salvation. "Let
us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience" (Hebrews 10:22). Let us see to it that
our heart’s door is sprinkled with
Christ’s blood. Only then will we be safe from judgment for
sin in the day of reckoning.
The eating of the Passover meal is a symbol of the Lord’s
Supper. "And they shall eat the flesh
in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and
with bitter herbs they shall eat it"
(Exodus 12:8). "Eat the flesh" means appropriation and
fellowship. "Roast with fire" means
judgment. "Unleavened bread" means without sin. And when the
"bitter herbs" were eaten, the
Israelites were remembering their former bondage and
thanking God for deliverance from it.
"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new
lump, as ye are unleavened. For
even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let
us keep the feast, not with old
leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness;
but with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth" (I Corinthians 5:7, 8). And Paul also
wrote in his instructions regarding the
Lord’s Supper: "But let a man examine himself, and so let
him eat of that bread, and drink
of that cup."
The "passing over" of the judgment angel is a type of
deliverance from judgment through Christ.
"For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and
will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods
of Egypt I will execute
judgment: I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a
token upon the houses where
ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and
the plague shall not be upon you
to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt" (Exodus
12:12, 13). "For the Lord will pass
through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood
upon the lintel, and on the
two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will
not suffer the destroyer to come in
unto your houses to smite you" (Exodus 12:23).
Judgment fell upon the Passover lamb, and the firstborn
escaped judgment. "Even Jesus, which
delivered us from the wrath to come" (I Thessalonians 1:10).
Jesus on the cross received
God’s wrath in our place. "Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and
shall not come into condemnation;
but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). The
believer in Jesus escapes the judgment of
God for sin’s penalty.
Jewish parents were to answer their children’s questions
about the meaning of the Passover; and
Christian parents should answer their children’s questions
regarding the meaning of the Lord’s
Supper. "And it shall come to pass, when ye come to the land
which the Lord will give you,
according as he has promised, that ye shall keep this
service. And it shall come to pass,
when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this
service? 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" (Exodus 12:25-27). The
questions of the children gave opportunity to the parents to
explain the reason for the Passover
celebration. And when our children ask questions about the
ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, let
us take time to explain the reason for it, because it gives
us a glorious opportunity to teach an
important truth. "And ye fathers, provoke not your children
to wrath: but bring them up in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4).
[Old Testament Types - FHW]
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