Redemption

Exod. 12:1-15 Pet. 1:18, 19
What is the character of the second book of the Bible? Redemption. In the third chapter we find the blessed God come down in the burning bush, and He says to Moses, "I am come down to deliver." "I have... seen... and have heard... and I am come down." Go to the end of Exodus, 33rd verse of the 40th chapter. What have we there? God dwelling in the midst of His redeemed people, pitching His habitation among them. We get in the 12th and 15th chapters, the way in which He did it. The first thing was to shelter that people from judgment. That could only be done by the blood of the Lamb. The first thing God gives a soul to know when really exercised, is security from judgment under the blood of Christ, but we must not stop there.
Look at the first of Ephesians-just a word, speaking of Christ as the Beloved. 7th verse, "In whom" (that is, Christ the Beloved) "we have redemption." How far does that go? "the forgiveness of sins." Now go to the second chapter, 12th verse, "without God in the world," "without Christ." I trust that it is not the condition of any who read this article. "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Don't you see there are two things there. First the forgiveness of sins. That redemption we have in Christ through His blood, brings with it the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. It also gives something else: takes me out of the old condition, and gives me a place of nearness to God Himself. You see the difference there. One is in advance of the other, so we must not stop with being secured from judgment.
That blood on the two side posts and the lintel, told that death had come in. It told the stroke had fallen on a victim-a life had been given. There is another thing in that passage we read in 1 Peter. "Forasmuch as ye know." The Christian knows what? That he is redeemed. According to Scripture it is the normal condition of the Christian. There are those who have faith in the Lord Jesus, who do not know much about the blood-about being covered. That was my own experience. I accepted the Lord Jesus, but did not know my security or much about the blood until later on. I think there are those who are saved, though they do not have the full assurance of it at first.
What is the force of that word in the 13th verse of the 12th of Exodus, "The blood shall be to you for a token"? God sees the blood, but it is my seeing it that brings me into peace. The blood speaks to the soul inside, and wards off the stroke outside. It is the soul seeing the blood for himself that brings into the knowledge of safety.
In connection with the children, when they asked what was meant by this service, they were told how to answer them. In Exodus the 3rd chapter, God had come down, and what had brought Him down? It was the bondage, misery, groaning and oppression of His people. I have "heard," I have "seen"-that had brought Him down to deliver. There He appears in the midst of the burning bush.
Now open to the 1st of Leviticus and compare that with the 3rd of Exodus. "God called unto him Moses out of the midst of the bush," in Exodus. In Leviticus, "The Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation." What a contrast! That gives the character to those two books. God came down to deliver. After He delivers, He sets His habitation in the midst of His people. Out of the midst of that habitation He appears and tells them how to approach Him. The subject of Exodus is redemption. The subject of Leviticus is the redeemed drawing near to God the Redeemer. There is more order in the Word of God than people think. It is not brought together at random.
What is the character of the book of Numbers? It is the wilderness journey. It is a redeemed people, and they are not in Egypt nor in Canaan, but in the wilderness, but journeying on to it. Egypt behind, Canaan before, and they in the wilderness. Now, that is the book of Numbers.
What is the book of Deuteronomy? That answers to the judgment seat of Christ. "Thou shalt remember all the way," etc. We will have a rehearsal when we get into our Canaan, and before we have entered fully into it. We Christians have a Deuteronomy before we get into the land, too. We are in Numbers. Redemption has brought us into Numbers. We know all the way God has led us since He brought us out of Egypt. "Thou shalt remember," etc. It must have been very humiliating as Moses called their attention to all their ways. But as it humbled them, it magnified the grace and goodness of God, and that is what our Deuteronomy will do, too. There was some reason for this being given to them. "And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations: ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever." Exod. 12:14.
The feast lasted seven days. That and the passover are distinct, but the feast is founded on the passover, and it is the feast of the passover. The passover is an accomplished fact. "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." The feast is not an accomplished fact. We are keeping it now. It won't be an accomplished fact until we get into the land. When we get to heaven, we shall have gotten through with the feast of the passover. How happy it would be for us, beloved brethren, if we realized more fully that the present dispensation for the Christian is the feast of the passover. The Church of God is keeping two of the seven feasts now. It is keeping the feast of the passover and the feast of Pentecost. The feast of Pentecost began in the 2nd of Acts, the coming of the Holy Spirit.
In the 16th of Deuteronomy we find three feasts separated from the seven which are given in other parts of Scripture. Those three are the feast of the passover, the feast of Pentecost, and the feast of Tabernacles at the end of the year. The Church is keeping the feast of the passover and Pentecost, and is going to keep the feast of Tabernacles. The feast of Tabernacles is a feast characterized by two things: rest and joy. All God's people, earthly and heavenly, will keep the feast of Tabernacles together. It is a feast characterized by rest and joy, and remembrance of God's ways with us.
In the days of Nehemiah, after the remnant returned from the captivity, when there was a happy returning to the Word of God, they kept the feast of Tabernacles, but they did it according to God in a way it had never been kept since the days of Joshua. These people went up the mountains and brought down branches of trees and made themselves tents-a practical reminder of God's ways with them. I think that beautiful. Since the days of Joshua it had not been done. Not that they had not kept the feast since then, but not in that way, getting away from all comforts and all that.
Redemption
Exod. 12
Then in Exod. 2:8-10 we get instructions as to what was to be done with the lamb whose life had been given. They were to eat it. What is eating, for instance, eating the flesh of the Son of man, and drinking His blood? To eat a thing, physically, it becomes a part of ourselves. So faith appropriates the death of Christ. Not only sheltered by the blood, but the soul enjoying the One whose blood shelters it.
In Exod. 12 we get who was to eat the passover, and how it was to be eaten; and in Deut. 16:2, where it was to be eaten. In 1 Cor. 5:7 we read, "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." No unconverted person can truly keep the passover-feed upon the death of Christ in the consciousness of being sheltered by the blood.
We are told how they were to eat it in Exod. 12:11; "And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded." We might begin with the 8th verse: "And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof." How beautiful that is!-typical, you know. "And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste; it is the Lord's passover." There we get the how.
Why "not... raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire"? Because it is typical of Christ, the Lamb of God enduring the fire of God's judgment without any mitigation. No water came between the victim and the fire. The head-intelligence; legs-ways; the purtenance affections. All perfect, and the soul feeds on that. The affections of Christ devoted to God. "That which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire." How do you understand that? The feeding on the victim must not be too far separated from its death. All are intimately connected. You get it in the peace offering and the lamb of consecration. It is a very solemn thing for this day. The worship of God's people is now often so far separated from the cross of Christ the ground of worship. Take some popular hymns (I am not finding fault, only calling attention to it), how much do we find in them about the death of Christ for atonement of sin? We have to go back to the old ones for that. How sweetly Watts comes out on that, in:
"Not all the blood of Beasts,
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away its stain.
"But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Took all our guilt away,
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they.
"Our souls look back to see
The burden Thou didst bear,
When hanging on the accursed tree,
For all our guilt was there."

"Alas, and did my Savior bleed?
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head,
For such a worm as I?
"Was it for crimes that I have done,
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! Grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
"Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut His glories in,
When the Incarnate Maker died
For man, His creature's sin."

One almost envies that devotedness. That is what I believe we have in "let nothing remain until the morning." They could not gather manna today for tomorrow, except on the sixth day. Then they could gather for two days. If they did that any other day, and kept it over, it bred worms and stank. Every morning and every evening there was the lamb of the burnt offering, and on the Sabbath two. That is, God, in that typical people, that earthly redeemed people, kept ever before Him the coming death of Christ, as the ground of His relationship with them.
The 11th verse looks like they were prepared to depart. "Thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand." What would that bring before us, eating in that way? How long is the Christian supposed to be in this world? The Christian position is to be ever ready to leave. He has not to gird his loins and put his shoes on, but, "Ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord"- waiting for that word to depart.
"Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." It is an accomplished sacrifice, the Paschal Lamb. "Therefore let us keep the feast" etc. The point in Corinthians is this: The feast is to be kept in consistency with this truth, that Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. What is not consistent with that, is not to be allowed.
Then we are told where they were to eat, in Deut. 16:2: "In the place which the Lord shall choose to place His name there." And for believers in our day, how important it is to keep in mind the Lord's words in Matt. 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them."