The Passover

The foundation feast was the Passover; it was the basis on which all God’s ways would be established, for man was a sinner, and his being sheltered by blood must come first. It took place in the first month. We need to go to Exodus 12 to learn more about the Passover. God’s earthly people, the people of promise, were slaves in Egypt, and the Egyptians defied the Lord when He asked them to let His people go. Nothing was left for God but to execute judgment on that rebellious people and land. But when He was going to visit the land in judgment, His earthly people were amenable to judgment, for they were sinners and had fallen into the ways of the Egyptians. But God said that He would “make a difference” between the Egyptians and the Israelites. It was not a difference founded on parentage or previous privileges, but one which He would make — one founded on the blood of the lamb.
The secular year had been running its course, but God interrupted it and said, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” There was to be a new beginning and it was to be founded on redemption. A lamb without blemish was to be taken on the 10th day and kept until the 14th day; and on that 14th day it was to be killed and its blood put in a basin; then the blood was to be applied with hyssop to the outside of their houses — to the two doorposts and the lintel above the door. After this was done they were to enter into the house and take shelter under the sign of that blood — a mark that a substitute had died. God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Wherever this was acted upon, there was security, but not necessarily peace, for that depended on faith in God’s word. They were safe under the blood, for God had spoken; they should have been in perfect peace about it, for His word should have dissolved every doubt.
The Passover pointed on to the “Lamb of God,” and was a type of Christ the true Lamb of God’s providing. We are not left to our imagination on this point, for the Word of God says, “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7).
What a blessed privilege it is for us who believe to rest in His work, His blood-shedding, and the Word of Him who cannot lie. Nothing else secured those in Egypt from the destroying angel that night, and nothing else secures the sinner now but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His shed blood. Truly this is the foundation of all God’s ways of blessing, both now and forever.