THE PASSOVER.
THE first of the three great annual festivals of Israel, and the one
which above all was commemorative in character――a memorial service――was
the _Passover_. It was designed to commemorate the deliverance of
Israel from Egyptian bondage――the great birth-hour of the Hebrew nation.
Especially did it commemorate the scenes of that last eventful night
when God caused his angel of death to _pass over_ the houses of Israel
as he went through the land of Egypt, smiting the first-born in all her
households.――――The central thing in this institution was the slaying
of the paschal lamb――one for each household――and the sprinkling of
its blood upon the two side-posts, and upon the lintel over the door
of each house. This sprinkled blood, seen by the destroying angel,
became his authority for _passing over_ and by that house, sparing its
first-born, while he spared not one first-born of all the families of
Egypt.
There were numerous collateral points in the institution, designed to
fill it out more completely and make it most impressively a memorial
service for all the future generations of Israel; _e. g._ the following:
As to _time_; it was on the fourteenth day of the month Abib,
corresponding to our March or April――the night next following this
day being that of the last plague on Egypt――the night which broke
their yoke of bondage. Henceforth, this was made the first month in
the Hebrew year.
The paschal lambs were _taken by households_. If the family was large,
it stood by itself; if too small to consume one lamb, then two or more
were united, the aim being to have the flesh of the lamb eaten entire.
If any thing remained, it was to be burned in the morning.――It was to
be roasted with fire, not eaten raw, and not boiled in water. (Ex. 12:
8, 9.) The arrangement _by families_ looked toward the great fact of
the original event――that Egypt was _smitten by families_――there being
not a house in which there was not one dead. Its influence must have
been precious through all the ages of Hebrew history in cementing
family ties and sanctifying the family relation.
It was eaten with _unleavened bread_――the rule on this point being most
stringent. No leaven might be eaten or even seen in their households
during the entire feast of seven days. So prominent was this fact that
the feast was called interchangeably, “The Passover,” or “The feast of
unleavened bread.”――――The original design of this prohibition seems to
have been commemorative――the great haste of their departure precluding
the preparation of leavened bread for their journey. The allusions
to “leaven” in the New Testament (Matt. 16: 6, 11, 12, and Luke 12
and 1 Cor. 5: 7) indicate that leaven was associated with “pride that
puffeth up,” and is quite the opposite of that simplicity and purity
of heart which God loves.
It was also eaten with bitter herbs, the vegetable condiments of the
supper suggesting the bitterness of that bondage in Egypt out of which
they came (Ex. 12: 8).――――Yet another suggestive memorial usage was to
eat with loins girt, shoes on, staff in hand (Ex. 12: 11), and in haste,
as men ready to start a journey at a moment’s warning.
The feast continued seven days (Ex. 12: 14–20), beginning with
the evening of the paschal supper. The first day and the last were
specially sacred, all labor being prohibited except that which was
necessary in preparing their food (Ex. 12: 16).――――The object in
allowing so much time was to provide for extended religious ceremonial
services and for wholesome social communion, not to say also for
cultivating national sympathy and patriotism. As all the males from
every tribe in the whole land were required to come together on this
great feast to the one place which God should appoint, the convocation
was vast, and its social and religious influences were naturally both
wholesome and great.
In the original institution it was specially enjoined that the history
and purpose of this great festival should _be made known to their
children_. “And thou shalt _show thy son_ in that day, saying, This
is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth
out of Egypt” (Ex. 13: 7). “And it shall be when thy son asketh thee
in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him,
By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house
of bondage,” etc. (Ex. 13: 14, 15.) How naturally would this wonderful
story thrill the young hearts around the paschal board! How swiftly
would the hours fly away while fathers rehearsed to sons the great
national traditions, or read from the book of the law the narrative,
and sung again and again the song of triumph over Pharaoh fallen with
which this story closes! Jewish history has it that in ancient times
it became the custom, after the paschal table was fully spread and the
family had taken their places about it, for the servant suddenly to
remove the prepared food away. Then when the hungry children opened
their eyes wide and eager lips cried out――What does this mean? the head
of the household rehearsed slowly and solemnly the meaning and purpose
of the feast, with the history of its original institution; then when
the curiosity of the little ones had been both aroused and enlightened,
the provisions were replaced and partaken with a freshened sense of the
grand significance of the Passover.
Closely associated with this festival and fraught with solemn
significance as a memorial institution was the _consecration to God of
all first-born males_, both the first-born of man and the first-born
of beast (Ex. 13: 11–16). Of the lower animals the first-born males,
if without blemish and if suitable for sacrifice, were to be offered
in sacrifice to the Lord. If not suitable (_e. g._ the ass), it must
be redeemed with a lamb――in which case the lamb became the sacrifice,
and the ass might be used at the pleasure of its owner.
In the family, the first-born son was consecrated to God. In carrying
out this principle, a substitution was made by which the entire tribe
of Levi were put in the place of all the first-born males of Israel and
held to be specially consecrated to God. The language (Num. 8: 14–18)
is――“Thou shalt separate the Levites from among the children of Israel,
and the Levites shall be mine. They are wholly given unto me from
among the children of Israel, instead of such as open every womb, even
instead of the first-born of all the children of Israel, have I taken
them unto me. For all the first-born of Israel are mine both man and
beast: on the day that I smote every first-born in the land of Egypt,
I sanctified them for myself. And I have taken the Levites _for_ [in
the place of] all the first-born of the children of Israel.”――――The law
prescribed the rites by which the Levites were set apart (Num. 8: 5–15).
The original institution of the Passover is rehearsed quite fully
in Ex. 12 and 13; is referred to again briefly Ex. 23: 15, and 34:
18–20――this last giving emphasis to the consecration of the first-born.
A brief notice of it appears Lev. 23: 5–8; the accompanying ritual
services and offerings may be seen in Num. 28: 16–25; and a brief
resume of the institution as given in Exodus 12 and 13 stands in Deut.
16: 1–8.
* * * * *
The Paschal Lamb with its sprinkled blood became a pertinent and
impressive illustration of the central idea of the atonement by the
blood of Christ, the elements common to both being――the shedding of
blood――the blood of an innocent one――and especially the passing over
the sprinkled souls by the destroying angel, while the unsprinkled
were smitten by God’s angel of death.――――It is under the force of
these and similar analogies that Paul speaks of Christ as being “our
Passover”――[rather our Paschal Lamb], and as “sacrificed for us” (1 Cor.
5: 6–8). Pushing the analogies of the Passover feast one step further,
he thinks of the exclusion of all leaven; then of leaven as naturally
diffusive, and so as representing the pernicious influence of bad men
in the Christian church; and therefore exhorts the Corinthian church
to cast out the man guilty of incest lest his influence work like
leaven.――――These remoter analogies were forcible to persons familiar
with the feast and its usages; yet we can not say they were properly
involved in the typical significance of the Passover. The easy and
natural manner in which Paul speaks of Christ as our Paschal Lamb shows
that so far the resemblance was a well recognized fact, wrought into
the current views of inspired men, not to say, of the church of that
age. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission; with it
and by means of it remission comes to the guilty, accepting it with
penitence and with faith.
_The long route to Canaan._
Scarcely had the Hebrew hosts set forth for Goshen before the question
of the _route to Canaan_ must be determined. That Canaan was their
destination was settled long before. The first call of Abram designated
the land of Canaan as the home of his posterity. Every renewal of that
original promise specified the country which was given them. Now, for
the course of their journey, the route along the south-eastern shore
of the Mediterranean through the land of the Philistines was short
and direct; but it must have brought them into contact inevitably with
those powerful tribes from whom their descendants suffered so much
during all the centuries intervening between Joshua and David. Just
emerging from a bondage which spanned several generations and which
had emasculated them of all national courage and spirit――but slightly
trained moreover yet into the moral heroism which comes of living faith
in God――they were in no condition to encounter such enemies. The record
puts these points briefly: “God led them not through the way of the
land of the Philistines although that was near, for God said――Lest
peradventure the people repent when they see war and they return to
Egypt; but God led the people about through the way of the wilderness
of the Red Sea”[32] (Ex. 13: 17, 18). The long circuitous route is
therefore chosen.――――Wheeling suddenly to the right they put their
faces squarely toward the Red Sea, beyond which lay the vast Arabian
desert. Ultimately they entered Canaan on its Eastern and not its
Western side――the quarter most remote from the Philistines.――――In this
wilderness route there were great purposes to be accomplished in the
moral training and culture of the nation and in the manifestations of
the God of their fathers before their eyes. That way lay the passage
of the Red Sea which God provided as the burial-place for the proud
hosts of Pharaoh: that way lay Sinai――those grand mountain cliffs
which God was to shake with his thunders and invest with the smoke and
the flame of his glorious presence that the law might be written in
letters of fire upon the souls of the whole people: that way lay the
long, breadless, waterless route of almost forty years wandering and
sojourning in which the Lord fed the people with angels’ food――bread
from the lower heavens――the manna of the desert, and with water once
and again from smitten rocks, flowing in dry places as a river――that
they might learn the power and the love of their God:――that way lay
also their long tuition and training into their religious system――a
wonderful arrangement of sacrifices and ordinances for which the
life-time of a generation was scarcely too long. All these great
results and yet others were contemplated and provided for in this
choice of the wilderness route as their way to the land of Canaan.
_The March and the Pursuit._
The night of the fourteenth day of the first month was one to be
long and gratefully remembered. Little sleep was there in the homes
of Israel or in the dwellings of Egypt on that eventful night. The
feast of the Paschal Lamb beginning with the early evening; the dread
visitation upon Egypt of the angel of death at midnight; the hasty
preparation for their journey throughout all the families of the
children of Israel; the gathering and mustering of their hosts for the
march of the next day:――such was the work of that memorable night. The
stages of their march are definitely chronicled; one day from Rameses
to Succoth (Ex. 12: 37); another day from Succoth to Etham, “in the
edge of the wilderness” (Ex. 13: 20); another from Etham to Pi-hahiroth
between Migdol and the Sea over against Baal-zephon (Ex. 14: 2). The
same stages appear in the official record (Num. 33: 3–8) in which it
is added that “Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all
the Egyptians, for the Egyptians buried all their first-born whom the
Lord had smitten among them; upon the gods also, the Lord executed
judgment”[33]――so that the shock of such and so much death and their
funeral services for the dead diverted their attention from Israel and
detained them from the pursuit for a season, giving the slow moving
hosts of Israel time to reach the Red Sea before Pharaoh’s swift
chariots could overtake them.
_The guiding Pillar of cloud and fire._
At this stage commenced that striking but most precious manifestation
of God’s guiding presence, of which the first record is――“And the Lord
went before them in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way; and by
night in a pillar of fire to give them light; to go by day and night.
He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of
fire by night, from before the people” (Ex. 13: 21, 22). If the order
of the narration corresponds in time to the order of the events, this
manifestation of the pillar commenced on the second day of their march
as they moved from Succoth to Etham “in the edge of the wilderness.”
All through those otherwise dreary days of their marching and halting
for forty years in the wilderness, this pillar was before them,
appearing as a pillar of cloud by day but of fire by night――the symbol
of Jehovah’s presence in all their way, leading their path as they
journeyed; marking their place of rest where they were to halt and
pitch their tents.――――Subsequent allusions to this pillar of cloud or
of fire are somewhat numerous, _e. g._ Ex. 29: 43――showing that _in_
this pillar God met his people and sanctified the tabernacle with his
glory: Ex. 40: 34–38, setting forth that when the tabernacle was in
readiness, the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord filled the
most holy place, making that henceforth his special locality. Yet
the pillar of cloud was lifted above the tabernacle as the signal
for striking tents and moving forward. Its service as the signal
for marching or resting is detailed minutely and beautifully in Num.
9: 15–23; and the prayer of Moses on these special occasions in Num.
10: 35, 36. When the ark set forward――“Rise up, Lord, and let thine
enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee”;
and when it rested――“Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of
Israel.”――――Other allusions may be seen, Deut. 1: 23 and Neh. 9: 12,
19 and Ps. 78: 14, and 99: 7, and 105: 39 and Isa. 4: 5.
Remarkably when the Egyptian chariots and horsemen drew near toward
evening of the third days’ march, “the Angel of God, [embosomed in this
pillar] which had been in front of their host, removed and went behind
them”――putting himself thus between the men of Israel and the armed
hosts of Egypt――“And it was a cloud and darkness to Egypt’s hosts but
gave light by night to Israel, so that the one came not near the other
all night.” Thus the angel of God in the cloud became, not their guide
only, but their protector, their guardian angel. If there were godly
men in Israel who like Moses could appreciate the salvation and the
glory of Jehovah’s presence, their hearts must have been a thousand
times gladdened, and inspired with ♦inexpressible hope and consolation
as they lifted up their eyes in their otherwise deepest darkness to
see the pillar of fire ever near, the witness that God was near in all
their wanderings. But especially _there_ with the Red Sea before them
and the chariots of Pharaoh behind――how safe they might have felt! for
who is not safe under the wing of God’s pillar of fire?
When Pharaoh’s chariots and horsemen came in sight, rapidly gaining
upon the slow-marching footmen of Israel’s host, the latter were sore
afraid and cried unto the Lord (Ex. 14: 10). This crying to the Lord
would have been all right if only they had believed and trusted; for
then they would have honored their great Protector, and they would
_not_ have chided Moses for leading them out of Egypt, nor would they
have thought so readily of turning back to their cruel bondage.――――With
touching forbearance and grace the reply of Moses (from God) breathes
scarce a whisper of rebuke: “Fear ye not; stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord which he will show to you to day; for the
Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see no more again forever.
The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” The Lord
did not propose to bring the people into direct battle with the trained
hosts of Egypt at this early stage of their new life of freedom. They
were in no manner prepared for the conflict of arms. This time the Lord
alone would go into battle against Egypt. Israel might stand still and
look on!
Moses, it seems, cried unto God; but whether because there was some
implied unbelief in it, or because there was no time and no further
need of prayer, the Lord answered――“Why criest thou unto me? _Speak
unto the people that they go forward!_” The time for action and for
placid trust in God had fully come.――――But that deep Red Sea lies
across thy path; lift up thy rod and stretch out thy hand over the sea
and _divide it_; let Israel march through it dry-shod. The uplifted rod
of Moses was the signal for the uplifted hand of God by which he forced
the waters from their channel by a strong east wind all that night and
made the bed of the sea dry for his people to pass over. The miracle
in this case was exerted upon the wind rather than upon the water. God
caused the east wind to blow strongly just when its effect was needed
for the end in view. He turned the wind and hurried the waters back
upon the Egyptians just when the opportune moment came for burying
them beneath its mountain waves. If his wisdom had chosen to do so, his
Almighty hand could just as easily have annihilated so much of the Red
Sea waters as lay in the way of his people till they had passed its dry
bed, and then have reproduced them for the destruction of Egypt. But
in his mighty works God does not seek display but rather results, and
these ordinarily by using only the least amount of supernatural agency
which will suffice. It is of little account to attempt to fix the law
of miracles, yet we may not infrequently observe the same method as is
apparent here.
The historian alludes to yet another element of divine agency. In the
morning watch as the host of Pharaoh were pressing on through the very
midst of the bed of the sea, “the Lord looked unto the host of the
Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and troubled [rather
confounded, smote with panic] their marching hosts; and took off their
chariot wheels that they drave them heavily; so that the Egyptians
said――“Let us flee from the face of Israel, for Jehovah ♦fighteth for
them against the Egyptians.”――――It may not be possible, certainly is
not specially important, to draw the line here between the natural and
the supernatural. We may suppose that the pillar of cloud which had
been darkness to them blazed forth fearfully in their faces, appalling
the stoutest hearts with fear; that both horses and drivers were
confounded; that wheel crashed into wheel and made advance impossible;
that turning back for flight, their disorder and confusion became a
rout, and that in this hour of crisis the returning waters surge and
dash upon them and bury them en masse beneath the mountain waves! So
perished the slave-holders and oppressors of God’s ancient people! Thus
signally did Jehovah exalt his name and win glory to himself as the
Avenger of the oppressed and the faithful God of his Israel. The case
falls into the same class with the flood and the fires on Sodom, to
show before the ages how readily the Lord can find fit instruments
of retributive justice for the swift punishment of the wicked even in
this world whenever examples are needed to set forth his ♦displeasure
against sin, and the certainty of his retributions upon the wicked.
Under a system which normally puts over this retribution till after
death, it might obviously be wise in the early ages of time to give
some exceptional cases to stand as illustrations squarely before the
eyes of living men, witnessing to the terrors of that retribution which
can not linger long under the government of a just and holy God.
* * * * *
The night of doom to Pharaoh was the night of redemption to
Israel. With the morning light they “saw the Egyptians dead upon
the sea-shore”――men in their armor of battle; horses in the proud
trappings of Egypt; broken chariots, all powerless now――are dashed
up by the waves of the turbid sea and lie strewn upon the eastern
shore――memorials at once of the danger that was and of the victory and
triumph that are, and that are to be, the joy of God’s redeemed people.
Most fitly the deep emotions of the people seek expression in song. The
oldest song known to history and one of the grandest, is here before
us. “I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously:”――Ah,
indeed, it was the Lord who wrought the victory; who went down alone
into that eventful battle and who came back the mighty conqueror! “The
horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” Over and over this
central idea appears: “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast
into the sea; his chosen chariots also are drowned in the Red Sea.”
“Thou didst blow with thy wind; the sea covered them; they sank as lead
in the mighty waters.” Let the Great God of Israel be praised for all
this! Appropriately this is the burden of the song: “The Lord is my
strength and my song, and he is become my salvation.” “Who is like unto
thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like to Thee, glorious in holiness,
fearful in praises, doing wonders”?
Let us hope that the hearts of the saved people were deeply moved in
the spirit of this sublime song; that they saw God as never before, and
gave him the homage of their hearts, grateful, trustful, and adoring!
It may be noticed that Moses leads the thought of the people forward to
the remote results of this redemption: “The nations shall hear and be
afraid; sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestine; all the
inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away; fear and dread shall fall upon
them ... till thy people pass over and thou hast planted them in their
promised inheritance.”
The moral results of this scene, we may hope, were really wholesome
and effective upon the multitude. It amazes us to find that so soon
afterward there were some among them who murmured for water, rebelled
against Moses, made and worshiped a calf of gold: but the young, less
depraved by their Egyptian life and perhaps more impressible by such
manifestations of God, seem to have drank in the solemn lessons of
these grand events.
_The locality of the Red Sea crossing_ has been not a little
controverted――until the researches of modern times. Since Dr.
Robinson’s personal examination of that region, including the site of
Goshen, the route of their three days’ travel till they reached the sea,
the width of the sea at the various points between which the selection
must be made, there has been a general if not universal concurrence
in the conclusions to which he came. The location a little below Suez
where the sea was supposably not far from one mile in width; where a
strong easterly wind would drive out the waters from the channel――seems
to fulfill all the historical conditions of the problem. See his
Researches in Egypt and Palestine, Vol. I. pp. 74–86.