You're here: oChristian.com » Articles Home » Horatius Bonar » Light and Truth: The Old Testament » Chapter 14 - The Blood of Deliverance

Light and Truth: The Old Testament: Chapter 14 - The Blood of Deliverance

By Horatius Bonar


      "It is Jehovah's passover." -- Exodus 12:11

      WE first notice,

      I. The name here given to the ordinance. The Lord's, or Jehovah's, passover. This reminds us of our New Testament feast, so like in name, "the Lord's Supper." Both belong to the Lord. Both were instituted by him. Both referred to Him. The Passover and the Supper have no meaning without Him. He is the Alpha and the Omega of both. "The Lord" is Christ's New Testament name; but it is also His Old Testament. It is He the Son, the Messiah, that is so often spoken of there under the name, "the Lord." Hence we rest our belief that Christ is God, not so much on the fact that the names of God are applied to Christ, as on this greater fact, that the names of Christ are applied to God. It was of him that Eve said, "I have gotten a man from the Lord"; of Him Enoch spoke, "Behold, the Lord cometh"; of Him we read, "The Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive"; "it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth"; "The Lord said to Noah"; "the Lord said to Abram; for He who appeared to Saul appeared to Abraham; and so in regard to the Passover, "the Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron."

      II. The persons to whom this ordinance was given. "To Moses and Aaron." In almost all other places we read, "the Lord spake to Moses" alone. Here it is specially to both,--to Him who was King in Jeshurun, and to Him who was Israel's High Priest. They were the representatives of the nation of kings and priests, even Israel; and representatives also of the church, the higher and truer "royal priesthood," to whom the Lord's Supper was to be given. To us then, as the true Moses and Aaron, kings arid priests, the Lord's Supper is given. It is the banquet of Jehovah's royal priesthood. To us as such He says, Eat, drink. Do this in remembrance of me.

      III. The place where it was given. In the land of Egypt. It was a feast in Egypt, and yet not of Egypt. It did not consist of Egyptian viands. It spoke of deliverance from Egypt, and yet it was first to be observed in Egypt. It told of Egypt, and it told of Canaan. So with the Lord's Supper. It is in the world, yet not of the world. It is given here, observed here, yet it points away from this; it reminds us of our heavenly inheritance.

      IV. The institution itself. It consists of two parts, according to the division of the apostle (Hebrews 11:28): (1.) The feast; (2.) the sprinkling of blood. Let us examine these.

      (1.) The feast. What is it?

      In itself. It is a lamb, without spot; a lamb roasted; with bones unbroken; bitter herbs; eaten in haste, staff in hand.

      Symbolically. It is commemoration; it is testimony; it is nourishment; it is contrition; it is strength.

      Such is the Supper of the Lord. It is a feast; the food is the Lamb of God. The bread and wine speak to us. The Supper is full of meaning. It is commemoration, testimony, nourishment. My flesh is meat indeed. Man eats better than angels' food. Take, eat, are the gracious words of the divine provider.

      (2.) The sprinkling of blood. The feast and the blood must go together. The one hangs upon the other. It is not simply "blood," but "sprinkled" blood which we find in the Passover, the blood of the Lamb on which we feast. What then does this blood proclaim? What is it? What does it mean? There is life in question; for wherever the blood comes in there the question of life and death come in. Here there is then the giving of life for life. It is not cleansing that is the special signification of the passover blood, though indirectly that may come in. It is something else. Let us see what it is.

      It is the blood of separation. That blood was sprinkled on door-post and lintel; and by this Israel was separated from Egypt. The difference between them was marked by the blood. They in our day who deny the blood would obliterate the distinction between the church and the world. Hatred of the blood has been the mark of the world since the days of Cain. Love for it, and trust in it, the characteristic of the church of God from Abel downward. Israel dwells alone; isolated by the blood.

      It is the blood of protection. "When I see it, I will pass over." That blood was Israel's shield. There seems a twofold kind of protection,--the blood warding off the destroying angel, and making him pass over; and God himself (attracted by the blood) passing over as a defender, between Israel and the angel (Isaiah 31:5). God says, "When I see." The blood is ever before Him. We do not see it. It is outside,--beyond our vision,-- shed eighteen centuries ago. But God sees it, and that is our security. We think upon the blood which God sees, and feel ourselves secure.

      It is the blood of deliverance. It not merely protected in Egypt, but it delivered out of Egypt. It was this blood that saved: "I gave Egypt for thy ransom." There is death for Egypt, but life for Israel. Pardoned and set free, Israel turns his back on the land of bondage. That blood was the opening of his prison doors. It is still the blood that sets us free! Freedom through the blood is what we preach.

      It is the blood of doom. It was doom to Egypt. It not merely said, God is for Israel, but he is against Egypt; nay, there is death for Egypt, for Jehovah's enemies. It is still the blood that condemns. For all who are not under its shield there is only death! It seals the sinner's death! The wrath of God abideth on him. The blood that would have saved now dooms.

Back to Horatius Bonar index.

See Also:
   Preface
   Chapter 1 - The Old and New Creation
   Chapter 2 - The Link Between Being and Non-Being
   Chapter 3 - A Happy World
   Chapter 4 - The Sin, the Sinner, and the Sentence
   Chapter 5 - Man's Fig-Leaves
   Chapter 6 - Expulsion and Re-Entrance
   Chapter 7 - The Blood of Sprinkling and the Blood of Abel
   Chapter 8 - The Way of Cain
   Chapter 9 - The Man of Rest
   Chapter 10 - Going Out and Keeping Out
   Chapter 11 - The Shield and the Recompense
   Chapter 12 - Liberty and Service
   Chapter 13 - The Day of Despair
   Chapter 14 - The Blood of Deliverance
   Chapter 15 - How God Deals with Sin and the Sinner
   Chapter 16 - The Fire Quenched
   Chapter 17 - The Vision from the Rocks
   Chapter 18 - The Doom of the Double-Hearted
   Chapter 19 - Be Not Borderers
   Chapter 20 - The Outlines of a Saved Sinner's History
   Chapter 21 - Divine Longings Over the Foolish
   Chapter 22 - What a Believing Man Can Do
   Chapter 23 - Song of the Putting Off of the Armour
   Chapter 24 - The Kiss of the Backslider
   Chapter 25 - The Priestly Word of Peace
   Chapter 26 - Human Anodynes
   Chapter 27 - Spiritual and Carnal Weapons
   Chapter 28 - Divine Silence and Human Despair
   Chapter 29 - Jewish Unbelief and Gentile Blessing
   Chapter 30 - The Restoration of the Banished
   Chapter 31 - The Farewell Gift
   Chapter 32 - God's Dealing with Sin and the Sinner
   Chapter 33 - God Finding a Resting-Place
   Chapter 34 - The Moriah Group
   Chapter 35 - Diverse Kinds of Conscience
   Chapter 36 - The Soul Turning from Man to God
   Chapter 37 - Man's Dislike of a Present God
   Chapter 38 - True and False Consolation
   Chapter 39 - Gain and Loss for Eternity
   Chapter 40 - Man's Misconstruction of the Works of God
   Chapter 41 - The Two Cries and the Two Answers
   Chapter 42 - The Knowledge of God's Name
   Chapter 43 - Deliverance from Deep Waters
   Chapter 44 - The Excellency of the Divine Loving-Kindness
   Chapter 45 - The Sickness, the Healer, and the Healing
   Chapter 46 - The Consecration of Earth's Gold and Silver
   Chapter 47 - The Gifts of the Ascended One
   Chapter 48 - The Speaker, the Listener, the Peace
   Chapter 49 - The Believing Man's Confident Appeal
   Chapter 50 - The Love and the Deliverance
   Chapter 51 - The Sin and Folly of Being Unhappy
   Chapter 52 - The Book of Books
   Chapter 53 - The Secret of Deliverance from Evil
   Chapter 54 - The Voice of the Heavenly Bridegroom
   Chapter 55 - The Love that Passeth Knowledge
   Chapter 56 - The Vision of the Glory
   Chapter 57 - Man's Extremity and Satan's Opportunity
   Chapter 58 - The Day of Clear Vision to the Dim Eyes
   Chapter 59 - The Unfainting Creator and the Fainting Creature
   Chapter 60 - The Knowledge that Justifies
   Chapter 61 - The Heritage and its Title-Deeds
   Chapter 62 - The Meeting Between the Sinner and God
   Chapter 63 - God's Love and God's Way of Blessing
   Chapter 64 - Divine Jealousy for the Truth
   Chapter 65 - Divine Love and Human Rejection of it
   Chapter 66 - God's Desire to Bless the Sinner
   Chapter 67 - The Resting-Place Forgotten
   Chapter 68 - The Day that Will Right all Wrongs
   Chapter 69 - The Glory and the Love
   Chapter 70 - False Religion and its Doom
   Chapter 71 - No Breath No Life
   Chapter 72 - Every Christian a Teacher
   Chapter 73 - Work, Rest, and Recompence
   Chapter 74 - Human Heedlessness and Divine Remembrance
   Chapter 75 - Lies the Food of Man
   Chapter 76 - The Love and the Calling
   Chapter 77 - The Anger and the Goodness
   Chapter 78 - Darkness Pursuing the Sinner
   Chapter 79 - Jerusalem the Centre of the World's Peace
   Chapter 80 - Jerusalem and Her King
   Chapter 81 - Looking to the Pierced One
   Chapter 82 - The Holiness of Common Things
   Chapter 83 - Wearying Jehovah with our Words
   Chapter 84 - Dies Irae

Loading

Like This Page?


© 1999-2019, oChristian.com. All rights reserved.