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STUDIES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

—INTERNATIONAL S.S. LESSONS—

SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS DESIGNED TO ASSIST THOSE OF OUR READERS WHO ATTEND BIBLE CLASSES WHERE THESE LESSONS ARE USED; THAT THEY MAY BE ENABLED TO LEAD OTHERS INTO THE FULNESS OF THE GOSPEL

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THE PASSOVER INSTITUTED

II. QUAR., LESSON X., JUNE 3, EXOD. 12:1-14

Golden Text—”Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”—1 Cor. 5:7

The term Passover signifies to pass by or spare from an affliction. When the last plague was visited upon Egypt, the houses of the Israelites were all marked with the blood of a slain lamb, that the destroying angel might not cut off the first born of Israel with the first born of Egypt. These first born ones were afterward represented in the priestly tribe of Levi, to which Moses belonged (Exod. 13:2; Num. 3:11-13), and through this priesthood all Israel was brought into covenant relationship with God. The Gospel Church, is the antitype. These alone of all people are now in danger of everlasting death—the second death—because these only have the knowledge sufficient—if rejected or abused—to bring condemnation to the second death.

The first born of Israel represented those who now by faith abide in Christ, under “the blood of sprinkling”—the precious blood of Christ, our passover lamb, slain for us. And these shall be delivered, spared, passed over, being counted worthy of life through the merit of the precious blood of Christ. But if any abide not under this covering, he must surely perish, as any of the first born of Israel would have perished had they ventured out, beyond the protection of the blood of the typical lamb. How forcibly does the type thus illustrate the value of the precious blood of Christ, our Passover Lamb!

The typical feast, commemorative of the typical Passover, was celebrated ever after by Israel. Our Lord and his disciples observed it, as all Jews were required to do, yearly on the fourteenth of Nisan. The Lord’s Supper was instituted just after this Passover supper, and to take its place, on the last night of our Lord’s earthly life—

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the same night in which he was betrayed, the same day on which he was crucified, the Jewish day beginning the evening preceding at sunset. This annual remembrancer was to be to Christ’s followers what the Passover had been to the Jews. They were to see Christ Jesus as their lamb, and rejoice in their justification through his precious blood. And they were to celebrate it yearly—as the Israelites had done—but now in remembrance of the reality and not of the type. “Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us; therefore, let us keep the feast”—as often as the season returns, until fully delivered from death to life in his likeness.

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— June 1, 1894 —