The Expositor's Bible: The Book of ExodusChadwick, G. A. (George Alexander)
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Exodus
Chadwick, G. A. (George Alexander)
Bible. Exodus -- Commentaries
The Christian applications of this doctrine must be considered along
with the whole question of the typical character of the history. But it
is not now premature to add, that even in the Old Testament there is
abundant evidence that the types were semi-transparent, and behind them
something greater was discerned, so that after it was written “Bring no
more vain oblations,” Isaiah could exclaim, “The Lord hath laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. When Thou
shalt make His soul a trespass-offering He shall see His seed” (Isa. i.
13, liii. 6, 7, 10). And the full power of this last verse will only be
felt when we remember the statement made elsewhere of the principle
which underlay the sacrifices: “the life (_or_ soul) of the flesh is in
the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement
for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of
the life” (_or_ “soul”—Lev. xvii. 11, R.V.) It is even startling to
read the two verses together: “Thou shalt make His soul a
trespass-offering;” “The blood maketh atonement by reason of the soul
... the soul of the flesh is in the blood.”[22]
It is still more impressive to remember that a Servant of Jehovah has
actually arisen in Whom this doctrine has assumed a form acceptable to
the best and holiest intellects and consciences of ages and
civilisations widely remote from that in which it was conceived.
Another doctrine preached by the passover to every Jew was that he must
be a worker together with God, must himself use what the Lord pointed
out, and his own lintels and doorposts must openly exhibit the fact that
he laid claim to the benefit of the institution of the Lord Jehovah’s
passover. With what strange feelings, upon the morrow, did the orphaned
people of Egypt discover the stain of blood on the forsaken houses of
all their emancipated slaves!
The lamb having been offered up to God, a new stage in the symbolism is
entered upon. The body of the sacrifice, as well as the blood, is His:
“Ye shall eat it in haste, it is the Lord’s passover” (ver. 11). Instead
of being a feast of theirs, which they share with Him, it is an offering
of which, when the blood has been sprinkled on the doors, He permits His
people, now accepted and favoured, to partake. They are His guests; and
therefore He prescribes all the manner of their eating, the attitude so
expressive of haste, and the unleavened “bread of affliction” and bitter
herbs, which told that the object of this feast was not the indulgence
of the flesh but the edification of the spirit, “a feast unto the Lord.”
And in the strength of this meat they are launched upon their new
career, freemen, pilgrims of God, from Egyptian bondage to a Promised
Land.
It is now time to examine the chapter in more detail, and gather up such
points as the preceding discussion has not reached.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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