The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1907-06-06
THE
PASSOVER
Sunday School Lesson Tor June 9.ls07
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Specially Prepared for This Paper.

LESSON TEXT.-Exodus 12;21-30. Mem
ory verses, 20, q.
GOLDEN TExT.-"when 1 see the
blood, will pass over you."-Exodus
1913.
NEW TESTAMENT REFERENCES
New Testament references to passover
John 1:29; 653; 1 Cor. 5:6-S; Heb. 9:14.
IL 1:2S; Peter lis, 10.
TIME.-The plaques lasted nine or ten
months, from June to the following April.
The Passover our Easter time, was the
full moon Of the first month of the He
brew sacred year, Abb or Nisan, cor
responding to the last of March and the
first Of April. The year (Ussher) was b.
c. 1891: or about 1900 according to others.
Professor Price makes II 1916.
PLACE.-The meetings of Moses with
Pharaoh were at the capital. Zoan (Tan-
ISL or Memphis. The Passover was OBJ
served in the land of Goshen. in north
eastern Egypt
THE PHARAOH was probably Meneph-
tab. son of the powerful monarch. Rame.
ses III. The monuments of Egypt refer
to the death of a son of Meneptah and
ominous uprisings in 1876 b. c.
Comment and Suggestive Thought.
The Bible records fewer miracles
than most men think. They are
grouped in three great periods, each
critical epoch especially requiring
divine interposition-the times Of
Moses, when the nation was to be de-
livered from bondage; the times Of
Elijah, when the authority Of the
prophetic order was to be established
and the liberty Of the people defended
against the kings; the times Of Christ.
when the world was to be redeemed.
We study in this lesson the first of
these periods of miracles.
The First Triad Of Plagues.-Ex.
7:14; 8:19. The plaques group them
selves In threes, gradually increasing
In severity, for God gave Pharaoh
every chance to repent. The first
triad are plaques Of loathsomeness,
not inficting actual pain or injury to
life. Water into blood; frogs and lice.
The Second Triad Of PIasues.-Ex.
8: 20; 9:12. In this group of plaques
the property of the Egyptians is in
volved as well as their persons; the
land Of Goshen, where the Hebrews
dwelt. is pointedly exempted from the
visitations; and Moses no longer
makes use of the rod, as IL to show
that no magic virtue resides in that
piece of wood. Flies, murrain and
boils.
The Third Triad Of PIagues.-Ex
9:13; 1929. In this series of plaques
"a new insect of awfulness now ap
pears In the circumstance that the
physical agency is no longer of loca
| origination from within the land, but
comes from the general system OF the
world; as II there now had been an In
vasion of Egypt on the part Of the un
seen universe beyond it. The rod is
now resumed. d."-Macgregor. Hail; 10
Gusts, and darkness follow in ominous
| succession.
The Last Plague; Death Of the First
born.-Exodus IL. Paraoh and hi:
people had been given every opportu
nifty to repent Even the divine pa
tience had ceased to endure their hare
and cruel and deceitful hearts. The
final and decisive plague was announc
ed and described with accuracy; bu
before its actual infiiction severa
days elapsed that the people Of Israe
might be prepared for the exodss. Ont
important step was the asking (no
"borrowing"-see r. W of jewels
the most easily carried form o
wealth, from the Egyptians. 1t wa
only right that the Hebrews shoul'
have little return for their loni
services, and what their masters CAV,
them was far less than their due.
The Institution Of the Passover
Elk. 12: :1-22, 1880. While the Israel
ties, protected by the effect Of tn
plaques were making preparations 70
their departure, they were also pre-
pairing for great and beautiful cere
mony, ordained by God, which shoul
at the same time arouse their religt
GUS feeling, and bind them togethe
more firmly as nation II extende
from the fourteenth to the twenty-firs
day of the month Abb, afterward
called Nisan, corresponding nearly :
the last half of March and the frs
half of April. Hebrew months bega
with the new moon, so that the Pass
over came always at the time best 70
travelling, the time of full moon. Tn
religious year began at this time; tn
civil year began with the month Tisr
including the last of September an
the first of October.
"The Passover feast remains to thi
day an enduring memorial of the exs
dus, inexplicable except as the con
memoration of a historical fact, an
testifying by its name to the natur
of the fact commemorated. ."-Rawlii
son. Taken up into the Lords SUI
per. 1t is celebrated all over the worl
wherever Christians as we'll as Jew
are found.
The awful stroke fell at midnigh
and Immediately the entire land wa
filed with bitter anguish and wit
terror. Pharaoh, whose own boy la
dead. the heir to his throne, could nc