The Tupelo journal., 1907-06-07
THE
PASSOVER
Sunday School Lesson for June 9,IsO7
Specially Prepared for This Paper.

blood, 1 Will pass over you.'-Exodus
1918.
NEW TESTAMENT REFERENCES
New Testament references to passover.
John 1:29; 6:53; 1 Cor. 5:6-S; Heb. 9:14;
11:2S; / 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 Nissan, cor
responding to the last of March and the
first of April. The year (Ussher) was B..
G. 1891; or about 1900 according to others.
Professor Price makes it 1916.
PLACE.-The meetings of Moses with
Pharaoh were at the capital, Zoan CTan-
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 1916 B. c.
Comment and Suggestive Thought
The Bible records fewer miracles
than most men think. They are
grouped in three great periods, each
a critical epoch especially requiring
divine interposition-the times af
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 PIagues.-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 Plagues.-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 if 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 N longer of local
or~igination from within the land, but
comes from the general system of the
world; as if there now had been an in
vasion of Egypt on the part of the in
seer universe beyond it. The rod is
now acknowledgement. Hail; To-
Gusts, and darkness follow in ominous
succession.
The Last Plague; Death of the First
born.-Exodus II. Paraoh and his
people had been given every opportu-
nifty to repent. Even the divine pa
thence had ceased to endure their hard
and cruel and deceitful hearts. The
final and decisive plague was
ed and described with accuracy; but
before its actual infliction several
days elapsed that the people of Israel
might be prepared for the exodus. One
important step was the asking (not
"borrowing"-see R. W of jewels.
the most easily carried form of
wealth, from the Egyptians. 1t was
only right that the Hebrews should
have a little return for their long
services, and what their masters gave
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 the
plaques were making preparations for
their departure, they were also pre-
pairing for a great and beautiful cere-
mony, ordained by God, which should
at the same time arouse their religi-
Gus feeling, and bind them together
more firmly as a nation. 1t extended
from the fourteenth to the twenty-irst
day of the month Abb, afterwards
called Nissan, corresponding nearly to
the last half of March and the first
half of Arril. Hebrew months began
with the aw moon, so that the Pass
over came always at the time best for
travelling, the time of full moon. The
religious year began at this time; the
civil year began with the month Tisri.
including the last of September and
the first of October.
"The Passover feast remains to this
day an enduring memorial of the exo-
dus, inexplicable except as the COM
memoration of a historical fact, and
testifying by its name to the nature
of the fact commemorated."-Rawlin
son. Taken up into the Lords Sup.
per, it is celebrated all over the world
wherever Christians as well as Jews
are found.
The awful stroke fell at midnight,
and Immediately the entire land was
filled with bitter anguish and with
terror. Pharaoh, whose own boy lay
dead, the heir to his throne, could not
wait for morning, but sent in the
night, praying the Hebrews to be
gone, and making no conditions.
Lesson of the Passover.
If the lesson of the plaques is a
mighty warning, that of the Passover
is an abiding comfort and confidence.
God, it teaches US, is round about his
people, and no harm can befall those
chat trust in him. One of the most
wonderful proofs of Christianity is
the exact parallelism between this
browning event of the Old Testament,
the Passover, and the browning event
of the New Testament, the sacrifice
upon Calvary of the Lamb of God. In
the blackness of midnight, while sin