The Green Forest tribune., 1913-08-08

to wear while partak1ng or the feaS' (v. ID. Everywhere throughout the subsequent references the Passover lamb is used as type of the Christ We have chosen to add verses 31-3t and to make tour-fold division of the lesson.
 Without Flemish.
 l. instruction, w. 21-23. This Pass over month was henceforth to be the beginning of the year. It Is even sc with us that being redeemed by the shed blood "all things become new. We begin over again, the past Is as though it were not, Cor. 5:17. In V 3, we read that the lamb was for an household" (R. V.) and if the household be too little, then shall he and his neigbbor next door be in vited to the feast. Christ is for the nome, but others should be invited, be- ginning next door; there Is an abun- that the lamb was to be held four days, so Christ was set apart before the time of his actual sacrifice q. Pet. 1:20). Salvation through the shed blood of Jesus Christ was not the rem edy of an emergency, an after thought of God to meet an unexpected con tingency. The lamb must be without blemish Q Peter 1:19; Heb. 9:14; 2 Cor 5:21), and the fact of 1t being a year old (v. 5 suggests the perfection of strength which Is in Christ. No dce, also, 1t was the spotlessness or faultlessness of the lamb that saved, nor It's innocence but its blood, for without the shedding of blood is no remission of sin" Lev. 17:11 Heb. 9:22. The Hebrews were safe, not be- cause of their being descendants of Jacob but because God could see the blood (v. 23). There was the destroy er helpless and his power impotent
 il. Inspiration, w. 24-27. God seeing the blood gave them security; they seeing the blood were given assurance. In the days to come, when they had entered into their promised posses sion, they were to be inspired to obe- dience as with gratitude they remem- bered the merciful provision of God. Even so the testimony of Gods Word about the blood of Christ makes us sure and we are to tell others of our marvellous deliverance. For any Is- raelites to have doubted, being be- hind the blood, would have been to doubt the Word of God for us to doubt our security being behind the sc I4 did not matter how weak or strong learned or ignorant, rich or poor, the blood was efficacious because of his word. It was that. and that alone, which God saw. The Israelitas were not to tell their children or others purity and simplicity of the lamb, but that it was the blood which saved them. See l. Peter 2:24.
 Symbol of Faith.
 III. Execution, w. 28-3o. It was not enough merely to shed the blood, 1t must be applied according to instruc w. and 22. Hyssop is symbolic of faith. Have we, by faith, applied the blood? See Rom 3:25; l. John 1:9; Rom 10: 10. Notice, also, no blood was to touch the threshold. See Heb. 10: 29 No Israelite was to neglect to eat of the feast thor should any Chris tian neglect the Lords supper where by he is to feed upon Christi and fur ther, none but those behind the blood were to eat of the feast. It is quite suggestive that the Israelites went and did so as the Lord had command ed" V 2S. Gods warning received no such obedience from Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and hence the terrible judgment executed.
 ". Expulsion, w. 31-36. Pharaoh could not wait till morning to get rid of Moses and the Israelites (v. 31. His former dilatoriness stands out in strong contrast now that he has drunk the cup to the bitter dregs. He is insistently urgent and the Egyp- tians with him. for, said they, we be all dead men" The Israelites asked" (v. 35) of the Egyptians jwels of sil- yer and gold and fine raiment When orientals go to their sacred festivals they always put on their best jewels The word borrowed" as here used sig nifies to demand, ask or require Hence they demanded from the Egyp- tians something to compensate, some remuneration for their years of pow erty and slavery.
 Summary. The pre-eminent value of this feast of the Passover was that it created for the Israelites an op- portunity to tell their children the story of how they became a nation. Like as they partook of it within the houses protected by the blood upon the doorposts and lintels and girded for immediate departure so we can be protected by tie bloow of our Lamb As they obeyed they were saved. In close connection with this feast was the feast of unleavened bread, signifi- cant of the fact that their redemption by God was to be manifested by them in the separation from every corrupt Ing influence. This feast was to be equally perpetual as a memorial of their new bondage to the law of their god. Every subsequent refer enee to these events by prophet, priest or rabbi emphasized the funda- mental fact that it was Jehovah who redeemed them and that in that re- demption way the foundation of their national If