The Passover (Part 4)
Charles E. Wigg
Without
Blemish: The Lamb to be offered was to be without blemish; in
this detail we have a reference to the impeccability, the absolute sinlessness
of Christ. There was to be no flaw, no fault in the Lamb that was to be offered.
The Lord Jesus was the only totally sinless person that ever lived, not only did
He do no sin, but because He had no earthly father, and was born of a virgin, He
never inherited the fallen, sinful nature of Adam as you and I have. If He had
any sin in Him, then He would have had to suffer for that sin, and He never
could have been the Saviour of lost and sinful men. But glory to God; not only
did he do no sin, but in Him was no sin; and this was testified about Him by
Pilate who examined Him before His crucifixion, and who said “I find no fault in
Him”, and by the thief who died on the cross beside His, who could say to his
railing friend, “This man has done nothing amiss”. Let us remember, that unless
He was sinless, He never could have been our Saviour. The fact that the Lamb was
kept in the house for three and a half days, (under constant observation), would
bring out this aspect of His person, who was personified in the victim.
Precious Blood: When the blood of
the sinless victim was shed all of it was caught in a basin. It is Peter who in
the first chapter of his first epistle talks about the ‘precious blood’ with
which we have been redeemed. (1Peter 1:19). Often the writers of hymns speak of
that blood being spilt, (or spilled), but such an idea is foreign to scripture.
We may be sure that not one drop of the precious blood of Christ was spilled or
wasted. His death was not an accident.After being caught in the basin, it was
then applied to the two door posts and the upper door lintel of the entrance
door of the houses in which they lived. This bore testimony to the fact that all
in that house believed in the efficacy of that precious blood. If the blood had
remained in the basin, though still just as precious and efficacious, yet the
destroyer would have entered that house and done his dreadful work. This points
up the fact that for one to know about the Gospel, and even about the Saviour
through whom it is presented to men, is not enough. One must come to know the
Saviour for themselves. There must be an act of personal faith in Him, and in
His precious blood which He shed on Calvary. There must be the personal
realisation that what He did; He did for me, not just for everyone.
A Bunch of Hyssop: The people were
told to take a bunch of hyssop and to dip it in the blood that was in the basin,
and then to strike it on the lintel and the two door posts of the houses in
which they were. Hyssop was the smallest and the weakest of all trees. We are
told that Solomon spoke about trees, from the cedar that grows on Lebanon, to
the hyssop that springs out of the wall. (1Kings 4:33) thus we can assume that
the hyssop was the smallest and weakest of all trees. This is meant to be an
encouragement to us all, because none of us can boast of the strength of our
faith. But it is not the strength of our faith that matters, but the object of
our faith,- the precious blood of Christ. That precious blood perfectly
satisfied every claim that the perfect righteousness of God could make, in
respect of ourselves, and in respect of our sins. The hymn writer wrote:
The perfect righteousness of
God,
Is witnessed in the Saviour’s blood.
‘Tis in the cross of Christ we
trace,
His righteousness, yet wondrous grace.
We are told in other places that the blood of the victim or
of the offering (in fact no blood at all of any living creature), was never to
be eaten by man. It was the life of the flesh of the sinless victim. It was for
God alone, and it alone is able to protect us from His holy wrath. It is in this
very chapter that God says, “When I see the blood, I will Pass over you”. It is
not a shield to protect us (or what we possess), from harm or accident, nor is
it a sword that we are to use to put to flight the enemy of our souls. It is
true that the scripture says that the saints of another age, “Overcame him, (the
accuser of the brethren), by the blood of the Lamb, but I understand that means
that when Satan roars his accusations against us, God replies that He sees no
sin in those that are being accused, because they are covered with the blood of
the Lamb. That precious blood has met every claim of Divine Justice, and thus
those who trust in it are free from Divine Judgement. Because of this the
accuser is silenced , is overcome. [To be concluded]
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[Reproduced by permission of the
author]