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The blood outside meant safety within, and, sheltered by the blood, their food was
provided by the self-same lamb whose blood protected from wrath.
Unleavened bread (a type of the absence of sin, and of the righteousness of Christ),
was to be eaten with the Passover. Individually and collectively the people of God are to
put away sin; they are to regard, or see, it not, else they dishonour the blood of
atonement. In the first Lord's Supper, and every scriptural Lord's Supper since, there has
been shown forth the unleavened life and death of Christ, by the partaking of the
unleavened wine, and unleavened bread, and by the seeking to detect or judge sin as soon
as it appeared.
Thus (verse 11).--That is as pilgrims who were about to quit Egypt and press on to the
promised land.
The blood . . . . . to you . . . . . I see (verse 13).--What should we be? Where should
we be, eternally, apart from the precious blood of Christ? The word "passover" signifies
to halt, hover over (see I Kings 17: 21; Isa. 31: 5; Deut. 32: 11). Where the Lord
sees the blood He spreads His protecting wing. No house would have been safe had a
"good resolution", a "good character", or even a piece of unleavened bread, been
substituted for the blood.
Not a house (verse 30).--Take this to its furthest extreme, including the houses of
Israel, and it would still be true, for although atonement saved the firstborn of Israel, yet
atonement was by death, and, in Egypt, the difference that night was a lamb or a man.
The next thing is the leaving of Egypt. Unleavened bread and the Exodus from Egypt
alike teach the needed lesson that salvation must lead to separation:
"Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the
old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, according as ye are unleavened. For even Christ
our Passover hath been sacrificed on behalf of us; therefore, let us keep the feast, not
with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but in unleaven of
sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you . . . . . not to mingle with fornicators . . . . . for ye
owe it to come out of the world. But now I have written to you not to mingle, if any one
being named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a
drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one, neither to eat" (I Cor. 5: 6-11).
Christian! the blood of the Passover Lamb teaches all this: if it does not fit with your
experience there is need for repentance.
Unsaved reader! God keeps His Word. Pharaoh long rejected God, but His
judgments are certain of fulfillment, and the penalty of sin must fall--either on you or on
the Passover Lamb.