The Passover

With reference to: Luke 22:15,16,18, 29,30—THE LORD'S PASSOVER.

On the tenth day of Abib, the first month of the year, being 430 from the confirmation of the covenant, the Israelites were commanded to put up a lamb for each house, and to kill it upon the fourteenth day in the evening. They were to take its blood and to sprinkle it upon the door-posts of their houses, and to eat its flesh that same night, roast with fire, with unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. Nothing of it was to be left till morning. They were also to eat it in haste, as if about to hurry off upon a journey. The meaning of this was, that God was about to destroy the first-born of every family in Egypt, would cause them to be thrust out of Egypt with great haste, and that when the destroying angel should see the blood on the door posts, he would pass over that house and not destroy the first born there. For this cause the lamb was termed the Lord's Passover (Exod. 12.). Not a bone of it was to be broken. No stranger, foreigner, hired person, or uncircumcised individual was to eat of it; a servant, however, bought with the money of an Israelite, provided he were circumcised, was permitted to partake of it.

But this institution represented more than the facts upon which it was founded. It pointed to events of the forty-second, and present (?) generations of Israel. The apostle styles Christ the believer's passover, who was sacrificed for them (1 Cor. 5:7); and exhorts them to "keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Jesus was the Lamb of the feast whom God had provided. Not a bone of him was broken. His blood was sprinkled, not upon the door-posts of houses, but upon the doors of believers' hearts by faith in the blood of sprinkling. None can eat his flesh, if they would, but those who are circumcised in heart; for to eat his flesh is to digest, and make a part of our mental selves, the truth concerning the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ. This is the spiritual food upon which the believer's spiritual existence is sustained. As Jehovah's [YAHWEH'S] first born son was saved by the blood of the passover lamb in Egypt, so also is the believer in the kingdom saved by the blood of Christ; so that when the day of retribution comes, and the first born of all the nations, "who know not God and obey not the gospel," are destroyed, the angel of death will pass over him, and he shall not be harmed.

But while the passover has this spiritual signification, it also represents facts, or events, which will be made manifest in connection with Israel at the appearing of their king in glory. This is evident, from the saying of Christ while partaking of the Passover with his apostles, the future sovereigns of the tribes. "With desire," said he, "I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God;" and "I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come." And of this kingdom, He said, "I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Luke 22:15,16,18, 29,30; Matt. 19:28). From this, then, it is clear, that the passover was prophetic of what is to be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Has that kingdom come? If it has, as some very erroneously affirm, then Christ has eaten another passover, and has again drank of wine with his apostles; for he said he would do so when the kingdorn had come. But no man in his senses will allirm this. Another passover could not be celebrated till a year after; so that Jesus could not eat it with his disciples before that. Where is the testimony to his eating it with them then? There is none; but much of a contrary nature every way. The gracious declaration of Jesus is, I will eat of this passover, and drink of the fruit of the vine, with you in the kingdom of God when it shall be come. He did not say, when you shall go to the kingdom beyond the skies, but when the kingdom shall come, which he had taught them to pray for.

It is perfectly ridiculous to talk about the kingdom having come, and of the apostles being on their thrones. To affirm this proves that the professor is totally ignorant of the gospel. A pretty sitting upon thrones it was, when they were all arraigned at the bar, condemned, imprisoned, and scourged, for preaching the gospel of the kingdom in the name of Jesus! What havoc the apostasy has made with the truth! The gospel preaches no such stuff as this. It treats of a kingdom which the God of heaven shall set up in Judea, which shall never be removed from thence; in which the whole twelve tribes shall rejoice; which the saints of all ages shall possess; and which shall rule over all. Its elements at present are all scattered. It is not a matter of fact; but a thing of hope, in which only they rejoice who believe the promises made of God to the fathers.

The passover must be restored before it can be eaten of by Christ and his apostles in the kingdom of God. This is one of the things to be re-established at "the restitution of all things;" and the law of its restoration is in the following words: "In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a fast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten. And upon that day shall (Messiah) the Prince prepare for himself and for all the people, of the land a bullock for a sin offering" Ezek. 14:21-22). This was spoken by the prophet to Israel of the fourteenth generation concerning the observance of the passover by Israel of the generation contemporary with the "restoration of the kingdom again to Israel" when it should be constituted under the Prince. Moses' law said all about the observance of the passover before the Prince appeared; but as Moses ceased to be the lawgiver when He came, a New Code is revealed through Ezekiel which will become the law of the kingdorn under Shiloh. When Ezekiel's passovcr is observed at Jerusalem, Christ will be there, the apostles also, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, and many from the four winds of heaven -- all of them the first-born redeemed from the earth, saved by the sprinkled blood of the true paschal lamb of God, and who shall find themselves in Canaan as inheritors of its attributes; celebrating their own redemption, and the overthrow of all their enemies by the Lord Jesus at his revelation in flaming fire, attended by the angels of his power.

The bread and wine of "the Lord's Supper" are the remains of the passover, which are to be shared by the circumcised of heart and ears, until Christ comes in power and great glory. I am informed by a Jew, that when they eat the passover they eat no lamb, but have a dry bone of one on a dish; and that all who celebrate take hold of the lip of the dish, and unitedly offer a petition. This is remarkable. They have slain the true lamb, which believers of the gospel feed upon; while only a dry bone remains to them, strikingly illustrative of themselves. Faith in the Lamb of God supplies the absence of the lamb in the Lord's supper. The broken bread and poured out wine, memorialize His sacrifice for believers; and the testimony, "this do in remembrance of me until I come," keeps alive the hope of His appearing in the Kingdom of God. When hope becomes a reality, the supper will give place to the passover; for when Christ is come, the memorial of His coming ceases to be prophetic of the event.