Bitter Herbs
(No. 2727)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 19, 1901.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
25, 1880.
"With bitter herbs they shall eat it." Exodus 12:8.
PERHAPS, before I come to the consideration of this sentence, it may be
profitable, especially to the younger folk among us, if we think of the
many points in which the Passover was a type of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul tells us that "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us" and,
therefore, he informs us, by Inspiration–and therefore it is not a
matter of conjecture or fancy–that the Passover was instituted to be a
type of Jesus Christ who is the Lamb of God, the one appointed
Sacrifice for the sins of all His people.
In our reading, we have already noticed that great care was to be taken
in the selection of the paschal lamb. It was to be without blemish,
even as Jesus Christ, our Savior, had no sin in Him. The prince of this
world watched Him narrowly, but he found nothing of evil in Him. All
His enemies, as well as His friends, agreed that He was without fault.
The paschal lamb was to be in the fullness of its strength, "a male of
the first year," even as our Lord Jesus Christ was offered as a
Sacrifice in the fullness of His manhood. He was perfect both as God
and Man and, hence, was fit to become the Sacrifice for the sins of
men. Admire and adore your perfect Savior, who, though He had no sin of
His own, took upon Himself your sin, that you might be made the
righteousness of God in Him!
The most important parts of the Passover celebration were the killing
of the lamb and the sprinkling of the side posts of the door and the
lintel with its blood. That was the ordained method by which the safety
of those who dwelt within the house was secured. God looked with angry
eyes on Egypt and bade His destroying angel avenge Him of His
adversaries. "At midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land
of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto
the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon." There was no
exception–every house was filled with lamentation except where the
blood-mark was over and beside the door. The angel passed over that
house, smiting none there, and we are expressly told that it was God's
sight of the sprinkled blood by which the first-born in Israel were
preserved from destruction. This is the main type of Christ's
Atonement. Christ Jesus died as the Substitute for all who believe in
Him and, because He bore the punishment of sin for them, God
righteously withholds it from them. How could He twice demand payment
of sin's debt, first at the bleeding Surety's hand, and then again at
the hand of those for whom He stood as Surety? Christ is the Substitute
for all His elect. His elect are all those who believe in Him and by
this sign you may know them–they are sheltering beneath His sprinkled
blood–and when God sees the blood, He passes over them. So, let each
one of us ask himself, "Am I hiding behind the blood of Jesus? Is my
confidence entirely fixed in the great reconciliation and propitiation
which Christ has made? If so, I shall live–no destroyer can ever smite
me–God Himself must pass over me in the Day of Judgment and I shall be
'accepted in the Beloved.'"
There was in Egypt, that night, a saved Israel–saved because of the
blood sprinkled outside their houses–and I hope we have here many
members of a saved nation–saved not because of anything they are or
ever will be in themselves, but because Jesus has suffered in their
place and His blood interposes between God and them.
After this followed the feeding upon the lamb. The lamb, which had been
slain, was to be roasted and eaten. And you who are saved by Christ's
death must continue to live upon Christ, as He said to the Jews,
"Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you
have no life in you." This is, of course, a figure, meaning that Christ
must be food
to your minds and nutriment to your hearts. You must love Him, trust
Him and endeavor to know more and more concerning Him. Your hearts must
stay themselves upon Him as your Brother, having taken your nature, and
as your Savior, having put away your sin.
This feeding upon the lamb was to be upon a roasted lamb–not raw, nor
boiled, "but roasted with fire." Christ is food for our hearts as
having suffered for us–as having passed through the fire of God's
wrath against sin. I rejoice in Christ as He is now exalted at the
right hand of the Father, but, first of all, I must know Him as
despised and rejected of men. Christ's Second Advent is proper and
lawful ground for joy, but not until you understand His First Advent
and see Him in His humiliation on Calvary. Christ on the Cross is to be
the one object of your faith–you must look to Him there even as the
Israelite was to look upon and feed upon the lamb roasted in the fire.
Think what Christ has endured for
you, Beloved. I tried, this morning, [Sermon #1550, Volume 26, THE
UNSPEAKABLE GIFT] to speak about His grief, but I know that I failed to
set them adequately forth at all. Oh, what a fire was that through
which our Lord Jesus Christ passed that He might become food for our
souls!
Notice, next, that the Israelites were to eat the whole lamb and you
who want to have Christ must have the whole of Him or none of Him!
There are some who are willing to take His example, but not His
doctrine–they cannot have Him. Others wish to take His doctrine, but
not His precepts–they cannot have Him. Nothing of Him must be left,
for there is no more in Christ than sinners absolutely need. You cannot
satisfy your soul's craving with half a Christ–neither will God allow
you to insinuate that there is anything superfluous about His Son. The
Jews had to eat all the lamb and he who would have Christ must have the
whole of Christ–not only Christ as your Substitute, but Christ as your
King! Not merely Christ to trust, but Christ to obey! He must be to you
all that God sets Him forth to be, or else He will be nothing at all.
Dear Hearer, are you willing thus to accept Christ as the Lamb of God?
Are you willing to have Him altogether, to leave nothing of Him and to
set aside nothing that appertains to Him? Then you may freely take Him
as your own!
The paschal lamb was to be eaten that very night, nothing of it was to
remain till the morning. The whole lamb was to be eaten at once, or to
be consumed by fire. Now, dear Friends, I put the question to you–Are
you willing to have Christ tonight? If there is anyone who wants to
have Him tomorrow, I cannot promise that he shall have Him. But he who
wants Christ tonight, is welcome to have Him. If you can truly say, "I
am willing, at this moment, to take the whole of Christ to be mine, and
to accept Him just as God gives Him," you already have Him! Therefore
be of good cheer, for God denies this Lamb to none who are unreservedly
willing to receive Him. If you will have Him, that will of yours is
given you by His Grace, so take Him freely!
As when one comes to a river and asks no leave to drink, but quenches
his thirst at once, so come to Christ and freely take what God has
provided on purpose for every willing soul. If you will have the whole
of Christ to save you from living in sin as well as from dying in sin,
then you may have Him and have Him now! Only delay not to take Him,
lest you should even die while hearing about Him! Remember that solemn
injunction which we united in singing only a few minutes ago–
"Hasten, sinner, to be blest, Stay not for the morrow's sun Lest
perdition you arrest Ere the morrow is begun."
Another instruction which was given to the Israelites concerning this
paschal feast was that they were to eat it with unleavened bread.
Leaven, you know, is usually regarded in Scripture as the type of
hypocrisy and other evils, so, in accordance with this symbol, Christ
is to be received sincerely. He who wishes to know the value of Christ
must not play at receiving Him–he must not say that he has Him when he
has Him not. No, dear Friend, your whole heart must be yielded to
Christ and you must take a whole Christ to yourself, or else He can
never be yours. I seem to think that there must be some here who are
saying, "Yes, the Lord is drawing us to Himself and we are willing
enough to be drawn to Him." Come along, then, look not back, but yield
to the gentle pressure of His sacred love, and do it thoroughly. Be out
and out in your surrender to Christ–have no leavened cake of hypocrisy
to mar the paschal feast–do not try to be other than you honestly mean
to be. I beseech you, trifle not with my Lord and Master! If you must
play the fool, do it with something else, but not with religion! If you
will gamble, play with halfpence, as bad boys do–your immortal soul is
too precious to be thrown away in a game of pitch and toss! Be in
earnest in dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ! Put
away all leaven out of your house and out of your heart–and let it be
with the unleavened bread of real sincerity of heart that you partake
of the Lamb of God.
I have thus hurriedly gone over these instructions concerning the
Passover in order to lead up to this one, which is to be the special
theme of my discourse–"With bitter herbs they shall eat it."
I. My first remark with regard to this command is, that JESUS CHRIST,
WHO IS THE LAMB OF GOD, IS ALWAYS RECEIVED IN THIS FASHION AT THE
FIRST.
Those bitter herbs were a kind of salad or condiment to be eaten with
the lamb and are generally thought to have been lettuce, endive,
chicory and such-like greens, as we call them–not nauseously bitter,
but having a sufficient degree of bitterness to add a relish to the
lamb. Now, when souls come to Christ, they carry out spiritually what
is here set forth in metaphor–"with bitter herbs they shall eat it."
That is to say, whenever anyone really believes in Jesus Christ, there
is always mingled with the joyful belief, a measure of sorrowful
repentance. "Yes," says the truthful heart, "Jesus Christ died for me,
but how grieved I am that I should ever have lived such a life as to
need that He should die for me! I read about His terrible agonies and I
perceive that I was the cause of them. It was all for love of me that
He came from Heaven to earth because He knew how guilty I would be,
therefore was He nailed up to the Cross and put to death." So the
penitent soul does not know whether to rejoice or to sorrow. There is a
mixture of emotions–there is a bitter sweet and a sweet bitter. I
rejoice that Christ has put away my sin, but I sorrow that He should
ever have had to do it–
"Alas! And did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would He
devote that sacred head For such a worm as I?"
I do not believe in that faith which has not a tear in its eye when it
looks to Jesus. Dry-eyed faith seems to me to be bastard faith, not
born of the Spirit of God. With our joy over pardoned guilt, we must
mourn that we pierced the Lord. We think of our past sins–perhaps some
of them were very black ones–and as they come up before our
recollection, we wish that they could be blotted out of all
remembrance. We mourn over the many times in which we resisted the
Spirit of God and rejected the Savior and, while we know that all these
sins are now forgiven, we cannot help being grieved because of them.
And we sorrowfully sing–
"I know they are forgiven, But still their pan to me Is all the grief
and anguish They laid, my Lord, on Thee." There is another set of
bitter herbs that we eat at the time of our conversion, when there
comes a distaste for the things in which we once took pleasure. As soon
as a man knows that he is saved by the shedding of Christ's blood, he
begins to dislike the things he once enjoyed. Pleasures and amusements
of a polluting character, no, even those of a doubtful sort, at once
lose all their former charm. Of course, worldlings say, "The man is a
fool! He has turned Puritan. He has gone mad." These are some of the
bitter herbs which you will have to eat–things that once seemed quite
sweet will appear utterly loathsome and you will turn away from them
with disgust. Your tastes will completely change. Your desires will
alter. You will not always be able to understand yourself and,
oftentimes, your mouth will be filled with bitter herbs on this
account.
It may be that some of you will have to eat more bitter herbs than
others have. For instance, a man who has been a thief, one who has
secretly plundered his employer, must make restitution when he is
converted–and that is often a very bitter herb. I have known some who
did not like eating it, but there was no rest to their conscience until
that was done. Friend, if you have anything which belongs to another,
restore it, and restore it speedily–how can you expect God's blessing
to rest upon you while you retain that which you have stolen? Let him
that stole, steal no more, and let him, as far as he can, make amends
for the wrong that he has done. If you have been engaged in an evil
trade while unconverted, as soon as you find Christ, you must clear out
of that bad business. And if you have gained your livelihood in
questionable ways, you must end all that sort of thing and come right
straight out from it, if you would be a follower of Christ.
I have known a man who felt that he must go to one with whom he had
been at enmity, and say to him, "I am a Christian, now, so let us be
friends." I have known some go and humble themselves very much and eat
a lot of their own
words–they had a proud spirit, so they would never have acted as they
have done if Christ had not changed them by His Grace–but when He has
met with them, they are ready to do anything that He wishes if they
might but glorify His holy name! They found that in eating the Lamb,
they had also to eat the bitter herbs, yet, surely, none of us need be
unwilling to eat the bitter herbs if he may but have the privilege of
eating the Lamb! If I may but feed on Jesus, I will seek to bring forth
fruits meet for repentance, and so let Him see that I do not follow Him
in name, only, but in deed and in truth.
There are other bitter herbs, too, which we eat when we first come to
Christ. They may be called the herbs of holy anxiety. When first you
find the Lord, you are half afraid to put one foot before the other,
lest you should tread where you ought not. I know that, in my early
Christian life, I used to be afraid to speak lest I should say anything
amiss. And I was continually on the watch lest I should grieve my
blessed Master. I wish we all had this holy tenderness–it is a very
proper thing to keep up all your life long. But we always begin with it
if we begin aright–at first we are very tender and sensitive in
spirit. Perhaps, afterwards, we learn to mix more confidence in God
with our proper doubtfulness of ourselves, but, at the beginning of our
Christian career, not having as much confidence as we ought to have in
the promises of God, our anxieties are very real, so that while we eat
the Lamb, we take a mouthful of bitter herbs at the same time.
If any of you are feeling sad just now, and are afraid that you may not
come to Christ because you are so sad, let me tell you that is the very
reason why you may come to Him! You have the bitter herbs–now come and
eat the Lamb. Your heart is sorrowful, so come and have it made glad.
Come with your burden of sin, come with your brokenness of heart, come
with your despair, come just as you are and partake of the rich
provision which God has prepared for you in Christ–and then go on your
way rejoicing!
Thus I hope I have made it clear to you that Jesus is received at the
first as the paschal lamb had to be eaten, that is, with bitter herbs.
II. Now, secondly, IT IS THE SAME WHENEVER WE FEED UPON HIM AFTERWARDS.
At least I find it to be so in my own case. I confess that my Lord
Jesus is never so sweet to me as when I am thoroughly bowed down under
a sense of my own unworthiness. I often feel far more unworthy than any
of you can feel, for the Lord's Grace and mercy towards me make me
tremble and feel ashamed that I am not more earnest about your souls,
and not more anxious to bring sinners to Christ. Yet I say again that
He is a precious Christ to me and He is never so precious as when I am
most vile in my own sight. Is it not so with you also, Beloved? When
you are very great in your own esteem, Christ appears little to you.
But when you are very little, then Christ becomes all the greater to
you–is it not so? When you feel that you are poor, guilty sinners,
Christ is regarded by you as a glorious Savior, but if any of you have
begun to spread out the fine peacock feathers of perfectionism, Christ
must seem very insignificant to you. It is a bad sign whenever you feel
that you do not need to confess sin, or to look to Christ as you did at
the first when you said–
"I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all, But Jesus Christ is my
All-in-All." Even after you have known Christ for 30 years or more,
there is no feeding upon Him like feeding upon Him with the bitter
herbs–with a sense of continued unworthiness pressing upon you–and
then does Christ become exceedingly sweet unto your taste.
And I believe, Brothers and Sisters, that it is a blessed thing to feed
upon Christ with a soft suddenness of spirit. Full Assurance is a grand
thing, but I think I have known a kind of full Assurance that I would
never covet, though it speaks very glibly as though its warfare were
accomplished and its victory were perfectly secure. It is a good thing
to be able to read your title clear "to mansions in the skies" and
happy is the man who can always do it. But it is a safe thing to feel
the tears of repentance in your eyes through a deep sense of your
unfitness for the skies at present, and to have your heart burdened
because you do not feel Heaven within you and you are, therefore,
afraid lest you should not be fit to be within Heaven. Cowper wisely
wrote–
"He has no hope who never hada fear And he that never doubted of his
state, He may perhaps–perhaps he may–too late."
I would sooner shiver in dread anxiety with the poorest sincere soul
who ever trembled before God than I would stand in an unwarrantable
confidence as to my own security and boast and brag of my wonderful
attainments. God deliver us from that sort of spirit! A quiet, peaceful
frame of mind–a gentle, humble, tender walk with God, seems to me to
be the thing that is especially to be desired. When you fear and
tremble for all the goodness that God makes to pass
before you–not because you doubt, but because you believe–you become
anxious after a holy and gracious fashion. You think I am talking
paradoxes, but I know what I mean, even if I cannot make you understand
it. You know that you are a child of God and you realize that you are
favored of the Most High–and therefore you are afraid to do anything
that would be derogatory to His Divine dignity. I believe that there is
no way of acceptably eating the Lamb and that there is no possibility
of enjoying Christ to the fullest without such bitter herbs as these. I
know that I never yet had a single mouthful of this paschal supper
which my heart did really digest and assimilate without having, at the
same time, a bowed and broken spirit to be as a bitter herb to help the
digestion of the heavenly meat.
III. Now, thirdly, dear Friends, as our text is true in relation to
Christ, who is the blessed gift of God, "His unspeakable gift," I think
you will not at all wonder if I say that THIS RULE RUNS THROUGH ALL OUR
SPIRITUAL GIFTS–YES, AND OUR TEMPORAL ONES, TOO.
God may give us many temporal blessings, but if we are His children,
this principle will hold good, that bitter herbs will be mingled with
all the sweets of life. If any of you are favored with great success,
you will find that our text is true in your case. God sends bountiful
harvests, but not without the oppressive heat that makes the laborer
sweat and faint as he gathers in the golden grain. God up lifts men in
His gracious Providence, as He did David, but David had to eat any
quantity of bitter herbs before he reached the throne, and even after
he became king, with bitter herbs did he eat his royal dainties. And
his son Solomon, who had fewer trials, found so many bitter herbs that
he cried out, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity!" God never intends
that there shall be any sweet in this world without something sour to
go with it. The rose must have its thorn and among the wheat, the
poppies must still continue to grow.
You children of God, especially, will find it so, for what if your
Heavenly Father gave you all sweet and no bitter? You would soon grow
sick–eating nothing but honey would cause you many a qualm and pain.
God does not mean us to build our nests here, so He sends a high wind
that makes the trees rock to and fro, that we may look for a more
secure place of abode. If we had all that we needed here, we would
never wish to be up and away to that better world which is the goal of
all our desires! If the bread was always plentiful upon the table and
the fruits were always abundant in the garden, and the sky was always
blue, and the fleece was always ready for the garment, and the brain
was always clear, and the feet were always nimble, would we not, then,
forget our God? I am afraid that we would and, therefore, He sends us
these bitter herbs that nothing on earth may content us and that we may
cry with the Psalmist, "Whom have I in Heaven but You? And there is
none upon earth that I desire beside You."
Go on, young man, get your degree and call your friends together to a
festival! But "with bitter herbs shall they eat it." And you, young
woman, your marriage feast draws near, but with bitter herbs shall you
eat it. Push on, good Sir, with that business of yours–you shall enjoy
prosperity, but with bitter herbs shall you eat it. Whatever there is
here below that is the object of lawful desire, you may seek–but
always know that if you gain it, there will come some salutary medicine
with it! Otherwise, if it is not so, you may question whether you are
really a child of God. If there is no stone in your road, and no cloud
in your sky, and if there has never been such a thing, but you have had
unbroken prosperity, I tremble for you and I say, with David, "I have
seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay
tree. Yet he passed away and, lo, he was not: yes, I sought him, but he
could not be found."
IV. I will not now dwell upon many other points which I might mention,
but will just briefly show you that our text also applies to us IN
LIVING A GODLY LIFE.
It may be fulfilled to us through persecution from the world. You who
have fed upon Christ and now wish to serve the Lord with your whole
heart, must not reckon that you will be able to do it without paying a
heavy price for the privilege. You will have many bitter herbs to eat,
whoever may be allowed to go without them. A man who tries to be honest
will find many people who will give him bitter herbs to eat. If you
speak the Truth of God wherever you are, you will often have bitter
herbs handed to you. Try to do that which is right, either among
working men or among merchant princes. Try to lead a really gracious,
separated life, and see whether the seed of the serpent does not hiss
at you and try to bite and sting you. There is no need for you to try
to grow your own bitter herbs–your enemies will supply them to you for
nothing–and you shall have them often when you would rather be without
them. If you tack about and shift your course with every wind, perhaps
you may curry favor with your foes and they may allow you to eat your
lamb without any bitter herbs. But if you are straight as a pikestaff,
and clear as the light, you shall soon have bitter herbs to eat, depend
upon it!
If nobody should give you any, you will find some growing in your own
garden, for, even beside that sweet flower called heartsease, there
will grow in our breast many herbs that are anything but sweet. For
instance, if a man wishes to be downright true, he will sometimes
detect himself in being false–his very love of truth will make him see
that fault, and it will be a bitter herb for him to eat. One who wishes
never to exaggerate in speaking, may himself discover that he has done
so–he must eat that herb, bitter as it is. One who wishes to be
scrupulously correct in all his business transactions may find that he
has made a mistake across the counter–he may easily be entrapped into
a dishonest action and then he will have many bitter herbs to eat. We
cannot gain a victory over the natural tendencies of our corrupt
nature, even through Divine Grace, without having some bitter herbs to
eat! Then eat them like men–they will help to cleanse you, they will
be a blessing to you and they will make the struggle after
righteousness, honor and virtue for God's sake, and for Christ's sake,
to be all the easier to you. May the Lord graciously enable you, in
that struggle, to come off more than conquerors through Him who has
loved you!
V. The next point is THAT EVEN IN TRYING TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST, you
will have to eat some bitter
herbs.
I am very thankful that I am addressing so large a company of dear
Christian friends who help to bring others to Christ. I wish that I
could say that of all of you who are members of the Church, but I can
truly say it of most of you. You are our glory and our crown of
rejoicing, because you live to bless others. Now, I believe that you
will join with me in confessing that this holy work has been
accompanied by much soul-humbling. If ever you have brought a soul to
Christ, there have been bitter herbs in your feast of joy over it. I
mean that you have never brought anyone to Christ without a great deal
of trouble. Does anybody think that our sermons and our Sunday school
teaching cost us nothing? "Oh," says one, "I can preach off-hand." Yes,
I daresay you can, but I never heard of an off-hand farm that brought
forth an offhand crop. "Oh, I have nothing to do but to sit down and
when the Bible is opened, just explain it to the boys and girls
gathered around me–and I keep good order among them." Yes, perhaps you
do, but the best order that could be given to you would be an order to
go home! If you go to your class with no agony of spirit, no anguish of
heart, what good can come of your teaching?
Dear Brothers and Sisters, I am certain that if God has ever honored
you by making you the means of the conversion of any of your fellow
sinners, you have rejoiced greatly, but you have known that it was,
under God, the result of much previous agony of spirit on their behalf.
Yes, and, often, at the very time when God has blessed you, you have
had a bitter disappointment! You thought that dear girl really was
brought to Christ, yet she turns out, before long, to be a giddy chit.
And there is that bright boy–you believed that he was saved. So he is,
perhaps, yet you see grave faults in him and you are very much grieved
about him. Yes, that will always be the case with our work, here, and
it is only another illustration of our text–"with bitter herbs shall
they eat it."
Possibly, if God gives you very great success, He will take away from
you, to a large extent, the power to rejoice in it. I know one who
seldom lives through a day without hearing of many who have been
brought to Christ by him, but who, nevertheless, has long been
incapable of taking any delight in anything he does and who is obliged
to live out of himself entirely, and on God alone. And I think,
Brothers and Sisters, that in proportion as you know the truth about
this matter, you will agree with me that it is so with you as well and
that, somehow or other, if God means to bless you, He takes care to
break the neck of your pride, lest you should be lifted up with conceit
and fall into the snare of the devil. It is a high honor to be used by
God as His instrument in blessing the poorest chimney-sweep, or the
humblest child– but you may depend upon it that if He honors you in
public, He will whip you behind the door and He will make you feel that
you are nothing when He gets you by yourself.
VI. I expect that the rule of our text will hold good with us to the
last and that it will be applied IN MAKING US MEET FOR HEAVEN.
Some of us will, within a very short time, eat our Passover supper in
another sense, for we shall pass over Jordan and enter the heavenly
Canaan. We shall go to the top of Pisgah, not to view the landscape,
and go down again, but to fall asleep there and so spiritually to pass
over the Jordan of death, into the land of the blessed, where God will
reveal Himself fully to us. You will stand before long, dear Brother or
Sister, with your staff in your hand, just as the Israelites did, and
with your loins girt–and those who see you will say to you, "Where are
you going? Where are you going?" And you will answer, "We are going to
our own country–to the Promised Land above." It may be that you will
have bitter
herbs to eat at that time. Do not, however, think any more of them than
you do of those which you eat at your own table. Nobody ever turns away
from the lamb because the sauce that goes with it seems sharp. You say,
"No, it gives a relish to the meat." So, when you and I come to die, it
may be painful to bid farewell to dear ones here below, but that will
be like eating bitter herbs. They will only give the greater zest to
that last supper on earth which will melt into a blessed breaking of
the fast in Heaven!
You have often seen the sun go down, have you not? What a fine sight it
is! He often seems to look far larger in the setting than he ever did
before–and if the clouds come round about him, are they not often the
very glory of the sunset? And have you not seen his departing rays
brighten them all up? No painter could ever have put together such
charming colors. The mighty Artist of Heaven has Himself displayed His
skill, but how did He make all that splendor? It was out of
clouds–they were the canvas which was spattered with the hues of
Heaven by the sublime Artist. So shall it be with you, dear Friend, at
last. Your old age, your pains, your groans shall only be a part of the
splendor which God gives to His people when they set at the last like
the sun.
Be of good courage, then, and fear not! Nobody stays away from a feast
because of the salad that is served with the food, so let nobody stay
away from Christ, or away from Heaven because of the little griefs he
may have to bear, the light afflictions which are but for a moment,
which work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory! God
bless you, Beloved, for Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: EXODUS 12:1-20.
Verses 1, 2. And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of
Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it
shall be the first month of the year to you. God thinks a great deal of
the redemption of His people. When He redeemed them out of their
Egyptian bondage, He took care that the mighty deed should be worthily
commemorated. Thenceforth, the Jewish year was to begin with the
celebration of the national deliverance and now, when any of us are
converted to God, and so are set free from the slavery of sin, we
should reckon that then we really begin to live! All the previous part
of our life has been wasted, but when we are brought truly to know God,
through faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, then have we
realized, indeed, what life is. The month of our conversion should be
to us the beginning of months, the first month of the year to us.
3, 4. Speak you unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the
tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb,
according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: and if
the household is too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next
unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man
according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. The worship
of God must be rendered in an orderly manner, with due thoughtfulness
and preparation. This paschal supper was not to be celebrated in any
fashion that the people might choose, but they were to take time to
have the lamb properly examined, that it might be found perfect in
every respect, and that everything might be set in order so that the
feast should be observed with due reverence and solemnity. Let us take
care that we act thus in all our devotions. Let us never rush to prayer
or hasten to praise, but let us pause awhile, and think what we are
about to do, lest we offer the sacrifice of fools, and so cause the
Lord to bid us take back that which we have brought to put upon His
altar without due thoughtfulness.
5. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: you
shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goat. It was to be a type
of Christ and, therefore, it must be the best that they had. It must be
in the prime of its strength, otherwise it would not be a fit emblem of
the "strong Son of God" whose mighty love moved Him to give Himself to
death for us.
6-10. And you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same
month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill
it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on
the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein
they shall eat it And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast
with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat
it Eat not of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roast with
fire; his head with his legs, and with the entrails thereof And you
shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which
remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire. Everything
was to be done exactly according to
God's order. The alteration of the slightest detail would have spoiled
it all. I wish that all Christians would remember this rule with regard
to the ordinances of God's House. They are not for us to make, or for
us to alter, but for us to keep!
11. And thus shall you eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on
your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste:
it is the LORD'S Passover They were thus to exercise an act of faith.
Why were they to eat in haste, but that they expected soon to be gone?
They were to stand like travelers who are starting upon a journey,
believing that God was about to set them free. Oh, that we would always
exercise faith in all our devotions, for without faith it must always
be impossible to please God.
12, 13. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will
smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and
against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you
are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. What a grand
Gospel statement that is! When the sinner sees the blood, it is for his
comfort–but it is God's sight of the blood that is, after all, the
grand thing–and when is it that He does not see it?
13-20. And the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I
smite the land of Egypt And this day shall be unto you for a memorial;
and you shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations;
you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever Seven days shall you
eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out
of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day
until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel And in
the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh
day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall
be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be
done of you. And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for
in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of
Egypt: therefore shallyou observe this day in your generations by an
ordinance forever. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the
month at even, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and
twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven
foundin your houses: for whoever eats that which is leavened, even that
soulshall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a
stranger, or born in the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all
your habitations shallyou eat unleavened bread. Thus we see God
instituting a commemoration of the deliverance of His people out of
Egypt. How much more ought you and I, with joyful gladness, to remember
the deliverance of our soul from the slavery of sin and Satan! Let us
never forget it. I should like to refresh the memories of bygone times
with you who know the Lord. the Lord help you, now, with deepest
gratitude, to remember the day when first you saw your Savior and the
yoke was taken from your neck, and the burden from your shoulder. Glory
be to the delivering Lord!