Exodus: The Lord and His PilgrimsНамуна

Partakers and pilgrims

'Peace with God’ can only come when God is at peace about us – that is, his mind is at peace when he thinks about us; his holiness is at peace when he passes judgment on us; and his heart is at peace when he contemplates welcoming us into his eternity. And all this is comprised in the statement in verse 13: ‘when I see the blood, I will pass over you’. God comes in judgment, sees the blood and is at peace. ‘The blood’, of course, stands for the death of the substitute lamb. Under the blood – that is, by the simplicity of entering the blood-marked house – God’s firstborn son, the Israel of God, is safe, immune from judgment (vv. 22–23). Likewise, God saved us ‘not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy’ (Tit. 3:5). 

We are not astray from the event if we imagine each family’s father, who had acted as priest in the death of the lamb and the smearing of its precious blood (Heb. 9:12; 10:19), reverently counting his family into the blood, from the eldest to the infant in its mother’s arms, until they are all safe under the blood. It is no wonder, then, that the Lord linked Passover with a weeklong Feast of Unleavened Bread (Ex. 12:14–17). This wonderful festival of the blood could not be allowed to become a quick–passing episode: it was followed by a restful week in which to contemplate its significance annually. Exactly so should we do with Christmas and Easter, and our other great commemorations of the Lord Jesus. 

Passover was an end-of-day festival (v. 6), but the participants were required to be dressed for it from early morning with such an active day ahead (v. 11). They wore not the dressing-gown and slippers of those ready for bed, but the girded loins and staff of pilgrimage. Before Passover they could not leave Egypt; after Passover they cannot stay! They eat as those committed to walk with God.

Reflection

We are to be people who ‘… lay aside every weight … run with endurance … looking unto Jesus’ (Heb. 12:1–2). We too should sing, ‘O, pilgrim bound for the heavenly land, never lose sight of Jesus!’ 

(Johnson Oatman, ‘O, pilgrim bound for the heavenly land’.)