NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 38
NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 38
It is interesting to see the difference between the passover here and in Exodus 12:8. In the latter it is not remembrance, it is appropriation; Israel was not yet out of Egypt. In christendom it is said, ‘Take and eat this bread in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on Him in thine heart’. It is the benefit of Christ’s death that is before the mind, and not simply the Lord in death. “This do in remembrance of me”. We come to remember Him. In Joshua 5 you are over Jordan, on the heavenly side. You are there in the full benefit of His death; the passover is kept at Gilgal, where the twelve stones taken from the bed of the river were placed. It is in remembrance; you cannot remember anything if you do not know it. I remember the Lord in death, I know Him in glory; and remembering Him in death puts everything here in its true place. You could not look for enjoyment where your Lord died. Jacob in [p. 84] his last moments worships God and blesses Joseph’s sons; but he seeks nothing here; he says, “As for me .. . Rachel died by me”. (Genesis 48: 7) If we in heart remembered Christ’s death we could not seek anything in this world. “As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart” (Proverbs 25: 20); you feel your sorrow the more. Hence an idolater is one who can enjoy himself here in the absence of Christ. “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play” (Exodus 32: 6); not a word is said about the idol, but the manner of life indicates that you have an object for your heart besides Christ, as Israel could enjoy themselves in the absence of Moses.
If you remember the Lord in His death you call to remembrance that which has been. Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us; we pass through His death to the heavenly side of death where He is our life. In remembering His death we are thinking of Him, we are in His presence in the full benefit of His death, and in order to see everything in its true character here, we begin with remembering Him. The next day is a new day, and they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover; we first remember Him where He was on the earth, and next, we know Him as He is. The very remembrance of His death enhances to us the greatness of the new day that we have entered upon. The passover was in the evening; the old corn of the land next morning.