EXODUS 13
We have seen in chapter 12 how each household was identified with the firstborn, and with the lamb that typically bore the judgment of the firstborn. Now Jehovah claims the firstborn for Himself: “Hallow unto me every firstborn ... it is mine”. The object of the deliverance wrought was that Jehovah might have His people for Himself. He redeems and He [p. 56] delivers that He may have a people under His eye marked by the refusal of the flesh, and by the presence of the features of Christ. No one is entitled to say, All I want is to be sheltered from judgment by the blood of the Lamb. The same Voice that said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”, says, “Hallow unto me every firstborn”. All that is sheltered by the blood is hallowed to God. He has a distinct claim, and if we have really fed on the Lamb roast with fire, we shall be ready to sing
“Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all”. (272:4)
It is a willing surrender brought about by the influence of divine love. Of another day it will be said, “Thy people shall be willing (or voluntary offerings) in the day of thy power” (Psalm 110: 3).
Paul speaks in Acts 20: 28 of “the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. It is His purchased possession, and He is entitled to have it, and it must therefore be hallowed. One distinct aspect of God’s assembly is that it is “the assembly of the firstborn (ones) who are enregistered in heaven” (Hebrews 12: 23). It is a great thing to recognize that the assembly is God’s, and it is due to God that it should be hallowed. There can be no place in that assembly for lawlessness, independency, or the doing of one’s own will in any form. We belong to a redeemed company — “redeemed to God” — and therefore hallowed for holy service as the Levites were afterwards, who were taken instead of the firstborn sons.
The practical working out of this lies in the refusal of leaven. The deliverance from Egypt was to be [p. 57] remembered in the refusal of leaven (verse 3). We have to remember the “powerful hand” — an expression four times repeated in this chapter; how He brought judgment on every element of the life of Egypt, and on all its pride and strength. Now it is certain that He cannot allow in His people what He judged in the Egyptians and in the passover Lamb. Leaven is the subtle working of the principles of the world, corrupting and inflating, so that man as in the flesh is brought into evidence instead of Christ. There is not a feature of that man that has not been judged with a powerful hand in the death of Christ.
Keeping the feast of unleavened bread is true evidence of deliverance from Egypt. Everything in the world is marked by leaven. The Lord spoke of the leaven (doctrine) of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 16: 6); that is religious and intellectual leaven which gives man in the flesh a place. Then the leaven of Herod (Mark 8: 15) is the time-serving spirit that would go on the line of pleasing men: how much there is of it! All leaven — whether it be the legal leaven in Galatia or the carnal leaven in Corinth — gives place and importance to the man who has come under judgment with God. But if God has judged every feature of that man unsparingly in the death of Christ, it is impossible that He could tolerate what gives him a place and inflates him in His people. It is serious to consider that He says, “Whoever eateth what is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the assembly of Israel” (Exodus 12: 19). It is certain that if there is the allowance of leaven the privileges of God’s assembly cannot be enjoyed, for the true character of that assembly is practically denied.
[p. 58] God has introduced that which is absolutely unleavened. He has brought in a character of Manhood that has no leaven in it, and He has brought it in such a way that it has become food for us. In Christ we see sincerity and truth, holy purity, obedience, righteousness, lowliness, meekness — a blessed character of Manhood that is entirely suited to God, and in which there is no corrupting principle, and where nothing is inflated so as to appear greater than it really is. How blessed to feed on this unleavened Bread! All the literature of the world has leaven in it; it gives some place, or attaches some glory, to man after the flesh. We can only get clear of it by feeding on Christ, and by having, and being formed in, the Spirit of Christ. The saints as having His Spirit are characteristically “unleavened” (1 Corinthians 5: 7); the same qualities pertain to them as were found so perfectly in Him.
It is remarkable that it is said, “And it shall be for a sign to thee on thy hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the law of Jehovah may be in thy mouth” (verse 9). This exercise as to leaven is to be such as to manifest its results in a public way. It is to manifest itself as a definite sign on the hand; that is, in all the saint does, for the hand represents his activity. And it is to come into view in his countenance also. It ought not to be possible to look at the saints without seeing the evidence that they are keeping the feast. And such persons can speak for God without being regarded as mockers.
“Nothing leavened shall be eaten” (verse 3). “Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread” (verse 6). “Leavened bread shall not be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy borders” (verse 7). There is to be no vestige of leaven seen amongst the people of God.
It is of interest to note that in chapter 12: 16 the feast of unleavened bread begins with a holy convocation and ends with one, but in chapter 12: 14 it is spoken of as a feast to Jehovah, and in chapter 13: 6 “the seventh day is a feast to Jehovah”. I think the holy convocation indicates that in keeping the feast of unleavened bread we are able to meet our brethren on happy terms, because we are not allowing what would be inconsistent with the fellowship. It is only as we keep the feast according to 1 Corinthians 5 that we can maintain the holy principles of fellowship which are found in 1 Corinthians 10. And then the “feast to Jehovah” would suggest that we are happy in our relations with God, and that there is pleasure for Him in our being together.
It is of the utmost importance to keep up a character of things which is evidence that we are out of Egypt. We need to be in continual exercise as to leaven because it manifests itself in all kinds of subtle ways — little things in which some place or importance is given to the flesh. The true exercise of the saint is to judge things in their inception — to judge them in thought and feeling before they come out in word or act.
Leaven strikingly illustrates how quickly an evil principle spreads if once introduced and not judged. “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump”. A corrupt principle introduced amongst the people of God will spread rapidly, and displace what is of Christ, and its character may not be suspected until a ray of light from God in prophetic ministry breaks in and exposes it. We see this at Corinth and in the assemblies of Galatia.
Another thing was to be “a sign on thy hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes” (verse 16); that is, that all the firstborn males were to be held as Jehovah’s. We have to hold ourselves as ransomed: God is entitled to us, not we ourselves. Hence we are to glorify God in our bodies (1 Corinthians 6: 20). The firstborn of man and the firstling of an ass are put together. Man is not better naturally than an unclean ass; apart from ransom there is nothing for him but judgment. “If thou do not ransom it, thou shalt break its neck”. If spared he can only be held as ransomed. And this is to mark all the activities of a man, and the way he appears in this world; all is to be evidence that he is really brought out of Egypt.
And this is to be so marked in the households of the people of God that it arrests the attention of the children. “When thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, With a powerful hand Jehovah brought us out from Egypt, etc”. (verse 14). It is a good thing when children see their parents acting in ways so distinct from those of the world that they have to ask why it is! We are to carry ourselves as ransomed and as delivered from the world. We might ask sometimes, Is it fitting for ransomed persons to do this or that? “Ye are not your own, for ye have been bought with a price; glorify now then God in your body”. To do so is the abiding evidence of what God has wrought. We are to hold ourselves as hallowed for God; we are of His assembly, and no leaven is to have place with us. Each one must answer for himself as to how far it is so.
Then we see the consideration of Jehovah in not leading the people the near way. He would not suffer [p. 61] them to be tried by conflict. They were called at present to see and to celebrate His victory, not to win victories for themselves. He would not have them to see conflict lest they should repent and return to Egypt. God considers for us in blessed grace in regard to what we have to meet. Young souls are watched over, and their way is directed, so that they may not in early days have to face things which would be too much for them. He cares for the lambs that they should not be driven too far or too fast. All this is a blessed manifestation of the compassion and faithfulness of God. And we also know that He led His people another way that they might learn His grace and ways — and their own perverseness and powerlessness — in the wilderness.
Then they took with them the bones of Joseph — the abiding witness of the confidence of faith that though they might have to learn death experimentally, God would fulfil His purpose. It answers, as it has often been said, to 2 Corinthians 4: 10.
Finally, “Jehovah went before their face by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them in the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; so that they could go day and night”. This comes in at the end of a chapter in which His people are seen as holding themselves hallowed unto Him, putting away all leaven and owning themselves to be ransomed. If these conditions are maintained we shall have sure guidance; God becomes the Guide and Light of His people; He would not have His saints to take one step in uncertainty. Whether it be in bright circumstances or in dark,
“Light divine surrounds thy going,
God Himself shall mark thy way”. (76:3)