The children of Israel were also told to have shoes on their feet. This indicates that they were to make themselves ready for a journey. In an army all soldiers need proper shoes. Before we were saved, our feet were not shod. If we desire to fight the battle for the Lord, we need the right kind of shoes on our feet. I am sorry that the preaching of the gospel in today’s Christianity rarely includes a word about the need to have shoes on our feet in order to apply the Passover lamb. I hope that the Holy Spirit will speak to many concerning this.
Furthermore, in 12:11 the children of Israel were told to eat the Passover with their staff in hand. The staff was also to be used for the journey. In ancient times, when people went on a long journey they often took a staff. The girdle, the shoes, and the staff were all for the journey that the children of Israel were about to make. This journey was not to be a journey of peace, but a journey of war. In a sense they had to fight their way out of Egypt.
We thank the Lord that although we may not have heard about these things when the gospel was preached to us, many of us had some experience of them at the time we were saved. When we decided to take Christ as our Savior. inwardly we had the sense that we had been made ready for a long journey. This was my experience. It seemed to me that I had given up my former journey and was ready to start on a new journey, to have a new life with a new beginning. Did you not have such an experience when you believed in the Lord? Were you not made ready for a new journey, a new walk? Perhaps you did not have words for it, but the Holy Spirit did equip you in such a way and did lead you into a journey of fighting. You realized that a new life, a new journey, had just begun.
Finally, 12:11 says that God’s redeemed people were to eat the Passover in haste. Because they had to flee from the land of Egypt that night, they were required to eat the Passover lamb hastily. Soldiers are often required to eat their meals quickly. Those who have been in the army realize that soldiers are trained to eat in this way. Because a battle lies ahead of us, we must eat the Passover lamb in haste. Do not excuse yourself by saying that you were born with a slow disposition. Those who are slow may be the first to be attacked by the enemy from the rear. Those who eat fast are probably those who are at the front of the army.
Exodus 12:22 says, “And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin” (Heb.). Notice that the blood was put on the entrance of the house, not on the roof. The function of the entrance is to allow the proper persons and things to come into the house. Anyone or anything that is not proper is shut out by the entrance. The fact that the blood of the Passover lamb was put on the lintel and the two side posts of the door implies that the blood opens the way for us to get into Christ, who is typified by the house. The redeemed ones come into the house, not through the roof or through a window, but through the door that has been sprinkled with the redeeming blood. Hallelujah, our entry into Christ has been guaranteed by His redeeming blood! Coming into Christ through the door sprinkled with the blood, we receive a warm welcome.
Furthermore, the blood on the door protected the redeemed ones from God’s judgment. As 12:13 says, the blood was to be “a token upon the houses” where the children of Israel were. Verse 23 goes on to say, “For Jehovah will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, Jehovah will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you” (Heb.). The same blood opened the way for the redeemed ones to get into the house and closed the gates to the destroyer, thereby guarding God’s redeemed ones from judgment. Praise the Lord that we have a gate that has been sprinkled with the redeeming blood! This gate opens to us God’s grace with all that He is to us and all that He has for us. Furthermore, this gate shuts out every negative thing. Hallelujah, we are in the house whose gate has been sprinkled with the blood!
In the foregoing chapter we pointed out that both the lamb and the house typify Christ. This means that the lamb is the house and the house is the lamb. The lamb is the means of redemption, and the house is the means of preservation. Whoever is redeemed by the lamb is preserved and kept by the house. This indicates that whatever Christ redeems, He keeps. As the redeeming One, He is the lamb, and as the keeping One, He is the house. Eventually, the blood of the lamb was on the door, and the meat of the lamb was in the house The lamb, the house, and those who enjoyed the Passover thus became one. This is a picture of the identification of the redeemed ones with Christ.
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