ve given it to you upon the altar to make atonement
for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of
the life" (_or_ "soul"--Lev. xvii. 11, R.V.) It is even startling to
read the two verses together: "Thou shalt make His soul a
trespass-offering;" "The blood maketh atonement by reason of the soul
... the soul of the flesh is in the blood."[22]

It is still more impressive to remember that a Servant of Jehovah has
actually arisen in Whom this doctrine has assumed a form acceptable to
the best and holiest intellects and consciences of ages and
civilisations widely remote from that in which it was conceived.

Another doctrine preached by the passover to every Jew was that he must
be a worker together with God, must himself use what the Lord pointed
out, and his own lintels and doorposts must openly exhibit the fact that
he laid claim to the benefit of the institution of the Lord Jehovah's
passover. With what strange feelings, upon the morrow, did the orphaned
people of Egypt discover the stain of blood on the forsaken houses of
all their emancipated slaves!

The lamb having been offered up to God, a new stage in the symbolism is
entered upon. The body of the sacrifice, as well as the blood, is His:
"Ye shall eat it in haste, it is the Lord's passover" (ver. 11). Instead
of being a feast of theirs, which they share with Him, it is an offering
of which, when the blood has been sprinkled on the doors, He permits His
people, now accepted and favoured, to partake. They are His guests; and
therefore He prescribes all the manner of their eating, the attitude so
expressive of haste, and the unleavened "bread of affliction" and bitter
herbs, which told that the object of this feast was not the indulgence
of the flesh but the edification of the spirit, "a feast unto the Lord."

And in the strength of this meat they are launched upon their new
career, freemen, pilgrims of God, from Egyptian bondage to a Promised
Land.

It is now time to examine the chapter in more detail, and gather up such
points as the preceding discussion has not reached.

(Ver. 1.) The opening words, "Jehovah spake unto Moses and Aaron in the
land of Egypt," have all the appearance of opening a separate document,
and suggest, with certain other evidence, the notion of a fragment
written very shortly after the event, and afterwards incorporated into
the present narrative. And they are, in the same degree, favourable to
the authenticity