In the Old Testament, especially among the prophets and in the Psalms, there are many Scriptures about the Passover and about the Exodus out of the land of bondage into what God had for His people. These passages have a way of looking forward to a spiritual Exodus, a spiritual Passover that was to come. While the Israelites kept the Passover by faith, rejoicing in what God had done for them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt, they anticipated even greater deliverance. One of the classic passages of this nature is found in Isaiah, chapters 52 and 53.
For thus says the Lord God, “My people went down at the first into Egypt to reside there, then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.” What follows in this chapter speaks about the spiritual deliverance out of Egypt, the Passover that broke their bondage. Break forth, shout joyfully together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations; that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God. Depart, depart, go out from there… Isaiah 52:4, 9–11.
This is the basic initial reference to the Passover. He is showing how the Lord bared His arm in mighty power to deliver them out of Egypt. He says, “Depart, get out of here, get out of Egypt. Do not stay here any longer.”
This is a prophetic reference building upon the past deliverance from Egypt, but also projecting something that is to come through the Passover Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is exactly what Isaiah 53 is talking about. Verses 7 and 8 speak about the deliverance that comes to us through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, Christ our Passover who was sacrificed for us. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away.… Now let us go back and apply this to ourselves, basing the application upon the past Passover deliverance out of Egypt. God is saying the same thing to us: “Get out of Egypt! Get out of bondage!” Let us move into the victory of the Lord and see how it comes to pass.
Now come back to verses 1–3 of chapter 52: Awake, awake, clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion; clothe yourself in your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. For the uncircumcised and the unclean will no more come into you. Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. (He is talking to God’s people who are in slavery.) For thus says the Lord, “You were sold for nothing and you will be redeemed without money.” The slavery in Egypt just happened. The Israelites went down at the invitation of the Pharaoh, but there rose another Pharaoh who did not know Joseph or remember him, and he set about to harass and to persecute the children of Israel, bringing them into servitude and bondage. We also were brought into a bondage, but the Lord will redeem us without money.
For thus says the Lord God, “My people went down at the first into Egypt to reside there, then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now therefore, what do I have here,” declared the Lord, “seeing that My people have been taken away without cause?” Again the Lord declares, “Those who rule over them howl, and My name is continually blasphemed all day long. Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore in that day I am the one who is speaking, ‘Here I am.’ ” Isaiah 52:4–6. Note the phrase, “I am.” When God told Moses to lead the Israelites out of bondage, Moses said, “Who shall I say sent me?” God told him, “I am that I am.” God is concerned about revealing Himself and what He is. He says, “I shall make my name known to these people who are in slavery.”
God does not intend for the Church to be without the beautiful garments. He does not intend for you to be in the dust of the earth. He wants you to get up and loose yourself from the chains that are about your neck.
God has started something in this Passover that is truly happening. It is not something prophetic for the future, but a divine witness of what is taking place. People are being loosed from oppressions and chains that have been upon them for years. We have had real periods of repentance, but never have I seen as much repentance as during this Feast of Passover or in the period preceding it. People are getting rid of the things in their hearts; they are being loosed from the oppressions upon them. They are saying, “I am not going to be bound anymore by the things of the past. These chains around my neck have to go. The responses and conditionings that cause me to accept defeat, to live and exist with defeat, are going to be over with. I will be an overcomer and walk in the victory of the Lord. I will be the vessel God has chosen me to be. I will walk in His love and in His grace.”
Shake yourself out of the dust. Get up. Rise out of it. You do not have to live in any measure of defeat. You can walk with the Lord. Get rid of those chains.
Verses 7–9 begin with a poetic note: “How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation and says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ ”
Referring to the Church, we say, “The Lord reigns! He is the Lord, and He is ruling over the whole thing.” “Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices, they shout joyfully together; for they will see with their own eyes (“eye to eye” is the literal translation) when the Lord restores Zion. Break forth, shout joyfully together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.” God has set about to restore the joyfulness.
Israel was in Egypt and God delivered them by a mighty arm. Many signs and wonders were accomplished when God brought His people out. In this day the one thing God is concerned about in the exploits, the signs and wonders, is breaking the stranglehold of demonic power that is trying to hinder and strangle and hold back the people of God from what God has for them. In every instance in which God has started to bless someone, Satan moves in to oppress and harass him, to try to create an unbelievable defeat in his life. Now, what does this Word say? The Lord has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God. This reference to the arm of the Lord is a prophetic figure of speech. Notice the verse immediately following: Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground. Isaiah 53:1, 2. This is speaking about Christ. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is a prophecy about Jesus Christ. He is the arm of the Lord. This Scripture shows what God intended to do.
Let us take an illustration from Old Testament times, when they frequently used more sense in the days of battle and war than they do now. Instead of a whole army going out to fight in a bloody battle, they would let the kings or the leaders from each army fight each other. But the kings soon grew tired of that, and then they chose champions to do the fighting. You have read one story in the Bible, I am sure, of the days in which the Philistines came and encamped against the Israelites and picked their champion, a giant six cubits high. Originally a cubit was measured from the button on the elbow to the tip of the finger. Six cubits was between nine and ten feet. Goliath was a monstrous man. In fact, his spear was like a weaver’s beam, probably at least four or five inches thick. The average spear was rather small in comparison. He had an armor bearer who carried his heavy shield until he was ready to use it. Imagine how heavy it was!
When David came out against him, it was one champion against another. None of the other Israelites wanted to get involved, to be the one who went down championing the army of Israel. David said, “I will go.” Saul was head and shoulders above everyone else, probably seven feet tall. When David tried to put on Saul’s armor, can you visualize how the helmet came down over his head? He was lost in it, so he said, “I cannot maneuver in this. I haven’t proved it and I don’t know how to work with it.” So he went forth with his slingshot and five stones and planted a rock right in the center of Goliath’s forehead. Then the Philistines fled because that is what they were supposed to do.
When the champion was killed, the entire army was defeated. If your champion won, then everyone won, and you could take all the spoils; the war was over! Although you had not put forth a hand, you had won. The challenge to battle was made by the champion’s symbolic gesture of making bare his sword arm. His first move was to throw off every impediment, to bare his arm. That gesture meant, “I am ready for fighting.”
When God says that He made bare His arm, He is speaking about delivering His people from oppression. He is going to deliver them from the oppressor. How will He do it? First of all, He bares His arm in the sight of all the nations. They will see how God gains the victory. They will see how our Champion goes out to fight the battle for us. I wouldn’t want to be the champion, would you? Aren’t you glad that the Lord was the champion? We do not have to fight the battle; He fought it for us. What a wonderful war will take place as the Lord makes bare His arm and all the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God.
…To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him. Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. …Surely our griefs He Himself bore and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He is our champion, isn’t He? All rests on Him.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned to be with wicked men, yet with a rich man in His death (referring to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea); although He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:1–2; 4–12.
What a picture of our Lord! What a picture of the Passover Lamb by whom we enter into the victory of the Lord! What does the Passover really teach us here? The same as it taught in the Old Testament. It is the same message. They took a lamb and slaughtered it, roasted it with fire and ate it. That lamb became one to whom was transferred all the guilt, all the judgment. Consequently, when the angel of the Lord saw the blood, death passed over that house, and judgment was averted. That is exactly what this Scripture describes. The Lord laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. He made intercession for transgressors and their transgression was all transferred to Him.
The greatest illustration of transference is in the Feast of Passover. For want of a better word that is more expressive, I sometimes use that term to describe an important principle involving transfer. Satan understands this principle and applies it whenever he can, to transfer oppressions from one to another. He uses it in witchcraft and in other areas of satanic oppression. He uses it because it is a principle that God has set in the spirit world. Satan can not create new things, so he has to accept the world and the principles and laws that exist. Because of sin being in the world, he can use this principle to transfer oppressions from one to another.
God is the one who originated the law of transference. God saw man and his need and He made it possible for man’s sin to be transferred to the Lamb of God that He might die in your place. He made it possible for Him to transfer to you His own attributes and His own characteristics. You need not die as a mortal; you can live as a son of God. Jesus said, “I give unto them eternal life” (John 10:28). He gives unto us His righteousness. He imparts it like a robe, He clothes us and adorns us with His own attributes.
This is a law of the spirit world: what is in one can be transferred to another. That is why the church is warned that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, that a root of bitterness springing up will defile many (I Corinthians 5:6; Hebrews 12:15). The things in the spirit realm are easily transferred and communicated. If there is a blessing, it goes through the Body. If there is sin in one member, the defilement and the oppression goes through the Body, because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. The things of the spirit are easily transferred and communicated and their contagion spreads, whether it is good or bad. This is a divine law or principle.
When we partake of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, we are doing so because Jesus said, “Unless you eat of My flesh and drink of My blood, you have no life in you; but he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me” (John 6:53, 57b). There is a transference as we reach in and appropriate His life. We appropriate His righteousness; we appropriate His victory. We do not prevail in our own selves. We prevail because He won the battle for us and we are brought into it. He has done it. This is the whole meaning of the Passover.
The children of Israel did not walk off free without a price being paid. There was a carcass of a lamb left in Egypt. For every house that was delivered from oppression, there was a lamb, which in every instance represented Jesus Christ and His suffering and dying for us. The iniquity of us all was transferred and laid upon Him, that by His stripes, by His scourging, we would be healed. He bore all the guilt. He bore all the penalty. He who knew no sin became sin for us in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. You must understand this principle of transference. Even if you do not understand anything else of the Word of God, you must understand this one thing, that God transferred to us Christ’s righteousness and He transferred from us to His Son, our sin. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Does it really work? It will work if you believe it, if you will hold fast to that truth. Even if it does not appear for the moment, soon you will see it working. You have believed in the Lamb of God and He has removed the sin from you. In His sufferings He has accepted the penalty for your sins. God made Him to be sin and He makes you to be His righteousness. What a fantastic miracle! How can it be? It is a divine principle of transference.
God laid our guilt upon Him that we might be free, that we might be justified by faith. To be justified is even greater than to be made innocent, for a man may be innocent of a crime and yet have the tendency within his heart to commit the crime; whereas a man who is justified has not only had the crime and the sin removed, but even the tendency toward it in his heart can be removed forever. Oh, the wonderful grace of God, the marvelous blood of Jesus Christ that we partake of!
Do you know what the Passover means? “This is a new covenant in My blood.” You are made righteous, and you stand before the Lord. There would be much less self-condemnation if you would recognize that in spite of what you have been, in spite of what you are now, you are still becoming something in God because the blood has been applied to your heart. And how does God look upon you? You may look upon yourself as a wretch, but God looks upon you through the veil of the blood of His Son, to whom was transferred all of your sins.
Is it not true that we must shake ourselves from the dust? Loose yourselves from the chains about your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. The Lord is ready to redeem you. He is ready to lift you up. He has made bare His arm in a different kind of battle—not as a champion who goes out to kill giants with a slingshot. He had no appearance that we should be attracted to Him. Despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief—is that the arm of the Lord? Yes, because everything was being laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ that He might win the victory.
As you walk out of Egypt, you will say, “I do not know how I got rid of these chains about my neck. I do not know how I was loosed from this sin. What set me free? What let me go out of the prison house? What released me so that I am no longer a captive?” Then you see that the Lamb suffered in your place and this made it all possible for you. You can leave your bondage and your oppression behind. You can throw off the chains from your neck, because someone has already stepped in and said, “I will fill out the full term for him. What is his punishment? I will take it on Myself.”
The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. That is why the New Testament opens with one of the greatest announcements ever made. John the Baptist was baptizing in water. Jesus came over the brow of a hill, and John looked up, stared at Him for a minute and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29b. His announcement is old and yet it is new. It is so fresh and so wonderful. He is the Lamb that takes away our sin—all of it. All of our guilt, all of our transgressions, everything—He takes it away! This was the victory! This was making bare the arm! Satan did not know how to fight that kind of a battle. He struggled to kill the Son of God, and when He hung on the cross and His blood poured down on the dry earth below, Satan thought he had won. Jesus was cut off from the land of the living. He was numbered with the transgressors, yet He himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.
How much He loves us! When it was all over and He cried, “It is finished,” what was finished—His life? “I lay down My life and I’ll take it up again,” Jesus said (John 10:17). And He did. He was winning a war. He was setting you free. The accuser of the brethren, Satan himself, cannot come by and say, “This one deserves hell, this one is weak, this one is not worthy.” All of us were included. Jesus loved us all. God looks at Satan and says, “What do you mean that this one is not worthy? I have clothed him with My righteousness.” The Father looks upon us and sees us as pure as His Son because He has transferred to us His righteousness.
You may say, “I do not see myself that way.” No, and you may be in a process of change that sometimes leaves much to be desired. You may not have appropriated as much of this as you should have. You may have made many mistakes, but by repenting and crying unto the Lord, there is constantly coming forth the full evidence of the righteousness He has transferred to you. It is almost too much for us to comprehend.
Do you say in your heart, “I want to be righteous, I want to be righteous”? You cannot be righteous save in His righteousness. Do you want to be free? Do you want that chain off your neck? He paid the price for it. The arm of the Lord was made bare. He won the war. He won the victory and said, “Go ahead, take the spoil.” This is the true picture.
The book of Revelation tells us how it will all end. He comes on a white horse and His name is called “The Word of God.” Out of His mouth goes a sword that slays the enemy, and following Him are all the saints upon white horses. Why are they following? Are they going to fight? No, He is winning the war. They are going along for the spoil. They partake in His victory. There has to be someone to take the spoils of the enemy, someone who reaps all the victory. Can victory be given? Surely, that is easy. The United States wins all its wars and gives away all its victories. We have done that for many years; it is nothing new. God does the same thing.
Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory. I Corinthians 15:57. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. “But Lord, I have not fought a good war yet.” That is all right, take the victory anyway. The minute you see that the war is all over, then you will have faith to appropriate the victory. As long as you feel as if you have to go out here and fight the devil to win the victory, you will take a shellacking. Retreat, my brother, into God. Jesus said, “I have already faced him, I have already won the victory. The war is over, son! I won the victory. I will give it to you. Here is the victory, the righteousness, and the deliverance.”
That was all that Israel did on the day of Passover. They walked out of Egypt. They did not say, “Boy, we surely foxed old Pharaoh. We outmaneuvered him. Our statesman out-talked him. We paid enough ransom and bribes and got out. Ah, we’re on our way!” No, none of that would have availed. Why? It was a victory that God had won and they simply entered into it and possessed it. Do you need some of that victory? Are you tired of fighting a war that is already over? Believe God for it, as you partake of His body and His blood with new understanding.
