The marvelous picture of the man created in God’s image was soon marred. Man fell, and by the end of Genesis he was “in a coffin in Egypt” (50:26). Instead of enjoying the tree of life, he was dead and in the world.
How grateful we are for Exodus! Exodus means departure, and in this second book of the Bible we find the way to get out of the coffin and out of Egypt.
How was man to escape from his sorry plight? In Egypt he was under God’s condemnation and Pharaoh’s tyranny. He had disobeyed God, and he had been enslaved by the Egyptians. What would be the means of his deliverance?
To be released from God’s condemnation and to be strengthened to leave Egypt, we need the Passover. First Corinthians 5:7 says that “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” The Passover was a feast in which the children of Israel ate roast lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. All three of these picture Christ for us.
The lamb was first killed, and then its blood was put on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses in which it was to be eaten (Exo. 12:6-7). God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (v. 13). The Israelites were sheltered by entering the blood-sprinkled house. Today we too have a free entry into the shelter through the redeeming blood of Christ and are under the covering of His blood. How we praise the Lord for the blood, which releases us from God’s condemnation!
To be strengthened to leave Egypt the Israelites had to do more than sprinkle the blood over their door entrance. The house needed to be protected so that they could eat the lamb.
Notice the three parts of the lamb to be eaten. “Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof” (v. 9). Too many Christians have an oversimplified Passover, consisting only of the blood. We surely appreciate the blood, which keeps us from God’s judgment when His smiting hand strikes Egypt. But once we have the blood, we must eat the lamb under this shelter. The Israelites were to “eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it” (v. 8). Once they were full of this rich meal of lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs, they would be energized to march out of Egypt. This nourishing meal strengthens us to walk out from under the tyranny of Satan.
The first part of the lamb mentioned for eating was the head. This signifies that we need to eat Christ as our wisdom. When we eat the wise Christ, we can see the way out of Satan’s maze. The world is a maze, deceiving us with its false hopes and allurements. We are trapped in it until we receive Christ and eat Him as the wise head. Then we can see the way to slip out of its clutches and be delivered from its temptations. To walk out of the world, we need the wisdom of Christ; He has to be our wise nourishment.
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