A PICTURE OF FAITH
Exodus 12: 8: And they shall eat the flesh in
that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they
shall eat it.
We may have considered the application of the
blood over the doorpost as a picture of faith.
But the blood was applied by the elder who was head of his house. (Ex 12: 21-22) Christ is the Elder who is Head of his house.
(Heb 3: 5-6) Through the Holy Spirit,
Christ sprinkles the hearts of his people with his blood, making with us God’s
everlasting covenant of grace. Moses also
pictured Christ performing this work when Moses sprinkled the children of
Israel with the blood of a lamb, enjoining the first covenant of works to them.
(Heb 9: 14, 18-23) But in this eighth verse, we have an instructive picture
of faith in Christ and repentance from dead works.
They
shall eat the flesh in that night.
In the same night the elder applied the blood to the doorpost of their
house they ate the flesh of the paschal lamb. As soon as Christ applies his
blood to our hearts, we are made willing to eat Christ’s body and drink his
blood by believing on him. (Jn 6: 53-57)
Roast with fire. They did not make the lamb to be roasted with
fire by eating it. They ate the lamb
that, in type, had already borne the fire for them. Faith does not make Christ’s work to be
effectual for me. Rather, faith believes
on Christ who has already borne the fire of God’s justice on my behalf, confessing,
“I AM crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:
20), “our old man IS crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve
sin.” (Rom 6: 5)
And unleavened bread. Leaven
typifies sin. Christ made us righteous by his work for us on the cross—“Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD
imputeth not iniquity.” Christ makes
us holy by his work in us in regeneration—“And
in whose spirit there is no guile.” (Ps 32: 2) Thereby, “Ye ARE unleavened.” Therefore, we keep
the feast “not with the old leaven”
adding our self-righteous works, “but with
the unleavened bread of TRUTH” resting in Christ our Righteousness. “Neither
with the leaven of MALICE and WICKEDNESS” adding our self-sanctifying
works, “but with the unleavened bread of
SINCERITY” worshipping with a holy heart by Christ our Sanctification. (1
Cor 5: 7-8) “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in SPIRIT and in TRUTH.” (Jn
4: 24)
And with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Accompanying God-given faith in Christ is
God-given repentance from our sin. “I
will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the
spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn
for him, as one mourneth for his
only son, and shall be in
BITTERNESS for him, as one that is in BITTERNESS for his firstborn.” (Zech 12: 10)