What is the significance of eating "the meat...with unleavened bread and bitter herbs"? Gathering around the Exodus Table Exodus 12:8 sets the menu: “They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.” Each item carries a rich, God-given meaning. The Roasted Meat – Substitution Remembered • This is the Passover lamb—one lamb for each household (Exodus 12:3-4). • Its blood, already applied to the doorposts (Exodus 12:7,13), marked Israel as spared. • Eating the meat sealed the family’s personal participation in the deliverance God provided. • The lamb points forward to Christ: “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). • Just as Israel consumed the lamb entirely (Exodus 12:10), believers are called to embrace Christ wholly—nothing held back (John 6:53-56). Unleavened Bread – Urgency and Purity • Israel left Egypt in haste; there was no time for dough to rise (Exodus 12:34). • Leaven often pictures sin’s spreading influence (Matthew 16:6; 1 Corinthians 5:6). • Eating bread without leaven underscored God’s call to separate from Egypt’s corruption and live in purity. • Paul presses the lesson home: “Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven… but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8). Bitter Herbs – Remembering Bondage • The harsh taste recalled the bitterness of slavery (Exodus 1:14). • God wanted every generation to feel, in taste buds and memory, what He redeemed them from (Deuteronomy 16:3). • For believers, the herbs remind us of the bitterness of sin and the price of redemption (Romans 6:17-18; Titus 3:3-7). Tasting the Whole Picture Together the three elements form one testimony: • Lamb: God’s substitute saves. • Unleavened bread: God’s salvation calls to purity and readiness. • Bitter herbs: God’s people must never forget what they’ve been delivered from. Living It Out Today • Rejoice in the once-for-all Passover Lamb—Jesus Christ (John 1:29). • Pursue a leaven-free life of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:8). • Keep the memory of sin’s bitterness alive, so grace stays amazing (Ephesians 2:1-7). |
    |