Exodus 12:7-11

"And they shall take of the blood, and put it on the two side-posts and upon the lintel, upon the houses wherein they shall eat. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roast with fire; its head with its legs and with the inwards thereof And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is Jehovah's passover."

"They shall take of the blood ..." Note that in this sprinkling of the blood there was no altar, no priest, nor anything else that suggested the ceremonialism and priestcraft of post-exilic times. Esses, a former Jewish Rabbi, now a believer in Christ, noted that:

"As they were obedient to put the blood on the side-posts and the lintel above the door, they were making the sign of the cross. And when the Lord saw the sign of the cross in blood, he would pass over them and spare the first-born of their houses."[13]

It is a gross error, of course, to find any such thing in this blood sprinkling that suggests or approves of that which is commonly understood as "making the sign of the cross." Nevertheless, the Lord Jesus Christ is in every line of this marvelous Passover narrative. Just as the blood of that Passover was sprinkled upon the side-posts and lintels of the doors, all who draw near to God in Christ today must do so with their "hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience" (Hebrews 10:22), the blood of Christ our Passover being the cleansing agent in view there.

"Roast with fire ..." The instruction to "roast" (not boil) the lamb has provoked many speculations. Why roast? That it expedited the cooking of it in one piece, that it could be more easily done in this manner, that it was a simpler and quicker process, and that a special sanctity was supposed to attach to that which "passed through the fire," are just a few of the reasons men have supposed lay behind this instruction. We cannot find much fault with the opinion of Justin Martyr, who like the former Rabbi (mentioned above), found the cross of Christ in it. He said that for roasting the lamb, two wooden stakes were used, one passing from end to end length-wise through the animal, and the other an upright thrust through the center and attached to the cross-member, thus forming a cross.[14] Whether or not this was actually the custom, we have no way of knowing, but one thing is certain: Christ was indeed in the ceremony of the passover. Especially note that this roasting of the Passover was not at all like the priestly method inaugurated in Deuteronomy 16:7, where one finds a demand to BOIL the meat!

"Unleavened bread ..." This was not originated in some prior pagan custom and adopted into God's system here, but it was part and parcel of that original Passover. To begin with, the very HASTE of the people, as they were "thrust out" by the Egyptians allowed no time to prepare and use leaven. That, not some pagan notion, is the historical fact behind the unleavened bread.

"Eat not of it raw ..." Such was forbidden, perhaps because of its pagan association. The worship of Dionysus and Bacchus was celebrated by eating raw meat.[15]

"With bitter herbs ..." Nettles, chicory, wild lettuce and endives are among the "bitter herbs" supposed to have been used, and used by the Jews for this ceremony until today. The meaning of this also is reflected in the reality of the Lord's Table, where the prospect is retrospective to the sufferings and death of Our Lord, and prospective to the coming of his glorious Second Advent. Just so, in that Passover, the bitter herbs were retrospective to the bitter slavery and hardships of Israel in Egypt, and prospective to their trials and hardships as they struggled to reach the Promised Land.

"Ye shall eat it in haste ..." Fully clothed, hats, shoes, the outer cloak girded in place, and even a walking staff! "Ready to go." That was what this meant. As a boy, this writer attended a church where they took the Lord's Supper standing up (no hats, however), a tradition that was sustained for centuries in the Christian religion. In fact, the cathedrals of Europe, even today, have no pews. The people stood up to worship God, or knelt. Martin Luther is credited with saying, "Let the Pope stand up to take the Holy Communion, like any other stinking sinner!"[16] Jamieson declared that until this day, "The Modern Samaritans go up to Mount Gerizim and keep the Passover still, with these ceremonies."[17]

"Neither shall ye break a bone thereof ..." (Exodus 12:46) We comment on this here, because it is implied here in the fact that head, legs, and all of the animal, even the entrails, were to be roasted in one piece. If that does not mean "don't break a bone of it," it doesn't mean anything! The critics who want to find a separate source and a variable account in the passage later on in the chapter where this was specified have simply failed to read the passage here. Oh yes, Christ again shines like the Daystar in this type of our true Passover. Not a bone of Christ was broken, despite the fact of a unit of the Roman army having been dispatched with orders to break his legs. And, just as they ate that first Passover "in haste," Israel was in a hurry for the true Passover to die, and the purpose of Pilate's order to "break his legs" was that of HASTENING his death (which had already occurred). See John 19:31-33.

"It is Jehovah's passover ..." It is an error, therefore, to view this as the Passover of a group of priests of later ages, who were trying to rewrite history as a support of changes they desired to make. God was the author, not only of the first Passover recounted here, but of the far greater and more wonderful Passover, Jesus Christ our Lord.