Exodus 12:8-9

8, 9. In that night The night following the sunset of the fourteenth of Nisan, or Abib . Roast… not… raw, (under-done,) nor sodden (boiled) The lamb was to be roasted whole, not a bone broken, the entrails being cleansed and put back, and all the viscera, as heart, liver, etc . , ( purtenance, inwards,) included . Boiling would be liable to separate the members, but the typical wholeness of the lamb was an essential thing, as setting forth the oneness of the chosen people, and this was preserved in roasting. As they gathered about the table, the lamb was to symbolize to all who ate of it the spiritual oneness into which they were then by faith to enter. Thus says the Apostle, speaking of the Christian Passover, “We being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one Bread.” 1 Corinthians 10:17. The lamb was to be fastened to the spit, as afterwards the Lamb of God was fastened to the cross. Jahn says that it was transfixed upon two spits, the one lengthwise and the other crosswise, ( Arch., § 353,) and it is significant that the Samaritans at Nablous now fasten the lamb to a spit in the form of a cross. (Stanley’s Jewish Church, lect. 5.) Justin Martyr records that this was the Jewish usage. ( Dialogue with Trypho, chap. 40.) Christ’s body was preserved unbroken, as a symbol of the same unity of the members and the Head. See note on Matthew 26:2.

Unleavened bread This specially symbolized three things: the haste in which they fled, not waiting for the bread to rise, (vers . 34 and 39;) their sufferings in Egypt, for such bread was called “bread of affliction,” (Deuteronomy 16:3;) but chiefly their purity as a consecrated nation, since fermentation is incipient putrefaction, and leaven was thus a symbol of impurity . With bitter herbs they shall eat it A symbol of their bitter bondage . On (not “with”) bitter herbs That is, these, with the unleavened bread, were to constitute the basis, the chief part, of the supper, while a morsel of the lamb gave it flavour . The meal as a whole was a memento both of the “passing over” of the destroying angel, and of the bondage, while the savory accompaniment of the lamb’s flesh commemorated their deliverance. It was also to be eaten as a feast, with cheerfulness and gratitude.