In
Exodus 12:8 the children of Israel were given the proper way to eat the flesh
of the passover lamb: roasted with fire. Fire here signifies God’s holy wrath
exercised in judgment. When Christ was on the cross, the holy fire of God
judged Him and consumed Him. Psalm 22:14
and 15 say , “My heart is like wax; / It is melted within me. / My strength is
dried up like a shard, / And my tongue is stuck to my jaws.” Then He cried, “I
thirst” (John 19:28), because He was being burned by the holy fire of God’s
judgment.
In
Exodus 12:9 the children of Israel were charged not to eat of the lamb raw.
Today those who do not believe in Christ’s redemption attempt to eat Him “raw.”
This means that they regard Christ as a model or example
of human living for them to imitate. In effect,
to do this is to eat the Passover lamb raw.
Furthermore,
the children of Israel were not to eat the lamb boiled with water (12:9). To
eat of Christ as if He were “boiled with water” is to regard His death on the
cross not as death for redemption but as martyrdom. Many today do not believe that
Christ died as the Redeemer. According
to their concept, He was persecuted by man and died as a martyr, having
sacrificed Himself for His teachings. To apply Christ’s
death in this way is to eat the lamb boiled with water. To be boiled in water
is to undergo suffering but not the suffering of holy fire. Rather, this
suffering is simply the suffering of persecution.
The children of Israel were to eat the lamb with its
head, legs, and inward parts (12:9). The head signifies wisdom, the legs signify
activity and move, and the inward parts signify the various inward parts of
Christ’s being. To eat the Passover
lamb with the head, legs, and inward parts is to take Christ as a whole, in His
entirety. As we eat Him, we take His wisdom, activities, move, and inward
parts. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 257-259)
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