this, than that all who took part in the one whole animal, i.e. all who ate of it, should look upon themselves as one whole, one community, like those who eat the New Testament Passover,the body of Christ (1 Cor. v. 7), of whom the apostle says (1 Cor. x. 17), 'There is one bread, and so we being many are one body, for we are all partakers of one body.'' The lamb was to be roasted (Exod. xii. 8). The lamb was to be eaten (Exod. xii. 8). In the twenty-second psalm, which is universally looked upon as the most remarkable of all the Messianic writings of the Old Testament, our Saviour says (ver. 14, 15), "My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd." "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto It was to be eaten with bitter herbs (Exod. xii. 8). "The sweet flesh of the roasted lamb was to be made more savoury by the bitter vegetables, for their bitterness would be lost in the sweetness of the meat and supply to the latter its appropriate condiment. And what the bitter spice was to the sweet meat, the recollection of their oppression in Egypt was to be to their deliverance from bondage. But the recollection of their oppression was not all that was contemplated. As the sweet and the bitter re you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life" (John vi. 53, 54). "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. xii. 10). "And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost (1 Thess. i. 6). دو E lieved each other, the one supplying what the other wanted, so were the sufferings in Egypt and the deliverance from bondage intimately and essentially connected together; for the latter could never have taken place without the former, and it was the consciousness of this which gave to the memorial its sacred worth. The words of the apostle are applicable here, 'No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby "" (Heb. xii. 11).* It was to be eaten with unleavened bread (Exod. xii. 39). Leaven is dough in the course of fermentation. But fermentation is cor "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. *"History of the Old Covenant," by Kurtz, vol. ii., p. 307. ruption, the destruction of the natural condition, the breaking up of the natural connection between the component elements. Hence, from a symbolical point of view, all fermentation, being an alteration of the form given to the material by the creative hand of God, is a representation of that which is ungodly in the sphere of morals, that is, of moral corruption and depravity. As the lamb, which served to impart both physical and spiritual strength, and to restore communion with God, was pure; the bread, which was eaten with it, was not allowed to contain anything impure. It was to be eaten in haste (Exod. xii. 11). For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor. v. 6-8). Believers in Jesus are spoken of as having “fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us" in the gospel (Heb. vi. 18). |