1175. The Roasted Lamb

The Roasted Lamb

"And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread: and with bitter herbs they shall eat it" (Exo_12:8).

1. Christ the Bread of Life. After the lamb had been slain and the blood sprinkled, the slain lamb was to be taken into the house. There it was to be stretched upon the pole and roasted with fire. The picture is clear, and its meaning is plain. Jesus Christ not only shed His Blood for us but His body was broken for us.

The roasting with fire signified the wrath of God, which Christ endured when He suffered in behalf of sinners.

Jesus Christ taught the disciples that He was the Bread that came down from Heaven. He said, "If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever: and the Bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." He said again, "As the Living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me." "This is that Bread which came down from Heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead; he that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever."

2. The flesh was eaten–for strength. Eating the roasted lamb, was not a matter of safety but of invigoration. At the Lord's Supper both the bread and the wine have to do with Christ's death. The wine typifies the shed Blood, the bread typifies the broken body; the wine emphasizes Christ in His atonement, the Saviour of life, the bread more particularly emphasizes Christ the bruised and broken One, the sustenance of life.

The children of Israel were safe because they were behind the blood; but they were prepared for their journey, through the eating of the roasted lamb.

Christ said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

3. The flesh was eaten–ready for the march. "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."

What a striking picture! The children of Israel, made safe by the blood, were to be ready to pass out of Egypt by the morning light.

When a soul is saved, he should be ready to pass, in a moment's notice, out of Egypt. God does not want us to get under the Blood and then to remain in the world. We who are under the Blood should eat of the Living Bread with loins girded, with shoes laced, with staff in hand. We are to become strangers and pilgrims in this world, journeying toward a city whose Builder and Maker is God.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR