Exodus 12:8-10
When is the last time that you observed Communion? God gave the church this glorious ceremony as a way of remembering the perfect price that His Son paid for us at Calvary. Each time that you partake properly, you are showing forth the Lord’s death, while exercising your faith in His finished work. Miracles never come by our works, but they do come because of His finished work.
On the night before Israel was to come out of Egyptian bondage, God gave them instructions for what would come to be known as Passover. They were to kill a spotless lamb and mark their doors with its blood. Then they were to roast the lamb with fire and eat all of it. These two were the shadow of a future substance (Hebrews 10:1); the blood on the door being the shed blood of Jesus, applied to the heart of the believer and the roasted body being the body of Christ, judged at Calvary by the fire of heaven, broken for our wholeness.
It was crucial that the Israelites follow the instructions to the letter. Each step in this ceremony is a perfect type of the work that Jesus would accomplish at Calvary. The roasting by fire was symbolic of Jesus receiving into His own body, the judgment of heaven. He was made to be sin for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:17). They were told, “Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water” (Exodus 12:9) because we must always see Jesus as crucified and judged for us, not as a baby in a manger. Any reference to Jesus as deliverer that excludes the finished work of the cross is partaking of Jesus raw and soaked with water.
They were also told to eat “his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof” (verse 9). This meant that the Israelites were to consume everything, leaving nothing until the next day. The “purtenance” includes the kidneys, liver and intestines, meaning that God was serious about this lamb! Each part that they ate was a type of Jesus, with them taking His strength for their needs into their own bodies.
Psalms 105:37 says, “He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes”. It seems impossible that of nearly 3 million slaves, there would not be one person who was sick or feeble, but the text bears it out. How might this have been accomplished? It was the roasted lamb!
If their intestines were hurting, they ate the intestines of the lamb. If their head was wounded, they ate the head of the lamb. If their eyes were failing, they ate the unfailing eyes of the lamb. When Christ died on Calvary, His appearance was so marred that no one could look upon Him (Isaiah 52:14). The reason for this was that Jesus took upon Him all of our cancers and tumors and diseases while He hung on Calvary and died. Matthew said, “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:17).
When you partake in communion, see your sickness and your disease in the body of Christ. He said to His disciples, “Take, eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26). Don’t wait for your local church to have communion again, partake on your own. Paul said, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup…” (1 Corinthians 11:26), so there is no such thing as too much!
When is the last time that you observed Communion? God gave the church this glorious ceremony as a way of remembering the perfect price that His Son paid for us at Calvary. Each time that you partake properly, you are showing forth the Lord’s death, while exercising your faith in His finished work. Miracles never come by our works, but they do come because of His finished work.
On the night before Israel was to come out of Egyptian bondage, God gave them instructions for what would come to be known as Passover. They were to kill a spotless lamb and mark their doors with its blood. Then they were to roast the lamb with fire and eat all of it. These two were the shadow of a future substance (Hebrews 10:1); the blood on the door being the shed blood of Jesus, applied to the heart of the believer and the roasted body being the body of Christ, judged at Calvary by the fire of heaven, broken for our wholeness.
It was crucial that the Israelites follow the instructions to the letter. Each step in this ceremony is a perfect type of the work that Jesus would accomplish at Calvary. The roasting by fire was symbolic of Jesus receiving into His own body, the judgment of heaven. He was made to be sin for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:17). They were told, “Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water” (Exodus 12:9) because we must always see Jesus as crucified and judged for us, not as a baby in a manger. Any reference to Jesus as deliverer that excludes the finished work of the cross is partaking of Jesus raw and soaked with water.
They were also told to eat “his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof” (verse 9). This meant that the Israelites were to consume everything, leaving nothing until the next day. The “purtenance” includes the kidneys, liver and intestines, meaning that God was serious about this lamb! Each part that they ate was a type of Jesus, with them taking His strength for their needs into their own bodies.
Psalms 105:37 says, “He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes”. It seems impossible that of nearly 3 million slaves, there would not be one person who was sick or feeble, but the text bears it out. How might this have been accomplished? It was the roasted lamb!
If their intestines were hurting, they ate the intestines of the lamb. If their head was wounded, they ate the head of the lamb. If their eyes were failing, they ate the unfailing eyes of the lamb. When Christ died on Calvary, His appearance was so marred that no one could look upon Him (Isaiah 52:14). The reason for this was that Jesus took upon Him all of our cancers and tumors and diseases while He hung on Calvary and died. Matthew said, “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:17).
When you partake in communion, see your sickness and your disease in the body of Christ. He said to His disciples, “Take, eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26). Don’t wait for your local church to have communion again, partake on your own. Paul said, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup…” (1 Corinthians 11:26), so there is no such thing as too much!
