Seeing Double

Exodus 12:1-15

The OT is rich in symbolism and types.  Throughout it you find golden gems...stories which could stand alone and be powerful enough, and yet they have further meaning which apply later in the NT.  If symbolism is riches, then Ex. 12 is ‘Wall Street.’  If symbolism is gold, then Ex. 12 is ‘Fort Knox!’

1 Corinthians 5:7-8
⁷ Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: ⁸ Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Let’s look at Ex. 12 verse by verse...

2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:

* BEGINNING = Of everything, new life in Christ.

* LAMB = JESUS, the Lamb of God. (Jn 1:29)

4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

* TOO LITTLE = He is sufficient.

* WITHOUT BLEMISH = Jesus had no sin. (II Cor. 5:21)

* MALE OF THE FIRST YEAR = Young male.

* AMONG THE SHEEP = Jesus took upon Himself the form of flesh.

6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

* KEEP IT UP = Jesus was imprisoned and examined by Caiaphas, Pilate, and others.

* WHOLE ASSEMBLY = All people involved and responsible.

* KILL IT = Crucifixion.  No priest – Man himself slew the Lamb. We are responsible for the death of Christ.

7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

* BLOOD = Must be applied by the act of faith.

        = Without the shedding of blood, no remission of sin.

8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

* ROAST WITH FIRE = Fiery judgment of God, Christ on the cross.

* EAT = Partake of Christ personally.

John 6:53
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

* IN THAT NIGHT =

2 Corinthians 6:2
(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

* UNLEAVENED BREAD = Leaven pictures sin.

2 Corinthians 5:21
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

* BITTER HERBS = Repentance.

Luke 15:10
Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.

* RAW = Not the life of Christ without the Cross.

* WATER = Not baptism.

10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.

NOW = Not tomorrow...Today

ALL = No partial conversion. (Just as much saved as the 1st day)

11 And 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: it is the LORD's passover.

LOINS GIRDED ETC. = Ready, Prepared, Now, Just as you are. =

No procrastination. – Pictures habits under control.

1 Peter 1:13
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

The Feet Shod (v.11) – Pictures Pilgrims on a journey

1 Peter 2:11
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

The Eating in Haste – Now is the time.

READY for the journey – A Pilgrim – Not at home in this world.

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

JUDGMENT HANGS = To all not under the blood.

13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

BLOOD = Essential.  ARE you washed in the blood?

14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

MEN have a tendency to drift and wander from the truth.

MEMORIAL = Lord's Supper.

15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

UNLEAVENED BREAD = Leaven pictures sin... Our lives are to be clean and holy.

Ill.--An EMT was working in the Emergency Room when a father brought in his son. The boy had poked a tire from one of his toy trucks up his nose. The father was embarrassed, but the EMT assured him this was something kids often do.
The technician quickly removed the tire… and the father and son were on their way. But a few minutes later, the father was back in the ER asking to talk to the EMT in private.
The father into an examining room where he began: "While we were on our way home I was looking at that little tire and wondering, how on earth did my son get this thing up his nose…" and then he went on to explain what the problem was
Fortunately, it only took the EMT just a few seconds to get the tire out of Dad’s nose.
     There are certain things that don’t belong up a person’s nose.  They might fit. They might NOT even cause much pain.  But they just don’t belong.
There are certain things that don’t belong in our bodies
There are certain things that don’t belong in our minds
And there are certain things that don’t belong in our homes

The Feast of Unleavened Bread followed Passover, 1 week long, and was designed to teach separation from sin.

The Passover symbolized the freedom God wanted to give His people… but that feast was followed by 6 more days that focused on the fact that God’s kind of freedom required His people to REMOVE things from their lives and their homes.

During The Feast of Unleavened Bread - God’s people were instructed NOT ONLY to not eat leavened bread during that week. But they were not to allow ANYTHING that had ANY yeast in it in their homes. Anyone who ate anything that contained yeast during that week was to be cut off from their people. (shunned/ ostracized).

Yeast was used by God to symbolize the power of sin

And when the Church at Corinth had a man in their congregation who was engaged in sexual immorality, Paul wrote that they should not associate with the man until he repented…they were not even to eat with the man. He said, if they insisted on “looking the other way”, that man’s sin would taint the rest of them.

Why would God use yeast to symbolize sin?

(picture of a loaf of bread and a matzah bread)
1st – bread with yeast in it tastes good
Likewise, sin tastes good… if it didn’t taste good, nobody would be tempted to do it.

2nd – it doesn’t take much yeast to change the shape of the flour. It warps the shape of the dough
Similarly, when sin enters into an area of your life… it doesn’t take much to change who you are. It doesn’t take much to warp your character.

3rd – the yeast make the bread look like it contains more flour than it actually does. The larger loaf may not contain that much more flour than the “cracker” but because of the yeast that is in it – it looks like it has more.

Likewise - Sin can make us believe we have more in our lives than we do.
· Sins like bitterness and hatred can make feel that we have more power over others
· Sins like hypocrisy and bigotry can make us feel more important than we actually are
· Sinning by viewing crude movies or sexually explicit materials can make us believe we are more mature and grown up.
· And the sins of getting drunk or getting high can fool us into thinking we’ve gained more control over our lives

Sin can make us believe that we’ve gained MORE of something in our lives… but in reality all we’ve gained is more decay and rot, because…

Lastly, yeast causes bread to mold and decay from the inside out.
ILLUS: If you leave a loaf of bread out for too long, what happens to it? It gets moldy. Crackers will last practically forever, but leavened bread will eventually decay and rot because of the yeast within it.

In the same way, sin has the power to cause our lives and our homes to decay and to rot. That’s why God hates sin… because it destroys us.

It was April when this happened each year...reminds me of spring cleaning.  We shouldn’t allow things into our homes and our lives that we know will be harmful or fatal!

ILLUS: There is a story of a girl who approached mother while she is preparing salad. Casually she asked for permission to go to amusement center that had a particularly bad reputation.
When her mom said no, the daughter exclaimed: "All the girls are going to be there... etc."
The mom was silent for a couple of moments and then began to reach into the sink and pulled out some of the wilted lettuce and scrapings from the vegetables and sprinkled them on the salad.
Astonished, the daughter asked her mother what she thinks she is doing.
The mother replied, "I just thought that if you didn’t mind putting garbage into your heart and mind, you wouldn’t mind a little garbage in your salad."
 

Finally, all the OT feasts are a fascinating study we’ll delve more into another time, but in short:

1^st Feast--Feast of Passover—predicting the death of Jesus on the cross

2^nd feast pointed to burial of Christ…Feast of Unleavened Bread

Jesus body is buried (put into the ground)

Unleavened bread (he was without sin)

And John 12:24 takes on a deeper meaning:

12:24

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

3^rd feast of Firstfruits:  Predicting the resurrection of Christ!

Every year they would take the firstfruits of their crop and offer it to the Lord, thanking the Lord for the harvest.

The 4^th feast was called the Feast of Pentecost

Pentecost means 50^th…it always came exactly 50 days after the feast of firstfruits. [what did the day of Pentecost predict for 1,500 years?  The coming of the Holy Spirit!/birth of the NT church!]

#5?  The feast of trumpets!

        It always begins w/ the blast of a horn!  And what’s the next event in Bible prophecy?  The rapture! 

Like I said, there’s a lot of double meanings here, and I trust they all will multiply blessings in your heart.