Exodus Chapter 12 Verses 5-10

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

“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:” From this, we make comparisons between the description of the lamb and of our Lord Jesus Christ:

    1.  The lamb was to be without blemish.  The Lord had to be without sin to be a suitable sacrifice in judgment for the sins of the elect family of God.

    2.  The lamb was a male of the first year.  The Lord was the first-born among many creatures.

    3.  The lamb was to be taken out from the sheep or from the goats.  Sheep in the scriptures represent God’s covenant people.  Goats on the other hand represent God’s eternal punishment of sins.  As the lamb of God, Christ represented God’s covenant people on the cross.  As the scape goat, Christ suffered the eternal punishment of sins for his elect people and separated them from their sins as far as the east is from the west. 

“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.”  The lamb was to be kept up from the 10th day through the 14th day, which is a total of 5 days.  Five is the bible number associated with death.  The lamb was marked for death.  By being kept up the lamb was restricted in his movements.  Similarly, by covenant arrangement, Christ the Lamb of God was marked for death and laid aside his glory while he fulfilled the will of God by being the perfect representative of his people.   

The whole congregation was to kill the lamb in the evening.  Recently a movie came out about the crucifixion of Christ and people debated afterward as to whether the Jews or the Romans were responsible for Christ’s death.  The answer is neither, but all of God’s elect family were responsible for the death of Christ as he came to save us from our sins.  It is because of all the sins of God’s elect people that Christ died on the cross.  Thus, we were guilty of killing the Lamb of God.   

“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 on the two side posts and on the upper door post would be in the same position as you would see the blood of Christ as he hang on the cross.  The sprinkling of the blood in those positions was pointing us to the bleeding Lamb of God upon the cross of Calvary.  The blood was for the household.  Each household of the children of Israel were represented in judgment by the lamb sacrificed by that house.  God’s house is one house and Christ as the Lamb of God represented the entire house of God.   

“And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.”  In the covenant of redemption and in the new birth we are made partakers of the body of Christ.  In believing and obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ we become experiental partakers of the body of Christ.  However, not all of God’s elect family hear or believe or obey the gospel of Jesus Christ.  But all of God’s children do undergo the new birth and thus are partakers of the body of Christ in that manner and in the covenant of redemption.  In the communion service, the Lord told us that unleavened bread represents his perfect sinless body.  Roasting with fire would represent his sufferings on the cross and eating it with bitter herbs would remind us that we are responsible for his sufferings.   

“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.”  Christ work was a perfect work and a complete work.  To eat of it raw would suggest that the work was not completed.  To eat of it sodden with water would suggest we have to add to it to make it complete.  Christ said on the cross that: “It is finished.”  Christ came and completed and perfected the work he came to do. 

“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.”  It took all the sufferings of Christ to redeem all the family of God.  Moreover, there was neither lack nor left over.  Christ died for all the elect family of God.  He did not die for any others, but the elect family of God.