I never noticed this until yesterday. God only commanded Israel one time to put the blood of the Passover lamb on their doorposts and lintels, and this one time was when they still lived in Egypt. In the Scripture Egypt represents (is a “type” of) the world. Israel’s dwelling in Egypt, then, is a picture of all God’s people living in the world. Passover thus shows mankind the only way that he can escape ultimate death (insofar as he is aware), and the death in view is his soul’s death, not physical death because since the time of Adam all men but two or three have died physically.

Remember now that the lamb blood Israel applied to the doorposts and lintels also foreshadowed, or prophesied, the blood Jesus would shed for all men, a sacrifice which brings spiritual life to all men as Paul preaches. Here, though, every Israelite had to apply this blood to their own two door posts and lintel or else the death angel would destroy every first born in their home in the coming night, the beginning of the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Did you hear this? The death angel only killed the firstborn, not everyone in the house. The firstborn here represent the first born out of God’s ultimate creation. Consider again two key verses in the Book of John:

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came tohis own, and his own people did not receive him. ¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:10-13 ESV)

 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. ³⁶ While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” (John 12:35-36)

These two verses show that the first step of a child of God (a son of light) is to believe in Jesus (God). The Israelites showed that they believed in God by placing the blood on their door posts and lintels according to his command. The penalty for failing to do this, death of all firstborns within the individual houses, and the rest of the commands for observing Passover show that this feast, like all others and like all the teaching in Scripture relate to becoming a son of God, not simply escaping “hell.” Becoming a son of God is all about the “salvation of one’s soul,” one’s mind, will, and emotions. It is all about being conformed to God’s image. Believing in Jesus is just the first step in this process.

So we see that the remaining commands regarding Passover relate to spiritual concepts which God’s overcomers learn and apply to their lives in order to save their souls. They are the ones who work out their salvation with fear and trembling. Here is a list of the specific commands concerning Passover:

1. The lamb had to be eaten on the night of Nisan 15
2. It had to be roasted on the fire, not boiled in water or eaten raw;
3. It had to be eaten with unleavened bread, not leavened bread;
4. It had to be eaten with bitter herbs;
5. It was to be roasted whole, with its head, legs, and inner parts. In Exodus 12:46 we learn that none of the lamb’s bone could be broken;
6. No flesh of the lamb could be left until the morning of Nisan 15. Anything left over was to be burned with fire;
7. Each Israelite was to eat his lamb with his “loins girded”;
8. Each Israelite must eat with shoes on this feet;
9. Each Israelite must eat with a rod in his hand;
10. Each Israelite was to eat in haste;
11. No foreigners could eat of the Passover lamb (Ex. 12:43-45)
12. The lamb had to be eaten in one house and none of its flesh could be taken outside of that house (Ex. 12:46)
13. Every member of the nation of Israel was to eat the lamb (Ex. 12:47)
14. Besides women, only a male who had been circumcised could eat it. Strangers who sojourned with Israel who were circumcised could also eat it (Ex. 12:48)

Earlier we saw that eating unleavened bread foretells eating (bringing into ourselves) true doctrine and living that doctrine out in a life without hypocrisy. Then we learned that roasting the lamb relates to Christ’s  baptism of fire upon our lives which represents a total submission to his ways and his word. Next we see that the lamb has to be eaten with “bitter herbs.”

Today’s end-time church of Laodicea, the prosperity church, cannot relate to eating bitter herbs. To them believing in Jesus is their ticket to a better life here on earth, a life filled with healing, riches, and every good thing. They do not understand that this command looked forward to God’s words to Ezekiel and to John the Beloved:

And he said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” ² So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat.³ And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.

⁴ And he said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. ⁵ For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel— ⁶ not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. ⁷ But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. ⁸ Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. ⁹ Likeemery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.” ¹⁰ Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears. ¹¹ And go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’whether they hear or refuse to hear.” (Ezekiel 3:1-11)

To John God said:

⁸ Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” ⁹ So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take andeat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” ¹⁰ And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. ¹¹ And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.” (Revelation 10:8-11)

Any time a prophet or a teacher receives a new word from God that Word seems at first sweet to them. After all, the great God of the universe is speaking directly to them! How could that not be sweet? But, as any prophet or Godly teacher will tell you, the working out, the preaching, the application of that word is bitter, very bitter. The main reason for this, as God tells Ezekiel, is that the people you preach to do not believe you. They call you legalistic, divisive, a false prophet. I can testify to you that over a thirty six year ministry of teaching God’s word this has always been the case with me. Very few people within “the church” have ever heard anything I have had to say. I still remember one of the leaders of a “prophetic” ministry saying to me thirty years ago, “I see your ministry as at the back of the church.” In others words, “Don’t think you have anything to say to the people!” And even today I find that old church friends “de-friend” me on Facebook because they do not like the things I say.

Men love the “sweetness” of God’s word, but they hate the application of that word which makes their life bitter for a season, bitter because they must change in order to walk by that word. This is why God commanded Israel to eat their Passover lamb with bitter herbs. The overcomer’s life is one of applying the sweet words of God to his life, his soul, and that outworking is bitter indeed. It is no wonder, then, that most of “The Church” changed the feast of Passover to the pagan holiday known as Easter or Ishtar, a feast filled with bunny rabbits, colored eggs, and sweet ham, a feast where the Passover lamb and the bitter herbs are long forgotten.