Through the messages given in this series, we can see that the entire Bible is the history of God. Genesis shows us God’s history in His working through eight positive persons—Adam, Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with Joseph. The history of the Triune God in Genesis was initiated in Adam and issued in three persons—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. From Exodus to Malachi is the history of God in one race, a particular race, a chosen race, the race of Israel.
In the previous chapter we saw how God came down to deliver Israel out of Egypt and bring them into the wilderness by four means. These four means of deliverance help us to see what kind of God we have. He delivered Israel out of Egypt through Moses with ten plagues of miracles (Exo. 3:8, 14-20), through the passover (12:1-20), through the Angel of Jehovah, Christ, with the pillar of cloud and of fire, the glory of God (14:19-20), and through His mighty power to divide the Red Sea and destroy the Egyptian army (14:6-8, 21-31). Through a man by the name of Moses and a feast which was called the passover, God rescued His chosen people. Then Christ as the all-inclusive One with the divine glory became another means by which God rescued Israel. Last, the divine mighty power of God was exercised to bring Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness.
The feast of the passover as a type is great in its spiritual significance. It typifies God’s salvation, including His redemption, in a detailed way. Redemption is a basic part of God’s salvation, and the feast of passover is a full type of the salvation of God. We need to see God’s history in the type of the passover. God redeemed the nation of Israel from the death-judgment by the blood of the lamb (12:7, 13). The blood of the lamb is for redemption, and redemption is for salvation. Redemption is the first step of God’s salvation. God’s full salvation continues with the washing away of sins, reconciliation, justification, regeneration, renewing, sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification.
In the feast of the passover, the Israelites struck the blood of the lamb, and they also ate the meat of the lamb with the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs (vv. 8-11). John 6:4 says, “Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near.” Verse 4 indicates that John 6 is a chapter on the reality of the passover. The passover recorded in Exodus 12 was in typology, not in reality. The reality of the passover is recorded in John 6.
In John 6 the Lord said that His flesh is eatable and that His blood is drinkable (v. 54). Then verse 57 says that not only His flesh but also His entire being is eatable. In this verse the Lord Jesus said, “As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” Here it says, “He who eats Me,” indicating that not only His flesh but also His entire being is eatable. Jesus said that His flesh was eatable, that His blood was drinkable, and that He in totality was eatable.
According to Exodus 12, the Israelites ate the meat of the lamb (v. 8) but they also ate the lamb with its head, legs, and inwards (v. 9). To eat the passover lamb with the head, legs, and inwards is to take Christ as a whole, in His entirety. In order to enjoy God’s salvation in, through, and with Christ, we must learn how to strike His blood for our redemption, and we must learn how to eat Him for our salvation.