On the evening of the feast of the passover, they were charged to eat the lamb in haste with their loins girded, with sandals on their feet, and with a staff in their hand (v. 11). Their eating of the lamb in such a way was their preparation to move out of Egypt. They had the blood on their houses to cover them and to protect them from the death-judgment. Now they needed to eat the lamb for the strength to move out of Egypt. Their energy for moving out of Egypt came from the meat of the lamb, typifying Christ Himself. We have to eat Jesus for our strength to move out of Egypt and become His army (v. 51) to fight against the enemy.
We have a long way to walk in following God to fight against the enemy and to live a sinless life. Therefore, just to eat the meat of the Lamb is not sufficient. The children of Israel also had to eat the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs. When we eat Jesus, we eat Him not only as the Lamb but also as the unleavened bread with the bitter herbs. To eat the unleavened bread means to eliminate all sinful things. To eat bitter herbs means that we need to regret and repent, to experience a bitter taste regarding sinful things.
When we received the Lord as our Savior and our life, we decided to follow God, to endeavor to defeat Satan with the world, and to endeavor to stay away from sin, to live a sinless life. Whenever we sinned, we were full of regret. We felt bitter, not sweet. When we were saved, we not only struck the blood of the Lamb for our redemption but also ate Christ in His entirety as the Lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs for our salvation. This part of the history of God in the race of Israel reveals the redeeming God. He would never neglect the matter of sin. He would prepare a part of His salvation to us as redemption. Then He would afford us with all the strength to follow Him, to defeat Satan with his world, to live a life without sin, and to regret whenever we sin. We need Christ as our strength in these four aspects.
He is also a God who is the Angel of Jehovah, taking care of His saved people in His glory, and the almighty God who can miraculously deliver His people from Egypt and bring them into the wilderness. God gave His orders to the frogs, the lice, the flies, and the locusts to plague Egypt. He sent the frogs as the submarines, the lice as an army, and the flies and the locusts as the planes to defeat Pharaoh and the Egyptians. He also divided the Red Sea by His mighty power for Israel to pass through, and then He closed the sea upon Pharaoh and his army to destroy them. He did many wonderful things by His mighty power. We need to see the history of God as the saving One in the beginning of the book of Exodus.
In this chapter we want to go on to see how God bore the children of Israel through the wilderness and brought them to Himself at Mount Sinai.