How To Eat The Lamb

It’s April and it’s also Nisan, the first month of the Biblical calendar, the month of Israel’s exodus from Egypt. As I think of Christians celebrating Easter, and of Israel celebrating Passover, I am reminded of the Parable of Long Spoons:  a man asked God to show him Heaven and Hell, and God showed him two rooms. In the first one, a large table was set. It was full of delicious dishes, but the people sitting around it looked miserable. Their spoons had very long handles, longer than their arms, and they were unable to eat with these spoons because they couldn’t get the spoons into their mouths. They were sitting at the full table, but starving – and that was Hell. The second room looked exactly the same. There was also a large table set with delicious dishes, and the people around had the same long spoons. Only these people were well nourished and very happy, because with the same long spoons, they fed one another – and that was Heaven.

This well-known parable teaches us that caring for others is the best way to care for ourselves. People might perish or thrive, depending on how they treat one another, and while that is undoubtedly true for each one of us, it is also very true about Jews and Christians—Judaism and Christianity. This never becomes clearer than in this Passover/Easter season: Judaism doesn’t see Jesus in the Passover, Christianity doesn’t see Passover in Jesus. Yet, the slain Passover lamb of Exodus foreshadowed the Lamb of God, slain during the time of Passover two thousand years ago.

Now, if the slain lamb of Exodus foreshadowed the Lamb of God, then the people of Israel foreshadowed those who are saved by His blood, Jews and Gentiles alike. But do those who are saved by the blood of the Lamb fulfil all God’s commandments regarding the lamb?  Do they do everything that the children of Israel were commanded to do?

In Exodus 12, God is giving very specific instructions for the first Passover:

‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household…. ⁵ Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶ Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. ⁷ And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. ⁸ Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs  they shall eat it. … ¹² ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike 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. ¹³ Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”[1]

UNLEAVENED BREAD

It seems that the description of how the lamb was to be eaten is very important here: “with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it…”. The powerful New Testament symbolism of the Unleavened Bread originates here: “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”[2]  This symbolism was meant by God from the very beginning, and that is why later in Exodus the Lord says: “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread.”[3] Leaven is the symbol of sin; therefore, the blood of the sacrifice and the leavened bread are not to be mixed.

It becomes even clearer if we see that, in Leviticus 23, where all the festivals are described and commanded, there are two distinct festivals: “On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.”[4] We see that the Torah refers to Passover on the 14^th of Nisan, and to the Festival of Unleavened Bread on the 15^th of Nisan. The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the evening when the 14^th of Nisan becomes the 15^th of Nisan (Jewish days begin at nightfall, as you may know). The Passover offering was slaughtered on the 14^th and eaten that night, the 15^th, together with matzah at the onset of the Festival of Matzahs. Thus, even though since the destruction of the second Temple, when the offering of the paschal lamb was no more possible, “the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread became confounded in the minds of the Jews, and the terms are used by the Rabbis interchangeably, but originally and in the Divine plan they were distinct, though in the most intimate possible relation with one another.”[5]

The New Testament confirms that in Jesus’ time, these two Feasts were distinct as well. In Mark 14:1, we read: “After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread”. And it is this Passover background we have to keep in mind when we read the famous words of Paul in 1 Corinthians: “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us”.[6] The logic of this verse is perfectly understandable against the background of Passover:  since the Passover lamb is sacrificed, the bread is unleavened. A modern Christian reader, if he knows nothing about the Jewish Passover, would likely read this verse in a symbolic sense only. However, originally the apostle probably refers to a very practical and traditional custom of bedikat chametz – the ceremony of the “searching for leaven”, which existed at the time of Jesus and still exists in Jewish homes today, both in Israel and in the dispersion: on the evening before 14^th of Nisan, all the likely and unlikely places all over the house are inspected lest they have any occasional crumbs. The Jewish home must be completely clean of any leaven – and this is the traditional picture on which Paul bases his symbolism. And even though most Christians are not aware of this Jewish tradition, the symbolism of the unleavened bread is still very clear to them because it was developed by Paul. But what about the bitter herbs?

BITTER HERBS

The expression “bitter herbs” here renders the word “bitter”, or “bitterness” (“maror”). In this particular form, this word occurs only once more in the Tanach, in a completely different context[7]: However, we do have several occasions in Scripture where the root, mar–bitter,  occurs. One of them is in the book of Ruth: after her return to Bethlehem, Naomi adopted the name Mara (bitter), as an expression of her bitter and grievous life. You probably know that the book of Ruth is the story of a righteous Gentile girl choosing Israel and her God; you probably also remember the famous words of Ruth: “your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.”[8]  Ruth says these words in the very first chapter of the book, when she decides to keep going with Naomi; when she chooses Naomi’s people and Naomi’s God, even though at that point this choice seemed absolutely hopeless and mar, bitter – while Naomi’s second daughter-in-law, Orpah, turns back. What was the difference between these two women – between the one who went and the one who did not? In English, Ruth 1:18 reads: “When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.” This “steadfastly minded” (sometimes translated as ‘determined’) translates a Hebrew word‎ מִתְאַמֶּ֥צֶת – ‘making an effort’. In the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as in some English versions, this is the same word that we hear from Jesus in Luke 13:24: “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door.” To join God’s people, to walk God’s path, requires effort, and Ruth made this effort, while Orpah, with all the good intentions she had, didn’t make the effort. That’s why we have the book of Ruth, and not the book of Orpah, in our Bibles.

And now we can go back to that ‘bitterness’ that we are supposed to eat the lamb with. I’ve written several times already that there is no better commentary on the Scripture than the Scripture itself. That’s why, noting this allusion to the book of Ruth, I believe that, spiritually, maror must refer to Israel. Every Jewish child knows how bitter and unpleasant the taste of maror can be, especially when one is hungry and enduring the long Seder ceremony, and can’t wait to eat some real food. It is undoubtedly an effort to eat maror, when you want to eat the lamb. In the same way, bitter and unpleasant can be the taste of choosing Israel in this world; it is a real effort to remember Israel, when all you want to do is to partake of the “Lamb” – but I do believe that it’s what God commanded us in Exodus 12:8.  And even though initially, all these details were given to Israel only, I believe that now He wants those things to be revealed and illuminated to the hearts of all His children. The Lamb of God has to be partaken of “with unleavened bread and with maror,” in the same manner that three thousand years ago, the Passover lamb had to be eaten by the children of Israel.

CHAG SAMEACH, DEAR FRIENDS! MAY THIS SEASON INDEED BE A TIME OF FREEDOM AND VICTORY FOR EACH ONE!

[1] Ex. 12:3-13

[2] 1 Cor.5:8

[3] Ex.23:18

[4] Lev.23:5,6

[5] David Baron, Types, Psalms and Prophecies, Jerusalem,  Keren Ahvah Meshihit, 2000, p. 22

[6] 1 Cor.5:6,7

[7] Lam. 3:15

[8] Ruth 1:16

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