Discover the Book - Dec. 6, 2008

Jesus Christ in Exodus

THE PASSOVER SEASON WAS PROPHETIC

The Gospels record Christ fulfilled the three prophecies of the Passover season.

·        The Feast of Passover prophesied redemption. Jesus the Messiah, the Passover Lamb, was slain for us.

·        The Feast of Unleavened Bread prophesied sanctification. He was set apart. His body would not decay in the grave. Jesus was buried at the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread since His body was interred at sundown of Passover Day, the beginning of the fifteenth of Nisan, the first month.

·        The Feast of Firstfruits prophesied resurrection. Death could not hold her Foe. On the third day, Jesus rose triumphantly from the grave.

DO YOU SEE CHRIST IN EXODUS:

According to Luke 24:27, 44–45 Christ is found in “all the Scriptures.” Exodus 33:17 He is the One greater than the deliverer, Moses – He is Christ in ALL the Scriptures! In Exodus we find Christ:

1. The Voice in the Burning Bush (3.1-6)
2. The Passover Lamb of God (12.1-28)
3. The Unleavened Bread (13.3-10)
4. The Rock/Pillar of Cloud and Fire leading them (13.21-22)
5. The Red Sea Crossing (14.1-31)
6. The Manna from Heaven (16.1-36)
7. The Source of Living Water (17.1-7)

We can see Pictures of Christ in every section of Exodus.

Pictures of Christ: The Burning Bush (3:1-6)

The Burning Bush has some very interesting symbolism. Fire is always symbolic of judgment (in the Scripture); brass was always used in the Tabernacle for vessels which needed to hold fire, so brass speaks of fire and thus judgment. (Num 21:5-20 and the brazen serpent). Heb 12:29 informs us that “our God is a consuming fire”; Heb 1:13 notes that He cannot even look upon evil.

Pictures of Christ: The Passover (12:1-28)

We speak often of the seven feasts of Moses which we call the “Levitical feasts.” The Passover feast however is not a Levitical feast. Rabbinical or ‘Levitical’ feasts were slaughtered by the High Priest; the Passover was to be slaughtered for every household, by the head of the household. It is very different than the other feasts. It is also partaken and eaten personally.

The Passover feast pictures PERSONAL SALVATION in Christ!

PICTURES OF CHRIST: THE MANNA (16:1-36)

The unleavened bread in the New Testament is, of course, the body of our Lord.

?  He is described as “the Bread of Life” and furthermore He was born in Bethlehem which in Hebrew is the “House of Bread”.

?  God fed the Israelites in the wilderness with manna from heaven, and He feeds those who will believe in Christ with the Bread of Life.

?  Anyone who has seen the Jewish matzoh sees that it is striped (“By His stripes are we healed”), pierced (“They shall look upon me whom they’ve pierced”), and, of course, pure, without any leaven, as His body was without any sin.

?  The Passover ceremony of breaking and burying and then resurrecting a piece of this bread (the middle piece, as the Son in the Trinity) very obviously presents the Gospel in the midst of the modern Jewish Passover celebration. God performed this exact ceremony with the burial of Jesus, our precious piece of unleavened bread, and more importantly, He performed it on the exact day of the feast.

?  We readily see from the Gospel that Jesus was buried at the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread since His body was buried at sundown of Passover Day, the beginning of the fifteenth of Nisan, the first month. Our “kernel of wheat” was indeed placed into the ground, and at the appropriate moment it was to rise again. And of course his resurrection was in accordance with the schedule of the feasts.

“I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE” (John 6:35) When jeus called himself the bread of god from heaven he was saying that The Manna of Exodus 16 Explains Who he Is.