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In Exodus, first there are the types that show us the statuses of Christ as God’s Apostle and Prophet (Exo. 3:10; 4:12). Then, there are different types to show us that Christ is God’s full salvation and its rich supply. The first type in this category is the Passover. The Passover is a type of Christ as the believers’ redemption and supply. Those who enjoy Christ as their redemption and supply should be delivered and separated from the world. This is typified by the exodus of the children of Israel.
The Passover portrayed in Exodus 12 is a clear, suitable, and even all-inclusive type of the redemption of Christ. The word Passover means that the judgment of God passes over us. First Corinthians 5:7 says, “Our Passover, Christ,...has been sacrificed.” In the Passover, Christ is not only the lamb of the Passover but also the Passover itself. Hence, the Passover adequately typifies Christ as the believers’ redemption. Furthermore, the flesh of the Passover lamb for the supply of the children of Israel typifies Christ as the believers’ supply.
The lamb as the Passover sacrifice was without blemish, a male of the first year (Exo. 12:5a). To be without blemish is to be perfect. This signifies that Christ is perfect, without fault (John 8:46). To be of the first year is to be fresh and not used for any other purpose. In the sight of God, when the Lord Jesus was crucified, He was of the first year. He was fresh, never having been used for another purpose. The Passover lamb could be taken either from the sheep or from the goats (Exo. 12:5b). According to Matthew 25, sheep represent those who are good, and goats, those who are evil. When the Lord Jesus was crucified, He was both a sheep and a goat. On the one hand, in Himself Christ was altogether good; on the other hand, as the One who knew no sin He was made sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) to be our Substitute. The Passover lamb was examined for four days and killed by the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel on the fourteenth day of the first month (Exo. 12:2-3, 6). Likewise, Christ was examined by the Jewish priests and the Roman governor, and He was proved to be faultless, without blemish (John 18:38b; 19:4, 6). However, He was delivered for crucifixion in the midst of the unjust crying of the crowds (Matt. 27:20, 22-23). Hence, the lamb without blemish as the Passover sacrifice which shed its blood by being killed typifies that the sinless Christ died and shed His blood for us.
After the Passover lamb was killed, every household had to take of the blood and put it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses. While Jehovah God was smiting all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, when He saw the blood on the door, He passed over that house (Exo. 12:7, 13, 23). The blood of the Passover lamb typifies the redeeming blood of Christ. First Peter 1:19 shows us that we were redeemed “with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ.” The blood of the lamb was put on the door of the house in which the lamb was eaten for the deliverance of the children of Israel. This typifies that Christ’s blood was put before God for the believers’ redemption (Matt. 26:28).
The blood of the Passover lamb was to be put on the door, whereas the flesh of the lamb was to be eaten by the children of Israel (Exo. 12:8). The flesh of the lamb being eaten for their supply typifies that Christ enters into the believers to be their life supply. In John 6 the Lord said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man...you do not have life within yourselves....My flesh is true food” (vv. 53, 55). Flesh here signifies the life of Christ. The life of Christ is edible; it is our life supply. Therefore, we have the blood of Christ for redemption and the life of Christ for the life supply.
Exodus 12:8-9 goes on to show us the way to eat the flesh of the Passover lamb: it must be roasted with fire. Fire here signifies God’s holy wrath exercised in judgment. When Christ was on the cross for the believers’ redemption, the holy fire of God judged Him and consumed Him. Also, the lamb was not to be eaten raw. To eat the lamb raw is not to believe in Christ’s redemption but to merely regard Christ as a model or example of human living for one to imitate. Moreover, the lamb was not to be boiled with water. To eat of Christ as if He were boiled with water is to regard His death on the cross not as death for redemption but as martyrdom. Furthermore, the lamb was to be eaten with its head, legs, and inwards. The head signifies wisdom, the legs signify activity and move, and the inwards signify the various inward parts of Christ’s being. This indicates that we need to take Christ as a whole, in His entirety. Finally, nothing of the lamb was to be left until morning. This indicates that we are to receive Christ in a full way, not partially; we must not allow anything of Christ to be left over.
The children of Israel were to eat the flesh of the lamb with unleavened bread. This typifies that Christ is received by the believers as the life that delivers them from sin and purges away their sin. First Corinthians 5:8 says, “So then let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” The feast here refers to the Feast of Unleavened Bread as the continuation of the Passover (Exo. 12:15-20). When we enjoy Christ as our Passover, we must purge away everything sinful, and we must continually enjoy Christ Himself as the life that delivers us from sin and purges away our sin so that we may be delivered from the bondage of the law of sin (Rom. 8:2).
The children of Israel were to eat the flesh of the lamb also with bitter herbs. This typifies that the sinless life of Christ gives the believers a bitter feeling toward sin. When we receive Christ as our supply, we receive a life that delivers us from sin and purges away our sin. This life, which is sensitive to sin, to any kind of wrongdoing, to anything of the self, gives us a bitter feeling toward sin and a repentance for sin.
The Passover was on the fourteenth day of the first month and lasted only one day. Following this, there was the Feast of Unleavened Bread as the continuation of the Passover. The Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted for seven days (Exo. 12:15, 18), a period of completion, signifying the entire period of our Christian life, from the day of our conversion to the day of rapture. Those who enjoyed the Passover continued with the keeping of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This typifies that those who enjoy Christ’s redemption and supply go on to live and enjoy a life of purging away sin. In 1 Corinthians 5:8 the apostle Paul said that we must not keep the feast with old leaven, the sin of our old nature, but with unleavened bread, which is the Christ of our new nature as our nourishment and enjoyment. Only He is the life supply of sincerity and truth, absolutely pure, without mixture, and full of reality. Day by day we must enjoy such a Christ as our feast, as the rich supply of life, that we may live a life that purges away sin.
Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus 14 is a type of the New Testament believers’ baptism. In His creation God prepared the Red Sea to serve as a baptistry for His chosen people. Then during the exodus He led the people to this baptistry. This was according to the plan of God, which was to bring His chosen people into a situation that they might be completely delivered from the power of the world unto Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 Paul says, “All our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” In the cloud signifies in the Spirit, and in the sea denotes in the water. Moses was a type of Christ and a representative of Christ. Hence, the children of Israel being baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea typifies that we have been baptized into Christ in the Spirit and in the water.
When the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, the Egyptian army, horses, and chariots that pursued them also went into the sea after them. The Lord confused the army of the Egyptians and took off their chariot wheels. Then God commanded Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea so that the waters would come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. When Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them (Exo. 14:22-28). This is a clear picture which shows that Satan and the power of the world have been buried and terminated in baptism. Hence, the water of the Red Sea drowning the Egyptian army typifies that the death of Christ has destroyed the power of the world for us.
Since the water of the Red Sea drowned the army of the Egyptians and terminated them, it delivered the children of Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, thus drawing a clear line of separation between the children of Israel and the Egyptians. Likewise, since in baptism the power of the world is terminated, baptism saves the believers from the power of the world. Hence, the Red Sea delivering the children of Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians typifies that baptism saves the believers from the power of the world.
When God delivered the children of Israel from the hand of the Egyptians (Exo. 3:8), that was His deliverance of His chosen people from the usurpation and tyranny of Pharaoh and Egypt. Pharaoh was the ruler of Egypt, and Satan is the ruler of this world (John 12:31). Pharaoh is a type of Satan, and Egypt is a type of the world. God’s causing the children of Israel to be severed from Egypt is a type of God’s causing the believers to be separated from the world. Every aspect of the world today, such as the pressure on the job, the danger of losing a job, and the competition for entrance into college, is a form of usurpation and tyranny. God has separated us from the world and delivered us from Satan and his world so that we are no longer under their bondage.
In Exodus 3:18 God told Moses to say to Pharaoh, “Now let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to Jehovah our God.” The term wilderness is used here in a positive sense; it signifies the realm of separation. A three days’ journey signifies a journey in resurrection. After their crossing of the Red Sea and their exodus from Egypt, the children of Israel were separated from Egypt and they entered into the wilderness by a three days’ journey that they might sacrifice to God. This typifies that after our breaking away from the world through baptism, we enter into a new realm that we may be able to follow the Lord to worship God (John 12:26).
In Exodus 3:8 God said to Moses, “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” When God led the children of Israel out of Egypt, He severed their relationship with the world and enabled them to go on the journey to sacrifice to God. Furthermore, He enabled them to enter the good land to enjoy the riches there that He might establish His kingdom on the earth and build His dwelling place. The enjoyment of the children of Israel was of three stages. The first stage was the enjoyment of the Passover lamb in Egypt; the second, the enjoyment of the manna and the living water in the wilderness; and the third, the enjoyment of the rich produce of the good land. After their exodus from Egypt, the children of Israel were able, eventually, to enter the good land to enjoy its riches. This typifies that after our breaking away from the world, eventually we are put in Christ to enjoy all His riches.
Colossians 2:6-7 says, “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, having been rooted and being built up in Him.” Here Paul shows us that God has planted us in Christ as the good land. Furthermore, we have been rooted in Christ that we may absorb all His riches as nourishment. These riches become the element and substance by which we grow and build up the Body of Christ as God’s house and God’s kingdom (1 Tim. 3:15; Rom. 14:17).
The Passover is a type of Christ as the believers’ redemption and supply. In the aspect of redemption, the lamb without blemish was killed and its blood was shed, typifying that the sinless Christ died and shed His blood for the believers. The blood of the lamb was put on the door, typifying that the blood of Christ was put before God for the believers’ redemption. In the aspect of supply, the flesh of the lamb was eaten by the children of Israel for their supply, typifying that Christ enters into the believers to be their life supply. The flesh of the lamb was to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, typifying that the believers need to receive Christ as the life that delivers them from sin and purges away their sin and as the sinless life that gives them a bitter feeling toward sin. Those who enjoyed the Passover continued with the observance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, typifying that those who enjoy the redemption and supply of Christ go on to live and enjoy a life that purges away sin.
Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea is a type of the New Testament believers’ baptism. The children of Israel were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, typifying that the believers are baptized into Christ in the Spirit and in the water. The water of the Red Sea drowned the Egyptian army and delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians, typifying that the death of Christ has destroyed the power of the world for the believers and thus delivers them from it.
Israel’s exodus from Egypt typifies the believers’ breaking away from the world. God led the children of Israel out of Egypt that they might be severed from Egypt, go on the journey to sacrifice to God, and eventually be able to enter the good land to enjoy its riches. This typifies that God leads the believers to break away from the world that they may be severed from the world, that they may be able to follow the Lord to worship God, and that they may be put in Christ to enjoy all His riches.
