The Passover meal described in Exodus 12 came with a very detailed menu rich with meaning. In addition to a roasted lamb or goat (unblemished, about a year old, see Exodus 12:3-6), and unleavened bread, Israel was commanded to eat bitter herbs. Why would God desire that His people taste bitterness as part of a permanent memorial of deliverance?
In Exodus 1:13-14, we read a description of the enslavement of Jacob’s descendants by the Egyptians:
They worked the Israelites ruthlessly and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.
Bitter herbs are meant to perpetually remind Israel of the bitterness of her former bondage. Annually, as they intentionally take bitterness upon their tongues, God’s people are to remember what it was like to be trapped in bitter enslavement.
Why? Because it doesn’t take us long to get out of a bitter season and begin to look back on it with rose colored glasses (which Israel will almost immediately do!). We need constant reminders to not turn back, but to remain in gratitude for our own deliverance from the bitter enslavement of sin.
Sunday School for all ages begins weekly at 9:45 AM. All are warmly welcome.
