We are in Numbers chapter nine with our word for today. מָרֹר bitter, bitter drink, bitter thing, bitter herb. It is used 5 times in the Old Testament. Our word is used in a figurative sense to be bitter or bring about bitterness. Deuteronomy 32:31-32 For their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves. For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison; their clusters מְרֹרֹ֖ת are bitter; their wine is the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of asps. Job 13:26 For you write מְרֹר֑וֹת bitter things against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth. Lamentations 3:15 He has filled me בַמְּרוֹרִ֖ים with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. Our word is also used in a literal sense of a bitter herb or edible plant that has a bitter taste. Both of these uses are in the context of the instructions from God for the Passover feast. Exodus 12:5-8 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and מְרֹרִ֖ים bitter herbs they shall eat it. Numbers 9:11-12 In the second month on the fourteenth day at twilight they shall keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread וּמְרֹרִ֖ים and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones; according to all the statute for the Passover they shall keep it. Each family had to slay a lamb, roast it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The bread contained no yeast for two reasons, one practical and the other symbolic. The practical reason was that the people had to be ready to leave Egypt at any time, so they couldn’t wait for the dough to rise. The symbolic reason involves the fact that, to a Hebrew, leaven represents evil; and they were to be a pure people. All yeast had to be removed from their houses before Passover and be kept out during the week that followed. The bitter herbs reminded the Hebrews of their cruel bondage when they were slaves in Egypt. For those who are in Christ, Passover speaks of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who died for the sins of the world. I’ll close with these great passages. John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 1 Corinthians 5:7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 1 Peter 1:18-19 you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Revelation 5:6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
