What is the meaning of the bitter herbs in the Bible (see Exodus 12:8)?

No particular herbs are specified by name, indeed the word 'herbs' is added in the A.V., so that it is literally 'bitterness.' The paschal lamb was to be eaten with 'bitter herbs,' doubtless signifying the sense in the souls of those partaking that it was for their sins the victim was slain. Ex. 12:8; Num. 9:11.

The lamb was to be kept for four days before being sacrificed (v. 6). The four days speak of testing. Thus, the life of the Lord Jesus on earth was a time of proving Him perfectly qualified to be the acceptable sacrifice. The whole assembly was to kill the lamb in the evening. This reminds us that all believers are responsible for the death of Christ, for it was our sins that caused Him His suffering and death. Blood from the lamb was to be put on the two side posts of their doors and on the cross bar above the doors, on the outside (v. 7). Inside they were told to eat of the flesh of the lamb roasted with fire, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (v. 8). “Roasted with fire” speaks of the Lord Jesus being exposed to the direct heat of the unmitigated judgment of God in bearing our sins. The lamb was killed before it was roasted, but the Lord Jesus was roasted with the dreadful judgment of God before He died. Leaven is typical of sin, therefore the unleavened bread pictures sin being fully judged and put away by the cross. “Bitter herbs” indicate the response of our hearts in recognizing that it was our own sins for which He was sacrificed. Therefore the roasting speaks of Christ judged for us; the unleavened bread, of sin judged; and the bitter herbs, of self judged. How well for us to meditate on these in contemplating the cross of Christ!

But it is God as Judge which is the prominent idea in the passover. Every blessing flows from it. Still on that night the word was "I will pass over:" not communion with God, but barring out judgment; God as Judge was going through the land, searching for sinners, not to save but to slay. Blood by His own appointment turns away His eye from the sinner, and the Judge passes on as if there were no sinners in the house. "When I see the blood, I will pass over." While the blood upon the door-post prevented the entrance of judgment, other truths were typified in the house, truth beyond the intelligence of the Israelite. But God was setting forth truth for us as well as for Israel. Eating the lamb was a symbolic owning that the blood on the door-post was a substitute for their own. In some measure this is identification with the lamb; not the truth brought out after the cross, that we have with Christ died to sin and law, which goes with assurance of life (Rom. 6 and 7); but that they as sinners were deserving of death, yet were sheltered by the blood of the typical lamb. This confession of having deserved death was not to be lightly made; there must be with it a realizing the bitterness of sin, "with bitter herbs" (that is, genuine repentance, a turning to God) to be eaten with unleavened bread. No allowance or excuse for sin can be: those who eat the roast lamb eat it with bitter herbs and under the shelter of the blood. With all this there is no assurance of life nor sense of justification. It is the moral and necessary preparation, typically, for God righteously to lead out His chosen people from the land of bondage. As there must be a divine and adequate reason why the sinner should live — the sprinkled blood, so there must be a moral preparation of the soul. The divine ground of deliverance was outside for the eye of God, the moral preparation was inside. Therefore not only the unleavened bread and bitter herbs, but they eat in haste, standing staff in hand and their feet shod. They were thus ready and fitted by grace to be led out of the land of bondage — of sin — by the mighty hand of God who had found a ransom. This moral preparation however would have been vain, had it not been for the blood sprinkled on the door-post. For if the Avenger entered, neither the bitter herbs nor the unleavened bread could save them: God is Judge first, then is Saviour.

This will be abundantly clear if the two accompaniments of eating the Passover Lamb are considered. They were to eat the flesh of the Lamb with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. Leaven, as every reader of the Scriptures knows, is a figure of evil, and hence the unleavened bread in this connection will betoken not only that their eyes had been opened to their danger, but that, by divine grace and power, there was also a real turning from darkness to light, a real judgment of evil, in turning from the power of Satan unto God; that, in a word, light had entered their souls and also divine power to bring them out of darkness into God's marvellous light. Thus there were also the bitter herbs, for the effect of divine testimony, when it reaches the conscience in the power of the Holy Ghost, is to produce bitterness, because the discovery thereby is made of the character of sin in the presence of a holy God. Ah! that is a supreme moment to the soul when it is brought consciously into the presence of God, where its real state can no longer be concealed, and where the revelation is made, if the light is allowed to penetrate into the deepest recesses of the heart, that the God against whom we had been sinning with a high hand is Love, and that He has proved it in the death of His beloved Son. It is there too that we begin to apprehend that in order to enjoy the divine love which has been set forth in the death of Christ, His death must be appropriated.

We may perceive equal significancy and moral propriety in that which was to accompany the unleavened bread, namely, the "bitter herbs." We cannot enjoy communion with the sufferings of Christ, without remembering what it was which rendered those sufferings needful, and this remembrance must necessarily produce a chastened and subdued tone of spirit, which is aptly expressed by the bitter herbs in the paschal feast. If the roasted lamb expressed Christ's endurance of the wrath of God in His own Person, on the cross, the bitter herbs express the believer's recognition of the truth that He "suffered for us." "The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." (Is 53:5) It is well, owing to the excessive levity of our hearts, to understand the deep meaning of the bitter herbs. Who can read such Psalms as the 6, 22, 38, 49, 88, and 109, and not enter, in some measure, into the meaning of the unleavened bread with bitter herbs? Practical holiness of life with deep subduedness of soul must flow from real communion with Christ's suffering, for it is quite impossible that moral evil and levity of spirit can exist in view of those sufferings.

"M.T.D." We quite agree with you in thinking that self-judgment finds its place in the antitype of the "bitter herbs" which were ever to accompany the passover. We do not consider it the only thing, but we do consider it one thing foreshadowed in these herbs, and, as you say, "a most needful thing in the present day," as it doubtless has ever been. We long to understand somewhat of those "bitter herbs." We are under the impression that they set forth those deep spiritual exercises which flow from an experimental entrance into the sufferings of Christ. Were these things better known, there would be less heartless levity, less cold formality, less sinful indifference in our celebration of the Lord's Supper. If we more fully entered into the profound mystery of the cross and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ; if we knew more of the fellowship of His sufferings; we should be a very different people indeed from what we are, and our meeting at the Lord's table would present a widely different aspect and tone.

Lastly, the lamb was eaten with bitter herbs. This expresses the believer's experience, under the teaching of the Spirit, of the bitterness of that which dwells in him, which, though it has been most fully met in the cross, must ever be recognised as that which brought the Son of God down into the horrible pit and miry clay. It is only in the cross that the real heinousness of sin can be seen; and though it is there viewed in the light of that which puts it away for ever, yet the heart is self-judged and humbled even while it rests in an accomplished redemption.

Third, the bitter herbs typify that inward work of self-judgment, which must ever accompany the benefits we receive. Sin and its judgment, from which we are delivered is a very bitter thing, and it is the plan of God that we should be made to realize it deeply. And let us once more emphasize that eating implies, an inward appropriation.

Two things were to accompany the eating of the lamb — unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Leaven is a type of evil, and hence the unleavened bread speaks, as on the one hand of the absence of evil, so on the other of purity and holiness. The apostle Paul speaks of the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. This may be entered into more fully when we speak more at large of the feast of unleavened bread associated with the passover. (vv. 14-20.) It will suffice now to have marked its character. "Bitter herbs" represent the effect of entering into the sufferings of Christ in our behalf; repentance, self-judgment in the presence of God. These two things therefore portray the state of soul in which alone we can truly feed upon the lamb roast with fire. And it is beautiful to notice, how that the One who has borne the righteous judgment of God against their sins now becomes the food of His people. Remark, too, that nothing was to be left until the morning. Should there be any remaining it was to be burnt with fire. (v. 10.) The same direction was given afterwards for most of the sacrifices that were to be eaten. (See Leviticus 7:15.) This was a provision undoubtedly against the danger of its being consumed as common food. It could only be eaten in association with the judgment through which it had passed. "The flesh" of Christ cannot be eaten except in the apprehension of His death. So here on the passover night, together with the morning, when the judgment had passed, they might forget the import of the lamb roast with fire; but the direction to burn what was left would recall its character, as well as prevent its degradation to common food. It was only around the passover table that they could properly feed upon the passover lamb.

The redeemed sinner cannot but eat his bitter herbs, as he thinks of his Redeemer's sufferings for him, for our sins slew Him, our iniquities were laid upon Him — yes, He bare our griefs and carried our sorrows, and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. Deep, deep sense of what our sins cost our Lord must ever accompany the feeding on His sufferings for us; yet not the bitter herbs, but His blood is our ransom; not our repentance, nor our sorrows, but Himself, is the price paid for our redemption.