Tuesday, April 15, 2014






The Lambs weren't invisible on Passover

As we prepare for one of the most important weeks in Christianity, we need to understand the importance of the Passover and how our lives are impacted by our relationship with a Holy God. The word Exodus is defined as a “going out” or “a mass departure.” The book of Exodus is about redemption, it reveals that our relationship with God is based on redemption which includes our worship and fellowship with a Holy God. Redemption is essential to our relationship with God. In fact, He gave Israel the Law, which convicted them of their sin, and provided guilty people a way of forgiveness, cleansing and restoration so that they were able to fellowship and worship the God of Creation.

The Passover was the beginning of months for Israel.  Though the Jewish calendar had October as the first month of the year, God knew the importance of what He was doing, so He changed the yearly calendar to begin in April (April in Latin means “to open” or blossom). The Passover was the foundation of their experience with God; the New Birth is the beginning of the New Covenant relationship (see John 3:5).

In Exodus 12:3-6 the lamb was kept for four days. God commanded Israel to take a lamb on the 10th day and set it aside until the 14th day of the first month.  The Lamb is a type of Christ--Jesus enters Jerusalem on the 10th day and was slain on the 14th day. When Adam sinned, God’s plan was to set aside His Lamb (who as Jesus Christ), He was foreordained to die. From Adam to Christ was the 14th day or 4,000 years.

When Jesus lived, lambs were a central part of the spiritual life of Israel. If you were Jewish, there was no need to explain the significance of something so commonplace. For centuries, lambs had died for the sins of the nation. Inside the walls of the Temple two lambs died every day (see Exodus 29:38-41); one at 9a.m. and the other at 3p.m. When the lamb died, a priest would sound the shofar, a ram’s horn, and even people who had not witnessed the event would know that a lamb had just died for the sins of the people. It was a sacrifice marked by blood, for the literal meaning of “sacrifice” in Hebrew is “to slit the throat.”

In addition to the twice-a-day sacrifice of lambs, there would have been countless lambs dying on the major Jewish holidays. It happened year after year, century in, century out. How many hundreds of thousands of lambs had died for the sins of the people? Did they number in the millions? As shocking as a single sacrifice might be from our perspective, could there have been an opposite impact 2,000 years ago? Could the death of a lamb become so common that it had lost its punch? Could the fast work of preparation at the Temple have made the entire process too clean, too professional, and even too far removed from the people? Could so many lambs have become – in a sense – invisible to the people who were so used to religion?         

The Lambs weren't invisible on Passover

Maybe that’s why Passover was such an important holy day for the people. This was the most personal connection between people, just like us, and the blood sacrifice God required for sin. For only a few days, every family in Israel would have a lamb, and every person in that family knew that the lamb in their home would have to die for sinful choices he or she had made.

This is why salvation is a personal matter.   Jesus died for every individual on the planet earth. He was the perfect sacrifice.

1 Peter 1:18-21 explains, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.”
Thank God for the Blood!

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