The Passover Lamb, by Loren Chamberlain
There was only one original Passover. There will never be another like it. The Old Testament Passover typified the need for a Savior.This original Passover immediately preceded the Exodus of Moses and the children of Israel out of Egypt, the land of sin (Hebrews 11:23-29).God commenced His work of freeing Israel by pouring out His plagues on the Egyptians, prevailing upon Pharaoh to release the Israelites so they could travel into the wilderness to worship Him. The account of this original Passover is found in Exodus 12.
On the tenth day of Abib each family was to select a lamb of the first year, without any flaws, defects, spots, or imperfections, from the sheep or the goats. They were then to keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month (Exodus 12:3-5).
In the New Testament, when John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching him, he proclaimed, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
It is easy to understand that this perfect lamb of Exodus 12 prophetically represented Christ the Savior, our “Lamb”, who was sinless and without blemish or spot (1 Peter 1:19).
Toward the end of the fourteenth day of the month of Abib, the Israelites were to take the lamb and slay it. The blood was to be drained from the lamb and then applied to the lintel and each side-post of the door of the house they were staying in (Exodus 12:7).
On that night, God brought His final devastating plague upon Egypt to compel Pharaoh to free Israel (Exodus 12:12,29). It was the blood of the lamb on their doorways that saved them from death (verse 13). In every house of the Egyptians, the firstborn of every family suffered death, even in Pharaoh’s household and even the firstborn who was in the dungeon and the first born of all cattle (Exodus 12:29,30). It was the blood of the lamb that protected the Israelites from the passing over of the angel of death.
If human beings are to be saved they must have the death penalty removed from them. This death penalty is the result of sin. For our sins to be pardoned and washed away it was necessary for Jesus Christ to be more than just a flesh-and-blood human being!
Jesus Christ had to be God in the flesh. He actually had to die by shedding His Blood, or He is not our “Passover Savior.” Jesus could not have the sinful nature of others. It was absolutely necessary that Christ be divine, God in the flesh! His life must be worth more than the sum of all human life.
Notice how God’s Word tells us clearly that our Creator, the One who made all things, and was the Word and Spokesman, became a flesh-and-blood human being by being miraculously conceived of the Holy Spirit and then born of a human woman (John 1:14; Matthew 1:20-23; Luke 1:35; Titus 2:13,14). It is abundantly clear from these scriptures Jesus Christ is our God and Savior.
There is no doubt the great God Almighty of the Old Testament became flesh and blood so He could die and pay the death penalty we have incurred through sin, the breaking of God’s holy and righteous law (1 John 3:4).
Paul writes, “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
If the original Old Testament lamb, given to the Israelites, had not been sacrificed, the Israelites’ firstborn would have been killed in Egypt and they could not have been delivered out of this land that was typical of sin. In like manner, if Jesus was not sacrificed, slain, and had His own blood shed, we who are the firstfruits today, would not have a Savior!
Israel killed the Passover lamb by shedding its blood (Exodus 12:6,7). In the book of Hebrews we find it was expedient that Jesus Christ die and shed His blood. “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22).
Hundreds of years ago the prophet Isaiah said, “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation?”
Jesus Christ didn’t die of a broken heart, or any other such nonsense. Jesus poured out His blood unto death, willingly, for all mankind. Jesus became our Passover Lamb by shedding His life-blood for the sins of mankind.
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