MEANING OF THE PASSOVER LAMB EXPLAINED

Happy Passover and welcome to Holy Week! If you've seen signs that read Worthy is the Lamb but didn't understand the meaning, I hope to share some touching insights with you. 

It starts back to the first sacrifice written about in Genesis 3:21, where Adam and Eve are clothed by God after sin entered the world through disobedience. If you've ever worn leather, you know it is very warm, which tells us the temperatures may have fallen too, and the fig leaves (man's idea) wasn't going to be enough. Also, the fact that a beautiful animal, one that Adam named, had to die would show us all that there is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood, and that sin has a high cost. If you read Genesis 4:4, you'll see that Abel understood this and did what was favorable in the Lord's sight. To understand more, I highly recommend this article from abideinchrist.com. 

In Genesis, chapter 22, God tested Abraham and told him to take his son and offer him as a burnt sacrifice on a specific mountain. Now for years I didn't understand why God would ask this of Abraham because later He says in Jeremiah 19:5 (NKJV)- (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind). So why would God ask this of Abraham? Well hold on, the answer is coming!

As Abraham and his son were climbing the mountain, his son asked, "where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

From Genesis 22 (NIV) - 
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Originally, the Jewish people sounded the ram's horn as a reminder of God's faithfulness and provision, but over time, as the Jews were dispersed to different regions, some horns like this one of an African Kudu were also used. 

When God called His people out of Egypt, He gave them specific instructions about what to do!

The story of Passover, written about in Exodus, chapters 11 and 12. provides many types and shadows of things that were to come. Also, the sacrificial lamb was to live within the household for 3 days. Getting attached to the lamb was part of understanding the sacrifice. As they left Egypt, they left a life of slavery.

Some 1500 years later, John the Baptist utters an unusual phrase as Jesus approaches him. 

“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29 (NIV)

So remember how I didn't understand why God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son? Well, God was showing mankind that not only was He NOT going to allow Abraham to sacrifice his son, but that He would GIVE OF HIMSELF, in the flesh, as an everlasting sacrifice for our sins. And that's why the phrase, Worthy is the Lamb, refers to Christ and what He accomplished on the cross for all of us during Passover! 

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Revelation 5:12 (NIV)

​With love,
Christina
Stay humble & be BOLD!

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a
​light unto my path."  Psalm 119:105

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