The Lamb That Saves Series

Introduction

The people of God were in Egypt for 430 years (Exodus 12:40).

They went there during a worldwide famine, and God used Joseph to store grain to prevent starvation.

Joseph eventually brought his father, Jacob, brothers, and their families to settle in Goshen.

Centuries later, “there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8).

He oppressed Israel by forced labor.

The Israelites cried out to God for deliverance.

God raised Moses to lead his people and sent him to Pharaoh to say, “Let my people go.”

Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he refused.

God sent ten plagues to Egypt, including turning water into blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock death, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness.

Finally, the Lord told Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and Egypt…. ‘About midnight I will go out in Egypt, and every firstborn in the land shall die, from Pharaoh to the slave girl behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of cattle’ ” (Exodus 11:1, 4-5).

The tenth plague was about to be unleashed, resulting in the death of every firstborn in Egypt, including the Israelites.

Let’s read about the lamb that saves.

Scripture

Let’s read Exodus 12:1-14:

1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 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.

7 “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. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.”

Lesson

Exodus 12:1-14 shows us how the Lord’s Passover assures us of our salvation by the blood of the lamb that saves.

Let’s use the following outline:

1. Preparation for the Lamb That Saves (12:1-6)

2. Protection by the Lamb That Saves (12:7-14)

I. Preparation for the Lamb That Saves (12:1-6)

First, notice the preparation for the lamb that saves.

The Lord told Moses that each family was to set aside a lamb on the tenth day of the first month.

If the family were small, it would join with another small family so that each member would have enough to eat, and nothing would be left over.

The Lord was very clear about what kind of lamb would be chosen.

In verses 5-6, he said, “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.”

The essential feature of the lamb is that it was to be a lamb without blemish.

The lamb that saves had to be without blemish or spot because it pointed to Jesus, as Peter said in 1 Peter 1:18–19, “knowing that you were ransomed… 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.”