Power Of The Lamb

Just as the Passover lamb’s blood saved the Israelites from slavery and death - so also the body and the blood of Jesus saves US from our slavery to sin and our fear of death. That’s one of the main reasons that Jesus was called - The Lamb Of God!

But that brings me back to my original question: Why wasn’t Jesus the BULL of God! I mean, the Israelites did sacrifice BULLS to God. In Hebrews 9:12 (for example) we’re told that Jesus entered into the Heavenly Holy of Holies “… not with the blood of BULLS and goats (like in the days of Temple worship) but with His own blood having obtained eternal redemption for us.”

So why make ALL THIS about a LAMB (which is gentle, innocent, and vulnerable) as opposed to bulls (which are big, powerful, and dangerous).

Well, a couple reasons came to mind. First, when it comes to sacrifice, lambs tend NOT to struggle. “Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Isaiah 53:7

You’ve heard the phrase - “gentle as a lamb.” Apparently, that was true of lambs when they were offered for sacrifice. They were literally as GENTLE AS A LAMB.

ILLUS: But you don’t say that about bulls. Dad once told me of the days he worked as a meat inspector. He’d go to all different sizes of slaughterhouses and one day he was in the section of the plant where the live cattle were kept (pause) and one of the bulls got loose. Somebody had left the gate unlatched to his pen… and now he’s out in the alley between the pens AND HE’S NOT A HAPPY BULL. He may not have understood that he was there to be slaughtered, but he was pretty sure he didn’t want to be there. And now he was one dangerous animal.

Dad said the other two workers scurried up the sides of a couple pens and had gotten up as high as they could. But dad… well, he wasn’t as young and agile as they were, and he began to look around for something to use against the bull. That was when he saw a nearby water hose. He picked it up and turned it on the bull’s face. The bull shook its head, not liking the water in its eyes… and began to back up. Dad just kept pouring the water on and walked that bull right back into its pen.

My point: bulls are not gentle when it comes to being slaughtered. They can become very dangerous if they feel threatened.

ILLUS: But (PAUSE) lambs are different. I read of a man who’d worked for a meat packing firm and for years, and for years he’d butchered cattle, pigs and chickens and turkeys. But one day, a farmer brought a lamb to be slaughtered. The butcher hadn’t killed a lamb before, but (for him) it was just another animal. As he’d done so often before the man took his sharp knife and cut the lamb’s throat. But the lamb didn’t behave like other animals. It didn’t struggle or squeal or bellow like the cattle and pigs had. Instead, the lamb just stood there, silently in front of him. And as the blood flowed from its throat, the lamb stumbled toward its executioner and licked the blood from his hands and began to weave from side to side. Then, the lamb slumped forward and… quietly died.