“Behold, The Lamb of God”
(The first Passover)
“The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said,
‘BEHOLD, THE LAMB OF GOD WHO
TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!’”
John 1:29
“...FOR CHRIST OUR PASSOVER ALSO HAS BEEN SACRIFICED”
I Cor 5:7
“knowing that you were not redeemed with
perishable things like silver or gold from
your futile way of life inherited from your
forefathers, BUT WITH PRECIOUS BLOOD, AS OF A LAMB UNBLEMISHED AND SPOTLESS,
THE BLOOD OF CHRIST.
For He was foreknown before the foundation
of the world, but has appeared in these
last times for the sake of you”
I Peter 1:18-20
From eternity past, all God’s purposes had reference to Christ. Before the worlds were formed, before God broke the eternal silence to speak His creation into existence, His great plan of redemption was settled. All the acts of Satan, from his deception in the garden to his diabolical influence over the throne of Egypt, only served to accomplish that divine plan.
We have been dealing all along with ‘types’ of Christ and of life in Him. What we refer to as ‘types’ or ‘shadows’, are the ordinances given by God, the rituals ordained by Him, and even the seemingly everyday events in the lives of men and women who are no different than you or I, that were foreshadowings of God’s Christ, the Lamb of God.
Nowhere though, are these types more prominent and profound as here in the ordinances given for the Passover. It is these types that we will study in this section; the types and their entirely significant relationship to us as believers.
Our focus will be almost entirely on Exodus chapter 12. Before we begin though, pause for a moment and consider the solemn gravity of chapter eleven verse one.
“Now the Lord said to Moses, ‘One more plague
I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt;
after that he will let you go from here.
When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out
from here completely.’”
How utterly vain it is for man to attempt to thwart the purposes of God, for He is able to grind to dust, the hardest heart.
“...He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” (Dan 4:7)
Man puffs himself up with thoughts of his own attainments and his worldly position. He looks around him at the glitter of gold and the genius of invention and supposes that these are the ultimate goals of life, and the greatest securities for himself.
Little does he realize that he is a puppet, and Satan is behind the curtain, pulling the strings and laughing.
Pharaoh thought the kingdom was his own entirely. He thought he ruled supremely and that all he could see and touch was his own to do with as he pleased. He sat with arrogant defiance against God and puffed up with pride against God’s lowly servants and supposed that in the end he would triumph. Little did he realize that he was only a pawn to the one who stood behind the throne, pulling the strings and laughing.
He mocked Moses and Aaron and treated them with contempt; infinitely worse, he mocked their God and treated His Word with contempt; and now, as he sat in a palace surrounded by destruction and waste, hated by his own people, blinded and deceived by his own chosen master, God was outside of the palace, meeting with His chosen man.
“One more plague...” Ominous phrase.
Enough of the darkness of Satan’s lair. Let’s go to chapter twelve and feast with the people of God.
The first order of business is to make a new beginning.
“Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the
land of Egypt, ‘This month shall be the beginning of
months for you; it is to be the first month of the
year to you.”
Imagine if you will, God sending word to all Christians through some world-recognized Christian leader (Billy Graham?) saying, “March 10th of this year you are to consider that day the first day, of the first month of a new year for Christians. Develop a calendar to that effect, and from now on you will live by that calendar; by God’s time and not man’s.”
This is what God was saying to them, and it is the first of the ‘types’ I was talking about above.
“Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away, behold, new things have come”
II Cor 5:17
Remember that Egypt is a type of our life before Christ. So the type being given us in God’s establishing of a new calendar, is that of the truth declared by Paul in II Corinthians 5:17.
The people were going to leave Egypt (the old life) behind a new leader, Moses, (Christ) and they were to consider their entire life to be brand new. Even their estimate of times and seasons was not to be as before.
Praise Him, believer! We serve a God of beginnings!
“In beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”
“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers through the prophets in many portions and many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son”
“Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus’ by a NEW AND LIVING WAY which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that it, His flesh...”
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth”
“And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’”
God is about to deliver His chosen people, by His own hand and no other, out of bondage and despair into a NEW life, in a NEW land, behind a NEW leader; and it will begin with a whole NEW calendar. Old things are to be passed away, all things are to be brand NEW.
“But NOW in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
As we move through the instructions that God gives to Moses in chapter 12 for the first Passover; the selection and examination of the lamb, the killing of it, the elements of the meal itself, you will see many types (foreshadowings) of Christ and His redeeming work, and of our relationship to Him through His shed blood. So keep a sharp eye out and let the Holy Spirit minister His glorious truths to you.
THE LAMB
These are the instructions given to Moses for the people.
On the tenth day of the month, they were to take a lamb; one for each household. If there were not enough people in the house to consume a whole lamb, then they were to share with a neighbor.
The lamb was to be an unblemished male, and in its prime. (Like a 30 year old man, for instance?)
Unblemished:
“...for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.” John 14:30
“And Pilate said to the chief priests and the multitudes, ‘I find no guilt in this man.’” Luke 23:4
And one of the criminals hanged there with him said, ‘...but this man has done nothing wrong.’” Luke 23:41
They were to keep the lamb until the 14th day of the month. Remembering that God told them to choose the lamb on the 10th day; they would have had the lamb close to them, examining it, touching it, evaluating its worthiness, for three days.
This was vitally important to the children of Israel. They had watched God do marvelous things in the land of Egypt, in securing their release from Pharaoh’s clutches. Now, Moses has given them instructions from the Lord in preparing for “yet one more plague”. He has told them to select an “unblemished” male and keep it from the 10th to the 14th day of this new month. Of course they would keep a close watch on it and even pamper it, to ensure its purity and wellness for that 14th day.
A harmonious blending of the gospel accounts indicate that Jesus entered Jerusalem on Tuesday of what we now call “Passion week”. For several days He taught in the Temple, in the streets, moving about among His people; observed, examined, scrutinized...and following His mock trials even a heathen Roman Governor was constrained to stand before His accusers and say, “I find no guilt (fault) in this man.”
Then they were to take the lamb and kill it at twilight.
I want you to take note of verse 6 of Exodus 12. “...then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.”
“The whole assembly.” “Kill it at twilight.”
Each house only represented the whole. They were to do it as an assembly. A congregation. (Remember that the ‘church’ is the body of Christ. Not bodies. Not churches.)
Each lamb represented the one sacrifice; the one act, ordained of God, that would provide their salvation.
The church of God is one. United by the Holy Spirit. Each individual local assembly is but a part, a representation of the completeness of the body of Christ; all gathered around the Lamb, slain before the foundation of the world; our Passover (I Cor 5:7).
By the same token, the world is as one in its guilt in the slaying of the Lamb. Not the Jews as a people, not the Romans as an occupying force, not Judas as a the traitor from the midst, but all of mankind, for all have sinned.
Next, they were to take some of the blood and apply it to the door of their houses. For a complete picture of this we must consider both, verse 7 and verse 22.
Verse 22 is Moses actually giving detailed instructions to the people. He tells them to drain the blood into the “basin”.
This was not a sink or a hand-carried vessel in the sense that we would think of a basin. It was a trench dug near the front door and going around to the sides of the residence, to drain off rain waters so they would not seep in under the door.
They were to drain the blood into this small trench; this basin, at the foot of their doors.
Next, they were to take a weed called hyssop, dip it into the blood there in the basin, and splash the blood from the hyssop on the “lintel” (the overhead beam of the door frame) and on the two doorposts, and then go inside and shut the door, and not come out until morning.
These words are so full of meaning, much time could be spent pondering them and still never fathom their deeps.
In the placing of the blood, first the draining then the painting with hyssop, they were unknowingly making a sign of a cross over their door. Adding to the significance of this act, is the fact that the crucifixion style of execution would not be introduced to the world (by the Romans) for another 1,400 years!
“See, from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?”
-Watts
Then they were to go inside and not come out until morning.
Verse 23 says “...the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians” But let’s be careful about the mental image we get here. God “passed through to smite”, represented by an angel doing His will; one referred to in this same verse as “the destroyer”. (Also see I Cor 10:10 and Heb 11:28)
To explain further:
The term “Passover”, does not connote a time when God ‘passed over’ the Israelites, as in ‘flying over’ or ‘passing them up’.
In the phrase, “...the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer...” there are two evidences there to support what I am saying. A third is in Luke.
1. The phrase “will not allow” indicates that it is not the Lord Himself who is passing over to destroy, but one in His command, whom He will hinder selectively in the course of his mission.
2. “Pass” in Exodus 12:13 is from the Hebrew word, “Pasach”. In that language, the same word might be used to describe the act of a hen, who covers her chicks with a wing, to protect them from inclement weather or a nearby predator. So when God promised to pass over their doors, He was as much as saying, “I will pass my wing over your door so that the destroyer, who has orders to kill the firstborn of every house he sees, won’t even see you. He will not come near your door.”
3. Check out Luke 13:34, as God incarnate laments over Jerusalem and her people, for their rejection of Him:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills
the prophets and stones those sent to her!
HOW OFTEN I WANTED TO GATHER YOUR CHILDREN TOGETHER, JUST AS A HEN GATHERS HER BROOD UNDER HER WINGS,
and you would not have it!”
If only they had faith in the blood of the Paschal Lamb!
Backing up for a moment to verse 22, note that they were instructed to not come out until morning.
When we take our place behind the blood of Christ, God covers us over with the protection of His mighty wing, and the destroyer will never come near our door (John 11:25,26). Ours is only to stay inside, behind that blood, under its divine protection, until the morning of eternity when God calls us out to join Him in that spiritual Canaan beyond the river.
“On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land where my possessions lie.
No chilling winds nor pois’nous breath can reach that
healthful shore;
Sickness and sorrow, pain and death are felt and feared
no more.”
-S. Stennett
Back to verse 23, and also verse 12: See that He says He will pass through to smite the Egyptians. Verse 12 says, “...will strike down all the first-born in the land of Egypt”.
“It is appointed for man once to die, then comes the judgment”.
For all who spurn the shed blood of the Lamb and reject Christ and His people; who choose to remain in the Egypt of this world, enjoying the passing pleasures of sin for a season, their only appointment is death and judgment.
But for those taking security in the blood and God’s estimate of the worthiness of that shed blood, there is only peace and heavenly repast and newness of life.
The blood on the outside proved that all was perfectly settled, because it was divinely settled; and therefore, perfect peace reigned within.
God had said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”. That was enough. They could not see the blood from inside. They needed only rest in the assurance that it was there, and that He had promised.
They were not then in a “savable” state, but “saved”.
They were not hoping and praying to be saved, but rested
secure in the authority of God’s Word that behind the
blood of the lamb they were secure.
They were not partly saved and partly exposed to judgment;
but were completely saved. Preserved against the
dangers of the night; preserved for the going-out at the
first rays of dawn!
In verse 8 God instructs Moses to eat the flesh...”roasted with fire”.
Throughout scripture fire is used to represent God’s wrath and His judgment against sin.
Jer 23:29 Matt 3:12 Rev 21:8 II Pet 3:7, 10:13
“God’s wrath was to be poured out on all sin for all time in the flesh of His sacrificial Lamb on Calvary (Romans 8:3) and the type of this work was to be the roasting of the Passover Lamb. No other method was acceptable.
Fire is also symbolic of testing and purifying.
Christ was tested in every way; “...tempted like as we are, yet without sin”, and no dross was found.
Psalm 17:3 Hebrews 1:9, 3:2,6
It was to be roasted in its entirety (Ex 12:9), along with its head, legs and entrails.
Christ was tested. His head (seat of the understanding), legs, (daily walk) and entrails (deepest parts), in accordance with God’s Word. Absolute obedience and loyalty to the Father were found.
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Heb 4:12
He was judged by the same standards we are, and found to be without blemish.
“Do not eat any of it raw or boiled with water”. Anything less than roasting with fire, and there would have been no expression of the truth this meal typified; that our Paschal Lamb was to suffer the fire of God’s wrath on Calvary’s cross.
We are not only to be saved by the blood of the Lamb, but are to feast on the Person of the Lamb. He desires our intimate communion with Himself; partaking of Him daily that He may dwell richly in us and give divine significance to the lives He has saved by the shedding of His blood.
Later, when Moses is giving more detailed instructions to the people in Exodus 1:46 he says, “Nor are you to break any bone of it”. This, as we can see in hindsight, was a type of the fact that Christ’s bones would not be broken on the cross to speed His death, since He was dead when the soldiers came to check Him. (John 19:32,33)
This is also prophesied in Psalm 34:20 “He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken”.
THE OTHER ELEMENTS:
The unleavened bread (12:8)
The method of making sourdough bread is the one used by the Israelite women. The ingredients would be mixed and kneaded, then a portion of the raw dough would be broken off, wrapped in a damp cloth, then stored in a cool corner for the next day.
That lump would then be mixed in with the new batch of dough on the following day and the yeast (leaven) in it would cause the entire batch to rise. A piece would be broken off, wrapped, stored, and the cycle would continue.
God instructed them to leave the leaven out, for two reasons. One is given in the text of Exodus; because they were to eat it in haste (vs 11). The other reason is alluded to simply by the decree that if, during this feast, anyone ate any leavened bread, OR IF LEAVEN WAS EVEN FOUND IN THEIR HOUSE, they were to be cut off from Israel.
Why? Well, throughout scriptures, leaven, (or yeast) is used as symbolic of sin in the life.
1. Pride, the sin that set Lucifer himself to seeking a position above God, also deceived Eve into thinking she could circumvent God’s law and live. It is a “puffed up” condition. Col 2:18, I Cor 4:6, 13:4 Yeast makes the dough “puff up”.
2. It only takes a little to affect the whole batch of dough. I Cor 5:6-8 This one bears looking at immediately:
“Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Jesus Himself warned against the leaven of pride and arrogance in Mark 8:15
3. Leaven was passed, organically, from generation to generation of bread. Technically, today’s loaf was connected to the previous loaf, and the one before that, etc, back to the original loaf. In Romans Paul tells us that all of mankind was in Adam’s loins when he sinned, therefore, all sinned. We were linked to each other from generation to generation by the sin nature. Rom 5:12,18,19.
But the sacrifice of our Passover has broken that chain and set us out in a new life; no leaven in us or in our homes. (II Cor 5:17)
It was also instructed that they celebrate the Feast of Unleavened bead for seven days. Seven, in the Bible, is representative of completeness. The message is clear. For the completeness of our walk in this wilderness below, we are to put leaven (sin) out of our lives; out of our houses. There is no place for it. The generational chain has been broken. We were delivered, bought with a price. Henceforth we are to eat of the Bread of Heaven, come down from the Father of Hosts. (John 6:48-51)
The Christian is not saved by the bread. We weren’t saved by Jesus’ coming to earth. We weren’t saved by His teachings. We weren’t saved by His miracles. We were saved by His blood. But the condoning of evil in our lives will certainly exclude us from fellowship with His saints, and from the enjoyment of communion with Him. Are we to never sin? Impossible, while trapped in this ‘body of death’. We are to “put away” sin; refuse to condone it in our lives. Once recognized, it is to be purged...out of our lives, out of our homes.
We were saved by grace; we were saved to holiness. If a person can presume upon that grace and shun that holiness to continue in sin, it only proves he understands neither.
“If we say we have no sin we make Him a liar and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The Bitter Herbs (12:8)
The unleavened bread was to be dipped into a sop (sauce) made with bitter-tasting herbs. The Israelites were never to forget the bitterness of their bondage to Egypt. Likewise, we are never to forget the bitterness of our bondage to sin and the old nature.
The Israelites were never to forget that it was the death of an innocent one...the shedding of its blood, that bought their salvation from the destroyer. Likewise, we are never to forget that our Passover Lamb suffered the bitterness of God’s wrath against sin. In His painful rejection, torment and death, He purchased our salvation. The Bread of Life was ‘dipped’ in the bitter herbs of death, which is the wages of sin.
Rom 6:6 Gal 2:20 Col 2:11
“What Thou hast suffered, Lord, was all for sinners’ gain.
Mine, Mine the transgression, But Thine the deadly pain.”
Isaiah said, “The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.”
Rejoice in the healing; but in the full course of our walk below, putting away leaven and following His lead, let us never forget to dip in the sop of bitter herbs and, with head humbly bowed, remember His stripes.
The Hyssop (12:22)
I’ve saved this for last; 1. Because it was not an edible part of the meal itself and, 2. Because of what it represents.
The instruction was, to take hyssop, dip it in the blood at the basin of the door, and using the hyssop, to apply the blood to the lintel over the door and the doorposts.
It was the hands of sinners that God chose to use to extract the blood of the sacrificial lamb. The very condition they were in that required the blood, required them to slaughter the lamb. That is by God’s design; His only. The mystery remains His to tell someday, or retain in His infinite wisdom for eternity.
The scriptures make very clear to us why God deemed the Lamb worthy to be slain and the blood sufficient to appease His wrath. But the one thing we must see about the hyssop is that it represents faith.
Without the Hyssop and the application of the blood, there would not have been that single step of obedience that showed faith in the blood to hide them from the destroyer. Without the exercise of simple faith, in trusting in the application of the blood of Christ to save us from certain death, there can be no forgiveness, no identification with His death, no life.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.”
Eph 2:8,9
God provided the Lamb; God provided the blood; God provided even the small plant. As they looked around them, I’m sure they could always find it near. It just never took on significant meaning for their lives, until God told them to use it to apply the blood.
By faith we apply the blood of the sacrificed Lamb to our lives and by so doing, are safe from the destroyer; but even that little sprig of faith is a gift of God’s planting and cultivating.
Such a little, insignificant thing; unnoticed, taken advantage of, but such a powerful tool in the hands of the Immortal, Invisible God, only wise.
