The Passover Lamb Series

Good morning! Last week we began a series on Easter Prophecies, looking forward to the Messiah, and what he would do. Often churches will focus on Prophecies of Jesus around Christmas, relating to Jesus’ birth. However, the prophecies we are going to be studying are all really focussed on what he would do, and what he would accomplish. And my hope is that as we approach the Easter season, it will draw us closer to God and allow us to meditate on the sacrifice that Jesus made in our place. My hope is that it will give us a bigger picture of God moving throughout history, and that it will allow us to see the context of the larger story throughout the Bible. Last week we were in Genesis 3, and we saw that from the moment that the curses were given as a result of our sin, God had a plan to send Jesus to defeat Satan’s power once and for all, and to redeem us to himself. We saw that from that moment, the world would be at war with satanic forces. We saw that from that moment, God declared that the ultimate victory over Satan and Sin would be his. We saw that God laid out the parameters by which he would defeat Satan, through the shedding of blood. And we saw that this ultimate victory, the crushing of Satan through the shedding of blood, would be accomplished through a descendant of Adam and Eve.

I spoke briefly last week about the context and biblical imagery around the shedding of blood, and the connection in Judaism between blood and life, and the system of sacrificing an animal to pay for sin, because the payment for sin is death. This week we are going to study a prophecy which connects Jesus and his death intricately to this sacrificial system. Now this prophecy is unique, because it is only identified AS a prophecy in the moment that it is fulfilled. The passage where this takes place is John 19, right after Jesus has died on the cross. Starting in verse 30,

“When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken”.

Ok, so the prophecy is that not one of his bones will be broken. That’s cool, I guess that the prophecy is meant to prove that he is the messiah, right? Well, yes. But also no. It is actually much, much deeper and more significant than that. So this is the moment in which the prophecy is fulfilled. But where is the prophecy itself in scripture? And that is where we have to look back too, because the context of the prophecy itself is where we find it’s significance.

So the prophecy comes from Exodus 12:43-50. I am just going to read verses 43-46. And I want to point out that the section heading in the NIV translation is Passover Restrictions. “The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal: “No foreigner may eat it. Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him, but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it. “It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.”

Ok, so what do we do with that. The prophecy that was fulfilled by Jesus was these regulations about the Passover meal.I know that might seem a little weird at face value, so let's study it and see what there is to learn here. First we need to brush up on the context to give us the big picture. So let’s start with Passover. The Israelites were living in Egypt in slavery, and God sent Moses and Aaron to convince the Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave and be free. But God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them leave Egypt. So God sent 10 plagues to punish Pharaoh and convince him that he was more powerful than all the egyptian Gods. Essentially it was portrayed as a duel between Yahweh, God of the Israelites, and the Egyptian Gods. Although we know it wasn’t a really fair fight, since their gods were actually real, there is only one God. So there were these 10 plagues, First: The water in the rivers, streams, canals, ponds and reservoirs of Egypt all turned to blood. 2nd: a plague of frogs, frogs came out of the water and went everywhere. 3rd: A plague of gnats 4th: a plague of flies, 5th: a plague causing the egyptian livestock to die, 6th: a plague of boils, 7th: a plague of hail, 8th: a plague of locusts, 9th: a plague of darkness, and then the 10th and final plague. The 10th plague was the plague on the firstborn, otherwise known as the passover. The spirit of God passed through Egypt, killing the firstborn of every family, except those that had the blood of a lamb painted on the top and sides of the doorsteps. God passed over those houses, which is why it was called the Passover.