SEVEN LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM THE PASSOVER LAMB

On the night the Children of Israel went out of the land of Egypt, God gave Moses these instructions:
“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…Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old…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. 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. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it” (Exodus 12:3-8).

“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” (Exodus 12:13).

There is far more in this passage than we can discuss at this time, but notice seven things in connection with Christ:

1. A Lamb Was To Be Taken

The Passover Lamb is a type of Christ. “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7). When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The Lord Jesus is referred to as “The Lamb” over twenty times in the book of Revelation.

2. It Must Be A Perfect Lamb

The Lord Jesus is the Lamb without spot and without blemish. No man, past or present, has ever been able to detect a flaw in His character. Robert Ingersoll, the noted agnostic, wrote a book on the mistakes of Moses, but no man has ever written a book on the mistakes of Christ. When Pilate examined Christ he said, “I find no fault in Him” (John 19:6). Pilate’s wife sent unto him and said, “Have nothing to do with that just man” (Matt. 27:19). Pilate said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person” (Matt. 27:24). Even the thief who hung on the cross said, “This man has done nothing amiss” (Luke 23:41), Judas Iscariot said, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood” (Matt. 27:4).

3. It Was To Be Kept Up From The Tenth Until The Fourteenth Day Of The Month.

The lamb was kept from the 10th to the 14th day of the month to see if some blemish would be found in it. Though the Lord Jesus was tempted and tested in all points like as we are, he was found to be without sin (Heb. 4:15). Yes, the One who had no sin (1 John 3:5), who knew no sin (2 Cor. 5:21), who did no sin (1 Peter 2:24), was made to be sin for you and for me that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).

4. It Must Be Killed

The chosen Lamb, the perfect Lamb, the tested and tried Lamb must be killed. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). He did not die for his own sins, for he had none. He died for your sins, for my sins, for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). The New Testament is filled with the doctrine of the substitutionary death of Christ. He died in our place and stead. He paid our sin debt. “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow” (Mrs. H.M. Hall).

“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3). “For Christ has also once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24). “For He (God) made Him (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). The Lamb must be killed; His blood must be shed.

5. The Blood Must Be Applied

The blood must be applied. It availed naught unless it was applied to the door posts of the houses. In the same way the blood of Christ must be applied, by faith, to the door posts of our hearts. This does not mean we are not dealing with hard, cold facts of reality. The Lord Jesus Christ actually and historically died on the Cross. His blood was literally shed and atonement was made on the Cross. The blood of Christ is not merely a symbolical thing; The blood of Christ must actually, by faith, be appropriated. My dear professing Christian friend, if you know naught of what I speak, you would do well to hearken to the admonition of the Apostle Paul to the Church at Corinth. “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Cor. 13:5).

6. The Lamb Was To Be Eaten

The lamb was to be eaten. “They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it” (Ex. 12:8). In His discourse on The Bread of Life, the Lord Jesus made this statement, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves” (John 6:53). In a very real sense we feed on Christ when we feed on the written Word of God (1 Peter 2:2; Matt. 4:4; Heb. 5:12; Ps. 19:10). But, in another, and in a deeper sense, we feed on Christ when we learn to appropriate His very life as our own.

7. How It Was To Be Eaten

“Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord’s Passover” (Exodus 12:11). Surely this speaks to us of being ready for the Lord’s return.

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST

My friend, is the blood of Christ precious to you (1 Peter 1:19), or is it just another Bible doctrine? Do you fully realize your salvation depends completely on the death and resurrection of Christ, or are you in any measure depending on your own worth and merit? Do you know the meaning of walking in fellowship with God? Do you “keep short accounts” with God by confessing each sin as soon as it is made known? Do you realize, as a born-again Christian, that the blood of Christ is not only the basis of our forgiveness, but that it is the means of our cleansing (1 John 1:9)?

Are you learning what it means to feed on Christ? Are you waiting for Christ with your loins girded, and your feet shod?

Our loving Heavenly Father has made every provision for us to live triumphantly.