HOLY WEEK BLOG #3 –– “Symbols of Easter: The Lamb” – Exodus, Chapter 12
One of the symbols we often see around Easter is the lamb. Depending on your family history, ethnicity
and traditions from your past or experienced in your church life, the lamb may
seem to have slightly different meanings.
While growing up I did not see the use of a lamb in my family traditions
but did hear of it in church. When I met
my future wife I first experienced the Easter Lamb Cake which is widespread
among most in her culture.
Others know the lamb as the Pascal Lamb which had direct connection to
the Passover holiday celebrated in Jewish traditions. So what IS this lamb thing all about? I’m glad you asked. (If you have read many of my posts you have
seen that comment before. LOL)
To understand the biblical basis for a lamb as a symbol at Easter we
need to go back to the Old Testament book of Exodus where, in chapter 12, we
read of the Lord giving Moses specific instructions about what the Israelites,
who were still captives in Egypt, should do to protect their homes and families
from the coming final plague God was about to bring on Egypt. You recall the plagues God sent to try to
convince Pharaoh to release the Israelites from their captivity. This final plague, the Plague of the
Firstborn, would be the one which brought Pharaoh to his knees and triggered
the release of all Israelites from Egypt.
God gave specific instructions about what every Israelite household needed
to do immediately, before the plague struck all of Egypt. Beyond the immediate,
God was establishing a celebration, a remembrance or an ordinance which was to
be repeated every year as a way to remind the entire nation of their
deliverance from Egyptian captivity by the hand of their God. There is great symbolism in these
instructions which we can talk about after you have read. Rather than try to make a long explanation now
I’ll include the Exodus 12 passage here for you to read.
“The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt,
“This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your
year. Tell the whole
community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to
take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a
whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into
account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb
needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be
year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or
the goats. Take care of
them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the
community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood
and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they
eat the lambs. That same
night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs,
and bread made without yeast. Do
not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs
and inner parts. Do not
leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with
your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in
your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover. “On that same night I will pass
through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will
bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for
you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over
you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” Exodus
12:1-13
When you read these words you
might ask, why such a hurry. Not only is
the preparation of the meal kind of odd, the way the Israelites were told to
eat it (verse 11) seems even more
strange. As I said earlier, let’s finish
this passage and then we can break it down into smaller “bites” and squeeze
some real understanding out of it. (I
hope) Please read on through the second
portion of scripture beginning at Exodus 12:21-30
“ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at
once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into
the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides
of the door frame. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until
morning. When the LORD
goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on
the top and sides of the door frame and will pass over that doorway, and he will
not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
I don’t know about you but I know that I have seen several depictions of
this event in movies. Every time I do my
thoughts go to how frightening this must have been even for the
Israelites. Imagine, being told to “Stay
in our homes and don’t dare come out until morning.” I have no doubt but what they could hear the
cries and wails from other families upon the discovery that their firstborn,
man and beast, died suddenly and without explanation. “…there
was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.” (Exodus 12:30) I can only imagine that how it must have
brought fear into the hearts of the Israelites as well that night at the awesome
and, at the same time, awful power of their God.
Since this is the basis for today’s topic, let’s start at the beginning
of the passage and hit some of the major points it raises. First of all God instructs that each household
must select a lamb (or share one, depending on the number of people in it). The lamb was to be young, a yearling, and had
to be spotless, that is, without defect.
It was to be taken home and cared by the family for four days. I once heard a pastor speak about this
particular detail. He was convinced that
these four days were intentionally ordered so that the family, maybe especially
the children, might become a little attached to it., to care about it. It does make some sense and I’ll explain in a
minute. Next gave very specific
instructions about the time all these lambs were to be taken out and
slaughtered. Here’s the amazing thing
about the time. People a lot smarter
than me have explained that the time of day when these lambs were all to be
slaughtered was the exact time of day that Jesus died on the cross. Unless I’m mistaken, many of you just got a
strong chill! It still affects me that
way when I think about it. If you are
into such scholarly endeavors you might check out this article: {http://www.heraldmag.org/2004/04ma_3.htm}
There is a term which many of you may be familiar with. It’s called a ‘type’. Here’s one (scholarly) definition of what a
biblical ‘type’ is:
Type
It properly
means a "model" or "pattern" or "mold" into which
clay or wax was pressed, that it might take the figure or exact shape of the mold.
The word "type" is generally used to denote a resemblance between
something present and something future, which is called the
"antitype." This word occurs
only once in Scripture ( 1 Corinthians 10:11). Most translations use the word or phrase “as
an example” or simply “example”. The
Greek word tupos is rendered "print" ( John 20:25 ), "figure" ( Acts 7:43 ; Romans 5:14 ), "fashion" ( Acts 7:44 ), "manner" ( Acts 23:25 ), "form" ( Romans 6:17 ), "example" or
"ensample" ( 1 Corinthians 10:6 1 Corinthians 10:11 ; Phil 3:17 ; 1 Thessalonians 1:7 ; 2 th 3:9 ; 1 Timothy 4:12 ).
I like to say that “type” is a shadow of things to come (hints, patterns, picture). The slaying of the Passover lamb was a type
or picture of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. These verses establish the principle of typical teaching. By this we mean that
persons and events of the OT were types
or shadows of things that were to come. Many of them pointed forward directly
to the coming of the Lord Jesus to put away our sins by the sacrifice of
Himself. Think for a minute about what
that means.
First of all, God told the Israelites they had to
select a young sheep or goat who was without blemish. Jesus, at this point in his life was in his
young 30s. He was sinless, without any
stain of sin in his life. Are you
starting to see how this ‘type’ idea applies?
The lamb being slaughtered was a ‘type’ of Jesus as our own sacrificial
lamb! The lamb God spoke of was to be
taken into the home for 4 days. As I
told you before, a pastor once spoke of this particular ‘type’ as suggesting
that there would be a real sense of loss when that young lamb, whom the children
had gotten attached to, would be killed.
The parallel which the pastor shared was that it reminds us of Jesus
humanness as well. While he was God he
was completely human and felt everything we feel. Death for him wouldn’t just be a moment in
time when he completed God’s plan, it would be a time of unbelievable pain,
suffering and agony. I could say more
about this but Good Friday is still a few days off so I’ll save some thoughts
and comments for that post. Please take
note that it was the shed blood of those lambs which brought protection, or
shall we say salvation to every Israelite who obeyed God’s instruction that
night so long ago in Egypt. The ‘type’
should be obvious by now. The shed blood
of Jesus Christ, our sacrificial lamb is the very thing that saves us. “But he was pierced for our
transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us
peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah
53:5)
The second ‘type’ I’d like you to notice is the
sprinkling of the blood of the lamb.
Even here is a ‘type’ which I missed for oh, so many years. The Israelites were told that they were to
sprinkle this blood shed by their “spotless” lambs and put it on the sides and
tops of the door frames. Now hang on ‘cause
I believe you may have another goose bump moment on the way. I have learned that these doorways usually
had a shallow trench dug from one doorpost to the other to collect rain as a
means of preventing it from entering the room.
Stay with me now, when the blood was smeared on the door frames it would
have appeared on the top and on both sides of the entryway as well. Here’s where it gets really interesting. As that blood dripped down the doorposts it
would have run into that little ditch and gathered at the center of the little
trench, directly below the blood smeared on the top! That means that the blood would be at the top
(crown of thorns), both sides (his nail pierced hands) and at the bottom (his
feet). Even the placement of the blood
which God ordered 1500 years before Jesus’ death was a ‘type’ for the exact
wounds he would suffer! It continues to
amaze me that every detail God includes in His word is there on purpose. Wow!
The symbolism in the Passover just continues to
grow. When God told them that the meat
was to be roasted and not boiled (both of which were common for them) it’s been
suggested that while boiling causes things in the pot and water to be absorbed into the meat, that roasting causes
things to be forced out of the meat,
such as the fat, etc. The symbolism here
(according to some) is that on the night of the first Passover the Hebrews became
a distinct nation and while they had absorbed much of the Egyptian culture
during their 400+ years in captivity there, it was now time for them to get rid
of that influence and become a pure, distinct people once again. Makes sense so I share that idea with
you.
Then we read about “bitter herbs” and “bread
without yeast”. Again, the symbolism
abounds. The bitter herbs represent the
tears of the Hebrew people during their long, long captivity in Egypt and the
bread without yeast represents the haste they had to be in at their leaving
Egypt for the morning after the final plague they gathered and departed Egypt
in a hurry! If you ever have the
opportunity to go to a Seder meal where they explain the symbolism of the
elements you will eat it is amazing how that entire meals points toward the
coming Savior! Also, in the scripture
did you notice how they were supposed to eat their Passover? They were to eat “with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and
your staff in your hand”. This
clearly points to eating in a hurry and being ready to go. Once again, it’s a symbol, or ‘type’ of what
was about to happen to the Hebrews living there.
Starting at verse 24 we read that this Passover,
or Pascal, was not to be just a one-time thing.
The rules for celebrating Passover were to be a “lasting ordinance for
you and your descendants”. This was to
be celebrated over and over as a way to remember God’s amazing provision and
protection as well as a way to pass it on to future generations. It’s interesting that in verse 26 and those
that follow there’s almost a script of what to tell your children when they
ask, “Mom, why are we doing this?”
Pretty amazing isn’t it?
“7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led
like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so
he did not open his mouth.” Isaiah
53:7
Paul spoke of
Jesus as “our Passover lamb in 1 Corinthians.
“For
Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” 1 Corinthians 5:7B
There are many
other NT references to Jesus as our Passover lamb:
“For you know that it was not with
perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty
way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but
with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
1 Peter 1:18, 19
“But now he has appeared once for
all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just
as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so
Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will
appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are
waiting for him.” Hebrews
9:26B-28
“And where these have been
forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.”
Hebrews
10:18
Jesus came as our Passover
lamb:
-The Passover lamb was to be
without blemish or defect. Jesus, as our
Passover lamb, was without sin…a perfect sacrifice for ours.
-The Passover lamb was known by
the families for whom it would be sacrificed.
Jesus must be known by us, “up close and personal”.
-The Passover lamb had to die,
to shed its blood to protect the people from death. (Heb. 9:22) Jesus’ precious
blood had to be shed to protect us from death and bring us eternal life.
“ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he
said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him
say this, they followed Jesus. Turning
around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do
you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you
staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and
spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. Andrew,
Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who
had followed Jesus. The
first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have
found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.” John 1:35-42
Did you see what John’s disciples did when John showed them
who Jesus was? They turned and followed
him. Jesus said “Come” to them…as he
says to each of us. “Come…follow
me!” But look beyond that to what those
disciples did next. It says that the
first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon (Peter) and tell him about
Jesus. Have you found Jesus? Do you know who he is? Have you followed him? Have you told others about what (or who) you
have found? Why not do that this week.
Jesus, the lamb that was slain, is our Savior. It is through his blood that we are saved.
When you see those cute Easter decorations this year may you be reminded of
your own, personal Passover Lamb…Jesus Christ.
“For Christ died for
sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God….”
1 Peter 3:18
Remember his sacrifice this Easter season and thank God for what He did just for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment