Behold the Lamb of God pt 4

Four hundred years have passed. Many pharaohs have come and gone and another has come to power.  He doesn’t remember Joseph. God remembers the promise he made to Abraham and speaks to Moses from the burning bush to tell him to tell the children of Israel He  sees their distress and the hardship they are having to endure. He tells Moses to tell them He will lead them back to a land flowing with milk and honey. The land promised to Abraham many years before.

Aaron and Moses approach Pharaoh for permission to go into the wilderness to worship God. Pharaoh refuses. Nine plagues come  upon the people of Egypt. But still Pharaoh refuses.  The Bible says that God hardened his heart. It looks as if God is wanting to make a statement they won’t forget. A statement that needs to be remembered. Somewhat like what Adam and Eve witnessed in the garden when a lamb had to die, to cover their sin. Something to pass down to your children and grandchildren for a long, long time ~ through many generations.

God’s people would soon embark on a journey that would challenge their faith. Had they really heard from God?  It’s easy to question yourself when you think God has spoken to you. God wanted to be sure they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was indeed Him,  who brought them up out of Egypt.

God gave them something to do and something to believe. They were to take a perfect lamb without spot or blemish, one for each family and sacrifice it unto the Lord. They were to take its blood and apply it to the doorposts of their homes. They were to consume all of the lamb. They were to stay inside, protected in their home.  This was the night all of the firstborn of Egypt would die. Anyone not under the protection of the blood of the lamb would die.

Do you know that saying  “You reap what you sow”? Do you remember when Moses was a baby, Pharaoh ordered that the male Hebrew babies be killed? Moses was found by Pharaoh’s daughter and saved. It’s a spiritual principle, you’ve probably heard it another way ~ “”What goes around, comes around.”  It’s true.

This was a confrontation between the one true living God and the false gods of Egypt.  Two things were about to happen.  1. All of Egypt would know that the Lord God was the one true God. 2. The Hebrews were going to learn a lesson about how great their God is and a lesson about the importance of the Lamb.

No one would never forget the horror of that night. Can you imagine the crying and wailing of mothers who lost their firstborn sons? While the Hebrew mothers held their sons close,  down the street, Egyptian mothers were sobbing in grief. It was a night like no other and a night they wouldn’t soon forget. God meant for it to be that way. Unforgettable. The blood of that perfect lamb kept them safe. It saved their whole family.

It reminds me of a New Testament scripture, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved…and they household.” Symbolically, apply His blood to your heart and be saved. You and your household.

The blood of the lamb was an important lesson that night. God told Moses and Aaron to make sure that they commemorate this night every year and remember the Lord’s passover. The lamb had died,  but their sons had lived.

Passover became a very important feast to remember what the Lord had done for them. Every year they were to sacrifice a perfect lamb in remembrance of the Lord’s Passover. But just like the other promises of God, they point toward something in the future. The seed of woman, the offspring of Abraham, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and now, the Passover Lamb. All promises God made that would pave the way to allow man back into fellowship with Him. Slowly God was revealing His plan to redeem mankind to His people.

For generations the feast of Passover was celebrated and remembered. Lamb after perfect lamb was sacrificed.  The message? There is one true God and He is approached through the Passover Lamb. But that’s not all….all the lambs sacrificed throughout all the centuries were pointing toward the Passover Lamb who was to come. Behold the Lamb of God.