The Passover Lamb is a Prophecy
God put the first Passover in place among the people of Israel just days before they would gather up all their stuff leave behind the slavery they had known in Egypt. Egypt did not want to let them go… God fought the Egyptians for the freedom of His people. He did this through a series of devastating plagues attacking everything the Egyptians held sacred. The last of these plagues was the death of every precious firstborn in the land. This final blow took place on the night of the Passover.
With that great show of YHWH’s power the Egyptians knew they were beaten. They did not rise up to fight when the people of Israel left… Israel walked out of Egypt unharmed.
The Night of the Final Plague
Exodus 10:27… 11:9 the distinction between Egypt and Israel would be marked by a sign… of blood.
To save His people God instructed every family of Israel in Egypt to sacrifice a lamb and smear some of its blood on the doorposts of their houses. So, on that night the death angel would “pass over” the families of Israel who had marked their home with lamb’s blood.
God protected the people He had chosen from physical death through a symbol… the blood of lambs… a symbol signifying that they had put themselves under the protection of the mighty God. But, it was also a prophetic symbol of the future blood of Christ… the lamb of God… which would be shed at the appointed time 1,500 years later.
The blood Jesus shed is not just a symbol, it is the reality to which all the ancient symbols pointed. His blood has the power to save us from death… the death each of us has brought upon ourselves through our sin.
God reveals His plan for spiritual creation through His holy festivals. That plan begin with the redemption from sin pictured in the first of His festivals… Passover.
Let’s review the Passover symbols and consider the Prophetic qualities of the lamb and its blood.
The First Passover
It is significant that God revealed His Passover festival to the people of Israel while they were still slaves. If you consider the timing you’ll see that the basic instructions regarding Passover and Unleavened Bread were given to the people before they even left Egypt!
l And so it is today… God begins the process of opening up our understanding of His intentions while we are still enslaved by sin… sins of society and sins of our own making Romans 5:8.
Exodus 12:1-2 before God delivered His people from Egypt… even before He gave them His instructions regarding the Passover… He wanted to set them straight on the keeping of time; years months, days, weeks, etc. God considers the recording of times, seasons to be important. Genesis 1:14 in the Creator’s eyes one of the practical functions of the celestial bodies is to serve as a clock.
Starting off with this piece of information implies that knowing the biblical month and day is something they did not know. Or, if they had known it they had lost track of it.
The people of Israel had been in Egyptian bondage for a long time [over four centuries]. They were forced to adapt to the Egyptian calendar and probably even Egyptian religious days. The 4th commandment implies they had no day of rest in Egypt either Deuteronomy 5:15. He would set them straight about the 7 day weekly cycle in the desert later, on their way to Mount Sinai [see Exodus 16].
In God’s reckoning, setting the correct time for festivals and worship were [and are] high priority. He was going to set them back on the proper celestial time clock and give them a complete reorganization of their social, religious, and work customs.
Even today when God begins the process of spiritual re-creation in us we experience an overhaul of our social, religious, and work practices. Reorganizing your life begins with getting your clock set straight… establishing the proper days of worship.
l Adopting God’s moral instructions [don’t lie, be faithful, no violence, honor parents, don’t be greedy]… these don’t really set you apart. Most religious traditions agrees with all that stuff [Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism etc.].
l But adopting God’s biblical calendar for worship [weekly Sabbath, annual festivals] that sets you apart. That’s what makes people think you’re a nut… an infidel… or a heretic
Exodus 12:3-5 this lamb is a prophetic pointer looking ahead to Jesus Christ John 1:29. Selecting a lamb without blemish was a prophetic pointer to the sinless life of Jesus 1 Peter 1:19, 2:21-22.
Exodus 12:6 in biblical reckoning each day begins at sunset… and then ends 24 hours later at sunset. So, as the 14th of Abib is beginning at sunset the lamb is slaughtered.
l And so it is today that we begin our Passover service as the 14th day of the 1st month begins as the sun goes down. The Passover is an evening service.
Exodus 12:7 painting your doorposts with blood has no material affect on your life or death. It is only a symbolic act. But doing it is a real way to express faith in YHWH’s power to save you from death.
l Under the NC administration of the Passover the symbolism of blood is replaced with wine which we drink. The wine is just fermented grape juice and consuming it has no material affect on our lives either. But, it is a very real way to express our ongoing faith in God’s power to save us from death Luke 22:17-20. We also do this as a memorial of what has been done for us.
Exodus 12:8-11 they were to eat the meal “that same night” ie. during the night time portion of the 14th day. The meal was communal, not eaten alone or in isolation. The way they ate the sacrifice was a prophecy that the Messiah was to be one body and one life given for all.
l Even today we gather together to keep the Passover… one bread… one wine. This points us toward the unity God wants us to submit ourselves to.
They were dressed in their travelling clothes because the next night, they would be on their way out of Egypt.
l Even today we know that we go straight from the Passover into the festival of Unleavened Bread which is about coming out of sin.
Exodus 12:12-13 the firstborn of the people of Israel would be protected from death by the blood of the lamb that had been applied to the doorposts of their houses. The blood was a sign showing that household should be spared.
l But also a prophetic sign of the blood of the coming Messiah… Jesus.
l Under the new covenant administration of God’s law we can now be protected from the penalty of eternal death through the blood of the lamb who is Jesus Christ… our Passover lamb… sacrificed for us… 1 Corinthians 5:7.
Exodus 12:21-30 like a prophetic play… God had them “act out” a sequence of events with symbols that presented a prophecy of Christ “the lamb of God” who would come nearly 1,500 years later… who would shed His blood… who would give His perfect sinless life as a sacrifice to save us from death… the just penalty of our transgressions of God’s law.
Prophecy is most often considered words and proclamations. But prophecy is also found in symbolic actions that foretell the real events in the future… It is in this way we can say the Passover Lamb was a prophecy.
God gave this Passover to Israel as a memorial to be “acted out” each year at the appointed time. Every time it was acted out it proclaimed what was to come.
A New Administration
The new administration of God’s law has been brought about by through the establishment of a new covenant. With it comes a new administration of His holy festivals. They are not canceled… the appointed times have not changed… but the prophetic perspective of these days has changed because the Messiah has come 1 Corinthians 5:7-8.
The symbolic acts performed in Exodus 12 pointed to the future. The record we have of them from ancient times remain significant today because they let us know God had a plan for redemption mapped out from the very beginning. But now the event they prophesied has come to pass. In Jesus a sinless life has been sacrificed… blood has been spilled… and we can come under its protection Hebrews 10:1-18.
This new covenant is established through the blood of Jesus Christ our Passover lamb Hebrews 10:11-18.
Hebrews 7:12 under this new administration some changes to the symbols we use, and the actions we rehearse, are also necessary.
But God did not leave us guessing what to do… nor did he leave it up to us to come up with some symbols that we personally find helpful or meaningful. The new symbols and actions of the new covenant Passover have been given to us on the authority of Jesus [the Passover lamb Himself] 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
Based on a personal requested by Jesus Himself, … “do this in remembrance of me”, the Church of God keeps the Passover at the appointed time as a memorial. No longer looking ahead to something that has not yet happened… but as a remembrance of something that has already been done.
Jesus kept his last Passover the night before He died… drinking the wine He said he was looking forward to a time in the future when He would celebrate the Passover once again with us in the kingdom of God. When the Messiah comes in all His power and glory He anticipates drinking the cup of Passover “anew”… signifying perhaps a newness of meaning once we pass into yet another administration of God’s law… moving from this “present evil age” to the long awaited “age to come”.
At that time at lot will have changed… the saints will have been resurrected to everlasting life with glorious incorruptible bodies no longer subject to death. Our salvation will have become complete. What will the Passover mean to us at that time? Will the symbols change yet again?… we do not entirely know… but we too should look forward to the time when we will drink it anew with Him in the kingdom of God.
The Passover… it was prophetic … it is now remembrance of what Christ did… it will be something new in the kingdom of God.
Post a Comment