The Passover Lamb

Exodus 12:23 ESV

23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

God created a kingdom, and he is the King, but he made human beings to represent him in that kingdom. Adam and Eve rejected this call, which let to sin and death. But God promised to defeat the Serpent through the seed of the woman, who is also the seed of Abraham. Through Abraham’s family, and specifically Judah’s royal seed, the covenant blessings would come to the world. Because all people were guilty and deserved death, the sacrifices of the Mosaic law revealed more clearly their need for a substitute.

We have talked about the promise of a deliverer who will come through Judah’s royal line that will crush the head of the Serpent but how did God deal with the curse of sin on all mankind? The Abrahamic promise was that in his seed, all the Nations of the earth would be blessed. Blessing was Shalom, peace and rest with God. Since the fall we see that man continually sins and does not trust God’s Word and promise.

1 Corinthians 5:7 ESV

7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Why is all that bloody stuff in the Bible? Couldn’t God have just skipped past the law, with it’s sacrifices and weird regulations, to go strait to the good news?

Many Christians struggle to understand why the law of Moses was necessary.

In this week we want to focus on the law, especially the sacrifices, by focusing on the Passover in Exodus 12.

To get here, we fast forward 430 years from our last stop, it’s now time to pick up the pace in Tell me the Story....

Passover substitution

In order to point to the Israelites to their constant need of forgiveness, he gave them the law.

The was given to...

Every sacrificed said, “You deserve this. This should be your blood”

Every year they had to celebrate the Passover deliverance from Egypt.

If you were truly grasping the message of the sacrifices, you would think: “The consequence of sin is death, but in the garden, God promised to overcome the effects of sin and finally defeat the Serpent. However, these sacrifices have to be repeated year after year. So they can’t actually be defeating sin. In fact, when I offer a sacrifice, I am admitting that I deserve death. So unless something or someone greater comes, all I am doing is delaying the inevitable. I need a greater sacrifice!”

The law reminded them that they needed a greater sacrifice to defeat the Serpent and reverse the affects of God’s curse.

God redeemed his people from slavery in Egypt by means of a substitute.

The entire Mosaic covenant points forward to the need for a greater sacrifice. It points us to the promised seed.