Day 10 The Passover Lamb

Posted on: March 18, 2025
by: Gerrit Dawson, Senior Pastor

Francisco de Zurbarán. Agnus Dei.1640, Prado Museum.

Every day, pray aloud worshipfully this golden thread that weaves through the entire tapestry of God’s intent for us.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD,

when I will make a new covenant with the

house of Israel. . . .

I will put my law within them,

and I will write it on their hearts.

And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

They shall all know me, from the least of them

to the greatest. . . .

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will

remember their sin no more.

(Jeremiah 31:31, 33-34)

Daily Scripture

Exodus 12:1-13

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 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. . . . In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. 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, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”

Picking Up the Thread

Centuries after Abraham, the LORD’s people were enslaved in Egypt. God raised up Moses to demand that Pharaoh set his people free. The ruler of Egypt continually refused even after God sent the plagues upon the land. Finally, the time had come for the tenth plague which would break even the will of Pharaoh. The angel of death would pass through Egypt slaying every firstborn animal and human. But the LORD provided a way to protect his own people. Each household was to sacrifice a lamb and then do three things: 1) place blood from the lamb over the doorposts of their homes so the lethal angel would see the mark and “pass over” the firstborn within, 2) feast on the lamb eating all of it as a sign of participating in the sacrifice, and 3) dress ready to depart as soon as Pharaoh released them.

Once more, we are reminded of the gravity of the lives we have been given. We were made to be in relationship with our Creator. This is a joyful and fulfilling purpose. It is also serious business. Consequences follow rebelling against the love by which and for which we were made. Human willful sin invited death into the world. Open defiance of God’s will continues to open a channel of deathliness. Often we may not see the connection clearly, but the event of the first Passover reveals the stakes plainly to us.

Death is due to defiance of the LORD’s good will for humanity. Through the course of our lives, God patiently endures with us. But when the time for judgment is at hand, an account must be given. The lamb at Passover symbolized the offering of a pure, undefiled and precious substitute for the firstborn. The life is in the blood, and the blood of the lamb was placed over the entrance to the house to act as a covering for the entire household. Moreover, everyone within the house willingly and fully participated in the offering by partaking of the lamb. There was communion with the sacrifice and with one another. They also prepared to be responsive. The grace of the angel of death passing over their houses was but the prelude to the obedience of the people in departing swiftly from Egypt, leaving behind the old life and heading for the Promised Land.

Stitching It In

Once again, we see the offering of a lamb at a crucial moment in the history of God’s people. We can readily see the spiritual significance of this event for us today. Christians, above all people, remain acutely aware that death is a reality. The only variable is time. Hebrews 9:27 starkly says, “[I]t is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes the judgment.” The angel of death interrupted normal Egyptian life in a unique, cataclysmic act of judgment against the enslavers of God’s people. Yet in a depressingly ordinary way, the angel of death visits everyone who lives in the world until the final day when Christ returns.

We are not our own. We will all give an account to the God who made us. The question becomes, “Do I plan to appear before the LORD on my own merits? Will I direct God to look at the good days I had doing kindness and showing mercy?” Sometimes we may imagine our résumés will be sufficient. But when the all-seeing God looks into our hearts, I dare not depend on my own purity. Even my best works are laced with self-interest. Greed, lust, pride and self-protection are woven through all I have done, said or thought.

I can only pass safely through death to the presence of God through the blood of the Lamb of God shed for me. This means that by a definite act of faith, I accept that blood over the house of my life, conceding that Jesus alone can save me. And I enact the visible signs of my union with him by partaking of the Supper he provides joined in reconciling love to the community of Christ. There is no salvation without such acknowledgment that I am insufficient on my own. And that I agree to participate in the community, worship and mission to which he has entrusted me. As I make that decision, once and for all and continuously, I discover the wonder of being included in the lifeblood of the Lamb of God.

Praying Along the Pattern

Jesus, you are the new and living way.

Your blood alone brings eternal life.

For I know the truth of your Word

That the wages of sin is death.

I would rather it not be so.

I wish you could just overlook everything,

Just be nice and make it all right.

But my bent mind, my wandering heart,

My toxic estrangement from you and others

Requires a more costly solution.

I need the blood of the Lamb over me.