A Shared Lamb

Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire . . . And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.

EXODUS 12:8–11

We’re talking about Mary’s little Lamb, Jesus, the One born in Bethlehem to “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Today we will finish our look at the Lamb in prophecy. 

Exodus 12:7 makes it clear that the only salvation for the Israelites in Egypt that first Passover night was to put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. The Israelites could have encrusted their doors with jewels and gold, but that would have done no good. They could have tied an unblemished, living lamb outside their doors, but that would not have satisfied God’s demand. 

Salvation does not come from the life of Christ, but from the death of Christ. Salvation is not learning lessons from what Jesus did in life, but receiving life from what He did in His atoning death. The Bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 9:22). This special Lamb, Who was also a slain Lamb and a saving Lamb, then became a shared Lamb. 

Exodus 12:8 instructs the Israelites to roast and eat the lamb they had slain, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs to remind them of the bitterness of their slavery. But the key was the shedding of blood and sprinkling it on the entrance to the house. Exodus 12:12–13 spells out the judgment that was to fall that night. Praise God for the blood! “. . . when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” 

Can you imagine what it must have been like that night in Egypt? All the Egyptians smelled lamb roasting, because a quarter of a million or so households were preparing the Passover meal. As those Hebrews sat down to eat the lamb they had roasted, a bunch of slaves became a nation. When they walked out of Egypt, a lamb walked out inside of them!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers