A Slain and Saving Lamb

Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.

EXODUS 12:6–7

...but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 PETER 1:19

We are considering the wonderful story of the birth of Mary’s Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. At this Christmas season, we rejoice in God’s gift of His sinless, spotless Lamb. Today I want to take you back to the book of Exodus. Your celebration of Christmas will take on new meaning when you see that the Babe of Bethlehem was the Lamb of God. 

Did you know that the symbol of ancient Egypt was a serpent? I once visited the British Museum in London and saw the crown that the Pharaohs would wear. There on that crown was a coiled serpent. Here in the book of Exodus is a battle between a lamb and a serpent: a defenseless, gentle, meek, and mild lamb, against a venomous, hissing, poisonous serpent. 

The Passover lamb had to be a very special lamb (Exodus 12:5). One blemish would disqualify a lamb from being used for the Passover in Egypt. For generations after that night, Israel’s priests would examine the Passover lambs very carefully, checking for the slightest flaw. Jesus, the Lamb of Bethlehem, was also “without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). 

But not only was Jesus a special lamb, He was a slain lamb (Exodus 12:5). On the appointed day, the father of the Israelite family was to slay the Passover lamb and catch its blood in a basin— another prophetic picture of Mary’s little Lamb, Who would be slain on a Roman cross. 

This lamb was also a saving lamb. God told the Israelites to take the Passover lamb’s blood and put it on the doorposts and the lintel of the house (v. 7). Whoever came into the house would be saved from death because they came in through and under the blood (Exodus 12:13). If you know the Christ of Christmas, you are safe under the blood!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers