from Israel My Glory, Vol. 62, No. 2
The Passover Lamb
by Tom Simcox
Jesus and the Jewish holiday
of Passover are inextricably
intertwined.
“Behold the Lamb of God,
who taketh away the sin of
the world” (Jn. 1:29).
Using
clear imagery rooted deeply
in the Jewish experience, God
identified His servant the
Messiah as a lamb—not just
any lamb, but the one whose
sacrifice is sufficient to eradicate
the sin of everyone in the
entire world.
The use of lambs as sacrifices
for sinful mankind began
back in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Sacrifices have been known
since man first rebelled against
his Creator: “For Adam also
and for his wife did the LORD
God make coats of skins, and
clothed them” (Gen. 3:21).
But it was not until the
Exodus that God expressly
demanded a lamb for a
specific and unique reason.
The Israelites were enslaved
in Egypt, and Moses had
been dispatched by the Lord
to secure their freedom.
After nine plagues and other
miraculous signs that God
did through Moses, Pharaoh
still refused to let his Jewish
slaves go free.
Then the Lord gave instruction
concerning the tenth
and final plague: “This month
[Nisan, also called Aviv; March–
April] shall be unto you the
beginning of months. . . . In
the tenth day of this month
they shall take to them every
man a lamb, according to the
house of their fathers, a lamb
for an house” (Ex. 12:2–3).
God then gave specifics
regarding their lambs. First,
they were to be young males,
healthy and clean, “without
blemish, a male of the first
year” (v. 5). They were to
“keep it until the fourteenth
day of the same month; and
the whole assembly of the
congregation of Israel shall
kill it in the evening. And
they shall take of the blood,
and strike it on the two side
posts and on the upper door
post of the houses, wherein
they shall eat it” (Ex. 12:6–7).
The instructions were precise:
Choose a lamb; observe
the lamb; apply the blood of
the lamb. The Pascal (Passover) lamb spoke of redemption.
The innocent animal
would lose its life to redeem
all firstborn males, human
and animal. Clearly, the
Passover speaks of redemption
by the blood of a lamb
“without blemish” (Ex. 12:5).
Scripture teaches that Jesus
was fully God, thus without
sin (2 Cor. 5:21). He was
“without spot” and “without
blemish.” He was observed
for three years as He ministered;
and just as the Pascal
lamb was pronounced perfect
for the Passover sacrifice,
Jesus was pronounced “perfect”
by Pontius Pilate who
declared, “I find no fault in
him” (Jn. 19:4, 6).
It was after He had eaten
the seder meal, called the
Last Supper by Christians,
that Jesus went to the Garden
of Gethsemane to pray and
was arrested by Roman
soldiers. The next day they
beat Him, scourged Him,
and crucified Him.
To the Jewish people in
Egypt, the passover lamb
spoke of physical redemption
from slavery. Its blood had to
be applied to the doorposts of
their houses for them to escape
the tenth plague of death.
The apostle Paul wrote,
“Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7).
Everyone needs to be redeemed from sin. Jesus is the
final sacrifice, the “Lamb of
God, who taketh away the sin
of the world.” We must choose
Him individually and identify
with Him as our personal
Sacrifice, our Lamb. And we
must apply His blood to the
“doorposts” and “lintels” of
our hearts by faith.
 Tom Simcox is the Northeastern States Director for the Friends of Israel
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