Day 7: The Lamb of God

John the Baptist was sent before Jesus as his forerunner to prepare the way before him. And when the time came for John to introduce Jesus publicly to Israel that was how he described him, the Lamb of God. Let's look at the account in John 1:29-31.

“The next day John [that's John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

So, John the Baptist came to prepare Israel and to reveal to them the Messiah. And when he gave them this revelation the phrase he used was "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" What does this title, this particular title, "the Lamb of God" tell us about Jesus? I suggest to you that there are three main associations in Scripture of a lamb. And remember that Israel were very familiar with that particular creature, the lamb. It has played an absolutely unique part in their history from the time of their exodus from Egypt onward. So, there was not a single Israelite there listening to John to whom that word lamb did not have a very special meaning. Here are the three associations that I see in the lamb. First of all, the lamb is a picture of meekness. The lamb is not an animal that fights. It doesn't have talons or claws or fangs. It's a meek animal. Secondly, it's a picture of purity. You go out in the fields at springtime and look at the new born lambs and they look so white and clean and fluffy. There's something about them that makes you want to just pick them up and cuddle them. You just love that pure white. And then, the lamb -- and this is the most important of all -- in the history of Israel was God's appointed sacrifice to provide redemption and protection. For the Jewish people the lamb was particularly associated with one of their most solemn and important religious commemorations, one that is still celebrated all over the world today by Jewish people, the Passover.

Here's the original account of how God intended Israel to celebrate the Passover, as given to Israel through Moses. It's recorded in Exodus 12:21-23. And you'll see that the whole Passover as originally ordained by God centres around a lamb. Without a lamb there can be no Passover as it was originally ordained by God through Moses.

“Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover Lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the door frame. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the door frame and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.”

So, the entire deliverance of Israel from judgment and wrath depended on the lamb and its blood. And they had to apply the blood upon the outside of the house where they lived. That word Passover is interesting. In Hebrew it's Pesach. Just recently I was studying Hebrew in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. While we were there, we read the account of a hurricane that was approaching our home in southeast Florida and, of course, we really were praying earnestly and God did a marvellous thing. Just at the last moment when the hurricane was about one hour away, without any obvious reason it changed its course and passed by our home city without doing any damage. Well interestingly enough, in our class we were studying a Hebrew newspaper which was reporting this incident and when it spoke about the hurricane passing by it used the word frumpesach, the same root word. And the other students in the class said, "What does that mean?" And I said, "You ought to know what that means. That's the word for Passover." And they said, "Oh, I see." So, it was such a vivid illustration to me what the Passover means. It means that the hurricane of God's wrath and judgment which should have descended was deflected and passed by because of the blood of the Passover Lamb.