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"Every
priest stands daily ministering and offering time after
time the same sacrifices, which can never take away
sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for
all time, sat down at the right hand of God. . .for by
one offering He has perfected for all time those who are
sanctified." Hebrews 10:11-14
Countless
multitudes of sacrifices have been offered since the
Lord delivered Israel out of bondage in Egypt. Perhaps a
million lambs were slaughtered on the first Passover. God
had promised the Israelites that He would deliver them
from Egypt with one last plague - the killing of all the
firstborn in the land. On the evening of the Passover
God would send an angel of death to enter every house
which was not protected by the blood of the Passover
lamb.
The Israelites were
commanded to slay the lamb at twilight and smear the
blood on the doorposts of their houses and were assured
that when the angel saw the blood he would pass over and
spare the firstborn of that household. That night all
the firstborn of Egypt died while all the firstborn of
Israel were spared. As a result, Pharaoh agreed to let
the captives go and the children of Israel departed the
next night triumphantly.
When Israel came into the
promised land it has been said that the blood of the
sacrificed lambs ran through the streets of Jerusalem on
the Passover. Four days before the Passover, each family
acquired a healthy year old lamb and kept it at their
home until the time for Passover came. They came to love
the little lamb which made it difficult to kill and eat
it. To some it was heart-wrenching to see the little
lamb afraid and to hear it cry.
To the Jews Passover was a
commemoration of the death angel sparing their firstborn
in Egypt. To the Christian, the lamb and the blood
represent Jesus, the true Lamb of God who shed His blood
for the forgiveness of sin. To the Jew, the seven-day
Feast of Unleavened Bread commemorates being delivered
from bondage to Egypt so quickly that their dough didn’t
have time to leaven. To the Christian, the Festival of
Unleavened Bread is a celebration of what Jesus, the
true Passover Lamb has done for us, in that He has
delivered us from bondage to sin and it’s penalty by His
blood. Paul told the Church, -"You
are in fact, unleavened", that is,
without sin because the blood of the Lamb has washed
them all away,-"For Christ
our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore let us
celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the
leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Cor.5)
The sacrificial
blood of animals had no power to pay for our sins - they
only served to remind us that we are sinners and that a
divine sacrifice was still needed. Our text shows us
that Jesus was that divine sacrifice which ended all
other sacrifices.
In Jerusalem, on the
Passover of 31 AD, the Lamb of God carried His cross and
willingly laid down His sinless life to save all those
who would receive Him as their Savior. Though He was
without guilt, unlike the little Passover lambs who
cried, He remained silent as He was falsely accused
during His trial. For those who have received Him as
their Savior and their Lord, there is a silence of the
lambs.
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