Wednesday Bible Study
Oct 22, 2008
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Jesus is much more than just the Savior and Master. This week's Bible study shows Jesus' role as our Lamb. Part 1. Let's begin by noting some characteristics of a lamb:
Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke on you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, Ex 8:26 And Moses said, It is not right to do so; for we make our offerings of that to which the Egyptians give worship; and if we do so before their eyes, certainly we will be stoned. Exodus 12:3 Say to all the children of Israel when they are come together, In the tenth day of
this month every man is to take a lamb, by the number of their fathers' families, a lamb for
every family: |
This eyewitness account of a lamb's slaughter is very revealing. We were able to witness for the first time what is meant by the phrase, "Like a lamb to the slaughter." As the father of the baby, Pak Arifin, and his friends led the lamb to its place to be sacrificed, we saw the lamb blindly going wherever it was led to. Then, as the men gently, but firmly, laid the animal down on it's side, the sacrificial lamb did little to protest. The men calmly placed the lamb's head and neck in just such a position so that when slit, the neck could bleed directly into a hole that had been dug in the ground beneath it. As we saw the knife slowly and smoothly slide across the animal's throat, we couldn't believe our eyes, but the lamb did not even flinch, it made no sound at all. The animal just laid there as it's blood drained into the hole in the ground. Slowly, it's eyes began to droop until finally it had no life remaining. And I thought of how Jesus, the Holy Lamb, willingly humbled himself and came to live among us as a man and was obedient to His Father, even to the point of death. He surrendered his life for us of His own will. And yet, I felt a strong sense of hopelessness for these people as I watched them go through this ritual in vain. I couldn't help but think of the fact that they have put their faith in traditions and rituals in hope that they can in some way make themselves more acceptable to God. At the same time, I wondered when, if ever, they would understand the words spoken in Rev. 5:12, "...Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." From: http//www.williamsonministry.com/blog/2005/03/like-lamb-to-slaughter.html Why did God require a lamb to be slaughtered? 1.) To disdain, minimize and gain honor at the expense of the god worshiped by the Egyptians When God ordered the Israelites to prepare a lamb on the 10th of Nisan for Passover (Ex. xii. 3) they feared the vengeance of the Egyptians, because the lamb was the Egyptian deity (ib, viii. 26). From: SHABBAT HA-GADOL: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com |
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Exodus 12:5 Let your lamb be without a mark, a male in its first year: you may take it
from among the sheep or the goats: :6 Keep it till the fourteenth day of the same month, when everyone who is of the children of Israel is to put it to death between sundown and dark. :7 Then take some of the blood and put it on the two sides of the door and over the door of the house where the meal is to be taken. :8 And let your food that night be the flesh of the lamb, cooked with fire in the oven, together with unleavened bread and bitter-tasting plants. :9 Do not take it uncooked or cooked with boiling water, but let it be cooked in the oven; its head with its legs and its inside parts. :10 Do not keep any of it till the morning; anything which is not used is to be burned with fire. :11 And take your meal dressed as if for a journey, with your shoes on your feet and your sticks in your hands: take it quickly: it is the Lord's Passover. :12 For on that night I will go through the land of Egypt, sending death on every first male child, of man and of beast, and judging all the gods of Egypt: I am the Lord. :13 And the blood will be a sign on the houses where you are: when I see the blood I will go over you, and no evil will come on you for your destruction, when my hand is on the land of Egypt. :14 And this day is to be kept in your memories: you are to keep it as a feast to the Lord through all your generations, as an order for ever. |
2.) To provide a symbol as forerunner to Jesus, the real sacrificial Lamb. The sacrifice of the unmarked, unblemished male lamb, his blood on the door supports, the salvation of those identified by that blood, as others were dying around them, is an example that is hard to misunderstand by following generations: be marked by the sinless (unmarked, unblemished) Blood of Christ or die. Marked by the Blood = Life (eternally in Heaven with Jesus). Not marked by the Blood = death (eternally in Hell with Satan). |
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May my Master bless you and open your understanding as you read His Word. |
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Jesus Is More Jesus Is More - Healer Jesus Is More - Shepherd |
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