“…Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.” 1 Cor. 5:7 (NLT)
In Exodus chapter 12, God promised when He saw the blood of the lamb on the doorframes of a home; He would pass over sparing that family the plague of killing the firstborn sons and firstborn male animals in the land of Egypt. This disaster would be the LAST and FINAL plague needed for Pharaoh to surrender to the demand of God to let His people go. After 430 years of slavery, God’s people would finally know what it was like to be delivered from bondage, released from long days of unrealistic, hard manual labor and to experience freedom from the chains that had them bound.
In the original Passover, those Israelite’s sacrificing a lamb signified they would be spared God’s judgment…His promise in verse 13, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you…”
Some 1,500 years after the Israelite’s liberation from Pharaoh’s captivity, Paul used the same term to describe Christ as the sacrificial Passover Lamb. He knew the events in Exodus foreshadowed the coming sacrifice of Jesus when he penned “…Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us” in 1 Corinthians.
The Israelites needed a lamb without blemish to cover their homes to save them from death. Both stories parallel, nothing has changed, even now 2000 years later, humanity still needs a spotless Lamb to save us from the grave. Jesus became the spotless sacrificial Lamb. He took the place of the blood from bulls, goats and fowl. He became the LAST and FINAL sacrifice good for all time.
Passover recognizes the defeat over death, the empty tomb and the victorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior. Easter celebrates the new covenant; the better, perfect promise not chiseled in stone, but written with the precious blood of the Lamb.
“Father, it’s Your unselfish love that freed Your people in Exodus and the same love throughout the span of time that continues saving us. Your shed blood is still covering our sins, freeing the captives and saving the lost.”
For His Glory
Kim Lacey Schock (www.kimlaceyschock.com)
TRBC Women’s Life
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