The Passover Lamb
Always remember in all these things, as we look back on them, that they point to the true Passover Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 5:7-8 NKJV Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. (8) Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
The first time that the Children of Israel partook of the Passover meal was while they were in Egypt looking forward to their deliverance. Every time after that, they looked back at what the Lord had done to deliver them from their bondage.
When the disciples partook of the Passover meal with Jesus, they were looking forward to what the Lord was going to do through Jesus on the cross. When we receive the communion table, we are looking back on what the Lord did to deliver us from our bondage.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 NKJV For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; (24) and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” (25) In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” (26) For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
The Passover Instructions from Exodus:
Exodus 12:1-15 NKJV Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, (2) “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. (3) Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. (4) And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. (5) Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. (6) Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. (between the evenings) (7) And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. (8) Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. (9) Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. (10) You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. (11) And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. (12) ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. (13) Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. (14) ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. (15) Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
A brief chronology of the Passover Feast and Feast of Unleavened Bread:
- The Passover Lamb had to be killed sometime between the evenings of the 14th day of the first month and everyone stayed in that night.
- For seven days following Passover is the feast of unleavened bread.
- The first Sunday in the week of unleavened bread is called First fruits.
- Fifty days after that is the Feast of Pentecost. There is a three month break.
- Then there are three feasts in the fall: Trumpets, Atonements, and Tabernacles.
- Jesus was crucified on Passover. He was resurrected on First Fruits. The priests would go into the fields and inspect the brand new crops and look and see how good they were. They would then wave them before the Lord signifying that the rest of the crop was going to be OK.
- While they were waving them in the air, Jesus was resurrected guaranteeing that the rest of the crop was going to be OK.
Instructions For Passover:
God instructs every man to select for his household a lamb without spot or blemish on the 10th day of the first month of the year. He is to observe the lamb for five days to make sure there is nothing wrong with him.
On the 14th day of the month, he is to bring the lamb to the doorstep and kill it. As he kills the animal he catches the blood in a basin at the foot of the doorstep.
He then takes a hyssop bush, dip it into the blood, and sprinkle the blood on both sides of the doorpost and then above the doorpost. Hyssop was a reed plant that contained water and when it is dipped in blood and the doorposts were struck with it, blood and water would come out of it. There will be blood at the foot of the door, both sides of the door, and at the top of the door. The entire entrance to the house will be covered by blood.
This is to be done on the evening of the 14th. The Hebrew day begins at 6:00 in the evening. So they had to kill the lambs around 3:00 in the afternoon of the 14th day in order to eat the meal by 6:00. When 3:00 arrives, Hebrew knives flash against the Egyptian sun, as the lambs are killed and the blood applied. The family then enters the house through the blood-stained door. Safe inside, they roast the lamb and eat it as they wait for the final plague of death to move through the land.
Remember, there are literally tens of thousands of people killing lambs and sprinkling the blood, ALL AT THE SAME TIME!
Can you imagine what it would be like and smell like if all of the residents of a city with a population of approximately 2 million people decided to go out in the back yard and grill steaks. You could smell the steaks and see the smoke for miles.
As the scent of the smoke ascended up, it reached the very nostrils of God. It was the evidence to God that the blood, representing the covenant relationship with Abraham’s descendants, had been applied.
Then the covenant meal was consumed to celebrate the communion of that covenant.
Exodus 12:46 NKJV (46) In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones.
In preparing the meal, not one bone of the lamb was to be broken and the whole lamb was to be consumed. Nothing could be left over until the next day. Anything that the family could not eat was to be burned immediately.
Along with the lamb, the family also ate bitter herbs and unleavened bread. The bitter herbs were to remind them of their bitter times in bondage under Pharaoh. The unleavened bread would remind them they were eating on the run and did not have time to properly prepare the bread with all of the ingredients.
They ate the meal fully clothed with staff in hand ready to depart.
While the family was in the house, they could not see the blood covering but they had the faith that God would save them because of it.
As they ate their meal, the angel of death swept through the land. As he passed from house to house and door to door, he sought to enter the house. If the entrance was covered by the blood, the death angel could not get in but had to pass over that house. The blood was a seal protecting the people inside. If the entrance was not covered by blood, judgment would come upon that house and the first-born died.
As the Hebrew nation walked out of Egypt, each family had in them a whole lamb. Every individual family member had feasted on the same lamb and he was in each of them.
When the Hebrews offered up the blood of the lamb to God, they believed they were symbolically offering their own life to God. They knew the life of the flesh was in the blood.
In this time of deliverance, the blood-sprinkled doorpost became their altar and the lamb took their place.
The Covenant Meal
God established the Passover Meal as an ordinance to be kept year after year, from generation to generation. It would be an everlasting memorial to their deliverance from bondage in Egypt.
The House Cleaning
Before the Passover could begin, all the leaven was to be removed from the Hebrew’s house. The leaven represented their old life in Egypt. Their house had to be purged of the leaven because their could be no leaven present as they communed with God.
The Head of the House would take a lighted candle and diligently search through every nook and cranny of the house looking for the leaven. If they found any it must be removed from the house immediately.
The modern Hebrew practices this same tradition as someone spreads crumbs of unleavened bread around the house. The Head of the Household then takes a candle and searches the house for the leaven. When he finds it, he is careful not to touch it. He has a feather and brushes it into a wooden spoon. Once all of the leaven is found, he puts the spoon, feather and candle in a cloth bound by string and burns it. Now the household is purged from all of the leaven.
Partaking of the meal
The family reclines at the table seated in order around the head of the house. The Head is responsible for explaining the meaning of the Passover to the children. When they ask, he replies,
Exodus 12:27 NKJV (27) that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
The Cup
When God made His covenant with Abraham, He made three promises:
- There would be many Descendents
- Descendents would possess the land
- There was a seed of Abraham that was coming who would be a blessing to whole world
The “coming one” would not only be their king, but somehow in a way that they did not fully understand, he would be “God living among them.” He would be their God and they would be His people.
After they possessed the land, they began to look for the fulfillment of that last promise.
They anticipated His coming.
They placed a cup at the end of the table called the “cup of blessing.” According to tradition, when he would come, he would drink of “the cup” and cut a new covenant with His people. So they left a place looking forward to this time.
They also set aside a cup for Elijah. They believed Elijah would come and announce the coming of the king. He would prepare the people for the coming of the king. At the beginning of the covenant meal, the youngest of the family would open the door and invite Elijah to come in and join them in the meal. The entire family would stand and say, “Blessed is he that cometh.” But he does not come. So the youngest returns to his place at the table.
The family would then recite the following prayer: “How long, O Lord, how long will Your anger not be turned away from Your people Israel and will You have mercy and restore us again to Your favor? Behold our sufferings: we are scattered among the heathen and they mock us saying: where is your God, and where is the promise of his coming? We grow faint, yet we hope.”
The Bread
Instead of putting unleavened bread on the plate, they began to put it in a small bag embroidered with gold thread. Three pieces of unleavened bread were placed in three compartments in the bag, one in each compartment. During the meal, the host would take out the middle piece of bread, break it and pass it around the table. Each member would then break off a piece and eat it. They believed that this center piece symbolized Isaac who was sacrificed although they never fully understood it because he was never sacrificed.
Temple Passover
Later when the temple was built, instead of killing the lambs at the doorpost, they would bring them to Jerusalem and kill them at the temple. It became a time of great joy and celebration.
The Levites would lead the people in singing as they sacrificed at the Temple.
When the Hebrew came to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, he could buy a lamb already set aside for sacrifice. It was a lamb that had been closely inspected and without spot or blemish. It was a lamb that they found no fault in because it was born to die as a Passover Lamb.
Arriving for Passover the Killing of the Lambs
You arrive at Jerusalem and you see the temple off in the distance.
There is a lot of activity as people are preparing for the Passover.
Josephus the Jewish historian recorded that there would be about 265,000 passover lambs that would be sacrificed.
Imagine at 3:00 on the 14th day, all of those lambs being killed at the same time for the next couple of hours.
The Levites would line up in rows with a basin in his hand to catch the blood, just like the threshold in the original Passover.
You would then prepare the Passover meal as instructed and receive it.
The New Covenant
John 1:19-29 NKJV (19) Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” (20) He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” (21) And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” (22) Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” (23) He said: “I am ‘THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS: “MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,” ‘ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (24) Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. (25) And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” (26) John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. (27) It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” (28) These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. (29) The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
On the 10th day of the Passover month, Jesus makes His entrance into Jerusalem.
John 12:12-15 NKJV (12) The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, (13) took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’ The King of Israel!” (14) Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: (15) “FEAR NOT, DAUGHTER OF ZION; BEHOLD, YOUR KING IS COMING, SITTING ON A DONKEY’S COLT.”
For five days, the religious leaders observe Him and find nothing wrong with Him. He is spotless and without blemish. They find no fault because He was born to die as the Passover Lamb.
On the evening of the 14th, a room is prepared and Jesus and His disciples receive the Passover meal together.
Jesus picks up the bag with the bread in it and pulls out the middle piece and breaks it and gives it to His disciples.
Luke 22:7-20 NKJV (7) Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. (8) And He sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.” (9) So they said to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare?” (10) And He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters. (11) Then you shall say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?” ‘ (12) Then he will show you a large, furnished upper room; there make ready.” (13) So they went and found it just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover. (14) When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. (15) Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; (16) for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” (17) Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; (18) for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” (19) And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” (20) Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.
The bread does not represent Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as originally thought, but rather for God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus reaches in and takes out the bread in the center compartment of the bag and breaks it and gives it to the disciples.
Jesus then reaches over and takes “the cup” and drinks of it and serves the disciples from it.
At 9:00 that morning, as the lambs were being prepared for the sacrifice, Jesus was nailed to a cross. The third hour was 9:00 in the morning.
He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows.
He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Yet He opened not his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter.
His strength was poured out like water.
His bones were out of joint.
His heart melted like wax.
His strength dried up like sun-baked clay.
His tongue stuck to the roof of His mouth.
His bones protruded out of His body.
His heel was bruised.
At 3:00 as the people sang praises to God, the lambs are slaughtered. As the shouts of hallelujah and praise the lord ring out, on Calvary Jesus died. Just like the doorpost back in Egypt, the blood of the lamb covered the cross.
Not one bone of His body was broken just as the instructions were in the Passover.
The entire lamb was consumed in the fires of judgment of God as He was our sin substitute.
The Jews, not knowing that they were fulfilling another prophecy, hurriedly took down His body before 6:00, so that there would be nothing left the next day.
The hyssop bush carries water through its stem. When the blood was applied, water and blood would flow together so the entrance of the house was actually sealed with blood and water.
The High Priest would have to pass by the blood of the altar and the water of the laver.
When the Temple was built, blood drained in basins underneath the altar. Water flowed through these basins carrying the blood outside the Temple so that the people could see that their sacrifice had been accepted.
When they pierced Jesus’ side, water and blood flowed out.
1 Peter 1:18-19 NKJV knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, (19) but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
Revelation 5:1-14 NKJV And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. (2) Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” (3) And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. (4) So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. (5) But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” (6) And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. (7) Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. (8) Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. (9) And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, (10) And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” (11) Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, (12) saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!” (13) And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!” (14) Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.