November 29, 2021 – Exodus 12:21-27 & 1 Corinthians 5:7

Exodus 12 begins, “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ‘This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household’” (12:1-3). The story is then told of the first Passover Lamb and the yearly observance that taught succeeding generations: “It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses” (12:27). The Passover Lamb and deliverance; the two just go together, don’t they?

In his parting words to the Ephesian elders, Paul exhorted, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). In addressing sin at Corinth, Paul exhorted the believers to live righteously, “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus is our deliverance!

A Ligonier Ministry devotion explains, “Without Christ, the Father looks upon the world He made and sees only a mass of corrupt sinners who are wholly deserving of His wrath. But since Jesus has died for His people, the Father now sees in the midst of fallen humanity men and women who have been marked with the blood of His Son by faith. His wrath can let these blood-bought saints alone in a passing over even greater than the one over the houses of Israel so long ago.” Oh, my!

Lamb of God so pure and spotless,

Lamb of God for sinners slain.

Thy shed blood has wrought redemption,

Cleansing us from every stain.

Lamb redeeming, Lamb redeeming,

Bearing all our sins away,

Bearing all our sins away! -- John Hughes (1873-1932)