Friday, April 22, 2016 was Passover.  Passover is always on the same day of the Jewish calendar every year, the 14th day of the month of Abib.  This is according to God’s command given at the time of the exodus from Egypt.  It is still the day that it is observed today. 

Passover was the day that Jesus, Yeshua, was crucified.  In truth, if we are to remember His sacrifice on the actual anniversary of it, we should have done that just over a week ago on April 22nd. 

On the night before the Israelites left Egypt, the people were given instructions for observing the first Passover Feast.  Among other things, they were to sacrifice a lamb (or goat), a year old, and without blemish.  Each household was to do this, unless the household was too small to eat the whole lamb, then they could share with another household.  Very specific instructions were given on how to sacrifice and prepare this lamb.  Each household would sacrifice their own lamb, spread the blood on their door posts, and then cook and eat the lamb.  The blood on the door posts marked the Israelites as set apart from the Egyptians.  When the Israelites left Egypt, they numbered more than 600,000 men (plus women and children)…I wonder how many households that was?  Keep that in mind for now.

I would like to point out two things here.  One, the blood as an identifier; and two, the one-year-old lamb without blemish.  Now let’s see if there is a pattern.

Once the Israelites were safely out of danger from the Egyptians, God put the people to work building the Tabernacle (the incredible tent of meeting where God Himself would be present with the people).  It was at this time that God instituted the sacrificial system.  This was a series of animal and grain sacrifices that would cover any number of purposes.  The Burnt offering was voluntary.  It was an act of submission to God’s will.  The sacrifice was a male lamb, bull, ram, dove, or pigeon (God made allowance for those who did not have the means to offer a larger animal).  If the bull, ram, or sheep was used, it was to be without blemish.  The person offering the sacrifice laid his hand on the animal’s head, symbolizing the substitution of the animal for the person.  The priests would place the parts of the animal on the alter and burn it.  It was also the priests who would sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice around the alter.

Other sacrifices were the Grain offering, the Peace offering, the Sin offering, and the Trespass offering.  Of these four, three of them offered animal sacrifice, and two of them required an animal without blemish.  The Sin offering required the priest to dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary, and also wipe the blood on the horns of the alter. When a priest was installed, blood from a sacrifice was wiped on the tip of his right ear, right thumb, and big toe of his right foot.  The same was true for the person with a Leprous condition (which I understand to be any type of sore on the skin that was possibly contagious), after he had been declared clean by the priest as part of offering the Trespass offering.

The blood represented life.  Spilling the blood of a sacrifice was a substitutionary payment for the lifeblood that would have otherwise been required of each and every sinful person by a holy and righteous God.  In sacrificing the animal, without blemish, the person was transferring his own sin to the sacrifice.  At the same time, he was taking the blood of the sacrifice, the consequence of his sin, upon himself, and receiving the forgiveness through the substitution.  In other words, he made the sacrifice his own.

I will come back to this in a moment, but I want to point out something that, to me, is stunning.  It occurred to me while studying this in Leviticus what a great many lambs, goats, bulls, etc. needed to be sacrificed, on a daily basis.  Hebrews 10:11 says that every priest offered daily, and repeatedly the same sacrifices which never take away sins (the sin and the trespass offerings).  The Passover was celebrated yearly, and required an unblemished lamb or goat for each family.  At the time of the Exodus, as I stated earlier, there were hundreds of thousands of Israelites.  A wild stab in the dark would suggest that there may have been as many as 30 to 40 to maybe even 50,000 families.  That was when the nation was small.  They continued to grow.  Imagine the numbers by the time Christ walked the earth.  Now, how many animals without blemish do you suppose are the regular, run-of-the-mill occurrence?  I asked a local sheep farmer I know.  His response?  Maybe 1%.  One percent!!!  It would have been earthly impossible for the Israelites to offer up the sacrifices, as God commanded them to do, at the high numbers that were necessary, without the miraculous provision of them.  Just as God provided Yeshua, our spotless sacrificial Passover lamb for the forgiveness, once and for all, of our sins and the sins of the world, God also provided the lambs without blemish for thousands of people over hundreds of years for the forgiveness of their sins. Amazing God!!

Back to the blood of the sacrifice and the Passover.  I stated a moment ago that the person offering the sacrifice made it his own by laying his head on the animal, killing it himself, getting the animal’s blood on his own hands.  It was the consequence of his own sin.  He took that blood upon himself.  The blood of the Passover lamb, spread on the door posts, set that family aside as belonging to God.  There was great symbolism in the blood.

The night before Jesus was crucified, he had what we call the Lord’s Supper, or Communion, with His disciples.  In this meal, a cup of wine represents the blood of Jesus that was to be spilled for the forgiveness of sins through His sacrifice.  What did the disciples do with that wine, the symbolic blood?  They drank it.  They took it upon themselves, by taking into their bodies.  They made it their own.  And in so doing, they marked themselves as set aside and belonging to God.  The next time you partake in the Lord’s Supper, remember it is more than remembering what Jesus did for you at the cross.  You have accepted His sacrifice in your place, as a consequence of your sin…you have made, so gratefully, His sacrifice your own.  Your hands have been covered by His blood.  And beyond that, you have been marked as His, set aside, belonging to God Himself. 

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold!  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  (John 1:29)