[thoughts during advent] the lamb of god...

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
(John 1:29)

so before you think i have my holidays mixed up, i wanted to clarify that i do in fact know that it is christmas and not easter. and that even though i am about to talk about passover and moses and the movie "ten commandments" comes on at easter, its message is just as wrapped up in jesus' birth. just hang with me here.

to set the back story, israel is enslaved by egypt.  they moved to egypt during the great famine of joseph's time, but years later the new pharaoh thought they were too numerous. he grew fearful and made them slaves. god raises up moses to free the israelites from slavery and take them into the promised land.  pharaoh would not let the people go, no matter how nicely moses asked.  so god sends 10 plagues to egypt to show his power over probably what is one of the strongest nations in the world at this time.   

the final plague is a horrific one. god is going to kill all the firstborn sons in the land!  god had moses tell the israelites that only one thing could save their firstborn sons; they kill a perfect lamb and put the blood of that lamb on the door frames of their houses.  then when the angel of death comes to kill the firstborn sons, he would pass over those houses because of the blood.  he would not punish them because he will see the blood of the innocent lamb. 

 we know that for years after this, people celebrated the passover only hoping for another lamb that would save them once for all, rather than the continual sacrifices that they had to make.  many still live like this, but we know we don’t have to!  we know that in lowly manger in a small town, a baby was born whose blood would save us all!  rather than seeing our sin and our rebellion, god would see the blood and the righteousness of his son and his wrath would pass over us, just as he passed over the houses of those with blood on the door frame! wow!

the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world, came to us! immanuel! let us not forget to celebrate that this season!