Last night I had a strange dream. I dreamed I had sacrificed my little kitty to the Lord. Yes, the cute little orange kitty pictured here, snuggled in my bed! Her name is Esther. When my daughter gave her to me I said, "She is Esther, for such a time as this!" (My daughter felt I needed a pet because I live all alone - and that it was time for me to have a "companion")! As you can imagine, this was not an enjoyable dream, but I knew immediately why the LORD had given it to me.
As Moses gives the people God's instructions for keeping the Passover Feast, he says to them, "Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight" (Exodus 12:3,5-6).
Why did the LORD tell the people to bring those little lambs into their households and take care of them for four days before they have to slit their throats and then "take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs"? (Ex. 12:7) There were two reasons. First, for these four days, while they are "taking care" of these lambs, they are also examining them, to make sure they are "spotless and without blemish," meaning without any physical defects, as was commanded by God. This is a shadow and picture of Yeshua, who was examined and tried over a period of four days by Caiaphas the High Priest and the Sanhedrin (the Jewish Ruling Council), and then by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate found no fault in Yeshua (no blemish, no defect!) and he "took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood. It is your responsibility" (Matthew 27:24). Then Yeshua was sent to His death on an execution stake, sacrificed as the true Passover Lamb, whose blood covers the "doorposts" of our lives, atoning for our sins and keeping us safe from the plague of death.
The second reason the people are told to "take care of the lambs for four days" is that by the time they have to sacrifice them, it is painful. They have undoubtedly become close to the fleecy little lambs running around their households, playing with their children. Where it would have been simple and easy to go out into the midst of the flock, choose a lamb and kill it, now it is hard. That's what makes it a sacrifice! It gives us some small grasp of the unspeakable pain it must have been to the Father to sacrifice His own Son.
Exodus 12:14: "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD - a lasting ordinance." Therefore let us keep the feast!
