Lamb
When God was about to deliver the final plague that would free the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, He told Moses to get everyone together in their houses. They were going to have a feast, a special feast, but they had to do some things first. God wanted them to take a firstborn lamb that was without spot or blemish and kill it at twilight. They were to take some of the blood from this sheep or goat and paint it over the mantle of their door and on the posts. The meat from this animal they were to cook in fire and eat with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. It was the Lord’s Passover.
This they did in accordance with the word God spoke to Moses and that very night, the Lord struck down all the firstborn of Egypt from the greatest to the least, but the Lord passed over the households of the Israelites that had the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and mantle of their houses. Thusly, God delivered the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt. Every year thereafter at the same time, the children of Israel were to observe the feast of Unleavened Bread, the Passover, to commemorate their rescue.
Also once a year, in the Levitical covenant, the priests were to sacrifice a lamb in the temple as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people. Again, this lamb was to be an unblemished firstborn among the flocks and its blood sprinkled inside the veil, the most holy place before the Ark of the Covenant (mercy seat of God). This sacrificial lamb would take the place of the people in payment of the penalty of sin. This was done year after year, over and over again, a temporary fix for a deeply entrenched problem.
It was prophesied that a Lamb would come that would take away sin once and for all. When Jesus came to the Jordan to be baptized by John, John called out, “Behold! The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, (John 1:29)
Heb 9:11-15-> 11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come,with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Heb 9:22 says, “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.”
It continues in verse 26, “He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”
Even so, Jesus is known as the Lamb of God in Rev 5:6. Indeed, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing…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….blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever. Amen and Amen!”
“Alleluia! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage feast of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready…Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!” Rev 19:6-7, 9