Quick Note – Exodus 12:1-4 – The Sufficient Lamb

Exodus 12:1-4 – “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ² “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. ³ 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. ⁴ And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.”

Jewish people celebrate the Passover to commemorate the night when God delivered His people from Egyptian slavery. After sending nine plagues on Pharaoh and Egypt for not letting His people go, God decided that the tenth plague would be upon all the firstborn in Egypt whether livestock, slave, or royal. All the firstborn would be killed. However to preserve His people who lived in Egypt, God told the Israelites to take a lamb, kill it, and place its blood on the lintel and doorposts of their houses. In this way, when the angel of the Lord was coming to strike the firstborn, if it saw the blood on the house, it would pass over that house, sparing the firstborn inside. That night when the angel of God struck the firstborn of Egypt, all the Israelites were safe, because he passed over their houses when he saw the blood of the lamb. This is why the holiday/celebration was known as the Passover.

After that night, each year the Israelites were called to celebrate the Passover by taking a lamb and repeating this rite to remember that day. However, what is even more interesting is that each year when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, it was not just done as a commemoration of the past, but also, a representation of what would happen in the future when the Messiah would come to this earth to die for the sins of the world. Just as how the Passover lamb was slain as a replacement for the firstborn that was to die, the Messiah was to come and die as a replacement for sinners, whose wages for sin is death (Romans 6:23). When Jesus Christ came, He came to be that Messiah; He came to be, what John the Baptist called Him, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29). He did this by living a perfect sinless life yet dying as a replacement on the cross for us. He paid the penalty that was ours, so that we could find life in Him. He acted as that Passover lamb, who would be sacrificed in our place to spare us from the judgment that was awaiting us. For that, we should accept His gift of salvation and always thank Him.

One question I have always had though is how many lambs were sacrificed during that first Passover. In vs. 3, the people were told that they were to take a lamb and sacrifice it for each household. They were to kill it, place the blood on the doorposts of the house, then roast the lamb and eat it, so as not to waste the sacrifice that was spilled in their place. However, vs. 4 tells us that if a household was too small for a lamb, then that house was to share a lamb between two households. This probably meant that two or three households could all stay in the same house and have the angel of God pass over or maybe use the same blood and place it on the lintels of two or three houses and share the meat of the lamb. I mean there must have been more than enough blood from one lamb to cover four doorposts and two lintels, right? So I wonder how many lambs were slain in Egypt during that night. Hundreds, thousands, or just a few that were shared for multiple houses.

As Christians though, we know that only one sacrifice exists for our sin, and that sacrifice is Jesus Christ. He came to this earth once; He died on the cross once; and He was raised again once. After His death and resurrection, no other sacrifice was needed; no other person needed to die; no other lamb needed to be slain. The reason for this was because He paid the full penalty for the sins of the world on that cross, when He cried out, “It is finished.” So there would only be one Passover lamb for the sins of the world. But why is that? Why only one? It is for the same reason why multiple households shared one Passover lamb during that first Passover – because one household could not finish that single lamb. The whole world and all its sin could never use up the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He is enough. He is sufficient. He is complete. All of us can share that one Lamb, because no matter how many sins we commit, no matter how bad they are, it is still too small to use up the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His grace is enough. His mercy is enough. His love is enough. He is more than enough.

So if you believe that you have failed too much, sinned too badly, or fallen too far, remember that the sacrifice of the true Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, is still more than enough for you. He is enough to pay for the sins of the world and that includes yours. Give your life over to Him today. Take part in that sacrifice by accepting Him as your Lord and Savior, and be saved today. Let His blood be the reason that the judgment of God will pass over your life.