Promises: The Story of the Lamb

The Promises that God makes and demonstrates will always come to fruition.

The greatest promise God has give you is salvation… and he has demonstrated it from the beginning!

All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.

-Revelation 13:8 (NIV)

Narrative: God chooses to reveal his redemptive story to us in Genesis and continues it in the details of the Exodus of the Children of Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land.

The Story of the Lamb: The Exodus

Genesis 50: Joseph and His Coat of Many Colors

Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and ended up in Egypt.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 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. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 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 members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover. “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

-Exodus 12:1-13 (NIV)

When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

-Exodus 12:23 (NIV)

“The Destroyer will come!” means God is going to give Egypt and Israel a glimpse of the final Judgement.

And there is only one way to escape: The Lamb!

The Story of the Lamb: Abraham’s Chapter

Genesis 22: The Offering of Isaac

In Abraham’s culture, a first born son was everything.

Into Abraham’s culture of primogeniture, God sends a clear and direct message:

The life of every firstborn son belongs to me. Unless you redeem it back to yourself with a lamb.

God was sending two messages:

First: Your ultimate hope is in Me.

Second: Your ultimate debt is to Me.

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.“ The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

-Genesis 22:6-8 (NIV)

We are all sinners. Why can’t God just forgive our debt?

Only two ways to deal with the debt:

1. Make them pay it down!

2. Forgive the debt: The right thing to do.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

-Matthew 6:12 (NIV)

Forgiveness means,

”I am the one paying down the debt! I take the pain. I assume the struggle. I take the affliction. I absorb the suffering."

There is a debt we owe to God and He has the right to call for it!

The Story of the Lamb: Moses’s Chapter

Exodus Chapter 2: The Passover

God is going to claim the life of the firstborn of every family in Egypt!

God claims the life of the firstborn because as the Creator of all things he has the right of ownership over all that we have—especially those things that are most precious to us.

Two Significant Principles In the Passover Story"

First: Spiritual Equalitarianism

None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.

-Exodus 12:22b (NIV)

If anyone tries to go out into the darkness to face the Destroyer on their own, all will likewise perish.

Second: Spiritual Substitutionism.

In every single Hebrew home during Passover, the first born son in every home looked at the lamb on the table and said, “The only reason I’m not dead is because that is.”

“To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: “ ‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’

-Luke 7:31-32 (NIV)

Equalitarianism. All are in debt. No one is immune!

Substitutionism: There is a way to pay the debt. For everyone!

The Story of the Lamb: Jesus’s Chapter

Luke 22:7: The Last Supper/Passover

The Passover Meal included many things, but the major players were:

The Presider. He recounts the story of how God liberated the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

The Passover Meal.

Matzah: representing the haste at which they left Egypt.

Maror: bitter herbs representing the bitterness of suffering.

4 Cups of Wine, each representing:

The cup of sanctification.

The cup of judgment and deliverance.

The cup of praise and restoration.

The main course:

the Lamb that was slain.

He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’”

-Matthew 26:18 (NIV)

Jesus’s death is the central event toward which God’s relationship to the world has been moving.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

-John 1:29 (NIV)

How does the story of the Lamb come to its climactic point?

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open.

-Matthew 27:45, 50, 52A (NIV)

Jesus died at twilight:

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 members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.

-Exodus 12:5-6 (NIV)

The Passover in Exodus was on the 14th day of Nissan.

Jesus was crucified a few thousand years later on the 14th Day of Nissan.

The Passover Lamb was selected on the 10th Day of Nissan.

Jesus’ triumphal entry happened on the 10th Day of Nissan.

The Story of the Lamb:

Abraham’s Chapter: There is a debt owed by all.

Moses’ Chapter: A substitute can pay the debt.

Jesus’ Chapter: God has provided the ultimate spotless lamb without blemish.

Only those who have placed the blood of the lamb over the doorposts of their hearts will be saved.

But how do you know you have placed the blood of the lamb over the doorposts of your heart?

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open.

-Matthew 27:45, 50, 51, 52a (NIV)

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