We are in chapter twelve of Exodus with our word for today. שֶׂה lamb, young sheep or goat, small livestock, one of the flock. It is used 47 times in the Old Testament, 5 times in our chapter. A good example of our word is in 1 Samuel 17:34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a שֶׂ֖ה sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. This is how our word is used in our chapter. Exodus 12:3-6 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a שֶׂ֥ה lamb according to their fathers' houses, a שֶׂ֥ה lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a מִשֶּׂה֒ 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 הַשֶּֽׂה lamb. Your שֶׂ֥ה lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their הַכְּבָשִׂ֥ים lambs at twilight.
God like he always does is setting up the way to bring good out of evil. He sets up the Passover feast to show us our need for our sins to be paid for by none other than God himself. This is a foreshadowing of what God was going to do over a thousand years later. We have already seen an earlier foreshadowing with Abraham and Isaac. Genesis 22:7-8 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 הַשֶּׂ֖ה lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the הַשֶּׂ֛ה lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. Instead of Isaac being sacrificed God provided a lamb instead of or in place of Isaac. In our chapter God is redeeming his people which we saw earlier he referred to as his son by having his people kill a lamb the very night of the last plague of the killing of the firstborn of Egypt. We see in the New Testament that Jesus fulfills this unique role of the lamb offered in sacrifice. John 1:29, 36 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! Acts 8:32, 34-35 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth… The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 1 Corinthians 5:7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Revelation 5:12-13 In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
I’ll close with this wonderful prophecy made 700 years beforehand of what Jesus did for us. Isaiah 53:6-7 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a כַּשֶּׂה֙ lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
