Passover: A Lamb for a Household

Feasts of Israel: Part 4

 “On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household” (Exodus 12:3).

We’ve been reading along in the first few verses of Exodus 12 where God told His people how long they were to set apart their Passover lamb. In verses 3–10, we find how many lambs were to come under each roof. One.

According to God’s instruction, the Israelites would kill their lamb on the fourteenth of Nisan. They were to roast and eat all of it. None was to remain until morning. If a single lamb was too large for one family to finish, they could invite a neighbor to eat with them. No matter how large a household was, however, one lamb would feed them all. God’s portion might be too big, but it would never be too small.

As they stood around their tables that night eating the last of their meal, I wonder what questions haunted them. How would they feed themselves tomorrow when they set off for the desert? There would be no leftovers to pack in their lunch boxes in the morning. They might carry some starter dough on their way out of town, but where would they find fields of grain for more flour when they’d used it up?

As the destroying angel passed over them that night, they were teetering on the brink of tomorrow. God was separating them from Egypt’s supply and their education in trust would begin the next morning.

The Lamb Disappears

We’ve already seen how Jesus’ experience mirrored the lamb’s from the tenth to the fourteenth of Nisan when He came into Jerusalem for the last time (see the previous blog). As with the Passover lambs, the Lamb of God would be gone by morning. Observant Jews were just finishing off their solemn meal when Joseph of Arimathea was tucking Jesus’ dead body into a tomb (Mark 15:43–46).

Like those first Israelites huddling in their Egyptian homes, the New Testament disciples must have wondered what was coming next. They were being separated from the familiarity of direct contact with the Lord and set in position to go on without Him. The prospect of life without Jesus spread out before them like a forbidding, endless desert.

Tomorrow, they’d start learning a new way of following.

Trusting God for Tomorrow

Old Testament and New, God always proved Himself faithful. As Israel moved into the desert, He sent manna with the morning dew until they could grow grain in the Promised Land. He even supplied double on the sixth day so they could enjoy their Sabbath rest on the seventh. Like the Passover lamb which could feed whole households, God’s supply was always enough. “He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack” (Exodus 16:18).

Jesus would demonstrate the same truth when He blessed five loaves to feed five thousand and seven loaves to feed four thousand (Matthew 14 and 15). As the ultimate Passover Lamb, whatever He touched became sufficient for all.

Have you been on the bring of tomorrow like this? God says, “Eat freely today because tomorrow we head into the unknown. Don’t worry what you have or don’t have. I’ll provide what you need as we go.” Separation from the old and familiar can be unsettling, even scary. But it’s a necessary part of preparation for the new—new faith, new understanding, new freedom.

The little household lamb we grew to love may have disappeared overnight, but it’s only because the great Lamb of God awaits us in the desert. Tomorrow, we’ll learn a whole new kind of love–one that trusts Him more than ever before as He proves day by day that He is enough.