Exodus 12:5-6 (NKJV) Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.

Lamb of God's Choosing

The Passover Lamb was to be:

• A male in its first year of life. It could be taken from the sheep (lamb) or the goats (kid).
• Enough to feed a family. If the family was small, they were to gather with a neighbor, so as not to waste any.
• Whole, "without blemish" — with no sickness or physical deformity.

We can’t help but think of the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God’s choosing, of whom the Apostle Peter wrote (1 Peter 1:18-19): " . . . you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

 

The Lamb (or kid) was to be kept for four days, until the 14th. The LORD didn’t tell them why they were to wait, but surely while it lived the lamb was a visible reminder of the promise of God and of the cost of their deliverance!

 

Then on the 14th Day of Nisan, between sundown and darkness, all of the lambs were to be slaughtered at twilight. This was done in their homes in Egypt, but when the temple of the LORD was built (Deuteronomy 16:5ff), it was done before the Lord’s altar.

 

Once more, we can’t help but think of what the Holy Spirit directed Paul to write (1 Corinthians 5:7): "Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us."

 

We have been delivered from death eternal by the blood of the Lamb! Praise God!