“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.”

(Exodus 12:3 NIV)

Spring-forward has brought so much beauty to our neighborhood this year! Our Sunday drive saw rows and rows of Bradford Pears, and Yoshino Cherries, Redbuds and even Dogwoods  shouting out in a symphony of blooms. We love this time of year as the promise of new life, and a new beginning burst forth. As dark as winter may have been, Spring will come in its time, and its time has come. It is the promise of the summer to come.

It’s fun to look for Jesus in the Old Testament — especially around this time of the year. My husband is really into this and showed me that, Tuesday, March 23, 2021, is the tenth day of the first month of the calendar God established in Exodus chapter twelve. It’s on this day that God instructs Moses and the children of Israel to choose a lamb for each house, a lamb for each family. If their family is too small for a lamb of their own, they share it with their neighbor. 

Have you ever heard the saying, Jesus is the lamb of God?

“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)

And what day comes just four days after the tenth day? Passover. And what happened on that Passover so many years ago in the Upper Room? Jesus shared the last supper with His disciples and was later handed over to the authorities. They didn’t see it at the time, but Jesus was presented as the Passover lamb, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” That’s precisely what Jesus did on the cross. That’s exactly what He accomplished. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” it was finished. Jesus paid the price of sin for the world. Jesus paid in full the cost of my sin and yours once and for all.

Victory over sin and death comes at the pierced hands, feet and side of Jesus! (Romans 5:8)

How do we share in that Victory?

Simple!

28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

(John 6:28-29 ESV)

Who is “he” that the Apostle John records Jesus talking? That’s God! Who is the one God has sent? That’s Jesus! What is the daily work we’re to do written in red letters? We’re to believe in Jesus. Who’s Jesus? Jesus is the Name above all names. Jesus is the name that means “salvation” and the salvation that “takes away the sin of the world!”

The Apostle Paul puts it this way, 

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

(Romans 10:9-10 ESV)

This is what we call the gospel. This is the good news! Jesus is the best news ever! Jesus is who we were made to share with friends, family, neighbors and even strangers that God gives us. The Lamb of God, the lamb we have chosen for our household that God made to be shared.

One-two, three is one way of remembering where we find the chapter and verse when God tells us to take a lamb, one for each household. In what book do we find that? In the book, you could call the Book of Departures or the Book of Leaving; we find it in the Book of Exodus — the book of passing from bondage and slavery to life and liberty. Exodus can be thought of as the book of passing from death to life, all by way of the spotless lamb that takes away the sin of the world.

Salvation, Jesus, is as easy as one-two, three.

With love from my family to yours!

Happy Easter, 2021