Anglican Morning Devotion for 18 April 2022 Anno Domini
a ministry of the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: 6And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. 7And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. 8And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.” (Exodus 12:5-8; all scripture quoted is from the King James Version)
“And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. 30And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.” (Exodus 12:29-30)
Much of the great truths of the New Testament are represented in the types and figures of the Old. Beginning in Genesis we find a dim allusion to the sacrifice of our Lord for the covering of sin when our primitive parents fell from grace: “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21) This perfectly innocent animal was the first to die on earth, and it represented our Lord’s sacrifice to cover our sins. Then we have the presumed sacrifice of Isaac as a prefigure of the Only Begotten Son of God to be sacrificed for our sins. God would not require Abraham to sacrifice his own only begotten son, nor would the sacrifice of Isaac have sufficed to cover our sins.
THE FIRST PASSOVER, most often referred to as the Lord’s Passover, occurred in Goshen of Egypt. (around 1491 B.C.) This Passover was a foreshadow of that more perfect sacrifice to come in Jesus Christ. The full account of that Passover is recorded in the Book of Exodus. It will profit the reader to read of that event once more.
God commanded that a young lamb, without blemish, be sacrificed on the eve of Passover. Its blood was to be applied on the doorpost and lintels of the door of every home in which the Children of Israel dwelt. God would send the Angel of Death over Egypt to take the lives of every firstborn male (including beasts) of those whose homes were not under that blood sign. The ceremony was simple and not so complicated as that which the rabbinical councils came to require later. “And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.” Thus were the Children of Israel set free from bondage in Israel. This was the first Passover that began on the 14th of Nissan (month of spring in Israel).
THE FINAL PASSOVER, often made reference to in the New Testament as the ‘Jew’s’ Passover, occurred on the 14th Nissan of the year 33 A.D. (Bishop Ussher’s computation). Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God whose sacrifice occurred at the precise time of year of the first, and even the same hour. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:18-20) According to Mark 15:25 (and other Gospels) our Lord was crucified at the 3rd hour (a day began at 6 AM) the 3rd hour from 6 AM would be 9 AM. At the 6th hour (12 noon) there was darkness over the land until the 9th hour (3 PM). This was the precise hour of preparation for the Passover lamb to be slain in the Temple, but the true Passover Lamb was being slain on a hill without the city gates. It was at this hour that our Lord commended His Spirit unto the Father thereby fulfilling the Law and Prophets of the Promised Redeemer and worthy sacrifice for the sins of the world.
“Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8) That day we refer to as Easter would more correctly be referred to as our Passover since it was on this day that our Lord Jesus Christ satisfied the marks of the true Passover and became our Passover in full meaning. No more will the blood of ox or lambs suffice as a covering of sin. In fact, it never did – it was the meaning pictured prophetically of the Passover Lamb of Calvary Mount to which those forms and figures stood.
