GOD WILL PROVIDE HIMSELF A LAMB

The idea of the lamb is employed extensively in the Bible as an illustration of the Lord Jesus, John 1. 29, but this is the first time the word is used in scripture. However, the concept features ear­lier when Abel ‘brought of the firstlings of his flock’, Gen. 4. 4. Think of the lamb and you think of sacrifice.

Various truths are blended when you consider the Saviour as the Lamb. Here, there is the thought of divine provision. Just as in Christ, God provided a king, 1 Sam. 16. 1, so He provided a lamb. That Lamb was ‘foreordained before the foundation of the world’, 1 Pet. 1. 20. When Adam sinned there was no panic on God’s part; the rescue plan was already in His heart, and so He walked in the garden, and did not run! Gen. 3. 8.

The Passover lamb is a study in itself, but Peter focuses pri­marily on its purity. ‘Your lamb shall be without blemish’ is said of the type, Exod. 12. 5. A lamb without blemish and without spot’ is said of the antitype, 1 Pet. 1. 19. A flawless life qualified Him to shed the blood of redemption.

The Lamb is seen not only in picture but also in prophecy, as Isaiah predicts One who would be ‘brought as a lamb to the slaughter’, Isa. 53. 7. Undoubtedly, the submissiveness of the Lord Jesus is in view. We observe it in John chapter 18, when He who had declared Himself to be the ‘I am’ permitted Himself to be bound and led away, vv. 5, 6, 12, 13. What grace!

The Lamb was identified historically when, on succeeding days, John declared Him to be ‘the Lamb of God’, John 1. 29, 36. On day one, the thought is that of the work of the Lamb, to ‘(take) away the sin of the world’. On day two, the emphasis is on the walk of the Lamb, ‘looking upon Jesus as he walked’.

In heaven they will be taken up with the worth of the Lamb as they view the evidence of sacrifice, Rev. 5. 6, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain’, v. 12. On earth, in tribulation days, they will be aware of the wrath of the Lamb, as His judgements are poured out on a wicked world, Rev. 6. 16, 17.

Behold! A spotless Victim dies,
My surety on the tree;
The Lamb of God, the Sacrifice,
He gave Himself for me.

[Anonymous]