Mensa Otabil - A Lamb Without Blemish
- Watch
- Donate
Exodus Chapter 12, Verses 5 and 6: 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 14th day of the same month; then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. God is very specific about the instructions for the sacrifice that Israel has to make, and the specifics are important. They had to keep them exactly the way He says they have to be kept. You know, many times in our Christian life, we want to live our lives haphazardly; we live our lives anyhow, but we want specific results.
Now, if you want specific results, then you have to follow specific instructions. You cannot just live anyhow and hope that things will fall into the right place for you. And that is why when you read the Bible, you see the specificity of God’s instructions because we have to get the specific results we’re looking for from the Lord, and it comes with specific instructions.
One of the things you note about the lamb that God tells them to offer is that the lamb is to be without blemish. That means it must have no flaw, no defect, no mark on it. Usually, an unblemished lamb or sacrifice would mean that the skin has to be whole. So, if it is white, it has to be totally white; if it is black, it has to be totally black; if it is brown, it has to be totally brown. It has to be without blemish-no spot, nothing to break the wholeness of it-and that’s what was an unblemished sacrifice. It shouldn’t have any observable physical defects. So it has to be without blemish. Why is God demanding a perfect sacrifice, an unblemished sacrifice? Because the people are blemished. The people have faults; the people have weaknesses; the people have sins. So the sacrifice for the people must be opposite the condition of the people. You cannot be a blemished person and then offer a blemished sacrifice to remove your blemishes. It doesn’t work that way.
So, the symbolism of it is that because you are not perfect, you are required to make a perfect sacrifice. And that is what the Christian faith teaches: that Jesus Christ is our perfect sacrifice because we are imperfect. God gave the perfect sacrifice, and that is what He tells Moses to instruct the people -ensure that you don’t transfer your imperfections into the sacrifice; the sacrifice has to be a perfect one. Then He says to them, the whole congregation shall kill it at a specific time, at twilight. The reason is that God is redeeming the entire nation; He’s not going to leave anybody behind. He’s not going to redeem some people and leave some people behind; He’s going to redeem everybody. So everybody must participate, and there are lessons there for us.
You know, many times we belong to a group, but we don’t participate, especially when it comes to church. People go to church, but they do nothing in the church. They don’t sing in the choir; they are not ushers; they don’t do anything; they’re just there. So, the church is sacrificing; the church is worshiping God, but they’re just spectators. If we want the blessing to touch everybody, then everybody must participate. And that is what God instructed Israel: that everybody must be part of the process. We are all part of the process that God is using to bring us the relief that we are looking for, and I trust that these lessons will help us in our personal lives. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, You give Your perfect Son for my imperfections. I receive Your offer of salvation. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.