What Does The Lamb Mean Or Represent In The Bible?

What does the lamb mean or represent in the Bible? What does it mean to the believer today?

The First Passover

Just before Israel’s exodus from Egypt, God told Moses to “Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household” but “if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb” (Ex 12:3-4). The “lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old” (Ex 12:5). This was the initiation of the first Passover where the Israelites where told that “they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it” (Ex 12:7). The blood of the lamb was to be placed upon the doorposts and the lintel of the houses so that the death angel of the Lord would pass over those in that home and spare the firstborn of all who lived there.

The Passing Over of God’s Judgment

God Himself commanded this as “the Lord’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt” (Ex 12:11c-13) saying “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast” (Ex 12:14). God’s judgment on Egypt was because of their bondage of the children of Israel who had made the slaves and had endured many years of hard labor for that nation which has so many false gods that it was hard to count them all. God was revealing to them the One, True God. This finally forced Egypt to let the nation of Israel go free as “The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead” (Ex 12:33).

The Guilt Offering

The beginning of the sacrificial laws of the priesthood began in earnest after Israel’s exodus as it was commanded that “the priest shall take one of the male lambs and offer it for a guilt offering, along with the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord” (Lev 14:12). The lambs had to be without blemish (Lev 14:10) and they were to “kill the lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary. For the guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest; it is most holy” (Lev 14:13). The lamb had to be spotless or without blemish or defect. The lamb was to be slain as an offering for the sins of the people. This was to be waved “before the Lord” so that it would be accepted by God in order for the sins of the people to be “passed over” so that they could be forgiven. The Bible teaches in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb 9:22). In other words, sin is costly and it cannot go unpunished or be overlooked because God is holy. This is because, as God says, “the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Lev 17:11). Sin has to be atoned for in some way and blood has to be spilled in order to cover sins. In the Old Testament, sins were covered, but in the New Testament, by the blood of Christ, the Perfect Lamb of God, sins would actually be more than covered; they would be taken away permanently. This imagery was pictured in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve sinned and it became necessary for God to kill animals (shed blood) so that there would be “animal skins for Adam and his wife” (Gen 3:21).  This also explains why ancient Israel was commanded to consume all of the lamb because it pictured the total, consummate sacrifice of Jesus giving His life for the forgiveness of sins.

The New High Priest

After Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life, He gave His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45) and became our High Priest forever (Heb 4:14). Jesus had to be born in the flesh (John 1) and be “fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people” (Heb 2:17) as “he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Heb 9:12) and by this “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Heb 5:8). “Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself” (Heb 7:27) because the Levitical priests had to offer sacrifices over and over again but Jesus offered Himself up once and for all and for all time. That’s why Jesus, as the Lamb of God, Who takes away (not just covers) the sins of the world, is the perfect representation of the sacrificial lamb system that the Old Testament prefigured. These sacrifices looked ahead to that sacrifice of Jesus that abolished the need for the continuous sacrifices that were necessary in the Old Testament.

Conclusion

John the Baptist recognized this Perfect Lamb of God and His true purpose for coming to this earth when he declared “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)! For this purpose He came so that men would not have to die in their sins and God’s wrath would be placed upon Him and not us; at least those of us who have repented and trusted in Him.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon.