The Lamb
Isaiah 53
"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)
A little lamb looks innocent and vulnerable. When God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, Abraham obeyed and took him to Mount Moriah. At some point young Isaac asked his father where the lamb was for the burnt offering, since they had brought fire and wood but no animal. God, in His mercy, provided a substitute for Isaac. To cover and cleanse our own sins, no mere animal would suffice; only the Lamb of God would. He alone is able to take away our sins. Indeed, He has come to take away the sins of this entire world.
When God was about to bring the people of Israel out of Egyptian slavery, He commanded them to prepare a lamb. It was to be one year old, blemish-free and was to be slaughtered at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month, the Passover month. The deliverance was to be a new beginning for the freed Israelites. Similarly, Jesus, the unblemished Lamb of God, was sacrificed on the cross at Passover time to set free such lowly people like you and me. Our new beginning is now!
INSIGHT
"For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed."
(1 Corinthians 5:7b)
READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
Ecclesiastes 3-4
Psalm 64
John 4
Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes[c] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life[d] and be satisfied[e];
by his knowledge[f] my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[g]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
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