When reading the gospels, there is never an extraneous phrase or random word added. All have meaning and significance. For instance, Luke tells us about the timing of the death of Jesus Christ, that it was "the day on which the Passover Lamb had to be sacrificed." This is important, for it tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ was the real "Passover Lamb", of which the Passover lambs in the Old Testament were pictures. The Passover lambs pointed forward to Jesus Christ. When Jesus died on the day when the Passover Lambs had to be sacrificed, He perfectly fulfilled the Law and brought an end to the need for the entire Jewish sacrificial system.
Paul adds to Luke's timing statement the explicit declaration that Jesus Christ is indeed our Passover Lamb:
“Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” 1 Corinthians 5:6-7
Now, with full New Testament authority stating that Jesus Christ died as our Passover Lamb, we can turn to the story in the Old Testament and see how the sacrificial lamb portrayed the death of Jesus Christ, and what this story teaches us about redemption.
Exodus chapters 1-11 describe how Israel had been in slavery to Egypt a long time, and that the Egyptians treated the people of Israel harshly and were ruthless to them:
“So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.” Exodus 1:13-14
The Israelites had "bitter lives" as slaves. They also had no freedom to worship God or live their lives as they pleased, and they had an evil Pharaoh and harsh taskmasters to deal with every day. Slavery breaks the spirit of a man or woman, and such was the condition of the Israelites’ slavery:
“Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.” Exodus 6:9
The slavery of the Israelites to the Egyptians is a picture in story form of the harsh slavery of sin. Jesus connects these two thoughts-sin and slavery-in John 8:34:
“They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” John 8:33-34
While in the grip of sin, we are slaves to a very harsh taskmaster. If temptation comes, and it does often, we give in, for on our own, we do not have the power to resist. Like the harsh Egyptian taskmasters, sin requires much of us and gives us nothing in return. Sin is a ruthless taskmaster indeed, breaking our spirits through its cruel slavery.
But Israel had been crying out in their slavery, and God cared about His people. He heard their cries and was concerned about their well-being. One of the most definite statements in the Old Testament that points forward to the cross of Jesus Christ is in Exodus 3:8:
“...and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Periz-zites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” Exodus 3:8
Question 3. How is Exodus 3:8 a clear statement that foreshadows the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross?
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God "came down" to "deliver" His people and to "bring them up." Here we see the beauty of the cross, where God came down in the Person of His Son to deliver us from slavery to sin and to bring us up out of bondage. This "delivering" from slavery and "bringing us up" out of bondage is a picture of redemption.
But how was this redemption accomplished? What were the means and results of redemption? Let's look at Exodus 12, and we will see these answers, and more importantly, we will see our Lord Jesus in His role as Redeemer, delivering His people from bondage:
“The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, "This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.” Exodus 12:1-2
Question 4. According to Exodus 12:1-2, what were the Israelites to do with their calendars when they were redeemed from slavery in Egypt?
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