Shemot (Exodus) 10:1–13:16

This week's Scripture portion is chock-full of wonderful things that connect to Messiah, and how He fulfilled the role as the perfect, unblemished Lamb. I want to focus on verses 5 and 6 in Exodus 12:

Your lamb shall be an unblemished (Perfect) male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. (Between the Evenings or afternoon)

There are three main points that I would like to highlight from these verses, which directly point to the amazing work of Yeshua:

1. The “Unblemished Lamb” here in Hebrew is translated as “Seh Tamim.” The Hebrew word "tamim" refers to honesty, simplicity, innocence, completeness, integrity, and without any flaw or defect. You can find a similar description also in Deuteronomy 15:21, “But if it has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.”
   Isaiah 53 speaks of a person, which we know is the Messiah, that the Lord would use as a “lamb who will be led to the slaughter” and would pay for all of us:

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. (Isaiah 53:6–7)

The disciples also referred to Yeshua in a similar way: “The next day he saw Yeshua coming to him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29) and  “...knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Messiah.” (1 Peter 1:18–19)

2. How to observe it ...
   The instruction here was to take the lamb on the 10^th of the month, and then keep it (or watch over it) until the 14^th of the month. For what reason? I believe that it was in order to check or observe it and make sure that there was nothing wrong with it. In Matt 22:15-33, just a few days before Yeshua gave Himself as the Sacrificed Lamb, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were questioning Yeshua on different issues so as to "check" Him and observe Him.

3. Between the Evenings…
   The command here was to “kill it between the evenings” or in other words, in the afternoon. It makes sense then that Matthew recorded the time that Yeshua was on the tree (Cross) in these words,  “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.” (Matt 27:45)

My dear friends, the more we read and learn of the amazing work of our Messiah, the more we will see the perfect fulfillment of every detail!

I want to bring up something that I previously wrote on this Parasha:

“God tells Moses that He does everything in order that Egypt and Israel would know Him (Exodus 10:3). In our weekly portion, we also learn of the first Pesach (Passover) that the children of Israel were commanded to observe as a reminder of God’s amazing might. In Exodus 12:5–7, we read about the command to slaughter a ‘perfect male lamb’ and to put some of the blood on the doorpost of their homes. In verse 13, God clarifies the reason for it: ‘And the Blood will be for you a sign on the homes where you are, and I will see the blood and I will pass over you and I will not be to you as a destruction disease when I smite the land of Egypt.’ This event foreshadows an amazing act of deliverance which took place many years later, when the blood of another lamb, Yeshua the promised Messiah, was shed in order to redeem His people, so that when God’s future and final judgment will come upon the earth, once again He will pass over those who are marked with the blood of the Lamb. ”

I leave you with two questions: Do you know Him? Are you “marked” with the Blood of the Lamb?

Shabbat Shalom,

Moran