In today's reading, God outlines the requirements for the Passover celebration. This is a familiar section of Scripture, usually read on Maundy Thursday. However, while reading through it today, I noticed something new. God commanded the Israelites to take a lamb from the flock on the tenth day of the month. They were told to take care of that lamb until the fourteenth day of the month, at which time they were to slaughter it.
Can you imagine how attached the children of a household might have gotten to that lamb? I understand it was a different time period, and they were probably very used to having livestock around, but certainly not as pets. For those few days, this lamb was treated very differently than the other animals. It adds another dimension to the Passover sacrifice.
Interesting observation. I wonder why the three days of setting the lamb apart before slaughtering it. So much about the Passover is symbolic of Jesus' sacrifice (the lamb without defect, the blood causing God to passover his people, no breaking of the bones), you have to wonder if there is some meaning behind it. Total speculation but maybe it represents Jesus' ministry for a short time before his death and return to heaven?
ReplyDeleteGood question. I read somewhere that the purpose of the three days was to allow time for the lamb to be inspected to be sure that it was without blemish and also to allow it time to cleanse itself prior to being sacrificed. Don't know if that is true or not, but one plausible theory.
ReplyDeleteI just looked up the online Kretzmann commentary and it says the lamb was "separated from the rest of the flock, in order to keep it from contamination and infection." Good call, Carla.
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