1080. Where Is the Lamb?

Where Is the Lamb?

"And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My Father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold, the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering" (Gen_22:7, A. S. V.).

1. The question that troubled Isaac was the question of many an Old Testament saint. They saw many lambs led forth to the slaughter, they knew that those lambs looked forward to a sacrifice yet to come,–and they often asked where is the Lamb? When will Christ be born? When will the Messiah come?

2. Abraham responded: "God will PROVIDE HIMSELF a LAMB for the burnt offering." Surely this was true. All the lambs sacrificed in the days of Israel made necessary the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, God's Lamb.

Those lambs were pledges of God's coming Lamb. Those lambs had no power to take away sin. Heb_10:11-14 : "And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."

3. God did provide HIMSELF a Lamb. We needed the Lamb that we might be saved. We could not get to God apart from the Lamb of God, for Christ said: "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." However, God needed a Lamb also. God loved us, but God could not come nigh unto us, unless Christ died. Our God was a Holy and a Just God. He could not receive the unholy nor justify the guilty: therefore God needed a Lamb. Every blessing God has bestowed upon us is ours in Christ Jesus. Every manifestation of God's grace is possible alone in Christ Jesus. God provided HIMSELF a Lamb, as His only channel of blessing toward man.

4. John the Baptist gave us the answer to Isaac's question. As Christ approached the waters of the Jordan, John cried: "Behold the Lamb."

Oh, that the children of Israel would to-day discern the meaning of the words of John! Oh, that they might see in Christ the fulfillment of all their sacrificial lambs!

Since the day that the Temple was destroyed by Titus there has been no more sacrifice. Sacrifice is not needed, for those types were all fulfilled in Christ–He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR