1171. Three Epochal Dates

Three Epochal Dates

"This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

"Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house.

"And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening" (Exo_12:2-3, Exo_12:6).

1. The first date–"This month shall be unto you the beginning of months." God told the children of Israel that their deliverance from Egypt should be the first month of the year to them.

This is most suggestive. We usually count time from the day of physical birth; God counts time from the day of spiritual birth. We do not truly begin to live, until we begin to live again.

All of the years spent in sin are years of drought–fruitless and rejected. All the years prior to regeneration are years of death. They are filled up with deeds which can never pass into eternal life.

We begin to live when we are born again. We then live the life that counts; the life that never dies; the life that reaps rewards in the life to come.

2. The second date–"In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb." The lamb was not to be slain until the fourteenth day, it was to be kept up from the tenth day, to the fourteenth. This presents to us the fact that Jesus Christ was a Lamb crucified from before the foundation of the world, but actually slain in the end of the age.

As the Jews were to keep up the lamb; the Lord God kept up the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ was a Lamb set apart for slaughter. From the foundation of the world and until the day of His death outside the camp, He was dedicated unto death.

Thus, the shadows of the Cross reach far back, before ever God created man. When Jesus Christ was born of the virgin, He was born with the Cross in view. When Jesus Christ was baptized, He typified His own death and resurrection, by which He would save His people. He was a "Lamb" kept up until the day of His death.

3. The third date–"Until the fourteenth day of the same month; and. the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening." The Passover lamb was slain on the very day of the month, and at the very time of the day, that Christ died. This is most significant.

The Apostle Paul refers to this very thing, when he says: "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us" (1Co_5:7).

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR