Today... for me... it is...
This evening... I'm unwrapping an early Christmas present... a friend and I gifted one another with tickets... to a musical rendition of the Christmas story... Behold the Lamb of God...
Waking this morning... asking Him who He is today in these twenty-five days... I hear Him say... The Lamb...
"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
John 1:29 ESV
Going back to Genesis... we get our first glimpse... of the Lamb...
Abraham... asked by God to sacrifice his son Isaac...
the son of promise...
lay his life down... as an offering...
This father of the faithful... obeyed... traveling three days to Mount Moriah... three days... contemplating the death of his beloved-long-waited-for son... by his own hand...
And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac
his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went
both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham,
"My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." He said, "Behold,
the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt
offering, my son." So they both went together.
Genesis 22:6-8 ESV
And He did provide...
a ram caught in a thicket...
a substitute to take Isaac's place...
Behold... the Lamb of God...
In Exodus... we see the Lamb in the Passover...
the final step to freedom from slavery...
for the Israelites oppressed in Egypt...
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.
Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day
of this month every man shall take a lamb according to
their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. And if the
household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest
neighbor shall take according to the number of persons;
according to what each can eat you shall make your count
for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish,
a 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 month, when the whole assembly of the congregation
shall kill their lambs at twilight.
"Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on
the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which
they eat it. ... In this manner you shall eat it:
with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet,
and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods
of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood
shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are.
And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague
will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. ..."
Exodus 12:1-7, 11-13 ESV
The lamb sacrificed... eaten...
its blood a covering from judgment...
Behold... the Lamb of God...
And John the Baptizer...
who made the way...
saw Him first...
"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
John 1:29 ESV
Behold... it means to see... gaze upon...
In this season... for me... with the daily practice of Examen... Communion... and the writing of the Twenty-five Days... I feel this word... Behold...
Beholding Him each day...
in prayer... Word... bread and wine...
His Body broken...
His blood poured out...
a substitute sacrifice...
the covering of His blood...
salvation from judgment...
for me...
for you...
Behold... the Lamb of God...
Do you see Him...? have you gazed upon Him...?
Contemplate Him... in these single-digit days... til Christmas...
Lord... prepare my heart to behold...
to see You... remember You... gaze upon You...
each day...
No comments:
Post a Comment