Passover 4: The Foreknown Lamb- The Torah-The Word Made Flesh

Exo 34:
18 "You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.
19 All that open the womb are mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep.
20 The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before me empty-handed.

Lev 23:
4 "These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them.5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the LORD's Passover.6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.8 But you shall present a food offering to the LORD for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work."

Exodus 34:
25 "You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning.
26 The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk."
27 And the LORD said to Moses, "Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."
28 So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.
30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them.
32 Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the LORD had spoken with him in Mount Sinai.
33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
34 Whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded,
35 the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

The Passover, as shown through the scriptures in my previous articles, was declared to be a memorial day and a statute even before it was done in deed.

Exo 12:
14 "This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.

We see in the passages cited above that this was reiterated in the Law given at Sinai.
The feast of Passover, (the importance of calling Passover a feast to the Lord will become apparent by the end of this study), was given before the Law was given. This prophetic sequence of events foretells of the coming Messiah, the Lamb of God, who was foreknown before creation.

1Peter 1:
18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Foreknowledge of the Lamb before the foundation of the world was laid would obviously mean foreknowledge of the Lamb as grace, before the sojourn of slavery in Egypt, and the first Passover, and as stated above, before Sinai.

Gen 22:
7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, "My father!" And he said, "Here am I, my son." He said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
8 Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went both of them together.
9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
:11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I."
12 He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."
13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

Paul also touches on this in his letter to the Romans.

Rom 5:
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned--
13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

The Lamb was the always the plan of God. Even before the fall in Eden.

Rom 7:
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."
8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

The Law was given so that men would know that "man" is sinful by nature, and was committing sinful acts from the day of the fall. We then can deduce that when God gave the "Law" not to eat the from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He knew what the outcome would be. Foreknowledge, foreknowledge, foreknowledge!

Rom 8:
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

The only way to overcome the flesh is to walk in the Law of the Spirit of Life which is accomplished only in Jesus Christ our Passover Lamb. Adam did not yet possess an immortal, incorruptible body. Which is why the Lord blocked the way to the tree of life. If they had eaten of that tree in their sinful state they would exist in a strange hybrid of immortality and corruption. Jesus had not yet come as sin in the flesh to put to death sin in flesh, so that all who believe could then put on the incorruptible upon His return. 1 Cor 15
Sonship in the firstborn had to be established, as Adam had lost that position.
The spirit of slavery (Egypt) is no longer holding us in bondage to fear. The blood of Jesus the firstborn Son, the Lamb of God, frees us and brings us into the family.

Rom 8:
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Also:
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Even creation will be freed from it's "Egyptian bondage" when the sons of God are revealed at His return. That day our sonship is sealed as the resurrection of the dead will bring the putting on of the incorruptible body, i.e. the fruit of the tree of life.
This would explain why even the firstborn of the animals were slain at Passover, and subsequently sacrificed as an offering to God according to the Law.

Rom 8:
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.


Since the slain Lamb of Passover existed before creation, and the slain Lamb of Passover is a statute of the Law. Then Grace. the Law and the Word, (that is, the Lamb the firstborn son), are forever intertwined.

Matthew 5:
17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

John 1:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Also:
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'")
16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Also:
29 The next day he (John) saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Joh 1:30 This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.'

The apostle Paul, a pharisee, and a Hebrew among Hebrews, can then pen this powerful declaration:

2Cor 3:
7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end,8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it.11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

We who are freed from bondage, in Christ, shine with the glory of God. We are all being renewed and transformed day by day into the image of the Son. We do not veil our faces like Moses had to. Rather we let the glory shine through.
Israel could not look on the glory of God in the Law. So the promise of the Law is veiled to them.
Now that the "fulfillment" of the Law has come, and been sacrificed, and has risen, and has ascended to the Father's right hand, (only a Son can ascend to the Father's right hand); and now that we are seated with Him as sons, at the Father's right hand; Eph 1:17-23 and 2:4-7; those who refuse to see the promise, and look upon the Lamb who was slain, today wear the veil over their hearts also. They are dead/dying men who cannot bear to look upon the glory coming from His people, that is, those are no longer slaves to the sin of the world. They cannot look upon the glory that comes from the preachers of the Truth that sets men free.

2Co 4:
1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.


John 8:
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
33 They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?"
34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.
35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.


John 14:
6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."


Passover is a meal prepared before creation, in which all all who are united with the Lamb partake of.


Luke 22:
15 And he said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
16 For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."

Rev 19:
6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;
8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"-- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
9 And the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These are the true words of God."
10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, "You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God." For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.


In Christ Alone
To The Glory of God Alone