Date of message: 17 August 2003 Issue
107
Subject: A Lamb For A Household

Shalom, Boker-tov (good morning),
In Exodus 12: 3 -11, God instructed Moses to tell the people to take a lamb for each household four days before the Feast of Passover and to keep the lamb (usually less than one year old) with the family inside the house.
3. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: "On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.
4. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb.
5. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
6. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.
7. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.
8. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
9. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire - its head with its legs and its entrails.
10. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.
11. And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover.
The people were instructed to get one lamb for each household and if the household only has a few people and therefore there will be leftovers, they were told to pull resources together and share one lamb with the immediate neighbors. The Lord was so full of grace to His people that He even thought of their circumstances and anticipated their questions. I love the statement the Holy Spirit made in verse 4 - 'if the household is too small for the lamb'; I am glad He did not say, 'if the lamb is too small for the household'.
No, the Lamb is never too small for a household. And certainly the Lamb of God is never too small for a household; in fact the household will always be too small for the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God in John 1: 29.
Everyone who partakes of the lamb on the night of the Passover was to congregate in one household and eat of the lamb together. After applying the blood of the lamb on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the doorway, they were to be all dressed up and ready for a long journey and to sit down and eat of the lamb that had been roasted in the fire.
Notice that the lamb had to be roasted with fire. It must not be boiled in water and the people were not allowed to eat of the meat raw. Our Lord bore the brunt of the wrath of God on the cross and He became 'roasted' for our sakes. No part of Jesus escaped the fire of the wrath of God when He hung there on the cross.
The blood of the lamb was to be applied on the doorposts and on the lintel. No blood was applied inside the house because the blood was meant to be seen by the angel of death and by God. It did not matter to the Lord whether the inhabitants inside were eating with joy and in faith and hope or with trembling. They were all equally saved as the angel of death passed over their houses. As long as there was blood applied on the outside of the door, the household were saved by the blood.
Likewise we are saved by the Blood of the Lamb. It does not matter whether we behaved in hope or with much trembling when we applied the Blood of Jesus over our lives. Some of us would have received the Lord Jesus into our hearts out of an act of insurance - 'fire insurance' (to quote Pastor Joseph Prince of New Creation Church); nevertheless when God looks at us, He sees the Blood of Jesus and we are righteous before Him.
In Acts 16: 25 - 34 we read of Paul the apostle and Silas being imprisoned by the Romans and were spending the night in a Philippian jail when God sent an earthquake and opened up the prison doors. Although they were free to escape, Paul and Silas decided to remain in their cell. When the prison warden attempted to commit suicide thinking that all his prisoners had escaped, they were able to stop him in time and when he asked them what he should do instead, Paul urged him to 'believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household' (Acts 16: 31).
Paul and Silas shared the good news of Jesus Christ and His death with the warden and he believed and he was baptized together with his family on that same night itself. Because of the faith of the warden, his family was brought into the household of Jesus.
Something interesting happens whenever one member of the family believes in the Lord. The blessings of the Lord will be poured out on this member and his whole family gets to enjoy the overflow as well. In the case of the children of Israel, as long as the father of the household applied the blood of the lamb on the doorpost, the whole family was saved although some of them could have spent that night trembling all over in fear but they survived through the night. And one further blessing they enjoyed - the whole congregation of Israel came out of Egypt healthy and strong. Psalms 105: 37 tells us that there was none feeble among His tribes.
Am I suggesting that so long as one member of the family believes in Jesus the whole household would be saved? Certainly not! Faith must be a personal relationship between us and Jesus. Until you and I come to the point where we invite Jesus into our hearts, we are still not saved from condemnation and from the wrath of God.
What I am saying here is that the process for salvation is made easier when one family member believes in Jesus. The door to the family has been opened for God to pour out His blessings and when the rest of the family see and experience the goodness of the Lord, there will be repentance and salvation will set in.
I recall the day when my eldest brother received the Lord as a teenager. He wrote home to ask my father for permission to be baptized with water and my father, who was then an unbeliever, set the wheel into motion when he gave his blessings. Three years later in 1969, my elder brother wrote home to obtain his blessings when he too wanted to be baptized.
Finally my turn came in 1970 when I accepted the Lord into my heart and even before I could write home to obtain my father's blessing, he somehow anticipated the outcome and he gave me his blessings long before I even thought of getting water baptized. The Lord indeed was so full of grace and mercy towards my own family. Seventeen years later, my own father received the Lord Jesus Christ into his own heart and shortly after that he too was baptized together with my mother.
When one member of the family receives Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, the Lord will position the family for great blessings. If you are concerned for the loved ones in your family who have not received the Lord, then learn from the account of the Passover. The whole household eventually came out of Egypt together and they were all healthy. Keep praying for them and trust and thank the Lord for their salvation. The Lord is faithful and He will do it.
Invite them to attend church services with you and when the "too good to be true" (that is what the Greek word 'gospel' means) message of salvation is preached, the Lord will open their hearts and minister to them. Do not forget they have been seeing the blessings of God resting upon your life and they too would desire that upon their lives.
Now if you have not believed in Jesus yourself, then I would urge you to take that first step of faith and invite Jesus into your heart. Jesus will be faithful and He will definitely come and reside in you. Choose Life and put your faith in our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus and He will make us sons and daughters in His Family, special positions reserved only for those whom He loves dearly (John 1:12).
Time is running short before the End is here. Look around you at the events happening all over the world. Every situation points to just one simple fact - our Lord Jesus is coming back to take the Church (all believers in Jesus) back with Him to heaven and after that the world will get worse and there will be hardship all around. If you think the going is tough right now, you have not seen the worst yet.
One day, after all the Christians have be taken home to be with the Lord, and should you perchance be reading this article, be aware that the Lord Jesus loves us so much that He already demonstrated His love for us on the cross. He died for us so that we will be delivered from condemnation and that we will have eternal life (Romans 8:1). The Lord cannot lie. For Him, whatever He speaks will come to pass.
Pray this simple prayer and invite Jesus into your heart and immediately you will experience His peace coming your way.
Our heavenly Father, our Daddy God, thank you for Your great love for us and because of Your love You sent us Your Beloved Son Jesus to die for all our sins so that we can enjoy all Your blessings. Thank you that Jesus' Blood so satisfied Your judicial righteousness that we who believed in You and received Jesus into our hearts will not be condemned but we received Your eternal life.
Lord Jesus, I receive You into my heart as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for coming into my heart and making my heart Your home. Thank you that I am now a child of God the Father and as His child, I am now eternally forgiven of all my sin, greatly blessed among all men, highly favored children of God, deeply loved by the Father and completely protected in the Lord and in the most precious name of Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha' Mashiah, I pray Amen.
If you have prayed this prayer for the first time, welcome to the Family of the Father (and it is a very large universal family). It is important that you are not alone facing your personal challenges but that you can obtain good help wherever you are. Why not take the time to find your own local Christian family (local church) and worship the Father together? You will be greatly encouraged when you meet together to worship the Father, for fellowship and for the study of the Word of Christ.
Start receiving the blessings of the Father as you walk with Him in faith. It is your inheritance in Christ and He wants you to start enjoying these blessings right now. You do not need to wait until you reach heaven and there is more from where they come from.
The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace. Numbers 6: 24 -26

Have a blessed week ahead, Shavrou-tov
Shalom,
Andrew L W Lee

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