The Perfect Lamb

The Perfect Lamb

"He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young." Isaiah 40:11

I read this vere and for me it took on a whole new meaning....allow me to explain.

We all know how it says that Jesus is the "lamb of God". We all know how the sacrificial lamb was to be slaughtered to save the Isrealites in Egypt from the death angel. And we all know how Jesus was killed during the Passover on the cross. He became the sacrifical lamb. We all know this, yes? Most likely. Furthermore, we all know that he is the "lamb". But that's the catch: we're supposed to be the lamb. This whole verse (and many other verses) always indicate that we -as humans- are supposed to be the lamb, and thus all lambs must die by slaughter. Now slaughter doesn't necassarily mean being sacrificed during the passover. No, because if you are not perfect than you cannot be sacrificed. It was supposed to be a perfect lamb: "the animals you choose must be a year old male without defect..." (Exodus 12:5). So if you are not a perfect lamb then what are you? Well just because you aren't to be used for the passover doesn't mean that you can't be eaten. Or doesn't mean that you aren't supposed to die by say, bear, wolf, lion, natural causes, falling off a cliff, etc. The bear, wolf, and lion are mentioned here and there in the Bible, not necassarily always associated with sheep, but we all know that sheep happens to be a delicacy among the carnivorus type. If you look to now a days you will find that there are many different "bears, wolves, and lions." Those who wish to harm others...I won't go into details. If you take natural causes to a different level you will find that humans get sick and die. Natural fact. And falling off a cliff is when we stumble, fall, but without the shepherd there is no one to help us back up. We have to have Him our lives. We cannot be rebellios little lambs who decide to wander too far...not if we don't want to be saved. So you can see how these things are related, or how we can be related to the life of a sheep.




Now let us talk about the shepherd. Jesus states that He is the good shepherd. A shepherd cares for His flock; He does not want even one to be lost. There are gazillions of sheep in this world. There is only one shepherd. Fortunately, this one shepherd is Jesus so we don't have to worry about Him getting overwhelmed with such a large responsibility. He cares for each of His sheep, if one falls or is about to get attacked, He will come to the rescue. But only if you call. Some sheep don't want to accept the shepherd as there helper. Some sheep are rebellious and wish to explore the valleys on their own. Some sheep think that they can find better grasses elsewhere, and thus go exploring in search of it. The shepherd wishes for none to be lost: He is the caretaker and it is His responsibility to bring the sheep to safety. He knows, however, that not all sheep will come to Him. He chose each one individually-he did not leave any out. "Predestination" is a controversial subject, but I believe wholeheartedly that he chose everyone but not everyone will come. He gave us a free-will, a choice, to choose whether we want to lead our own lives or whether we want follow Him. He knows that we will stumble...God knows the future. He knows the past. He knows the present. The problem is that we don't know. We try to wrap God into "time" and into our world, but "time" is really just something we use to describe our lives. For God there is no time. In a sort of visiual picture, imagine a circle (this is our world) now imagine that this circle is in a box. Now inside the box there is room where the circle does not reach. This we will call the universe (or outerspace). Now since the universe couldn't possibly have any walls we will pretend that the box is constantly getting bigger and bigger (this is true. they say the universe is constantly expanding). Now what is outside the box? God. But he has no time. I am going to stop abruptly right there for if I go any further it would get very confusing. C.S. Lewis attempted to explain this concept, in different words, in his book Mere Christianity. It made a whole lot of sense. sorta.




Anyways. So we are sheep who stumble and He picks us up. Notice that I've been switching from "sheep" to "lambs". A lamb is a child or a baby sheep. God calls us His children. He also cals us His lambs. Thus comes that connection. So then what are sheep? Those who are lost and cannot find their way. They have grown up to become "adults" or "sheep", but unless they accept the the will and guidance of their shepherd they will never be able to become like lambs again. We were all once sheep...we all became lambs when we accept Christ. Christ became a man (or a lamb in this sense) and took our place on the slaughtering table. He was perfect in every way and form. We are not perfect in any way or form. We were destined to be slaughtered mercilessly for our imperfection, but then He came -this perfect lamb- and took our place.

This is just what I wanted to explain...hopefully if you read this then it might've helped you realize just what Jesus did for us.


Love,
Becca =) <3