Exodus 12

“Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.” ‭‭Exodus‬ ‭12‬:‭3‬-‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Israelites’ first born sons were going to be spared if they followed God’s directions and sacrificed an innocent lamb.  It was the blood of the lamb on their doorposts that would ultimately save them.  This was a foreshadowing of the time when Jesus, the innocent lamb of God, would be sacrificed so that all people who would believe in Him could be saved. “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Jesus had not yet been sacrificed, so the people in the Old Testament had to sacrifice the life of an animal in order to be redeemed from their sins. When Jesus came, He substituted His perfect life for our sinful lives, and took the penalty for our sin.  Jesus’ sacrifice made animal sacrifice no longer necessary: “For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time” (Hebrews 10:10).