Looking to Easter - God's Not So Secret Rescue Mission

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him

and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all....

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

                                -- Isaiah 53

"Look, the Lamb of God,

who takes away the sin of the world."  

                              -- John 1:29

It is in the early pages of Genesis that we first learn of God's Rescue Mission (Genesis 3:15).

Then we learn of His continued plan - choosing Abraham to bring His light and message to the world....And through Abraham of all the nations on earth God chose one nation -- the people of Israel -- to help Him accomplish this mission.

Yet, just as men and women became slaves to spiritual darkness, God's chosen nation also found itself in bondage, held captive by a despotic kingin Egypt.

The Jews cried out to God to rescue them and he heard their cries.

As Moses wrote in the book of Exodus, God sent an Angel of Death to kill all the firstborn children in Egypt, to compel the wicked leader to free the Jews from their oppressors.

All the firstborn in every family would die!

There was only one way for a family to escape death: they must cover their doorframe with the blood of a sacrificed lamb.

"The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are," God tells His people, "and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt."

On the road to Emmaus, Jesus (the Stranger joining the two disciples) reveals that the Messiah, the Rescuer, would be like this "Passover lamb."

He was to be sacrificed to save others from the awful judgment of God.

These disciples had read and recited the words of Moses and the Prophets from childhood. They had never failed to observe the Passover meal, not once.

Yet somehow they had not understood the message about a Messiah who suffers for the sins of mankind in order to bring God's people everlasting freedom.

It seems impossible to believe: this figure of suffering is the Rescuer of Israel.

And the history of Israel is a story of preparation for his coming.

"Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world' (John 1:29).