The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.

Yesterday I had the privilege of having a thirty minute conversation about the Cross with a fellow-believer. My heart still burns at the thought of it. We chatted about how there is a ‘river of blood’ running through the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation; about how God has clearly made known His way of salvation.

No wonder Alec Motyer writes about the ‘sacred precincts’ of Exodus 12. You feel over and again that you are on holy ground. It gives you the tingles. At every turn you run into Jesus and His Cross. For example, today’s verse points to Jesus who came into the world and lived the only perfect human life. So he was able to offer Himself to God as both Priest and Victim – the one full, final, perfect offering for sin.

But, as Alec Motyer says, ‘How could Israel have ever accepted that, nevertheless, this was a great new beginning (12:2) and that (of all unlikely – even absurd things) their deliverance would hinge on what they were to do with a lamb and blood?’ ‘The message of Exodus’ p.128. It takes faith to accept salvation on God’s terms – as my friend and I observed in the course of our conversation.

‘There is a way for man to rise, to that sublime abode;

An offering and a sacrifice, a Holy Spirit’s energies,

An Advocate with God.’

PRAYER: Thank you Lord that Jesus paid it all; only He is worthy.