Day 101

^“And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” Rev 5:6 NASB.

God is portrayed in Rev.4-5 as the all-powerful Creator. It seems that He can do anything He wants. But when a seemingly insurmountable problem arises (Rev.5:1-4), the solution is a stunner! God solves the greatest problem in the universe through a slaughtered Lamb! 

Why doesn’t an all-powerful God solve problems through power? Why doesn’t He just MAKE things happen? Why does He takes such a huge risk by sending His Son to this earth, knowing that He will be rejected and brutally murdered?  

The Book of Revelation encourages Christians to see the experiences of ancient Israel as a model for Christian action and experience today. The Lamb in Rev5 is a slaughtered lamb, which reminds us of the Hebrew sanctuary and its sacrifices. The plagues of Revelation are modelled on the plagues that fell upon ancient Egypt. It was the blood of the Passover Lamb that protected the Israelites from the worst of those plagues. Similarly, the blood of Jesus protects His people during God’s judgments on humanity (Rev.7:3; 12:11). Just as the original Israelites became a kingdom of priests at Mount Sinai, so the followers of Jesus are a kingdom of priests drawn from every nation, tribe, language, and people (Rev.5:9-10). 

Paul associates the crossing of the Red Sea with Christian baptism in 1Cor.10:1-4. Archaeologists are not exactly certain where the Israelites made their crossing. Some even suggest that it was not the Red Sea, but the “sea of reeds,” which they identify with a lake north of the Red Sea that was drained by the building of the Suez Canal.  

The Exodus is a model for Christian experience today. Our personal Exodus occurs when our old nature is buried in baptism and we rise to newness of life (Rom.6:3-4). Both exoduses made possible by the slaughter of the lamb.