CHRIST'S TYPIFIED IN THE PASSOVER (4)
Exodus 12

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VII. The Passover lamb was to be "a male" (v.5). It therefore was to be of the physically stronger gender.

Christ the Passover Lamb - "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29, 36) - is a male: "the Son of God" (v.34; cp. vv.27, 30, 31, 32, 33).

VIII. The Passover lamb was to be "a male of the first year" (v.5). It was therefore to be in the prime of life and in the fullness of strength and maturity, neither too immature by reason of lack of years, nor too frail by reason of advanced age.

Christ the Passover Lamb was sacrificed when in the prime of life and in the fullness of His strength and maturity. The law under which He lived set that age for those engaged in the service of sacred things between the thirtieth and fiftieth years (Numbers 4:3, 23, 30). Therefore, "Jesus ... began His ministry at about thirty years of age" (Luke 3:23), and concluded it in His sacrifice about three and half years later. He was then in the prime of life, what He would have considered "the midst of my days" (Psalm 102:24). He was not an immature infant or child or adolescent, nor a feeble old man.

IX. The Passover lamb was to be selected prior to its sacrifice -- "on the tenth day of this month" (v.3). It was therefore singled out from the rest of the flock, and appointed to be the sacrificial victim, four days prior to its sacrifice on "the fourteenth day of the same month" (v.6). This provision gave ample opportunity to closely examine the intended victim, and to obtain another if it should be disqualified.

Christ was selected as the Passover Lamb prior to His sacrifice. 1. With regard to the decree of God, "He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world" to be the Passover Lamb (1 Peter 1:19f). 2. With regard to His earthly ministry of three and a half years, we may round it off to four years, consider a year for a day (as in Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6), and conclude that He here yet again fulfilled the typology. 3. With regard to the day on which He was sacrificed as the Passover Lamb, we are told that He entered Jerusalem on the very day the Passover Lamb was to be selected. (He entered Bethany "six days before the Passover" [John 12:1], presumably remained there the next day, the sabbath, and then entered Jerusalem the following day [John 12:12-19], four days before Passover.) It was during this time that His ministry was scrutinized to a degree far greater than ever before, including being judged by the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman procurator.

X. The Passover lamb was to be slain "at twilight" on the "fourteenth day of the same month" (v.6). The Hebrew expression here translated "at twilight" is literally "between the two evenings." This space of time was at the end of the day. It commenced with the beginning of the decline of the sun after noon, which was designated the first evening. It concluded with the eventual entire setting of the sun, which was designated the second evening.

Christ the Passover Lamb was slain "at twilight" on the "fourteenth day of the same month." He died at the "ninth hour" of that day (Matthew 27:46-50), three o'clock in the afternoon. This moment was in the middle of that time designated as "between the two evenings." This was the precise moment at which the high priest was offering in the temple the Passover lamb required by the law of Moses. As the consequence of the sacrifice of Christ at that moment, "behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (Matthew 27:51). God thereby signified that Christ had fulfilled all the typology of the Passover, and that all that the law of Moses had required concerning it was to be never again observed.

God therefore informs us that "now, once at the end of the ages, [Christ] has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Hebrews 9:26). This "end of the ages" is not the end of time itself, for that will not be concluded until the return of Christ. Rather, it is the commencement of "these last days" (Hebrews 1:1f), figuratively the twilight of time, between its two evenings.