In Like A Lamb

Genesis 22:8

Welcome to March. March is Women's History Month, National Nutrition Month, American Red Cross Month, and Fire Prevention Month. In March Daylight Savings Time begins, and winter ends. It is the time of year when animals start to wake up from hibernation. 

Along with St. Patrick's Day, other "holidays" in March include National Potato Chip Day, Hug a GI Day, Fragrance Day, Take a Walk In the Park Day, and (believe it or not) Dyngus Day.

And this year Easter falls on March, which makes this month a wonderful dichotomy. The old March weather proverb "In like a lamb, out like a lion" comes to life this month, as we celebrate Jesus Christ the sacrificial lamb of God at the beginning of the month, and Jesus Christ the Lion of Judah rising victorious over death at the end of the month. 

I'm sure this imagery is brought up ad nauseum every time Easter falls at the end of March, but I like this imagery. Just before their exodus from Egypt, God commanded the Israelites to take an unblemished lamb, slay it, then smear its blood on the doorposts of their homes

3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. 4 Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. 7 Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it....  12 For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:3-7, 12-13)

The blood of the slain lamb set apart the people of Israel from the people of Egypt when the death angel came during the night to slay the firstborn of the land. Those who had obeyed God and marked themselves with the blood of the slain lamb would be spared. 

Centuries later John the Baptist sees Jesus approaching him, stops what he was doing, and declares to all present, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29), A couple of years later on Passover, the Lamb that God sent to us, a perfect and unblemished male, was killed. And His blood is a sign to us that God will spare us from the wrath that we so horribly deserve, and our Lamb will return as a Lion to lead us to victory over sin and death as He did two millenia ago.