Ancient Words —
Behold the Lamb
The metaphors used to describe Jesus, the Christ, are numerous through the Ancient Words. Light, seed, rock, manna, bread, shepherd, king are just to name a few.
“Lamb” may be the one metaphor used more consistently throughout the Old Testament as the sacrifice of this animal was required and observed every year in the history of the Israel nation. Actually, before Jacob (who fathers the Israel nation) was born, Abraham is asked by Jehovah God to offer his “only son,” Isaac, the father of Jacob, as a sacrifice for sin (Gen 22.1-19). With his faith and allegiance to God unshakable, Abraham leads his young and innocent son, to a homemade wooden alter with Isaac asking his dad, “…Father, where is the lamb…?” Abraham responds to his son’s question with an amount of pain unimaginable, “God will provide the lamb, my son.” And he continues to bind Isaac on top of the wooden alter. Knife in hand and raised to plunge into the chest of his son, the downward motion is stopped as the voice of an angel calls out, “Abraham, Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the boy…” Abraham looks up and sees a male lamb (a ram), caught in a nearby thicket. In the region of Moriah, the boy is released and the ram (a male lamb) is offered instead as the sacrifice. In honor of saving his only son, Abraham names the place, “The Lord Will Provide” because the lamb was provided as the sacrifice for his sin….Behold, the lamb!
Two thousand years later a man called John the Baptist is baptizing in the Jordan River. John looks up and sees Jesus walking towards him. The words recorded in John 1:29 echo the age old story of Isaac in metaphorical exactness, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (KJV-BRG).
Three years later, in the same region of Moriah, a Roman built wooden cross becomes the alter. The Father of all men allows his one and only son to be led to the place called “The Lord Will Provide.” Instead of God’s son asking “Father, where is the lamb?” he prays, “O my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
As Jesus is crucified on the wooden alter of the cross,the Roman hands are not stayed as they drive the nails through his hands and feet. There is no lamb nearby in the thicket. God’s only son, the true Lamb of God, endures the cross yet despises its shame. After Jesus dies, a Roman centurion is quoted as exclaiming, “Truly, this was the Son of God!”…..Behold, the Lamb!
About 70 years later, a man called John writes in Revelation 5, “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne…” Those around the throne sang a new song: “You (the Lamb) are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God….”
Next a chorus of millions and millions of angels sing: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Again in Rev. 17:14, the beast “shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of Lords, and King of Kings…” Finally and for eternity, “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.” (Rev. 22:3). In the Ancient Words – Behold the Lamb!
(Scott Johnson is pastor at East Faulkner Church of Christ and author of the BRG Bible).
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Sparks From The Gospel Anvil
1 Kings 18: 20-39
Imagine with me as to this event that is taking place, this trial by fire, between the prophet of God and the 450 prophets of Baal. How on the parched, sun-baked slopes of Carmel, the prophet Elijah announced his proposed test. Let the sacrifices be laid upon the altar. Let him be god who would send down fire and consume their offerings. And let Baal and his priests have the first inning.
Then began the weird, pagan performance. With Elijah scoffing at them with pointed sarcasm, “Cry louder why don’t you? Cry louder! He is a god you’re crying to isn’t he? Perhaps he’s gone for a walk. Perhaps he’s asleep. Cry louder! Wake him up!” All day long he taunted at them, until their throats were sore from their shouting, their bodies were drained from their devilish dancing, their craving began to be to cut themselves and their minds began to manifest who their master truly was. Here these 450 prophets were trying their best to call upon their god yet no voice spoke or even answered the cries of these 450 prophets.
Then the scriptures immediately cut to the next scene and we see Elijah going over to an abandoned Jehovah altar, set upon it a sacrifice, and offered his prayer to Jehovah not ranting or foaming or shouting. And the answer came in fire, which consumed the offering. Then the people looking on crying as they fell on their faces, “The Lord! He is God! The LORD! HE is God!”
Did you know that America needs a prophet today – a prophet that will set before the nation the essential choices. In the words of that great poet and essayist, J.D. Holland, “God give us men – men whom the lust of office does not kill – men whom the spoils of office cannot buy – men who have honor – men who will not lie – men who can stand before a demagogue and damn his treacherous flatteries without winking – tall men, sun-ground who live above the fog in public duty and in private thinking.”
And whether you know it or not, millions of people in America live in moral dismal fogs – they move in some sort of spiritual twilight, modified morality and modified dishonesty is the practice of millions more. Surely the time has come for us to be honest about it.
It was the late, Dr. Peter Marshall, chaplain to the House of Senate who said, “If we have thrown away our spiritual national heritage, if we no longer believe that this nation was founded under God, if contrary to what is stamped upon our coins, our trust is not in God, but in Baal, LET US SAY SO! Let us at least not be hypocrites!
Yes, like the ancient Hebrew nation, America needs a prophet like an Elijah – a prophet who will have the mind of Christ and the ear of America and will say to her now: IF THE LORD BE GOD, THEN FOLLOW HIM! BUT IF BAAL, FOLLOW HIM … AND GO TO HELL!”
Are we willing as believers to stand in the gap and fill in the hedge? We are the watchmen of this city, county and country. Are we being obedient to what God has called us to do? What has the Father called us to do? To know Him and to make Him known, is how the Apostle Paul said it. So, let us, that the name of Christ, be faithful to him that called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.
(Lieutenant Charles Smith is commanding officer of the Salvation Army of El Dorado).
