Anyway, thanks to the great catholic apologist Scott Hahn I have been able to hear the entire reason and importance of that passover in Egypt that was guided and executed so carefully by Moses. I also learned how Christ took the place of the passover lamb.
Here’s a post I made about the foreshadowing of Jesus as the Lamb of God:
God tested Abraham, asking him to offer his
only beloved son as a holocaust on a mountain. As they went up the mountain – Isaac carrying the
wood for his own sacrificial death on his back – he asked his father where the lamb for the sacrifice was, and Abraham replied that God would provide Himself the lamb. God did provide an animal for sacrifice in place of Isaac… but it was a
ram, with its
head caught in a thicket of thorns. (cf. Gen 22)
When God delivered Israel from captivity in Egypt, He instituted a ritual sacrificial meal for them, by which each family was to acquire a
spotless, unblemished lamb, to kill it
without breaking its bones and to spread its
blood upon the doorposts of their homes; the angel of God’s wrath, seeing the blood, would pass over them. The family was also to
eat the flesh of the lamb. But this was not God’s lamb… (cf. Exo 12-13)
In time, another ritual was instituted for Israel, the
Yom Kippur (“day of atonement”) ritual. Two lambs or goats were chosen,
one to be slaughtered in sacrifice, and the other to have
the sins of all of Israel placed upon its head and to be sent out into the wilderness to die. This was the “scapegoat”, the
one who receives the blame and punishment for the sins of others. (cf. Lev 16)
On the shores of the Jordan, John the Baptist called out to all who would hear him, “Behold,
the Lamb of God, who
takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) He was speaking of Jesus, the only beloved Son of God. (cf. Matt 3:17) Pilate found Jesus to be
without fault or blemish. (cf. John 18:38) At His crucifixion, our Lord was
crowned with thorns and
carried the wood for his own sacrificial death on his back. (cf. John 19:2, 17) His
bones were not broken. (cf. John 19:31-36)
St. Paul says that “Christ,
our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Cor 5:7)
St. Peter says that we “were
ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but
with the precious blood of Christ, like that of
a lamb without blemish or spot.” (1 Pet 1:18-19)
St. John saw in Heaven “a
Lamb standing, as though it had been
slain.” (Rev 5:6)
There is so much there that was new to me, I wonder what else I don’t know enough about?
I’d recommend finding a parish nearby that hosts the
Great Adventure Bible Timeline Bible study. It is
excellent and fully, completely, 100% Catholic!
It will help you make connections between the Old and New Testaments that you had never noticed before. For example, in John 4, Jesus meets a woman from Samaria who has five husbands. That real encounter was the manifestation in someone’s
personal history of the
national history of Samaria, which had been mingled with five other pagan nations and left the true worship of God:
[24] And the king of Assyria brought people from
Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sephar-vaim, and placed them in the cities of
Samaria instead of the people of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria, and dwelt in its cities. [25] And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the LORD; therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
[26] So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations which you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land; therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” [27] Then the king of Assyria commanded, “
Send there one of the priests [of Israel] whom you carried away thence; and let him go and dwell there, and teach them the law of the god of the land.” [28] So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.
[29] But
every nation still made gods of its own, and put them in the shrines of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they dwelt; [30] the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, [31] and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sephar-vaim. [32] They also feared the LORD, and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. [33] So
they feared the LORD but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
[34]
To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the LORD, and they do not follow the statutes or the ordinances or the law or the commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. (2 Kings 17:24-34)
Jesus said to the woman, “you have had five husbands.” So this woman who really had five husbands
represented Samaria which also had five “husbands” (
ba’als, “lords”), those five false gods. And Jesus said to the Samaritan woman that “he whom you now have is not your husband.” For the woman was now in the presence of Jesus (i.e. God), but He was not yet her Lord, her “husband”, just like Samaria
knew of the true God but did not treat Him as its one and only husband.
