I DARE say my little readers have all read, or heard, about Mary and her little lamb, as the piece of poetry runs:
“Mary had a little lamb;
Its fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go.”
Well, here we have a picture of Mary and the lamb which followed her to school one day. You can see the school house off in the distance; and Mary has laid down her book and slate on the ground, and is fixing the ribbon on the neck of her little pet. No doubt, Mary thought a great deal of her lamb, and the lamb thought a great deal of her.
But now I want to tell you of another lamb, mentioned in the Bible. You will find an account of it in Exodus 12. God’s people had been in bondage under the cruel king of Egypt, and God was going to deliver them. Pharaoh, the king, had refused to let them go, and God had sent nine different plagues upon him and his people, and still he hardened his heart, and would not let God’s people go. God had said to Pharaoh, “Israel is My son, even My first-born,” but Pharaoh did not care, and now God was going to take his first-born, and the first-born of all in the land, both of man and beast. It would be a terrible night, when the destroyer would enter into every house, and slay the firstborn.
But the children of Israel were in the land too, and how would they escape the destroyer, for they were not better than the Egyptians? Well, God provided a way for them. If you read Ex. 12, you will see that they were to take out of the flock a lamb for every house—a lamb without blemish—and this lamb was to be slain instead of the first-born child. On the evening of the night that Jehovah was to go through the land to smite the Egyptians, the children of Israel were to slay their little lamb, and catch the blood in a basin, and they were to sprinkle this blood on the door-posts of their houses, and on the lintel over the door; and the Lord said;
“The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.”
So you see, dear children, it was the blood of this lamb that protected the firstborn of the children of Israel in Egypt on that dreadful night.
Now Scripture tells us of still another Lamb, of which this lamb was only a type. Jesus is the. Lamb that God has provided for sinners. His blood has been shed and shelters every sinner who believes in the Lord Jesus.
“BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD, WHICH TAKETH AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD.” John 1:29.
ML 06/22/1924