Since our first parents sinned, God told them that the result of sin was death. Yet He had mercy on them and instead of immediately requiring their own death, He provided them with a way to temporarily cover their sin. God allowed the life-blood of an animal to atone or take away sin, so they could be restored to fellowship with God.
Animal sacrifice was instituted in the garden, even before the Passover and the subsequent sacrificial system in the tabernacle. The animal represented an undeserving recipient of a deserved punishment. Substitutionary atonement; one punished in place of another. It represented faith in God’s word if it was done as He instructed, and trust in His provision. The sacrifice was valuable; one gave only the best. The perfect, unblemished animal foreshadowed Jesus, the perfect sacrifice who atones for sin once and for all. “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29b
Because these sacrifices only temporarily covered the sins of the people, they needed to be offered on a regular basis. When the offering was brought, the person would put their hands on the head of the animal while it was killed (Lev. 1:4). This symbolically put their sins onto the animal, and the person identified with it, and then it died in their place.
The requirements for the Passover lamb; male of the first year, one per household, a lamb without blemish, kill it and catch its blood, smear it on door posts and lintels, eat the flesh which was roasted whole on a fire, eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, while wearing travelling clothes, all of it must be eaten that night, anything left till morning must be burnt with fire. The bones were not to be broken. The angel of death would come, and God promised, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Ex. 12:13
How is Jesus represented by the Passover Lamb?
He is without blemish (sinless).
“For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.” Heb. 7:26,27
“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin,” Heb. 4:15
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”2 Cor. 5:21
“…knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Pet. 1:18,19
The lamb was to be fully consumed. Ex. 12:8-10
He really died. We feed on Him by faith. (John 6:54)
Ex. 12:46, Num. 9:12 The lamb’s bones were not to be broken.
His bones weren’t broken. John 19:33,36 To show He fulfilled Scripture, it points back to the instructions about the Passover lamb, but now applies it specifically to Jesus.
John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)
They were to remain inside the house all night to be safe. “And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.” Ex.12:22b We are safe if we are “in Christ.” “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Rom. 8:1
He was perfect, unblemished, male, no broken bones, a substitute who bore the wrath of God, we are covered by His blood, protected from the punishment of death, we feed on him, we partake because we are circumcised in heart=regenerated/born again. He preserves the lives of all who trust Him.
“Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.” Jer. 4:4
“In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,” Col. 2:111
It was to be eaten with bitter herbs to remind them of their bitter slavery in Egypt/our bitter slavery to sin.
Jesus redeemed His people from slavery to sin. “Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” John 8:34-36
“Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” Romans 6:16
“But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.” Romans 6:17
“But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.” Romans 6:22
Also eaten with unleavened bread. Leaven represented sin.
We have been set free (redeemed) from our slavery to sin. Therefore we must remove sin from our lives.
“Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Cor. 5;7,8
Those who applied the blood of the lamb were safe from judgment and death. Ex. 12:7,13
We are under the safety and protection of His blood.
“…knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Pet. 1:18,19
He was killed as our Substitute, therefore we need not fear death and judgment.
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,” 1 Pet. 3:18
The Scarlet Thread 
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