Lamb Selection Day

This Sunday, 16 Mar 08, Christians all over the world will celebrate Palm Sunday at their local churches. What many people don't know about this special Sunday is the fact that Jewish people call this Lamb Selection Day. This is the day when Jewish families chose the lamb they will sacrifice as they celebrate the Feast of the Passover, a national holiday. As a child in Sunday School, I associated the day with palm branches. I thought "Hosanna!" was a shout of praise. But there's another meaning: " O save us! Deliver us, Redeem us!" Palm-waving was the equivalent of waving the national flag, in protest, to demonstrate the Jews' hatred of the Roman rulers. The angry crowd was looking for a deliverer, someone who would drive out the hated Romans and bring freedom. Palm-waving patriots were actually crying: "O save us! Deliver us! We want our freedom!' But on Lamb Selection Day, Jesus did not ride into Jerusalem as a conquering hero on a powerful stallion. Jesus in his perfect plan chose to ride a donkey into Jerusalem the Sunday before Passover, the day in which the perfect sacrifice would be chosen. It was also Jewish custom on the Friday after Lamb Selection day at precisely 1500, the Lamb would be slaughtered to celebrate the upcoming Passover Sunday, which commemorated the Jewish people being freed from Egyption bondage some 2,000 years earlier. We all know that Jesus is often referred to as the perfect lamb sacrificed for all of us. Guess what time Jesus actually breathed his final words, "Tetelestai"- It is finished or Paid In Full!" .... You guessed it!... 1500 on Friday!... The day of Jesus' cruxicfiction. Our God doesn't make mistakes and nothing happens by chance. And when the Lamb was sacrificed later that week, only a few onlookers understood the kind of freedom that the crucifixion -- and resurrection -- brought to their lives.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not ... he was led like a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:3,7). God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). The Lamb of God had been selected, in God's redemptive plan, before the creation of the world. We no longer live in Old Testament times; there is no longer a need to offer an animal sacrifice for sin. In the crucifixion of Jesus, the one-time sacrifice of a whole and holy Lamb "atoned" for you -- paid the penalty for your sins -- and gave you the opportunity to be whole, to be "at one" with a holy God.

Someday, God's Word tells us, every creature in heaven and earth will join in the chorus: "Worthy is the Lamb! Deserving is the Lamb that was sacrificed, to receive all the power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and majesty and blessing!" (Revelation 5:12)

If you have accepted the sacrifice of the Lamb, your name will be written in the Book of Life with those who have been made whole; "at one" with Christ (Revelation 13:8).

The Lamb waits for your decision ...He is an all-knowing God that has a perfect plan for everyone that calls upon his name. Behold, the perfect Lamb has come!