Page Two: “Blessed Are The Meek” 07/01/2012
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(11) And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD'S Passover.”
Why a lamb? Do you remember the Patriarch Abraham on the day he took his son Isaac to Mount Moriah? On their way to the top of the hill, Isaac asked his father this question. Genesis 22:7 “And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” “Where is the lamb of the burnt offering?” Lambs were sacrificial animals. Lambs were the animals that would be slain. Their blood was to be shed in an act of worship. From the earliest days of creation through the entire Old Testament history, we find the lambs were to be used as sacrifices. Here’s a word from Ezekiel in the days of the Captivity. Ezekiel 46:13 “Thou shalt daily prepare a burnt offering unto the LORD of a lamb of the first year without blemish: thou shalt prepare it every morning. (14) And thou shalt prepare a meat offering for it every morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of an hin of oil, to temper with the fine flour; a meat offering continually by a perpetual ordinance unto the LORD. (15) Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the meat offering, and the oil, every morning for a continual burnt offering.” But why a lamb? There’s one main reason. Because the one quality that is exhibited in the lamb is meekness. And the acceptable sacrifice with God is sacrifice that willingly offers itself to the hands of someone else. |
Here’s the NT word on this. John 1:29 “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (36) And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!”
I Peter 1:18 “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; (19) But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:” The lamb’s place has always been to meekly offer itself up to the hands of someone else that it might become their sacrifice. And did you know that the Book of Revelation is the Book of the Lamb? The term is found in Revelation twenty-seven times. So, why does God use a lamb to symbolize meekness? Here’s why. The term meek implies all these things: humble, lowly, afflicted, mildness, and gentleness. Jesus says here in the Sermon on the Mount “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” And how do you define meekness? “Meekness toward God is that disposition of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting. In the OT, the meek are those wholly relying on God rather than their own strength to defend them against injustice.” [Found on www.characterjournal.com]. “Gentleness or meekness is the opposite of self-assertiveness and self-interest. It stems from trust in God's goodness and control over the situation. The gentle person is not occupied with self at all.” [Found on www.characterjournal.com]. Jesus says here in the Sermon on the Mount “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” |