Exodus 12:4-6 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
There is something deeply intentional in God’s instruction concerning the lamb. He does not tell Israel to take a lamb at the last moment — He commands them to choose it on the 10th day of Nisan, set it apart, and live with it until the 14th day. This was not random timing; it was divine design.
For four days, the lamb would be in the house. It would be seen, observed, and known. It would not remain distant — it would become familiar. The household would examine it, ensuring it was without blemish. But more than that, something deeper was happening: the lamb was becoming personal before it became sacrificial.
This is the Hebraic weight of the moment. God was not establishing a cold ritual — He was cultivating a relational reality. The lamb you offer must first be the lamb you have received. Redemption is not built on distance — it is built on encounter.
And all of these points lead us directly to Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ).
On the 10th of Nisan, He entered Jerusalem. In the days that followed, He was examined by religious leaders, questioned in the temple, and scrutinized publicly. Yet no fault was found in Him. Just as the lamb in Exodus was brought into the house and observed, so the true Lamb of God was brought before the people and revealed to be without blemish.
But there is another layer that carries profound prophetic significance. It was also on the 10th of Nisan that the children of Israel, under Joshua, crossed into the Promised Land (Joshua 4:19). On that very day, they entered into inheritance — and on that same day, they were commanded to choose the Passover lamb.
The connection is not accidental.
Entrance into promise is inseparably tied to the Lamb. You do not step into inheritance apart from sacrifice, and you do not walk in promise apart from redemption. The Lamb marks both your deliverance from Egypt and your entrance into destiny, revealing a powerful truth: the Lamb is not only the way out — He is the way in.
There is a real urgency in this hour, especially for those who already know the Lord. You may sense that God is bringing you into a new season — standing at the edge of promise, aware that something is shifting. But this moment is not just about stepping forward; it is about drawing nearer to the Lamb in a deeper, more intentional way. Israel did not enter the Promised Land apart from the Lamb — they chose the lamb on the very day they crossed over. In the same way, every new place God brings you into requires a fresh nearness, a renewed focus, a deeper surrender to Yeshua.
As we enter this Pesach (Passover) season, this is your invitation to step into that same intentional pattern—because just as God instructed Israel to choose the lamb ahead of time, He is calling you to draw near to Him in a real and deliberate way. As you do, what God has already done in your life won’t remain a distant memory—it will become stronger and more alive within you. You’ll begin to see more clearly who you are in Him, feel more grounded in your walk, and the path ahead will start to open with greater clarity. This nearness is what positions you to step into what He has for you in this season—leading you into your calling and your destiny—but it all begins the same way it did then: by choosing the Lamb fresh and new.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]We have seen that names have significant meanings, and as discussed earlier, Elimelech, whose name means “My God is King”, left Bethlehem with Naomi his wife and their two sons. The birth of these two boys must have brought joy and happiness, yet, having perished in Moab actually caused their very names to lose their original meanings.
As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, leaders from around the world gather to honor those who served and died to deliver Europe and the world from the Nazis during World War 2.
During the Biblical festival of Shavuot, the book of Ruth is read. It’s a powerful story of faith, restoration and redemption. The book opens with a famine in all the land surrounding Bethlehem, forcing a difficult decision upon Naomi’s husband, Elimelech. Now, Bethlehem (beth: “house”, lechem: “bread”) literally means “house of bread”, so the irony of Elimelech’s departure from his home, “house of bread”, during a famine, is lost on English speaking readers, but reveals that every detail in the word of God can be meaningful, especially the meanings of names.
One of my favorite ministers of the Gospel is D.L. Moody. He tells a story about having heard Pastor Henry Varley once say that, “The world has yet to see what God will do with and for and through the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.”
The Lord is quoted in this scripture in Matthew and it contains an important principle which I think we sometimes tend to overlook. Many believe and even teach that if someone acquires much material prosperity, then God has surely given them favor, and that if someone is undergoing extreme trial, it must be because they have sinned or that they lack faith. But the Lord says that the sun rises and the rain falls on both the righteous and the unrighteous alike. A life of good circumstances does not necessarily mean that God is with us. And likewise, a life of trial and suffering does not mean that God is not with us!
The African Impala (an African antelope) are amazing creatures that can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance greater than 30 feet. Yet Impalas can be kept in a zoo inside an enclosure with a simple 3 foot wall. Why? Impalas will not jump if they can’t see where their feet will land. Do we have something in common with these antelopes? Able to take great leaps of faith, but refusing to do it unless we can see where we’ll land?
An aging king woke up one day to the realization that should he drop dead, there would be no male in the royal family to take his place. He was the last male in the royal family in a culture where only a male could succeed to the throne – and he was aging. He decided that if he could not give birth to a male, he would adopt a son who then could take his place but he insisted that such an adopted son must be extraordinary in every sense of the word. So he launched a competition in his kingdom, open to all boys, no matter what their background. Ten boys made it to the very top.