The Lamb Must Be Chosen!

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.

Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy Devotions. This devotional was originally published on Worthy Devotions and was reproduced with permission.

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The city of Laodicea was founded nearly three centuries before the birth of Christ. Built on a trade route, Laodicea was quite prosperous. The wealth of the city was legendary, as Jews who lived there sent 9 kilograms (20 lbs) of gold to the Temple in Jerusalem on a yearly basis according to historical records.

Laodicea was an idyllic city except for its lack of a water supply. It depended on water from an external source, the city of Hierapolis was located six miles to the north, the site of mineral hot springs which were used for medicinal purposes. These steaming hot waters were piped to Laodicea, arriving there… lukewarm, hence the metaphor in Yeshua’s warning to the Laodicean church.

Here in Israel we have an interesting geographical phenomenon – there are two landlocked seas. One is alive and one is dead. The sea full of life is the Kinneret, better known as the Sea of Galilee. The dead sea is…….you guessed it, the Dead Sea. Now the Kinneret is constantly emptying as it flows through the Jordan River valley…. into the Dead Sea. But the Dead Sea does not empty its water at all. Instead, the Dead Sea is continually shrinking, because the intense heat at this lowest place on Earth actually evaporates more water than is flowing in. Do you see a parable here?

One day a passerby saw a homeless man on the roadside. He stopped for a moment to hand him some loose change and casually said “God bless you, my friend”.

“I thank God,” said the homeless man, “I am never unhappy.”

The church at Laodicea received a stern warning in chapter 3 of John’s Revelation. We would do well to reflect on it.

The word “Laodicea” is a compound in the Greek; “Laos” which principally means “people”, and “dike”, defined as “principle or decision”. One rendering might read, “rule of the people”, or, in modern terms, “Democracy”. In the western world, we have an affection and even a deep commitment to Democracy. Yet this form of government, “rule of the people” is fatally flawed… because we are fatally flawed by our sin nature…

One of my passions is studying history, especially the American Civil War. Here is an amusing story about General Stonewall Jackson’s famous Valley Campaign. During the war, Jackson’s army found itself on one side of a river when it needed to be on the other.

Yeshua (Jesus) said He is the “bread of life”. It was His body that was broken on our behalf as the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. Notice that He never once called us to be the “bread of life”! He is the ONLY “Bread of Life” – the true bread who came down from Heaven which anyone may eat and not die. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is His flesh, given for the life of the world.