Psalm 49:7-15, Christ our Passover Lamb

We are thinking about connections between Passover in Ex. 12 and our Lord’s ministry at the cross.  We can see that Passover speaks of “atonement,” providing a covering for sin.  Passover also speaks of “redemption.”  In the OT there are two pictures of redemption.  First, there is the one illustrated in the book of Ruth (e.g. Ruth 2:20; 4:14), where the Redeemer is a “kinsman redeemer.”  Boaz was a close relative of Naomi and Ruth.  As we have noted, the Passover lamb in Ex. 12 was part of the family for a period of time, and then shed its blood so as to “buy” freedom from death for Israel.  Job knew of this Redeemer: For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth (Job 19:25).  Jesus was our “blood brother” who was our Kinsman-Redeemer (Heb. 2:17-18).  We should join the Psalmist in 107:1-2: Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy. 

The other term is seen in the provision made for firstborn sons.  In Ex. 13:13-15 (still in the context of Passover) God proclaimed that all the firstborn in Israel belonged to Him.  Thus, a firstborn of the sheep or the herd was to be put to death.  But in the case of a firstborn son, they could be redeemed, bought with the blood of a lamb.  The Psalmist in 49:7-15 spoke of this wonderful spiritual truth.  No person can pay the ransom for another person because it is too costly.  Each is accountable for their own sin.  Yet the Psalmist is confident that God will “redeem my soul from the power of the grave.”  Christ is that Redeemer.  Study this in Col. 1 where we see that Christ, the Firstborn of all creation and Firstborn from the dead (1:15-18) is the One who has shed His blood to reconcile us to God (1:19-23).

Continuing in Ex. 12, we have seen that the covering and redemption is bound up in the blood of the lamb, as is the case with Christ.  Lev. 17:11 says, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.  Do you remember how the God said that “the blood of (Abel) cries out to Me from the ground” (Gen. 4:10).  Every picture of atonement and redemption we have seen requires the taking of a life, meaning, the shedding of blood.  What Jesus accomplished on the cross was through His blood (e.g. Rom. 3:25; Col. 1:20).  At the Passover meal Jesus declared, This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many (Mk. 14:24).

The lamb was to be roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs, a picture of suffering.  So Christ suffered as He became our Passover (Ps. 22:12-18; Isaiah 53:3-7).  And lastly, the Passover was “the LORD’s” Passover (12:11).  So, Christ was smitten by God and afflicted (Isa. 53:4).  God brought (Him) to the dust of death (Ps. 22:15).  He was delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:22-24).

Psalm 91

This anonymous Psalm, ascribed by some to Moses who wrote the previous Hymn, has attracted a great following.  It promises protection and deliverance to those who walk deeply with God.  But it does not give the saint a free pass with respect to the difficulties of life.  It promises deliverance (v3), including from Satan, the fowler who seeks to ensnare.  It promises God’s truth to be a covering for the pilgrim (v4).  He will not need to be afraid (v5-6).  He will not experience the evil that comes upon the wicked (v7-8).  He will be protected and encouraged in the face of life’s difficulties (v10-13).  But it also says that God will be with him in trouble (v15). 

Jesus gave the sense and application of this Psalm when Satan himself quoted 91:11-12 in one of the temptations (Matt. 4:5-7).  He refused to test God by requiring God, so to speak, to deliver Him from falling.  In another passage Jesus noted those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul (Matt. 10:28).  Every saint in Scripture faced tribulation, beginning with our Lord and each of His Apostles.  This Psalm does not indicate we will have no trouble; it promises rather perfect protection for the soul regardless of the trouble.

To put ourselves intentionally in danger would actually deny the very condition for this Psalm that is seen at the start (91:1-2) and again in the middle (91:9).  That is where we need to spend time in meditation.  God, by His truth, will be the refuge for the one who dwells in the secret place of the most High.

·         To dwell is to sit down, to remain, or to stay somewhere.  It does not speak of a short visit or merely passing by.  We take the name of the place where we dwell.  Those who dwell in Israel are Israelites.  Those who dwell in God’s holy habitation are holy ones or saints (Deut. 26:15).  Under the New Covenant it is to abide in Christ (John 15).  And yet at the same time it is for Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith (Eph. 3:17).  It is to answer the knock on the hearts door and to welcome the Savior for deep fellowship (Rev. 3:20).

·         The secret place is the place where nothing Satanic or evil or destructive to the soul can ever enter.  It is God’s tabernacle (Psalm 27:5).  Christ was in that place in Gethsemane on the night of His betrayal.  He bids us enter into the same place to find help (Heb. 4:16).   How can this be when we are on this earth, so far from our eternal home?  It is because …

·         Our dwelling place is God Himself (91:9; 90:1).  As 91:2 says: I will say of the Lord … my refuge and my fortress!  This is not magical nor mystical.  It is frequent and deep fellowship with God through prayer and His word.  To pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17) is to be at home in the secret place.  It is nothing between my soul and the Savior; the ongoing experience of His forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9).  It is the presentation of our bodies as living sacrifices, our only reasonable worship (Rom. 12:1).

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High

Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Mark 14:12; Ex. 11:4-7; 12:1-7,13, What was Written about When Jesus Would be Crucified?

Jesus was crucified at Passover.  Not the Day of Atonement.  Not during the Feast of Tabernacles.  But Passover.  The rest of the NT calls attention to this fact.  John the Baptist referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God (John 1:29), a title of Christ that is found in the Passover.  Paul said, 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 (1 Cor. 5:7).  Peter’s words in 1 Pt. 1:17-19 are profound:

¹⁷ And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; ¹⁸ knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

There are many things about the first Passover that connect with Jesus’ crucifixion.  Moses told the people of Israel what God had said to him: around midnight the LORD was going to kill the firstborn of all in the land of Egypt, but He would not kill the firstborn of the Israelites.  In this way, everyone would know that the LORD made a distinction between Egypt and Israel.  Moses said these words for Pharoah to hear (11:8), and yet he spoke in the hearing of the people of Israel (11:2). 

Exodus 12 contains the instructions for the first Passover, the one that set the stage for all the others, and the one that prophesies Christ.  For example, in 12:3 we see that, as Jesus often said, “whosoever will may come.”  The offer was to all the people of Israel.  Passover involved a male lamb, without blemish (12:5), fulfilled in Jesus.  In 12:6 we see that the lamb was chosen and spent 4 days with the family, becoming dear to them.  In the same way, Christ came to His own, and lived among them, and ministered among them, and then was put to death. 

The Israelites were to take blood from the sacrificial lamb and put it on the doorposts and over the top of the door.  Thus, the lamb provided “atonement.”  The word for “atonement” comes from Gen. 6:14 when Noah was told by the LORD to cover the ark with pitch so that it would not leak.  In the case of Passover, the blood provided a covering over the household so that, when the LORD went throughout Egypt He would “pass over” the homes of the Israelites that were covered with blood.  The Lord Jesus provides an eternal covering for us, as we see in Rom. 3:24-25:

being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.

There is more to say about this connection, which we will in the next post.

Mk. 14:10-11,18-21, What was Written About Jesus’ Betrayer?

Remember, we are acknowledging that “the Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him” (14:21).  In v10-11 we see that Judas initiated the betrayal and the chief priests paid him accordingly.  In the recent post called “Thirty Pieces of Silver” we saw that this was written beforehand in Zech. 11:12-13. 

As Jesus and the disciples ate the Passover meal together, Jesus prophesied that one of “them” would betray Him (14:18-21).  Jesus seems to indicate He is less concerned about naming the betrayer and more concerned about the fate of the betrayer: it would have been good for that man if he had never been born.  The Zechariah passage had prophesied the tragic ending for the betrayer when the prophet said, And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter.  The Gospels tell us that Judas threw the money at the feet of the chief priests and hung himself in the potter’s field.  The priests used the money to purchase the field for the burial of strangers (cf. Matt. 27:3-10).  Peter, in Acts 1:20 quoted two Psalms that spoke of Judas’ woeful fate: Let his dwelling place be desolate, and let no one live in it (Ps. 69:25) and, Let another take his office (Ps. 109:8).

There is one other Biblical connection with Judas.  In John 17:12 Jesus refers to him as the son of perdition.  2 Thess. 2:3 refers to the future antichrist by the same title: Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of^] sin is revealed, the son of perdition.

All of these references to the betrayer work together to assure us that Jesus’ is correct to pronounce a “woe” upon Judas (Mk. 14:21).  There are people who sometimes want to paint Judas as a “gray” individual, struggling with perhaps some political motives or “reverse psychology” (trying to force Jesus’ hand).  As we have noted, and say again, Judas was a man of covetousness, loving money, and he was willing to put a price of 30 pieces of silver on Jehovah, God who came in the flesh!

Having said that, and without any diminishing of this description of evil Judas, there is an interesting study in the NT.  The word for “betray,” paradidomi (prefix “over, beside” with verb “to give”, to give over or give to someone) appears several times in the NT in speaking of Jesus’ crucifixion.  Who gave Him over?

·       Mk. 14:10: Judas gave Him over, betrayed Him.

·       Mk. 15:1: the elders, scribes and entire Sanhedrin “delivered” Him to Pilate.

·       Mk. 15:15: Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified.

·       Rom. 4:25: Jesus was “delivered up” for MY justification; I delivered Him up.

·       Jn. 19:30; Gal. 2:20: Jesus “gave up” His spirit; He loved me and “gave Himself up” for me.

·       Rom. 8:32: The Father “delivered Him up” for us all.  Why did the Father do this?  Because there was no other Redeemer!

Acts 13:26-41, The Fragrance of His Death

Since Jesus’ anointing at Bethany has caused us to consider His burial, let’s consider other passages that speak of His burial. 

And they made His grave with the wicked—But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. (Isa. 53:9)

Here is a passage I love because it speaks of a “carved out tomb” like the Garden Tomb.  That was a rich man’s tomb.  Shebna, in Isa. 22:15-16, was a rich man who made such a tomb. Crucified people were not normally buried; their bodies were burned.  I consider this burial to be the beginning of Jesus’ exaltation.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. 10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. (Ps. 16:9-10)

This is the passage quoted by both Peter (Ac. 2) and Paul (Ac. 13) when they anchor His burial in the OT. 

My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. (Ps. 22:15)

This is the point of burial in the amazing prophecy of “crucifixion.”  He was truly dead, brought to the “dust of death.”  I also find it interesting how often the burial “spices” are mentioned in Scripture.

All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia, Out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad. (Ps. 45:8)

And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Mt. 2:11)

And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. (John 19:39)

Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him.  (Mark 16:1)

What is important about this?  His friends wanted to be sure His shame did not continue, even in death.  So they brought the spices.  The way we live our lives should present Jesus’ death as a “fragrant” event!

14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? (2 Cor. 2:14-16)

John 12:1-8, Jesus Anointed for Burial

Let us continue our comparison of the two records.

Mark 14:3-9	John 12:1-8
4 But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted? 5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticized her sharply.	4 But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, 5 “Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it.

John adds something valuable.  Several were indignant, but apparently on one of them was one of the Twelve.  John clarifies the motivations of Judas.  He was all about the money.  He was a thief and never cared about the poor.  There are some who want to try to clean up the reputation of poor Judas, or at least to give some extenuating circumstances.  Furthermore, we learn here something of the true value of our Lord.  We noted in a previous post that the “shepherds of Israel” only valued Him at 30 pieces of silver.  Here He is valued at, not just 300 denarii, but as the most valuable item one worshiper could give. 

Mark 14:3-9	John 12:1-8
6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me. 7 For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always. 8 She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial.	7 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. 8 For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.”

The words Jesus spoke in this situation would never fly in the world where we live.  Not that there are not those who have such an exalted view of themselves.  But we can never speak of people rightfully doing good to us.  Our world would say that Jesus “dissed” the poor, that He was arrogant.  And yet, Jesus as always spoke the truth.  He was and is worthy of our praise and Mary had come to know this from taking time to sit at His feet.  Again, what was happening here?  She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial.  This is the right thing for Mary to do, and a magnificent good work of worship.  As Mark concludes,

Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”

Mark 14:3-9, What was Written About the Burial of Jesus?

We now come to one of the most wonderful and powerful stories in the life of Christ: His anointing by Mary of Bethany.  But before we get started, we need to be sure we understand: this is a story about the burial of Christ!  It says so in 14:8: She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial.  Keep that in mind!

The second thing is that we need to take time to compare this story as found in Mark 14 and John 12. 

Mark 14:3-9	John 12:1-8
1 After two days it was the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread … 3 And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head.	Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. 2 There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him.

First, there is no conflict in the schedule.  Two days after Jesus’ Olivet Discourse was to be Passover.  He had already been in town several days before this, having arrived at the home of Lazarus.  Jesus had entered Jerusalem on the “Triumphal Entry” and then retired to this home afterwards.  At some point, a dinner was served at the house of Simon the leper.  Martha was their serving; Lazarus who had been raised from the dead several weeks before, was an honored guest as was Jesus.  This is not the same story as Luke 10:38-42 where Martha had complained that Mary was not helping her with the meal.  Different time.  Different home.

Mark 14:3-9	John 12:1-8
3. … a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard.  Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head.	3 Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

Again, I don’t see a conflict.  She poured it on His head and it went to His feet which she wiped with her hair.  My evidence is Psalm 133:2: It is like the precious oil upon the head, Running down on the beard, The beard of Aaron, Running down on the edge of His garments. It was meant to be a glorious picture in Ps. 133 and it is also in the Gospels!