The Passover Lamb - An Egyptian Diety!

Background: Pesach means "Passover" in Hebrew and is the Jewish celebration of the Exodus from Egypt when God asked the Israelites to slaughter a lamb and place it's blood on the inside of the doorpost in order to save the lives of their firstborn children.

While there are obvious reasons why God chose the lamb to be the sacrificial animal for Pesach, there are other interesting reasons that are not as well known.

Did you know that during the time of the Israelite immigration, slavery and exodus from Egypt, the lamb was worshipped as the animal form of one of the highest of all Egyptian gods? So much so that the Egyptians would not eat sheep! They were treated similarly to the way cows are treated in India. This was an advantage and disadvantage to the Israelites. A disadvantage because the Egyptians automatically looked down on them in distaste. An advantage because the Egpytians would avoid the Israelites and leave them alone in their monotheistic beliefs.

As viceroy and second in command of Egypt, Joseph of course knew that the Egyptians worshipped sheep, which is why he asked Pharoah to let his family live in Goshen outside of the main area of Egypt - because Jacob and his sons were sheepherders! This was a degrading occupation to the sophisticated Egyptians as it was absolutely abhorred to slaughter and eat sheep. Joseph also chose the site of Goshen so his family could be sustained by the fruitfulness of the land, but not easily assimilated into the culture of Egypt. He wanted them located away from the pagan, hedonistic people of Egypt so their belief in the one true God would remain intact.

The lamb was not the only animal worshipped as diety - each of the 10 plagues were specifically chosen by God to come against the top 10 Egyptian gods! (See next blog for details on each diety each plague was created to expose) The Nile River that provided Egypt with water for their crops was another high diety worshipped by the Egyptians - and it was turned into blood and rendered useless! The God of heaven took on the highest false gods of Eygpt! He utterly exposed them in front of all of Egypt - and countless other nations when news spread of these miraculous events! It is VERY interesting that the next Pharoah in Egypt was a monotheistic Pharoah - WONDER WHY?!

Regarding the lamb, when people would come to inquire of the gods, the pagan Egyptian high priests would take a lamb and would write incantations in the ear of the lamb. They would then repeat the words to invoke demonic spirits to appear!

So how interesting is it that God would have the Israelites take a lamb by it's ear and tie it to the bedpost for 4 days and nights and then slaughter it?! What chutzpah and faith in God the Israelites had to of had to take a high Egyptian diety by the ear into their homes and then slaughter it when they at this point were simply slaves!

And why did God have them purchase their lamb on the Sabbath? Because the Egyptians had taken away their Sabbath day of rest and made them slaves every day of the week. So here they are saying to the Egyptians that they are re-taking and re-claiming their day of rest!

As you can see, there is ALWAYS more behind the surface meaning of Scripture! There is NO portion of Scripture that we read in the English that doesn't have a much deeper level to learn in the Hebrew language and culture of the day! As far as the Passover story, this simple blog only scratches the surface of this intensely deep portion of Scripture!