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The Donkey and the Lamb

by Jerry Ousley  
4/11/2009 / Christian Living

I've talked about donkeys before. Though they are creatures of burden they can also be very comical and stubborn. But donkeys have been an important part of the Bible. We've talked about Balaam and his donkey. The Lord allowed it to speak to him and literally saved his life. It was a donkey that carried Mary, the mother of Jesus, into Bethlehem on the evening of His birth. It was also a donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem the week before He was crucified. That's the time we call the "Triumphal Entry" during which people spread out palm leaves and their outer garments and cried "Hosanna to the King!"

But the donkey also presented a unique problem to Jews. In the Law of Moses God had told them that the first-born of every animal and everything they owned belonged to Him. They were to bring it to the Temple to be sacrificed to God. But even though the donkey was commonly used, it was considered an unclean animal (in other words, it wasn't to be eaten by man and was not considered as a fit sacrifice to God). So what were they supposed to do?

In Exodus 34:20 the Bible tells us that God told Moses that they were given a choice when it came to the firstborn of a donkey; they could either break its neck, killing it, or they could substitute a lamb as a sacrifice in its place and it would then be allowed to live. A donkey was a very useful creature to not only the Jews but nearly everyone in that day and age, and still is a valuable beast of burden in many countries today. They are a sure footed creature and can carry a man down a mountain without slipping a foot. It made sense to save them alive. So many Jewish men brought an innocent little lamb to the Temple, killed it and sacrificed it to God in order to keep his scrawny donkey.

This example is representative of the spiritual problem of mankind. I don't mean to insult anyone with this but the donkey represents man. We have sinned and deserve to die. But we aren't worthy to be sacrificed to God. We are unclean in our sin. God doesn't want us as we are. We are not a worthy sacrifice. That only leaves one choice: When we die we go to hell. We aren't worthy of anything else and there is no other solution.

EXCEPT: There is a way. A lamb can be sacrificed in our place. However it can't be just any old lamb. It cannot have a single blemish. It has to be perfect in every way.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is the Lamb of God. In John 1:29, John the Baptist had been doing his thing down by the river. He looked up and saw Jesus coming. He said, "Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" What a profound statement. It was not only profound but prophetic. Jesus Christ, by His own choice, being the Son of God, chose to be born as a human being and come into this life. He was born sinless. He was a man without blemish. He alone was worthy to die in our place.

Because He loved us so much He allowed Himself to be sacrificed on the cross becoming the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Now there is a way. All we must do to escape the fate of hell is to come to Jesus Christ. We accept the fact that He was sacrificed in our place. We acknowledge that we need Him and that there is no other way. Then we believe upon Him, what He has done, and come to know that He alone can be our Savior. It requires us to take on a new nature and become new creations in Jesus Christ. It is a choice we make. We can have our necks broken as a donkey or we can let Jesus become our sacrifice and take away our sin. So what will it be; donkey or lamb?

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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