Sheep. προβατον. Universally, in the NT and OT (Isa 53), as a prophetic type of Christ and the believer in His PW: Mt 7:15; 9:36; 10:6,16; 12:11–12; 15:24; 18:12–13; 25:32–33; 26:31; Mr 6:34; 14:27; Lu 15:4,6; Joh 2:14–15; 5:2; 10:2–4,7-8,11–16,26–27; 21:16–17; Ac 8:32; Ro 8:36; Heb 13:20; 1 Pe 2:25; Re 18:13.
The sheep are the humble, innocent sacrifice, first in Christ, then in the PW, which foretells Christ, which is relegated as Christ, humbled in the face of religious culture as religion’s main motivation, which is tortured, torn, mistreated, nailed as in failure and killed. But in vindication of God’s faithfulness, it resurrects alive from the dead.
Chadwick says, “Young believer.” Christ is the “Lamb of God,” of the Mosaic sacrifice. But what kind of lamb?
The lamb is a prophetic lamb: Gen 22:7–8; Ex 12:3–13; Nu 28:3–10; Isa 53:7. This Lamb of God “taketh away the sins of the world” (Joh 1:29,36). This, at the moment John the Baptist uttered it, was yet future, and therefore a prophecy founded upon OT prophecy. Again, the lamb is a powerful example of prophetic truth, as the ultimate signification for Christ and Scripture, hiding in plain sight within such significations that we instead prefer as “great sacrifice” (Easton), and “symbolical of meek submissiveness” (Moorish). The great sacrifice was through God willing to place His holy reputation on the line, as a God of certain fulfillment, by giving the world something that He knew they would destroy and cause the appearance, albeit briefly, of Him failing.
This prophetic knowledge is a lamb because in a fallen world truth is at hand, apparent, obvious, without nuance and mystery, quiet, meek. The PW is unassuming, lowly, passive, and willing to be placed under the knife of man’s evil heart because it knows that God will rectify Man’s failure by its resurrection. Therefore Christ is the perfect Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world by the final expression of God’s unfailing word in keeping His promises, even when the world rises against Him with all its might. Moses offered a lamb as a type of Christ who would come, being inefficacious because its fulfillment was yet far off, unlike Christ, who completely fulfills that prophetic Law.
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