Both Divine and Human

“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:” (Ex 12:5 AV)

What does this mean?  Does this mean a first-year sheep was in the midst of goats?  Or, does it mean they could choose a first-year goat to eat instead of a sheep of the first year?  If the later, why?  More importantly, what is this supposed to symbolize?  Some propose the option of choices represented the duel nature of our eternal Sacrifice.  Jesus Christ, who is referred to as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world had another nature.  That other nature was the human nature.  Although sinless, He took upon Himself the sins of the whole world.  The goat, write some, represented the human nature which identified with the sins of the world while the sheep identified with the purity of deity.

When one compares another truth the picture becomes clearer.  The blood of the sheep was the blood that was struck on the lintel and door posts.  The blood of the goat was not.  This give us a further picture of the nature of the sacrifice offered by Christ.  It was the blood of a sinless divine that bought our salvation.  Not the blood of a limited human being.  However, the God did, in fact, identify with the object of His grace.  He took upon Himself the form of a man, not thinking it robbery to be equal with God, and made Himself of no reputation.  He did this for the obedience of the Cross.  When the Hebrew celebrant partook of the kid of the goats, he was symbolizing how the Messiah would come as a human being and identify Himself with our sinful nature.

What furthers this idea is the comparison between the two meats.  Based on culture, the palatability of the meat varies.  Some cultures enjoy goat meat more so than lamb.  Others, the opposite.  If we are seeing this through the eyes of the Hebrew, he would clearly prefer the meat of the lamb far more than the meat of the kid.  The meat of the lamb being more consistent and less stringy than the goat.  The lamb also has a higher fat content and thus, more meat flavor then the more lean and stringy meat of the goat.  In short, the meat of the lamb would be seen as of a higher quality and more desired than that of the goat.  Such is the divine over the human.  But again, this pictures the duel nature of our Redeemer.  Both divine and human.  To fully appreciate what Christ has done for us, perhaps we should, on occasion, partake of both.  Meditation on the true nature of our LORD would grow an appreciate for exactly what was done for us.