Bible Prophecy

Passover lamb

 * He is guarding all the bones of that one; not one of them has been broken.—Ps. 34:20.

When the lamb was slaughtered for the Passover meal, the Israelites were not to break any of its bones. (Ex. 12:46; Num. 9:11, 12) What of “the Lamb of God” who came to provide the ransom? (John 1:29) He was impaled with a criminal on each side. The Jews asked Pilate that the bones of the impaled men be broken. This would hasten their death so that they would not be left on the stakes into Nisan 15, a double Sabbath. Soldiers broke the legs of the two impaled criminals, “but on coming to Jesus, as they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.” (John 19:31-34) That matched what was done with the Passover lamb, so this lamb was in that sense “a shadow” of what was to come on Nisan 14, 33 C.E. (Heb. 10:1) Moreover, the way things worked out fulfilled the words of today’s text, which should strengthen our confidence in prophecy.