I‘m always wondering about circumstances. Not just now but when Jesus was born. Our Savior was called the Lamb of God. Born in a stable. Placed in a manger. In a past post, I described how the Levitical priests would wrap the newborn lambs in swaddling cloths and place them in a manger in order that the lamb would remain unblemished. The angels declared to these same shepherds that they would find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. That this would be a sign to them. What must they have thought…

How marvelous that the Lamb of God entered the world in this way.

Jewish families would place their family name on their lamb before taking it to the temple to be sacrificed. They did this to insure receiving their lamb back and not another family’s lamb. It was important to them to have their family lamb for the Passover meal.

When we see paintings of Christ on the cross, we see four letters. “INRI”. This is an abbreviation of the sign Pontus Pilate placed on the cross. (John 19:19) The inscription Pilate had written was, “Jesus the Nazarene, The KIng of the Jews.” In the Latin Vulgate, the inscription would read, “Ieus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum”. Hence the abbreviation ”INRI”.

We know that Pilate wrote the inscription in 3 languages. Latin. Hebrew. Greek. The Hebrew reads, “Y’Shua HaNatzri V’Melech HaYehudim”. When we take the first letters of these words we get “YHVH”. This is interchangeable with “YHWH”. We recognize this as Yaweh in English.

We see the Son of God hanging on a cross with the Name of God written on that cross. Our Father put His family Name on His Lamb. Stop and marvel.

We are God’s family. Adopted and grafted in. Forgiven by the blood of our Passover lamb.

From His birth, our Abba God identified Jesus as the Lamb…slain for our sin.

I’m always standing in awe of Him.