Lamb

A lamb is a young sheep — defenceless, gentle, and economically valuable to a pastoral people. Its very helplessness made it the central animal of Israel's sacrificial system, offered every morning and evening and at every major feast.

At the first Passover, a spotless lamb was slain and its blood marked the doorposts so that death would pass over the household. Year after year the worshipper laid hands on the animal, transferring guilt to an innocent substitute — a vivid, costly picture that sin brings death, and that an unblemished life could stand in the sinner's place.

John the Baptist gathered up that entire history in one sentence: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” In Revelation the slain-yet-standing Lamb is worshipped on the throne. The image teaches that God's answer to evil was not overwhelming force but willing, innocent self-sacrifice.