As you know, on the evening of the first Passover, the Lord visited Egypt as an angel of death. He took every firstborn – people and livestock included- exept where He found blood on the doorway.
To understand the killing of the paschal (Passover) lamb, it’s important to know that in Egyptian society the lamb, or ram (a male sheep), represented a pagan god of the Egyptians named Amon (also spelled Amun, Amen, ot Ammon). Amon, whose name means “hidden one”, was considered the king of the gods and the source of all life on heaven and earth. According to the Egyptian Zodiac, Nisan was the chief month of this god, and the 15th of that month during the full moon was believed to be the apex of Amon’s powers.
The lamb was so sacred in Egyptian cult practice that the people of the land were forbidden to even touch a ram, let alone bring it into their home, slaughter it, roast and then eat it as God commanded Israel to do. (Exodus 12: 6-8)
It was a desecration of their religion to kill a lamb. The Passover sacrifice was a direct challenge to their gods. To the Jewish people the same sacrifice fulfilled a promise of God: “Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgement: I am the Lord.” Exodus 12:12.
On the celebrated day of Amon, and at the alledged peak of his powers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob not only overcame Pharaoh, but desecrated the worship of Amon and gave the Egyptian people reason to believe in the God of Israel!