PLEASE open your Bible, and read carefully the thirteenth verse of the thirteenth chapter of Exodus; there you find these words from the lips of Jehovah: " Every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt NOT redeem it, THEN THOU SHALT BREAK HIS NECK; and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem."
Now come back with me in thought to a supposed scene of three thousand years ago. Two men (a priest of God and a poor Israelite) stand in earnest conversation. Let us stand by, with their permission, and listen. The gestures of each bespeak deep earnestness about some matter of importance, and it is not difficult to see that the subject of conversation is a little ass that stands trembling beside them.
"I am come to know," says the poor Israelite, "if there cannot be a merciful exception made in my favor this once. This feeble little thing is the firstling of my ass, and though I know full well what the law of God says about it, I am hoping that mercy will be shown, and the ass's life spared. I am but a poor man in Israel, and can ill afford to lose the little colt."
"But," answers the priest firmly, "the law of the Lord is plain and unmistakable: ‘Every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck.' Where is the lamb? "
"Ah, sir, no lamb do I possess!”
"Then go, purchase one, and return, or the ass's neck must surely be broken. The lamb must die, or the ass must die."
"Alas! then all my hopes are crushed," he cries; "for I am far too poor to buy a lamb."
While this conversation proceeds, a third person joins them, and, after hearing the poor man's tale of sorrow, he turns to him, and says kindly, "Be of good cheer, I can meet your need," and thus he proceeds: "We have in our house, on the hill-top yonder, one little lamb, brought up at our very hearthstone, which is ' without spot or blemish.' It has never strayed from home, and stands (and rightly so) in highest favor with all that are in the house. This lamb will I fetch." And away he hastens up the hill. Presently you see him gently leading the fair little creature down the slope, and very soon both lamb and ass are standing side by side.
Then the lamb is bound to the altar, its blood is shed, and the fire consumes it.
The righteous priest now turns to the poor man, and says, "You can freely take home your little colt in safety; no broken neck for it now. The lamb has died in the ass's stead, and consequently the ass goes righteously free. Thanks to your friend."
Now, can't you see in this God's own picture of a sinner's salvation? His claims as to your sin demanded a righteous judgment upon you; the only alternative being the death of a divinely-approved substitute.
Now you could not find the provision to meet your case; but, in the person of His beloved Son, God Himself provided the lamb. "Behold the Lamb of God," said John to his disciples, as his eyes fell upon that blessed, spotless One, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," John 1:2929The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29).
G. C.