WE will complete our consideration of the great subject of Redemption by looking at a few of the Old Testament teachings as to it. We turn first to the Book of Exodus, for redemption is not directly taught us in Genesis. The Book of Genesis is, as it were the germ or bud wherein the whole range of Bible truths lies hidden. As God unfolds His great truths, we see, at the beginning of Exodus, at the very first, Israel redeemed on of Egypt through the blood of the paschal lamb. The slaves of Pharaoh felt their slavery bitterly, and they worshipped at the tidings of deliverance, but not one step out of Egypt could they take, until the redeeming blood had been shed for them. Never let us forget that redemption through blood is the first step to liberty. It was the blood as seen by Jehovah, not the blood as seen by Israel, upon which the Lord based His passover. We may feel the slavery of sin, we may sigh for or sing of heaven, we may have anxious fears, or strong faith, but the blood of Christ the Lamb, in all its value, not our thought about the blood, is our redemption.
In direct connection with Israel’s redemption through the blood of the paschal lamb (Ex. 14), and the sparing of their firstborn sons from the destroyed, Israel was told that all their first-born sons were Jehovah’s. These sons all had to be redeemed (vs. 13). In like manner all the firstborn of cattle were the Lord’s, but if a man had the firstling of an ass he could redeem it with a lamb, and if he did not wish to redeem it, “then,” said the scripture, “thou shalt break his neck.” Either death or redemption was the solemn lesson of the figure, and given, let us remember, by the Lord upon the moment of Israel’s departure from their land of bondage; and death or redemption is the solemn fact for every soul of man, and must be announced as we speak of the redeeming blood of Jesus.
When the tabernacle was set up in the midst of Israel, every one of the one hundred silver sockets wherein the boards of that building fitted, and all the silver hooks for the pillars whereon the curtains hung, spoke of redemption (Ex. 38:25-28), for these sockets were the result of the ransom prices of the souls of all the people who were numbered as the people of God. Half a shekel a head was the ransom price for all alike. “The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for their souls.” (chs. 30:12-16.) Hence as Israel turned their eyes towards the dwelling place of God in their midst, “a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord,” ever witnessed to them that God dwelt amongst a redeemed people.
Happy lesson for ourselves of that precious ransom price, which is equally for the little child as for the aged man! God dwells among us, and we draw near to Him on the ground of the redeeming blood of Christ.
The whole system of buying land in Israel was based upon redemption, as the Lord would have every such transaction in His land wrought out in memory of the first great principle of His dealings with His people. The land was the Lord’s; His people were His tenants upon it, not the absolute possessors thereof, but strangers and sojourners merely. Ah! how little do such as build and plant upon this earth regard the truth, “The earth is the Lord’s,” and realize, their brief tenancy here! And not only was this so of the land, but also of the persons of Israel, who through poverty had sold themselves to pay their debts, for they, however poor, were not to be in servitude beyond a given day. Redemption-lessons were thus mingled with the daily-life transactions of God’s people.
The poor Israelite selling himself to the rich stranger in Israel (Lev. 25:47-55) with the powers of redemption granted to the poor man’s rich kinsman is such an exquisite picture to us of the Lord’s grace to us that we must not pass it by hurriedly. We have, as man would say, a most unfortunate person depicted, with whom everything goes wrong, he loses all, and at length sells himself to pay his debts; for let us note, God demands that debts shall be paid; He is the righteous One as well as our redeeming God. “Owe no man anything,” He says, save, indeed, love; and well it would be, if we were all hopelessly indebted one to the other as to love! The poor man who had sold himself to the stranger was open to the kindly office of any of his kinsmen who, for love’s sake, would pay his debts at the price at which he had sold himself, and so redeem him. “Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself,” was the word.
As to poor sinners redeeming themselves―that is an impossibility. In some countries even now there is a law by which slaves are allowed to work after labor hours, in order that they may save money sufficient to buy their freedom, but no slave of Satan and sin can perform over-work and buy himself out of captivity. The sinner’s only hope lies in his being ransomed by a Redeemer out of pure love. Now, in order to become our Redeemer, the blessed Son of God became the Son of Man. He became our kinsman; He took human nature upon Himself, and, as a man, poured out the ransom price for our sakes, even His own precious blood. To Him be glory forever and ever. He has bidden us go out free, and let us see to it that the liberty He has wrought for us is used by us in loving service to Himself.