"Redemption" is a large and blessed word in the New Testament and in the Old Testament too. Redemption takes the redeemed one out of one position and one state and brings him into another.
The character of the second book of the Bible is redemption. In the third chapter we find the blessed God come down in the burning bush, and He says to Moses, "I am come down to deliver." "I have surely seen... and have heard," and "I am come down." Go to the end of the book, 33rd verse of the 40th chapter. There we have God dwelling in the midst of His redeemed people, pitching His habitation among them.
In the 12th chapter, we get the way in which He did it. The first thing was to shelter that people from judgment. That could only be done by the blood of the lamb. The first thing God gives a soul to know, when really exercised, is security from judgment under the blood of Christ; but we must not stop there. Look at the first of Ephesians, speaking of Christ as the Beloved. "In whom [that is, Christ the Beloved] we have redemption" (v. 7). How far does that go? "Even the forgiveness of sins." Now go to the second chapter, verse 12: "without Christ.. and without God in the world." "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." That redemption we have in Christ through His blood, brings with it the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. It gives something else too; it takes me out of the old condition and gives me a place of nearness to God Himself. So we must not stop with being secured from judgment.
That blood on the two side posts and the lintel told that death had come in. It told that the stroke had fallen on a victim—a life had been given. There are those who have faith in the Lord Jesus who do not know much about the blood—about being covered. "The blood shall be to you for a token"; that is, something for those inside the house.
"When I see the blood, I will pass over you" has been dwelt upon almost to the exclusion of "the blood shall be to you for a token." God sees the blood, but it is my seeing it that brings me into peace. The blood speaks to the soul inside and wards off the stroke outside. It is the soul seeing the blood for himself that brings into the knowledge of safety.
"This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you." To whom was that day, that date, the beginning of months? Nobody else knew anything about it throughout the whole world. It was a particular day—day of redemption.
In the third chapter, God had come down, and what brought Him down was the bondage, misery, groaning, and oppression of His people. There He appears in the midst of the burning bush. "God called unto him [Moses] out of the midst of the bush." By way of comparison turn to the first of Leviticus. "The LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation." What a contrast! That gives the character of these two books. God comes down to deliver; then after He delivers, He sets His habitation in the midst of His people. Out of the midst of that habitation He appears and tells them how to approach Him. The subject of Exodus is redemption; the subject of Leviticus is the redeemed drawing near to God, the Redeemer. There is more order in the Word of God than people think. It is not brought together at random.
Numbers gives us the wilderness journey. It is a redeemed people, and they are neither in Egypt nor in Canaan, but in the wilderness, journeying on to Canaan.
The book of Deuteronomy answers to the judgment seat of Christ. "Thou shalt remember all the way," etc. We will have a rehearsal when we get into our Canaan, and before we have entered fully into it. We Christians have a Deuteronomy before we get into the land too. We are in Numbers. Redemption has brought us into Numbers. We know all the way God has led us since He brought us out. of Egypt. It must have been very humiliating as Moses called their attention to all their ways. But as it humbled them, it magnified the grace and goodness of God, and that is what our Deuteronomy will do too.