This type teaches us a wholesome and humbling truth with reference to our state by nature as children of Adam, together with the wondrous provision of God’s grace for relieving us from this state. It brings before us, not what we are in our personal responsibilities, and the way of meeting these, so as to free us from the penalties that attach to us as guilty, but (apart from every act of our own), what we are by simple inheritance from our parents, by virtue of which our lives are forfeited from the first moment of our existence, so that we require to be redeemed in order that we may live to God.
The type brings before us three things.
1St The nature of the animal that is to be redeemed—an ass.
2nd The mode of its redemption—by a lamb.
3rd The absolute alternative if not redeemed—the neck to be broken.
Under the law, as we read in Leviticus 11, all animals were divided into two classes—clean and unclean.
The first class alone was to supply the Israelite with food, and from it the various sacrifices were to be drawn. What man could eat for his blessing, and God accept for him in sacrifice, were thus made identical.
On the other hand, what God could not accept in sacrifice man was not to eat; and thus in what was used or refused God associated His people with Himself in that which made up even their life in natural things.
Without going into the details of what constituted clean and unclean, we learn from the broad features of this typical teaching two all-important truths: in nature and in practice one animal is clean; while in nature and in practice another is unclean.
What have we here but the simple unfolding of what Christ, as man, is on the one hand, and what man in the flesh is on the other? The defining line of clean and unclean runs from Genesis to Revelation. Whether in type or in fact, it is Christ on the one side, and Adam on the other. Man by his birth from Adam is unclean. He is born outside the pale of all blessing, far removed from all that is good and acceptable before God.
The pride of the natural heart by no means receives readily such a humbling truth as this.
Man would fain disown his inheritance, and take higher and better ground. He would see in the type we are considering only a curiosity in a past economy. He cannot allow himself to see in it his own condition by nature. Though forced to admit that in practice he has failed to be all he should be, whether towards God or his neighbor, he would utterly disclaim that he is by nature merely the “firstling of an ass.” His knowledge of himself cannot admit such a thought for a moment, for “vain man would be wise, though man be born a wild ass’s colt” (Job 11:1212For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt. (Job 11:12)).
It is easier far to acknowledge that we have acted like a wild ass’s colt, than to acknowledge that we are such. Yet this is the clear utterance of God’s Word about us, and it is the unmistakable language of our type. It is not till we see God’s estimate of ourselves, that we are free to receive, in all its fullness, His wondrous remedy for the dire necessity we are in.
By type and by direct teaching God has taken great pains to give us the real state of things as before Himself. Nor will He overlook what His own eye sees, however much we would like to have it so. He will not confound things that differ, nor yoke clean and unclean together. “Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together,” is His word in Deuteronomy 22:1010Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. (Deuteronomy 22:10). Would He show us the extremity of man’s necessity in the things of this life, He pictures it to us in the famine of a city “besieged till an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver” (2 Kings 6:2525And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. (2 Kings 6:25)). The horrors of famine could go no further; the ass’s head, and “we boiled my son and did eat him,” go together.
So Israel’s wanton reliance on an arm of flesh, in going to Egypt for help, is to God the abomination of feeding upon those “whose flesh is as the flesh of asses” (Ezek. 22:2020As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. (Ezekiel 22:20).) Had not Israel been taught God’s utter rejection of Egypt, as that which to Him was utterly unclean, indeed, “as the flesh of asses”? Was not their state that of those who had been by Himself redeemed from that unclean condition? And had not the type we are taking up been given as the memorial of this very thing?
“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 first-born of man among thy children shalt thou redeem. And it shall be, when thy son asketh of thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage. And it came to pass when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew the first-born of man and the first-born of beast; therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the first born of my children I redeem” (Ex. 13:13-1513And 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. 14And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage: 15And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem. (Exodus 13:13‑15)).
God would ever have His people remember the degradation from which they had been redeemed, and continually He would keep before them and their children the bright grace that had interfered to save them from a destruction which, in virtue of their nature as sinners, as much belonged to them by inheritance as it did to the Egyptians.
What man is by nature is abomination to God, and cannot live in His presence, or, while in that state, enter into His service, while to die in that state is to be consigned to everlasting shame.
For a little moment man may glitter in the pomp and vanity of human greatness, like Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, King of Judah, and his friends may lament his end, saying, “Ah lord!” or, “Ah his glory”; but in God’s sight he is “buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem” (Jer. 22:1919He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 22:19)). Man without the knowledge of God is but as Nebuchadnezzar, with a “heart made like the beasts, and his dwelling with wild asses” (Dan. 5:2121And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will. (Daniel 5:21)).
Such in God’s sight is man’s state by nature. He is conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity, David tells us (Psa. 51:55Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51:5)). He goes astray from his youth up, speaking lies. He is but “the firstling of an ass,” by his earliest breath, and can only grow up as such. He may be educated to serve man’s purposes, but with God he has no link, either for time or eternity.
It is for us to consider such things. The plea of innocence is constantly put in for the babe at the breast, and education is brought to bear upon him as he grows up. A pardon for some lapses in good conduct he may require at the end of his history, but redemption, the thing needed at birth to bring him to God, and save his life from eternal destruction, finds a small place in the popular theology of the day, or the ordinary pulpit oratory that people delight to have their ears tickled with.
“Every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb,” is the utterance of Him whose word “liveth and abideth forever.” Redemption, not education, is what the infant at the breast requires, in order that he may have a place in God’s economy.
One other alternative awaited the firstling of an ass; “if not, thou shalt break his neck.” Redemption or destruction became its portion from the first moment of its existence. It was no question of what it had been or might become. It was “the firstling of an ass,” and its life was forfeited by the first breath it drew. The lamb stepped in between it and destruction, and through the death of that lamb it passed out of its state by nature, and could take its part, in virtue of redemption, in the service of the God of Israel. By God’s provision, the lamb was thus ready to die for the firstling of the ass, the moment it made its appearance. The choice lay between the lamb and the broken neck.
How simple is the language of this type to the eye of faith! Redemption or destruction awaits the child of Adam at the very moment of its birth. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,” and it is “appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.” Man’s history begins with the alternative of “the lamb,” or “the broken neck.”
Blessed be God, the “Lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world,” has “appeared once in the end of the world, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:2626For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26)). The blood of God’s own Son has been shed upon the cross for man’s redemption. It knows no limitation of nation or of color. It is not a ceremonial system for a special people, but the bright witness of divine love and mercy for all men; “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all.” He is the blessed “Lamb of God, that beareth away the sin of the world.”
The healing rays of that Sun shine for all, and the redeeming virtues of that blood are available for the entire human race. Upon this ground, and not upon that of innocency, every little helpless infant that passes out of this scene ere it reaches the platform of personal responsibility, finds its place in the blessedness provided for it by Him whose will it is that “not one of these little ones should perish” (Matt. 18:1414Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:14)).
It was not pity for the “firstling of an ass,” as such, that God would have had His ancient people learn from this suggestive ordinance, but a lesson about themselves, and His love for them. “Doth God take care for oxen?” asks the apostle Paul, “or saith He it altogether for our sakes?” “For our sakes, no doubt, this is written,” he replies. The pitying eye of God has looked down in mercy upon every little helpless “firstling of an ass” of the widespread human family, and in the blood of “the Lamb of God” we see the rich and eternal provision for its state as such. If, according to His choice, they die early, He avails Himself on their part of its blessed efficacy. If, according to His will, they grow up to take a place before Him on the footing of personal responsibility, He in “the word of the truth of the gospel” tells them of their state before Himself, and bids them avail themselves, by personal faith, of that redemption through the blood of Jesus, which is also “the forgiveness of sins” (Eph. 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7)).
Man must take his place before God, not only in the acknowledgment of sins, but of sin. Not only of what he is by practice, but of what he is by nature. Not only of what he has gained for himself as “the wages of sin,” but of what he stands possessed of by inheritance. He must change from the condition of sinnership to that of righteousness, and from the ground of creation to that of redemption, if ever he is to see the light of God in the abodes of everlasting blessedness. He does this the moment he trusts himself to THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. The firstling of the ass is eternally saved, and his neck shall never be broken.
Dear reader, have you done this? Has the blood of the Lamb become your redemption?
C. W.