the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Discovering Christ Day by Day
Today’s Reading: Exodus 30-32
Five Pictures of Redemption
Exodus 30:11-16
The only hope for fallen, guilty, depraved sinners is redemption, a redemption which includes atonement for sin, satisfaction for justice, and effectual deliverance from the guilt, power, dominion, and consequences of sin. Such redemption could be accomplished by only one Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God our Savior. Not only could He alone do it, He has done it; and He has done it alone (Isaiah 63:5). Every statement in the Word of God about Christ’s death at Calvary declares that He who is God our Savior effectually accomplished the eternal redemption of His people by the sacrifice of Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ bought His elect from among the fallen sons of Adam out of the hands of God’s offended justice, and delivered us from our sins by the shedding of His precious blood. That is what redemption is; anything less than that is not redemption. This is the work of redemption pictured for us in the Old Testament Scriptures.
The Redemption of Israel Out of Egypt
The deliverance of the people of Israel out of Egypt was a very special and remarkable type of our redemption by Christ out of a far worse state of bondage than that of Egypt (Psalms 106:6-12). Israel was brought into Egyptian bondage by an act of sin, when Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. Israel was redeemed by the hand of a man God raised up, Moses the deliverer prophet who typified Christ (Acts 7:35). The price of redemption was the blood of the paschal lamb (Exodus 12:13). The power of their redemption was the omnipotent hand of God, a picture of regeneration and conversion by God’s omnipotent grace (Exodus 14:13-14; Exodus 15:1-2; Exodus 15:16). This was a blood redemption, the redemption of a particular people, and an effectual redemption.
The Atonement Money Paid by Israel
Exodus 30:11-16 describes redemption by atonement money. This numbering of the children of Israel and the atonement money they paid so that no plague come upon them was typical of our ransom by Christ. None but Israelites were ransomed. A specific, numbered people were ransomed. The ransom price was the same for all. And all who were ransomed were preserved from any plague (Proverbs 12:21; Psalms 91:10).
The Kinsman Redeemer
The buying again of an Israelite who, by reason of great poverty had sold himself to another, by one of his near kinsman is another good, beautiful picture of our redemption by Christ (Leviticus 25:47-49). We have sold ourselves into bondage. We cannot redeem ourselves. No friend is able, or has the right to redeem us; but there is a near Kinsman, who is both able and willing to redeem, the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 7:25). Like Boaz, Ruth’s kinsman redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ as a man is our Near Kinsman. He is able to pay our debt. He willingly laid down his life to ransom us!
The Deliverance of a Debtor from Prison
In ancient times a man in debt was liable to be arrested and cast into prison. There he would have to remain in bondage until his debt was paid, either by himself or another. That is what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for God’s elect (Isaiah 49:8-10; Isaiah 61:1-3; Philemon 1:18). Our sins are debts. They are debts which we can never pay. We are all, therefore, shut up in debtor’s prison by nature. But Christ has paid our debt and set us free!
The Ransom of a Slave
In the days of the Old Testament, godless men often took their slaves and threw them into deep pits at night. They would take them out of their pits only to perform slavish labor, or if a ransom price was paid for their deliverance. Christ has ransomed us and delivered us from the pit of slavery and corruption (Job 33:24; Zechariah 9:11).We are all slaves to sin and Satan by nature. Our old master, the devil, kept us ever in the deep, dark pit of darkness and night, until Christ came to deliver us. The Lord Jesus Christ delivered us from the slavery of Satan and the pit of darkness, corruption, and sin by the power of His omnipotent grace. The price He paid for the deliverance of our souls was his own precious blood.
