Evening, October 15

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou
   redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck."

  Exodus 34:20

   Every firstborn creature must be the Lord's, but since the ass was
   unclean, it could not be presented in sacrifice. What then? Should it
   be allowed to go free from the universal law? By no means. God admits
   of no exceptions. The ass is his due, but he will not accept it; he
   will not abate the claim, but yet he cannot be pleased with the victim.
   No way of escape remained but redemption--the creature must be saved by
   the substitution of a lamb in its place; or if not redeemed, it must
   die. My soul, here is a lesson for thee. That unclean animal is
   thyself; thou art justly the property of the Lord who made thee and
   preserves thee, but thou art so sinful that God will not, cannot,
   accept thee; and it has come to this, the Lamb of God must stand in thy
   stead, or thou must die eternally. Let all the world know of thy
   gratitude to that spotless Lamb who has already bled for thee, and so
   redeemed thee from the fatal curse of the law. Must it not sometimes
   have been a question with the Israelite which should die, the ass or
   the lamb? Would not the good man pause to estimate and compare?
   Assuredly there was no comparison between the value of the soul of man
   and the life of the Lord Jesus, and yet the Lamb dies, and man the ass
   is spared. My soul, admire the boundless love of God to thee and others
   of the human race. Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the
   Highest! Dust and ashes redeemed with a price far above silver and
   gold! What a doom had been mine had not plenteous redemption been
   found! The breaking of the neck of the ass was but a momentary penalty,
   but who shall measure the wrath to come to which no limit can be
   imagined? Inestimably dear is the glorious Lamb who has redeemed us
   from such a doom.