Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

October 15– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“You will redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb: and if you don’t redeem it, you must break its neck.”

—Exodus 34:20

Every firstborn creature belonged to the Lord. But the donkey was an unclean animal, so its firstborn offspring could not be presented as a sacrifice. So, what happens then? Should the donkey be exempted from the universal law regarding firstborns? By no means. God allows no exceptions. The donkey belongs to God, but he will not accept it. He won’t remove his claim on it, but he cannot be pleased with its sacrifice. The only way to escape this dilemma was through the practice of redemption; that is, the donkey’s firstborn must be saved by the substitution of a lamb in its place. And, if it is not redeemed in this way, the donkey must die.

O, my soul, here is a lesson for you today. That unclean animal is you. You are rightly the property of the Lord who made you and preserves you, but you are so sinful that God will not—cannot—accept you. And it comes to this: the Lamb of God must stand in your place, or you must die eternally. Praise the Lamb who has bled and died to redeem you from the fatal curse of the law!

Some Israelites may have questioned which should die— the donkey or the lamb. Wouldn’t a good farmer pause to estimate which was of greater value to him? Even though there is no comparison between the value of the soul of man and the life of the Lord Jesus, yet the Lamb of God dies, and man the donkey is spared.

My soul, admire the boundless love of God to you and others of the human race. Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust and ashes are redeemed with silver and gold! What doom would have been mine if God’s generous redemption had not been applied! The breaking of the donkey’s neck was but a momentary penalty, but the glorious Lamb has redeemed us from unmeasurable doom! [M&E]