Every firstborn creature belonged to the Lord, but the donkey was unclean. It could not be offered as a sacrifice. So what then? Should it slip free from God's universal law? By no means! God makes no exceptions. The donkey was his by right, but he would not accept it. He would not drop his claim, and yet he could not be pleased with such a victim.

Only one escape remained: redemption. The creature must be saved by substituting a lamb in its place. Or if not redeemed, it must die.

My soul, here is your lesson. That unclean animal is you. You rightfully belong to the Lord who made you and preserves you, but you are so sinful that God will not, cannot accept you. And it has come to this: the Lamb of God must stand in your place, or you must die eternally.

Let all the world know how grateful you are to that spotless Lamb who has already bled for you, who redeemed you from the law's fatal curse.

Don't you think the Israelite must have sometimes wondered which should die, the donkey or the lamb? Wouldn't any good man pause to weigh and compare? But surely there is no comparison between the worth of a human soul and the life of the Lord Jesus. And yet the Lamb dies, and man the donkey is spared.

My soul, admire the boundless love of God for you and the rest of humanity! Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust and ashes redeemed at a price far above silver and gold!

What doom would have been mine if plenteous redemption had not been found! The breaking of the donkey's neck was only a moment's penalty. But who can measure the wrath to come, to which no limit can be imagined?

How inestimably dear is the glorious Lamb who has redeemed us from such a doom!