II. But we must not look only at the deliverance, for redemption means deliverance through ransom, or through blood, and we must not forget the ransom, or redemption price. What in this case was the ransom? It was not Pharaoh’s host drowned in the Red Sea, for the bondage of Israel was broken before that event occurred. Nor was it the death of the first-born in Egypt, for that could not be regarded as the ransom of Israel, though I fully admit that it was closely connected with it. For my own part I believe it was the blood of the Paschal Lamb on the night of the Passover. But you may say what a little thing that was as the ransom of a nation! Perfectly true; but remember, it was a type. The whole transaction was a type. The people were a type; the deliverance was a type; and, therefore, it is only natural to expect that the ransom, too, would be a type. Now we learn that the Paschal Lamb was a type of our blessed Saviour, for we read, 1 Cor. v. 7, ‘Christ our passover is sacrificed for us,’ and, therefore, as that paschal lamb was a prophetic picture of Him and His sacrifice, we can see in a moment how it was that it was the ransom price in the redemption of Israel. It was an antedating of the future sacrifice of the Son of God, and it, as it were, carried back the power of the great atonement, and applied it 1500 years before it happened to the redemption of Israel. I can see, therefore, perfectly clearly why the deliverance of Israel was called a redemption; for they were redeemed by the same ransom as we are even by the precious blood of Christ. It was shed, it is true, 1500 years after their deliverance, but even then it was prefigured and applied, and even then it was effectual. What, then, is our conclusion? Is it not surely this? If the burden of Israel was removed, the yoke of Egypt broken, the way opened through the Red Sea, and all through the type, may not we be perfectly sure that our burdens will be removed, our yoke broken, and our difficulty overcome through the effectual power of the reality? Look, then, at that most precious blood of Christ; look at Him as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world; look at Him as your ransom and Deliverer, and never again admit the thought that the yoke of sin’s condemning power is too fast fixed ever to be broken, or the hindrances of sin’s obstructing power too desperate to be overcome. But when you groan under the yoke let your heart rest in redeeming blood; and when you feel the difficulty of progress then look to redeeming power, so that the yoke being broken through the blood, and victory given by the power, you may go on your way with the song of Moses in your heart, ‘The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation.’ III. THE FIRST-BORN.