When the Levites were numbered it turned out that there were only 22,000; but the number of the first-born males of the other tribes was 22,273. The substitution, therefore, fell short by 273 persons. It clearly, therefore, could be no type of the Lord Jesus, for there was no falling short in Him. The result was that a supplement was necessary. Five shekels of silver was to be added for each of the 273, and when that was paid the whole of the first-born were redeemed. This money payment afterwards became a permanent institution in Israel, and appears to have been continued long after the original transaction was complete. In Num. xviii. 16, we find the direction that ‘all that are to be redeemed . . . shalt thou redeem . . . for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary.’ Now in this Levitical picture there are many things that bear a close resemblance to the Gospel. There was a clear legal claim, and the remission of that claim by substitution, or the payment of a redemption price. And this may serve to illustrate the claim which the law has on us all, and the remission of the claim by the substitution of the Son of God. But, as I have already said, we must be very careful how we call it a type, for the contrasts are more remarkable than the resemblances. There are two points of contrast to which I would draw your most especial attention, points which I can scarcely doubt you have yourselves observed already. In the first place, the freedom or the release bestowed on the first-born through redemption was the exact opposite of that bestowed on us through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. They were redeemed _from_ God; but we are redeemed _to_ God, as we read Rev. v. 9, ‘Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.’ Before they were redeemed, all the first-born were the Lord’s, and were enrolled as a separate people belonging in a special and peculiar manner to Him; so that He said of them, Num. iii. 13, ‘All the first-born are mine.’ The effect of the redemption was to put an end to this sacred relationship, and to place them on the same footing as the other members of the family. It released them from all that was involved in their being a peculiar people unto God. They ceased, in short, to be a peculiar people. Now this is the exact reverse of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The effect of His work is to call out a peculiar people unto God, and so separate us unto Himself, that He may say of us, as He said of the first-born, ‘All are mine.’ You remember how clearly this is put in Titus, ii. 14, ‘Who gave himself for us.’ There is the redemption price, and the next clause teaches the object of it, ‘that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.’ Those, therefore, whom he has redeemed are purified as ‘a peculiar people unto himself.’ We are brought by