十月十五日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/10/1015.mp3″]
经文: 头生的驴,要用羊羔代赎,若不代赎,就要打折它的颈项。(出埃及记三十四:20)
每一个头生的生物都是主的,但是因为驴是不洁净的,不能献在祭坛上。怎么办呢?它能因而脱离这宇宙的律法吗?绝对不行。上帝在祂的规定中没有例外。这牲畜是祂应得的,只是祂不能接受。别无它法,只有救赎──此牲畜必须以一只羊羔来代赎。若不代赎,它就必死。我的心啊,这是给你的一个功课。那不洁净的动物就像你。你是主的产业,祂创造了你也教你能够存活。但是你的罪恶深重,上帝不愿也不接受你。上帝的羔羊必取代你的地位,不然你将永远死亡。让全世界的人看到你是如何感激那毫无玷污的羔羊吧!祂为你流血,将你从律法的致命咒诅中救赎出来。这个问题不就是以色列人长久以来的问题吗?哪一个必须死,驴子或羔羊?好人不该停下来作估量和比较吗?人的心灵与主耶稣的生命,两者价值肯定是无法比较的;然而羔羊死了,人才得以存活。我的心啊,因上帝对你和其他人类的无边大爱,献上敬拜,虫是用至高者儿子的血买赎来的!尘埃是以远超过金银的价值拯救来的!若没有救赎,我将毁灭了。荣耀的羔羊是无价之宝,祂将我们从死亡中拯救出来。
Evening, October 15
Scripture: “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.