It ha-s been seen, accordingly, that while, in their legal usage, the OT terms for ' redeem ' and ' re- demption ' Imply payment of a price, or, in the case of firstborn sons, .sul)stitution of a life, or a monetary ransom, these terms are often used in
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REDEMPTION
REDEMPTION
the more general sense of simple deliverance or salvation. The great historic instance of Jehovah's redemption of His people was their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt (Ex 6^ 15i3, Dt 7^ etc.). That held in it already the pledge of every other deliverance v^hich the nation or godly individuals in it might need. Prayers, therefore, are frequent that Jehovah would redeem from oppression, from violence, from sickness, from death, from captivity, etc. {e.g. Ps 25'^^ 49^^ 72" 103*), and thanksgivings for deliverance refer usually to the same things {e.g. Pss 116. 12-4. 12G, Zee 108«-)- Redemption in such passages is commonly from temporal calami- ties or ills, endured or feared. Only in one place is direct mention made of redemption from iniqui- ties (Ps 130^). This last fact, however, must not mislead us. As, in the OT, outward calamities are usually connected with Jehovah's anger, or with the hiding of His face, so, it is everywhere implied, the first condition of the removal of these evils is return to God and the forsaking of iniquity ; if the individual is righteous, this is the ground on which he looks to God for vindication against tlie ungodly oppressor (Pss 3. 4. 5 etc.). We must be- ware here, and throughout this whole discussion, of building too much on the mere occurrence of a term. The fact of redemption is often present, where the loord is not directly used. Behind all interpositions for deliverance apd help, whatever the words employed, stand Jehovah's unchanging character. His pledged word. His inflexible will to uphold the right, His compassion for the afflicted and oppressed. Righteousness, in His deliverances, always counts for mure than the deliverance itself, which is conditioned by His unerring knowledge of the moral state. Where sin has been the cause of judgments on the individual or nation, redemp- tion includes, in the removal of these evils, forgiveness and restoration to the Divine favour and to righteousness (cf. Ps 85, Is l'^^-, Hos 14, etc.).
The Deliverer of His people in the OT is Jehovah Himself. Hence the affection with which Deutero-Isaiah dwells on the idea of Jehovah as the ""N^i, or 'Redeemer' of Israel. It is note- worthy, however, that in two passages redemption is attributed to the ' angel ' of Jehovah— that mys- terious personality, one with Jehovah, yet again distinct from Him, who figures so prominently, particularly in the earlier stages of revelation. ' The angel which hath redeemed me from all evil,' says Jacob, in the earliest instance of the use of the word Vsj, in Gn 48^8 . and again in Is 63'' we have, with the use of the same word, the like idea : ' In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them ; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them,' etc. That is, Jehovah's interposition in redemption is by means of His angel (cf. Ps 34"). There is a fore- gleam here of what comes more clearly to light in the NT.
It may appear a point of contrast between the OT and the NT conceptions of redemption that in the OT the word is never brought directly into association with sacrifice, or the ritual of atone- ment. The use of ' redeem ' in connexion with the firstborn (the substitution, e.g., of a lamb for the firstling of an ass) does not affect this statement, for these substitutions have not the character of atonement for sin. Here again, however, it is important to keep in memory the distinction be- tween words and things. Apart from the use of terms, it is the case that the sacrificial ritual — so far as expiatory — was, in its own way, a means of deliverance from guilt, and, in that sense, of redemption. A direct connexion between the sacrifices of the Law and the forgiveness of sin is expressly affirmed {e.g. Lv 420- -6- ss ; cf . Is 6'') ; a
fact irrespective of any theory of efficacy. Even in regard to words, there is the important point of connexion in the word i.ib 'ransom.' (See Ransom.)
But there is a yet closer link. There can be no question that a peculiar line of preparation for the NT doctrine lay in the development by Psalmists and Prophets of the idea of the Righteous Sufferer. The culmination of that development is reached in the matchless representation of Is 53, where the Servant of Jehovah is pictured as making expia- tion by His sufferings and death for the sins of the people. Here at length Prophetic and sacrificial teaching touch, for the language and whole idea of the sacrificial ritual are taken over upon the Suffer- ing Servant. The iniquity of His fellows is laid upon One who is without sin ; His soul is made a guilt-offering ; He bears the iniquities of the people ; He pours out His soul unto death ; He bears the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors (Is 53''- 1**- "• i^) . The later Prophetic teaching is not without refrains of the same ideas (Zee 13, Dn Q'^*^-). Malachi brings to a close the long preparation of the (JT with his prediction of the Angel of the Covenant soon to come to His temple, whose work would be at once judging and saving (-3*).