It is further said: "And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage; and it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man, and the first-born of beasts; therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the first-born of my children I redeem."—Ex., xiii, 14, 15.
From the above quotations, amongst other important matters, it appears, that when the destroying angel passed by the houses of the children of Israel he found the blood of a lamb sprinkled on the door post; which was a type of the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God. The angel who was the executor of justice could not touch those who were protected by that sacred symbol; because that prefigured the sacrifice of the Son of God, which was provided at the beginning of creation for the redemption of the human family, and which was strictly in accordance with provisions then made by the Almighty for that purpose—"the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world"—and accepted in full as an atonement for the transgressions of mankind, according to the requirements of eternal justice and agreed to by the Savior and His Father. A proposition is made to meet the requirements of justice, which proposal is accepted by the contracting parties, all these contracting parties being satisfied with the arrangement thus made. Hence it is said by one of the prophets: "Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom."—Job, xxxiii, 24.
And further: "Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away."—Isaiah, li, 11.
Who are the redeemed, except those who have accepted the terms of the ransom thus provided? The ransom being provided and accepted, the requirements of justice are met, for those contracts are provided and sanctioned by the highest contracting parties that can be found in the heavens, and the strongest, most indubitable and infinite assurances are given for the fulfilment of that contract, and until the contract is fulfilled the sacrifices are offered as a token and remembrance of the engagements and covenants entered into God gave a token to Noah, of a rainbow, which should be a sign between Him and mankind that He would nevermore destroy the earth by water; He accepted these sacrifices as a token of the covenant that the Messiah should come to take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and thus fulfil the covenant, pertaining to this matter, made before the world was.
And again there was another token, which was given to Adam by an angel. This holy messenger said to our great father, "Thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son. And thou shalt repent, and call upon God, in the name of the Son for evermore." (Pearl of Great Price.) For, as expressed in the New Testament, "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts iv, 12.) Or, to quote from the Book of Mormon, "There shall be no other name given, nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent." And furthermore, that name, or token, will continue to be given until the Scripture is fulfilled which saith: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."—Phil., ii, 9-11.
Again, the Lord, through the sprinkling of the blood of a lamb on the door-posts of the Israelites, having saved the lives of all the first-born of Israel, made a claim upon them for their services in His cause. It is written:
"And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the first-born that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel; therefore the Levites shall be mine; because all the first-born are mine; for on the day that I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the first-born in Israel, both man and beast; mine they shall be: I am the Lord."—Num., iii, 12, 13.
But the first-born of the Egyptians, for whom no lamb as a token of the propitiation was offered, were destroyed. It was through the propitiation and atonement alone that the Israelites were saved, and, under the circumstances they must have perished with the Egyptians, who were doomed, had it not been for the contemplated atonement and propitiation of Christ, of which this was a figure.
Hence the Lord claimed those that He saved as righteously belonging to Him, and claiming them as His He demanded their services; but afterwards, as shown in the above quotation, He accepted the tribe of Levi in lieu of the first-born of Israel; and as there were more of the first-born than there were of the Levites, the balance had to be redeemed with money, which was given to Aaron, as the great High Priest and representative of the Aaronic Priesthood, he being also a Levite. (See Numbers, iii, 50, 51.)