Exodus 13 - Sin, Sacrifice & Redemption

Consecration of the Firstborn and the Meaning of Passover

Exodus chapter 13, let's pray, and then we will play the video. Heavenly Father, we're thankful for this evening. We're thankful for your beautiful creation and how we can enjoy it. And Lord, we're thankful for one another, but most thankful for you sending your only begotten son into the world to die, to forgive us of our sin, and to give us everlasting life.

It's in his name we pray. Amen. Exodus 13.

Consecrate to me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast. It is mine.

Moses said to the people, remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For by strength of hand, the Lord brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.

On this day, you are going out in the month of Eid, and it shall be when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day, there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.

And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, this is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt. It shall be as a sign to you on your hand, and as a memorial between your eyes, that the Lord's law may be in your mouth.

The strong hand of the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year. And it shall be when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers and gives it to you, that you shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb.

That is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have, the males shall be the Lord's. But every firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with the lamb. And if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck.

Firstborn of man among your sons, you shall redeem. So it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, what is this? That you shall say to him, by strength of hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

And to pass when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. Both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that open the womb.

The firstborn of my sons, I redeem. It shall be as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes. For by strength of hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt.

Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near.

For God said, lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.

So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt. And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. For he had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath, saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here with you.

So they took their journey from Sapphath and came to Ethan at the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light.

So as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.

Christ, the Firstborn Son, and the Doctrine of Consecration

Okay, last time in Exodus chapter 12, you remember that we broke that chapter into two parts. We covered the 10th plague, which the Lord brought upon Egypt with the death of the firstborn. How the Israelites were to sacrifice a lamb and then take the blood of the lamb and put it on the doorposts.

So that when the Lord went through the land of Egypt on that night, his judgment would pass over those houses that were under the blood of the lamb, hence the term Passover and no harm would come to them.

However, the houses that did not have the blood on the doorposts, the firstborn of that household or those households would die. And of course, those were the households of the Egyptians. So in the celebration of the Jewish Passover, the blood of the lamb clearly represents what or who?

Jesus Christ. Right, the blood of the lamb represents Jesus Christ who is called the Lamb of God. And we also compared the Old Testament ordinance of Passover to the New Testament ordinance of the Lord's Supper.

And we saw there's a clear connection between the two. In fact, one, the Passover really leads into the other. So we talked about that. And all of these things that we're reading about, and I can imagine someone reads this or listens to this and they think, they hear the lambs and the donkeys and so what relevance does this have to the life of the church or what relevance does it have to my life?

Well, all of these things point ahead to Jesus. And we see what the Lord did for the Israelites, but now it's a matter of what Jesus has done for us. So with all of these things we're reading about, the Lord is trying to teach something to the children of Israel.

He's preparing them for the coming of the Messiah, which at this point was 1 ,500 years in the future. But as a people and as a nation, they had to, the Lord wanted to instill these things. So he's teaching them about sin, sacrifice, and redemption.

All right, look at chapter 13, verses one and two. And it says, then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "'Consecrate to me all the firstborn, "'whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, "'both of man and beast, it is mine.'".

Mine. So the Lord is claiming the firstborn of both man and beast. So we're gonna begin by asking two questions. If you wanna shoot your hand up and try to answer them ahead of time, that's fine. I'm still gonna go through what I have to say.

But here are the two questions, all right? Why the firstborn? So what's the significance of the firstborn? And then number two, God says the firstborn belongs to him. What does that mean? And you think, well, God's in heaven.

How does he take them? Or, you know, you give unto the Lord. Well, how do you do that if he's in heaven? So these are the two questions, all right? Why the firstborn? And then firstborn belongs to God.

How so? What does that mean? All right, nobody wants to take a chance here. All right, Emil, yes.

Well, the concept of the firstfruits, yeah. The... The firstfruits? The firstborn is not superseded by the secondborn. In other words, we may end at the firstborn, but so your first and most important gift is the firstfruits.

Yeah, you don't give God the leftovers. You give him the first, first. Thing to consider about, yes, Jim?

In Egypt, and it was customary throughout all of the countries at that point, the firstborn in the family was not dedicated to anybody. He was just a firstborn. There were things that that firstborn was entitled to and qualified for, but now the firstborn has a place, and that place is God.

God has that firstborn. So there's a difference there, I think.

Okay, all right, so the first thing to consider about the firstborn, remember the 10th plague, the Lord killed all of the firstborn of Egypt. So Egypt lost their firstborn completely. So now the Lord is saying to Israel, now I want your firstborn.

Now, the positive thing about the Israelites is they weren't going to lose any of their children. The Egyptians lost their firstborn sons. So we know about the 10th plague, and since these things point ahead to Jesus, right?

This is how we're, this is gonna be the focus of the lesson. What does the Bible say about Jesus? Luke 2, verse seven says, and she, referring to Mary, brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in the manger.

So Jesus, in his humanity, he was the firstborn son of his mother. And I say in his humanity, because we know there's one God in three persons, father, son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus is one person, but Jesus has two natures.

Jesus has the human nature and the divine nature. So Jesus, in his human nature, was the firstborn son of Mary, his mother. But concerning God, who was his father, conceived by the Holy Spirit, the scripture says in Colossians 1 .15, that Jesus is the firstborn over all of creation.

And then you can just make a note of this. Hebrews 1 .6 says, but when he, that is God the father, brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all the angels of God worship him. So Jesus is the firstborn of his mother, that is literally her firstborn son, but he's also the firstborn of the father, and that's more speaking to his preeminence, that he's number one in rank.

Okay, he is superior to all things because he is divine. All right, any questions or comments on that? Onto the second question, what does it mean that the firstborn belongs to the Lord? Doesn't everything belong to the Lord?

What do you mean just the firstborn? Because Psalm 24 verse one says, the earth is the Lord's in all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. So really everything belongs to God. And yet here he is saying the firstborn are mine.

So there has to be a difference with what's happening here. So this is where we get the concept of consecration. When you hear that word consecration, you consecrate something. What does it mean? Set aside.

Okay, set aside, it's set apart, good. So this is something that is being set apart. And when things are set apart, they're set apart for a particular purpose. And the purpose is the service or set apart to the service of God.

So instruction is then given to them once they depart from the land of Egypt, here's what you're supposed to do. Skip ahead to verse 11 says, and it shall be when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers and gives it to you that you shall set apart.

That's what we said, that you shall set apart to the Lord all that opens the womb. Now, who has a King James version of the Bible? So it says something else. All that opened the matrix. I think, yeah, that was a good movie.

But what is that? What's that doing in the King James version of the Bible? Well, matrix is just a very old fashioned term for the mother's womb. So all who open the womb or open the matrix, every firstborn that comes from an animal, which you have, the males, that's significant too, the males shall be the Lords.

Now this is applied, we've read it already, it's applied to both human beings and animals. The firstborn son and even the firstborn males of the animals, the animals obviously are to be sacrificed, the sons are not there to be redeemed.

Now, why the firstborn male? Here's another question, why the firstborn male? Well, you can think of it practically for the animals. The female animals were much more valuable for the sake of reproduction.

I mean, you don't need that many males, but to reproduce the animals, you need more females. But is that really what it's about? That's an added benefit perhaps. But why the firstborn male? Well, again, what are we saying is the main focus of the whole lesson?

What does it all point to? Right, so God sent his only begotten daughter into the world. No, I know a lot of churches now are praying that way. But no, it's still firstborn son, okay? It's still a man, not a woman, sorry.

I couldn't help myself, and that has nothing to do with anything. Amen, has nothing to do with gender. But the firstborn male was set apart to the service of God, just as God's only begotten son was sent into the world to the service of God the Father.

And of course, in the Old Testament, all the priests were male. When Jesus chose his 12 apostles, they were all men. All the bishops and the deacons in the early church in the Bible were all males. It's politically incorrect these days to point that out, but that is the case.

Why? Well, it's all about Christ, okay? All about Christ. So there's a consistency there all throughout the scripture. All right, and God knows the temptation that human beings have. God knows the hearts of men in 2021, because the temptation that's been around from the beginning as well, yeah, that's what God said.

He won't mind if we do it a little differently, right? God wants us to do it this way, but why can't we do it this way? I mean, isn't that the whole problem with mankind, not obeying or not listening to what God says?

Look at verse 13. We'll see if God takes this seriously. It says, but every firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with the lamb. And if you will not redeem it, what are you supposed to do? Break its neck.

I know that makes some people very sad to read about that, but it tells you, I mean, that's a serious thing. It's an animal, but still, that would have an impact on the people watching it. So it's to break its neck.

And all the firstborn of man among your sons, you shall redeem. So there's none of that with people, obviously. So it shall be, verse 14, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, what is this? And of course, children are gonna ask, why do we have to do this?

What's this all about? Then you shall say to him, by strength of hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. So when the following generation starts asking questions, then you have the perfect opportunity to tell them this whole story of the Exodus.

So the significance in the meaning of all this was to be passed down from generation to generation. That way, when the Christ did come into the world, they'd have a frame of reference of redemption and sacrifice and all of the rest.

But you see how serious the Lord takes this. There's all these regulations. There's all these ways that you have to do it this way or else, or else that. So if the animals were not redeemed, what happened to them?

If the animal wasn't redeemed, right, so you were to sacrifice the animal. So again, why is God doing this? To teach them, to ingrain this in the people, to teach them about sacrifice and redemption. Okay, what about the donkey?

Why is the donkey a big deal here? Why redeem the donkey? Why bring this up? There's a practical reason. Think about a donkey versus a lamb.

And you're living back then. The donkey will carry a load.

Right, so a donkey was the beast of burden in those days. They didn't really have camels. I don't even know if camels were domesticated at that point. There's no mention of horses, or at least the Israelites didn't have horses.

So if you think of a donkey, that's sort of the ancient equivalent to a tractor or maybe a car, right? You could ride on a donkey. The donkey did all of your work. So a donkey was very, very valuable.

A lamb was valuable, but not anything close to what the donkey was. So God's gracious to them. He said, well, you don't have to kill the donkey. Just take one of the lambs. So the lamb does what? Dies in its place.

All right, so that, you start thinking, what is that pointing ahead to? So obviously that is a substitutionary sacrifice. One thing dying in the place of another, obviously pointing again to Jesus. So the lamb is also used to redeem your son.

So A, the pattern of giving to the Lord is being established and B, this substitution of one dying in the place of another, clearly points to Jesus dying on the cross in our place. What's that statement?

Because we owe a debt that we cannot pay. Christ redeemed us. He paid a debt he did not owe, or is it the other way around? All right, let's look up some verses. Get some volunteers just for this whole idea of substitution and a sacrifice.

Who would like to look up 2 Corinthians 5 .21? And you're gonna have to read it out loud, so be prepared to do that. All right, 2 Corinthians 5 .21, Dennis. Galatians 3 .13, Sarah. 1 Peter 2 .24, all right, Dad.

And 1 Peter 3 .18, Larry. All right, so let's look at these verses, because again, substitutionary sacrifice points ahead to Jesus dying as a substitute for sinful mankind. All right, go ahead and read 2 Corinthians 5 .21, Dennis.

For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Okay, and if anyone has any comments or statements, questions on these verses, just raise your hand. Galatians 3 .13.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, to curse is everyone who hangs on the tree.

Okay, so the lamb was to redeem the sons, right? So now Christ redeems us. 1 Peter 2 .24.

Who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died his sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed.

Okay, and then 1 Peter 3 .18.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit.

Okay, so these verses clearly bring out how Jesus died as a substitute. He died in the place of sinners in order to redeem sinners. And God is teaching them to give unto the Lord. So you gotta give your first fruits.

You gotta give your first born, the first born of the animals. You give to the Lord, and then you give more to the Lord, because here's another temptation that people have. I wanna keep it. I wanna keep it for myself, right?

People don't wanna give to the Lord. So back then, giving to the Lord, many different ways you would do that. Obviously, more time went on. When they gave money, they would give it to the priest, to the tabernacle, to the temple, all used for the work of ministry, just like today, when we give money, we give to a ministry, and it's to support the work of ministry, whether it's teaching or evangelism, missionary work, et cetera.

And the sacrifices were offered up, and we see the animals and the animal sacrifices. But listen, I know the temptation is to think, well, that was for them, but we don't offer sacrifices today. Or do we?

I should ask you. Do we offer sacrifices today? Yes or no? Yes. Yes, we do. All right, so who knows the verse that I'm gonna tell you to look up? Romans 12, one. Right, good. Love it that people know that.

Romans 12, one. So some of you have it memorized, some of you don't. Let's all just turn there. Romans chapter 12, verse one. So what we don't do is we do not offer animal sacrifices. I mean, if you go home on a Sunday afternoon and you offer a burnt sacrifice in your backyard, I'm concerned about you, okay?

We need to have a talk if you're doing that. Even if it's hot dogs? Well, yeah. We will allow that. Hamburgers and hot dogs are the new meatless, meatless meat, that's the latest thing. We don't want any meatless meat.

I don't anyways. But why don't we offer animal sacrifices? Remember, it's all pointing ahead to Jesus. He already died. It's already done. He died once for all. So if somebody offers animal sacrifice today, you're basically saying Jesus's sacrifice wasn't good enough, right?

So instead of burning a dead animal on an altar, we offer up what? A living sacrifice. Who would like to read Romans 12, verse one? Jim.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies with living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

I love that last part. You know, this is your reasonable service. You devote your life to God and serve him your whole life. Well, that's a lot to ask. No, it's your reasonable service. The only reason you're alive is because God gave you life.

So the animal sacrifices back then, some of the altars had horns on the altar, right? So you think of a horned altar. Part of that was to keep that animal in place. They take the carcass of the animal and the horn's help, make sure it doesn't slide off, right?

Someone once said the problem with living sacrifices is that the living sacrifice sometimes tries to crawl off of the altar, spiritually speaking, of course. But doesn't this happen, that a Christian will be serving God, obeying and seeking God's will in their life.

They're living for the Lord. They're serving of their time and their energy and their effort. And then something happens. You've offered your life and service to God, and then something happens and you want to kind of crawl off of the altar and walk away.

Of course, people do that.

Jim. This morning on my radio program, I made mention of that very thing. Paul called himself a bondservant, which means that he's a slave, which means that he was 100 sold out to serving whatever the Lord had for him to do.

Because his question, after the Damascus Road encounter, he says, what will you have me do? That shows total, complete submission and to serve.

Right, and it's the Lord, Jesus Christ. Think about the term Lord. He's the Lord. He's your master. Some of you probably, right, and some of you probably feel, depending on what kind of job you have, but I've felt like this in the past, years ago, that you kind of feel like a slave at your job, right?

Or you follow your, and you should. You should do what your supervisor, your boss tells you to do. You should do that. But you're serving him, or you're serving her. You're serving the company, right?

They tell you to show up at eight o 'clock. You show up at eight o 'clock. They tell you you can't leave until 4 .30. You don't leave before 4 .30. They tell you to go here and lift that or move that.

You do what they say, right? And we all accept that, that this is what you do. You follow the orders of your boss or your supervisor. Well, why don't we have that same idea with God? When God says, thou shalt not, then you don't do it.

Or when he tells us we should do something, it's the same thing, but way more important, okay? So it's the Lord, Jesus Christ, and we obey him as a Lord. And you do see those words in the New Testament, like bondservant, or the Greek word does mean slave.

Now you say, well, we willingly chose to give our lives to him. That's all true, but he's the master, right?

And whatever, as a slave, whatever the master told that slave to do, he was to do it. There was no questions asked. He just did it because that's who he served.

And here's the difference, though. Your boss might not care about you. Your boss just wants this thing done, maybe. God actually cares about you. God actually loves you, and you actually have a relationship with him, and he's looking out for you.

So it's a far better situation. All right, go back to Exodus 13. So when we offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, stay on the altar, okay? Don't crawl off the altar. All right, Exodus 13, verse three.

Leaven as a Picture of Sin and the Personal Nature of Redemption

And Moses said to the people, remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand, the Lord brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.

And as most of you know, leaven in the Bible is a picture of what? Sin. Right, leaven represents sin. So the Israelites are told to get the leaven out of their homes. They are not to eat it. They are not to consume it.

And you could take a spiritual meeting. Get all of the sinful things out of your house. Get the sin out of your life. Look at verse seven. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.

And verse eight is interesting. And you shall tell your son in that day, saying this is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt. You might expect it to say what the Lord did for us.

What the Lord did for the nation. But no, it's what the Lord did for me when I came up out of Egypt. So this is made very personal because of what the Lord did for me. You know, it's one thing to believe that God is out there somewhere, or that God is doing things in the world.

It's another thing to know that he's looking out for me, or that he's doing things specifically for me. And a lot of people would say, well, does God even know I exist? Does God really care about me? Well, the answer is yes.

Jesus said in Luke 12, six and seven, are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God, but the very hairs of your head are numbered. Do not fear, therefore, for you are of more value than many sparrows.

So God not only knows you exist, he knows how many hairs are on your head. And it came to pass, verse 17, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way, the land of the Philistines, although that was near.

So that was a more direct route. If they went this way, it'd be a lot quicker, but it was also more dangerous, for God said, lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.

So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt. Now, why did God bring them this way? Well, he tells us so that they don't see war and want to go back, but he brought them through the Red Sea for a purpose, to show his power.

And of course, you remember, I forget where it was, long ways back, he said, you'll return to me at this mountain, Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai, you will serve me there. And then it says in verses, well, look at verse 19, and Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel, that is Joseph did, under a solemn oath, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you.

And if you were with us, when we studied Genesis chapter 50, you remember that when Joseph was in Egypt, let me just read Genesis 50, 24 and 26 through 26. Joseph said to his brethren, I am dying, but God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land, to the land of which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.

Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here. So this is a prophecy, here's what's going to happen, did it happen? Of course, so Joseph died being 110 years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

So that site where Joseph's body was, was kept secure, and now they're taking his body back, 430 years later, back to the promised land. Why was that important to him? Why was that important to be buried in the land of Canaan?

Because that was the chosen land. Okay, I mean, that was the land that God promised to his father, his grandfather, and his great grandfather, Abraham. Verse 20, then they took their journey from Succoth and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness, and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night.

And we'll talk more about this later, we're gonna wrap this up. But the cloudy pillar, pillar of cloud in the day, pillar of cloud at night, this represents God's presence among the people. So God is present among the people and he is leading them.

Now, of course, the Lord still does this today. We don't have a pillar of cloud, we don't have a pillar of fire, but God is still among the church. God is still among his people. How? Through the Holy Spirit who indwells each and every believer and leads us.

And because of that, we can all rejoice, thinking about everything that was said in Exodus 13 and how it applies to us. And I think we can say that same thing that the children of Israel could say, and we can rejoice at the things that the Lord did.

You can say this, what the Lord did for me, in redeeming me by the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ.