Redemption of the Firstborn
13: 1-16
Consecrate to Me every firstborn male DIG: Why is God particularly concerned with the redemption of the firstborn (also see 4:22-23; 12:12-13)? How does one give over a child to God? What does this say about the position God wanted to occupy in the lives of the Israelites? By what sign does God want this remembered? Read Isaiah 43:3. Explain how God has given Egypt as “the ransom” of Isra’el. What does God mean when He says, “For you I will give people, nations in exchange for your life” (Isaiah 43:4)?
REFLECT: Did your parents dedicate you to God? How old were you when you realized what that meant? Has it made any difference in your life as an adult? How do you let people know He is number one in your life today? If you have no firstborn, what is something equivalent you will give over today to show God’s importance in your life?
This parashat concludes with two major instructions. The first was that Isra’el was to offer all their first born sons to YHVH, then they would be redeemed. The firstborn of Egypt had died. The gods of Egypt had always claimed the firstborn as their own. But now God claimed the firstborn of Isra’el as His own. ADONAI often gave the Israelites traditions to remember Him. Because God struck down every firstborn male of Egypt, and redeemed (to see link click Bz – Redemption) the firstborn male of every Israelite, He instituted this permanent instruction as a memorial of His power in rescuing Isra’el from Egypt. He also wants the first from us today. God claims our best, our very best and claims the first of everything but many believers put Him last. God is given what is left over.237
The basic principle that ADONAI wanted Moses to convey was this: Set apart and make holy to Me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to Me, whether man or animal (13:1-2). This command did not apply to the Gentile world because God had adopted Isra’el as His firstborn son (4:22) and brought him out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1). Therefore, the firstborn of every male was set apart for Him. In verses 3 through 10 we have the background of the dedication of the firstborn, which is the redemption of the firstborn in Egypt.
Moses spoke to the people of Isra’el on the very day they left Egypt. They were to remember the Passover and the day they came out of Egypt. Then Moses reminded the people of the importance of the day of their deliverance: Set this day apart and make holy the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery because ADONAI brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast (13:3). This repetition was to emphasize the importance of the Passover to the nation of Isra’el. It would come to symbolize the concepts of freedom, deliverance and redemption. Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving (13:4). The word Abib was used earlier of a barley crop (9:31). Historically, the barley harvest in Palestine takes place in April.
The second important command is that in every generation, until eternity, Isra’el is to remember the great event by celebrating Passover. The Hebrews were no longer to serve the Egyptians; from that point onward they were to serve God and Him alone. When ADONAI brings you into the Land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites – the Land He swore to your forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, a Land flowing with milk and honey – you are to observe this ceremony in this month (13:5). The basic promise of 3:8 and 17 is reiterated. God is a promise keeper and He was in the process of fulfilling what He had said to His people earlier.
Like the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread had great educational value in the home. For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to ADONAI (13:6). The number seven in Hebrew often symbolizes completeness (see my commentary on Genesis Ae – The Number Seven). Here the Passover reaches its climax on the seventh day. It is a festival day in which all the people gather for a festival to ADONAI (Deuteronomy 16:8). Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders (13:7). This is repeated from 12:15 where the Israelites were instructed to keep yeast out of their homes. Here, however, they were instructed not to have any within their borders. At this point they didn’t have any borders. In fact they wouldn’t have any borders for another forty years. This was told to them in faith, for the borders they would eventually have in the Promised Land of Canaan (Joshua 12:2, 16:2-8).
The redemption from Egypt needed to be told to all succeeding generations. On that day tell your son, “I do this because of what ADONAI did for me when I came out of Egypt (13:8). The Haggadah is a word that means the telling or simply narration because this is a book that narrates the core, the essence of the Seder, or Passover, ceremony. In a real sense the Seder is a talk-fest. The basis for the development of the Haggadah is found here in this verse that literally states you shall tell. The Hebrew word for you shall tell has the same root as the word Haggadah; therefore, the Haggadah is the telling of the Passover. Four different times in the Torah, the Jews are commanded to repeat the story of the Passover (Exodus 12:26, 13:8, 14; Deuteronomy 6:20). The story need not be complex for the children. It is simply enough to tell them what God has done for them. The answer is simple. God has redeemed them.
This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that ADONAI brought you out of Egypt with His mighty hand (13:9). Later, Moses would write: Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads (Deuteronomy 6:8, 11:18). And for two thousand years and more, observant Jews have taken those passages literally. The four scriptures that form their contents (13:1-10, 13:11-16, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:13-22) are written on four strips of parchment and placed in two small leather boxes, one of which the pious Jewish man straps on his forehead and the other on his left, or weaker arm before he says his morning prayers. The practice may have originated as early as the period following the exile to Babylon in 586 BC. Today, these scriptures are also found in a little box on the doorpost of an observant Jew’s home.
It hardly needs to be said that there is nothing inherently wrong with such a custom. The boxes, called phylacteries, are mentioned in Matthew 23:5, where Jesus criticizes a certain group of Pharisees and Torah teachers for wearing them. Messiah, however, did not condemn the practice as such, but only those who flaunt their religiosity in public. He said: Everything they do is done for men to see. They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long (Matthew 23:5).
So although the use of phylacteries might be spiritually legitimate, it is probably best to understand the references from Exodus and Deuteronomy as figures of speech, since similar statements are found elsewhere in the Old Covenant. For example, of love and faithfulness it is said: Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart (Proverbs 3:3), and, even more to the point, of a father’s commands and mother’s teaching it is suggested: Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck (6:21, also see 7:3; Song of Solomon 8:6). Perhaps the explanation of Deuteronomy 11:18 says it best: Fix these words of Mine in your hearts and minds for we can stumble others when we wear our religion on our sleeves.238 You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year (13:10).
On the basis, then, of what happened on the Passover, we have the principle of the firstborn in verses 11 through 16. Then Moses continued: After ADONAI brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as He promised on oath to you and your forefathers, you are to give over, literally pass over, to God the first offspring of every womb (13:11-12a). Here we have a play on words. Just as God passed over the Israelites during the tenth plague, so now the Israelites were to pass over their first offspring to Him.
Yeshua, Mary’s firstborn son (Luke 2:7), was brought to Jerusalem and presented to God at the appropriate time. Joseph and Mary brought the infant Jesus in accordance with the divine command to give over to God their first male offspring. When the time of their purification according to the commandment of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took Him to Jerusalem to present Him to God (as written in the commandment, “Every firstborn male is to be dedicated to ADONAI”), and offer a sacrifice in keeping with what the Torah of the LORD has said (Luke 2:22-24a). This obligation was two-fold: first, to ceremonially cleanse the mother with the proper sacrifices (see the commentary on Leviticus Bt – Women After Childbirth). The family of Yeshua was not wealthy, and therefore presented the less expensive offering of two pigeons. The second part of the obligation was redeeming the firstborn son through the pidgin ha’ben ceremony. The child Yeshua was not exempt from this redemption. Although He was the Messiah, He was not from the levitical tribe. In fact, the Scriptures predicted that the Messiah would be from another leading tribe – Judah (Genesis 49:10). Yeshua’s pidgin ha’ben ceremony is described in Luke (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Au – Jesus Dedicated in the Temple).
The verb to pass over is also a commentary on the pagan practice of child sacrifice. Pagans of the ancient Near East would take a child and pass him over/through the fire as a child sacrifice (Deuteronomy 18:10; Second Kings 16:3). God does not require such barbarism. He wants the first offspring to be set apart and devoted to His service. Thus, the Israelites were not to pass over their first offspring in the fire to death, but they were to pass them over to God to life. They were to be set apart for His service. This commandment applied to both humans and animals.239
All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to God (13:12B). If they owned an unclean firstborn male animal, like a horse, donkey or whatever, it needed to be substituted with a clean firstborn male animal. For example, they were to redeem a firstborn male donkey with a firstborn male lamb. The owner of an unclean firstborn animal was allowed to buy it back by slaughtering one of his own clean firstborn animals as a substitute. But if a man did not want to substitute one of his clean animals for an unclean animal, he was to kill the donkey by breaking its neck (slaughtering the donkey might be mistakenly thought of as a sacrifice, so its neck was to be broken instead). Since man was depriving God of his price, meaning a lamb, he was denied the use of the donkey. The Lord commanded the Israelites to redeem every firstborn among their sons (13:13). With the ransom complete, God said that all of Israel’s firstborn men and livestock belonged to Him.240
The reason is then given. Because YHVH killed all the firstborn in Egypt in order to let the Israelites live, all the firstborn in Isra’el, even the animals, by right, belong to Him. In the days to come, when your son is curious and asks you, “What does this mean?” say to him: With a mighty hand God brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, ADONAI killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I sacrifice to God the first male offspring of every womb, and redeem each of my firstborn sons (13:14-15).
And the dedication of the firstborn will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that God brought us out of Egypt with His mighty hand (13:16). Both were reminders of God’s gracious deliverance from the land of bondage.241
Near the drinking of the Second Cup, the Cup of Deliverance, there is a time when the Haggadah tells us to all raise our cups in gratitude and adoration. This is because we have just finished telling of all the wonders that ADONAI did for us, His redeemed, on that Egyptian Passover. After we raise the cup, we say these words together, “Therefore, it is our duty to thank and to praise in song and prayer, to glorify and praise Him Who performed all these wonders for our forefathers and for us. He brought us out form slavery to freedom, from anguish to great light. Let us therefore sing before Him a new song. Praise the Eternal!”
Haftarah Bo: Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 46:13-28
(see the commentary on Deuteronomy, to see link click Af – Parashah)
Punishment upon Egypt is progressive. Here, the prophet Jeremiah prophesies that Pharaoh will fail to defeat Babylon at Carchemish on the Euphrates (605 BC, about eight centuries after the Exodus). Egypt was competing for world domination with Babylon. Jeremiah warned that King Nebuchadnezzar was coming to strike the land of Egypt, preventing her from becoming a world power ever again. Finally, Egypt needed to be punished for her sin of idolatry. Amon-Re (the head of Egyptian pantheon and special god of Egypt’s rulers) needed to be destroyed forever (Nahum 3:8; Jeremiah 46:25). The good news is that Egypt will be restored as a humbled nation after being crushed by Babylon (Ezeki’el 29:13-16). In the end, ADONAI promises mercy to Egypt (see the commentary on Jeremiah Dh – A Message Concerning Egypt).
B’rit Chadashah suggested readings for Parashah Bo: Luke 2:22-24; (Yochanan (John) 19:31-37; Acts 13:16-17 and Revelation 8:6-9:12, 16:1-21
Rabbi Sha’ul addresses ADONAI’S methods and purposes for redeeming mankind: (1) Can God be righteous and show favoritism (Romans 9:14-15)? (2) If YHVH hardens whom He pleases, then why does He still find fault, for who is able to resist His will (Romans 9:19)? (3) Does mankind really have a right to ask: Why did You make me this way (Romans 9:20)? (4) Can Ha’Shem just conclude and “cut things short,” doing so in righteousness (Romans 9:28)? Then Rabbi Sha’ul answers his own questions. (1) God shows mercy. This is not unrighteousness (Exodus 9:16 in Romans 9:17). (2) Granted, no one can resist His will – not even Pharaoh (Exodus 9:12, 10:20 and 27, 11:10). But it’s patently absurd to criticize the Creator. Mankind is a mere pot without hands (Isaiah 45:9). (4) God can judge the world for evil, same some (Romans 9:24), “cut short” the rest (Isaiah 10:23; Romans 9:28), and still show compassion with righteousness (Romans 9:29; Isaiah 1:9 and 13:19).242
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