August 26th, 2014
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

God Retrieves His Own

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Opening Prayer

Thank You, Lord, for Your unchanging faithfulness. You keep surprising me with new insight and new understanding of Your Word.

Read Exodus 13:1-16

[1] The LORD said to Moses, [2] “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.” [3] Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the LORD brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast. [4] Today, in the month of Aviv, you are leaving. [5] When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites-the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey-you are to observe this ceremony in this month: [6] For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the LORD. [7] 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. [8] On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ [9] This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. [10] You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year. [11] “After the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he promised on oath to you and your ancestors, [12] you are to give over to the LORD the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD. [13] Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons. [14] “In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. [15] When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’ [16] And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.”

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Meditate

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life…but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Pet. 1:18,19). Thanks and praise be to God.

Think Further

It seems to have been common in the ancient Near East for firstborn sons to be dedicated to gods. Sometimes they were sacrificed to them (Lev. 18:21). Pharaoh has already been warned that Israel collectively is God’s firstborn (Exod. 4:22). He rejects that claim, but discovers that Israel’s God has the power to give life and take it away; all human beings ultimately belong to him. As plague spread through Egypt, God withholds his protection from Egypt’s firstborn, but Israel, as God’s firstborn, he “redeems” (6:6).

This introduces a very important metaphor in the Bible. To redeem is to pay a price to retrieve something which was once yours. But God does not owe anything or pay a price to anyone. So, when God redeems, the cost is to himself. At the Exodus, the cost is the effort God makes. Three times we are told God brought them out “with a mighty hand” (3,9,14). There is also the ongoing tradition that firstborn children belong to God and are to be redeemed by their families with a sacrifice that God himself graciously prescribes (13). (Donkeys are redeemed because they were “unclean” animals not permitted to be sacrificed.) In this sense, the firstborn Israelites were redeemed by the Passover sacrifices.

So this passage links a regular annual festival and an occasional ritual at the birth of a child, and stresses the value of performing them so that the truths that they symbolize are deeply embedded in the memory of the worshipper (9,16) and passed on to children as they ask questions (8,14). Both aspects of redemption come together in Christ. He is described as our Passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7). He is also the Divine Son, so united with the Father that the cost of our redemption is the suffering borne in the loving heart of the Trinity.

Apply

If someone were to ask you the meaning of baptism or communion, how would you answer them?

Closing prayer

Lord Jesus, I rejoice that You have redeemed me from an empty way of life, from bondage to sin and its consequences, and have made me a child of the Father.

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