In today's passage the Lord is speaking to the people through Moses telling them they are always to commemorate their rescue from Egypt and that they are to dedicate the firstborn males of their families or flocks or herds to the Lord.
"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. Today, in the month of Aviv, you are leaving.'" (Exodus 13:3-4) We know the Israelites spent 430 years altogether in Egypt, but we don't know how many of those years were spent in slavery. They were forced into labor sometime after the death of Joseph. Many scholars think the Israelites lived in Goshen for perhaps as long as two hundred years before a king (or dynasty) "to whom Joseph meant nothing" came to power and oppressed the Israelites. This is because in Exodus 1 we are told that the generation of Joseph and all his brothers passed on and that their descendants were fruitful and became so numerous that "the land was filled with them". It was after they became so plentiful in number that a king or dynasty of kings developed an irrational prejudice toward them. But whether the Israelites labored in forced slavery for four centuries or just for two centuries, even one day of this ill treatment was too much. And now, through all the generations to come, they are to commemorate the day the Lord set them free.
Moses continues, "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. For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord. Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be anywhere within your borders." (Exodus 13:5-7) They had to eat unleavened bread on Passover night and they ate unleavened bread for the first seven days of the exodus because they had only unleavened bread dough with them. They had to leave Egypt hastily and did not have time to prepare dough with yeast, which is just as well since the addition of yeast would likely have caused the dough to spoil before they could use it all.
Through the generations to come, when commemorating their release from Egypt, they are to tell the story of their rescue by the hand of the Lord. "On that day tell your son, 'I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.' 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. You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year." (Exodus 13:8-10) For whose benefit is this religious holiday to be observed? For the Lord's? No, I don't believe so. There is nothing God needs from man, but there is a great deal---everything in fact---that man needs from God. Commemorating a day when the Lord rescued the people will remind them, generation after generation, that the Lord loves them and is able to rescue them time and time again.
One of the best ways we can strengthen our trust in the Lord is to regularly remind ourselves of all the things He's already brought us through. Sometimes when I'm asking for help in prayer I'll start listing examples of times the Lord has helped me in the past. While I'm naming these things to the Lord and thanking Him for them, this honors Him of course but the primary purpose of it is to remind me that the God who has already done so many wondrous things for me is able to keep on doing wondrous things for me. He didn't suddenly change; God never changes. He is who He has always been and He is who He always will be. He's just as powerful today as He ever was. He still loves us as much as He ever did. His mercies are new every morning and this means He has an inexhaustible supply for us. We aren't going to "use up" the mercies of the One we serve. We're not going to reach a particular day when He'll say, "Sorry, My child, you've used up your share of mercy. I can't help you any more in this life. You have trusted in Me for salvation, so you'll get to spend eternity with Me, but until then there's nothing more I can do for you." No, as the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed, 'The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23)
"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, 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. Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons." (Exodus 13:11-13) If the firstborn males of the livestock were not a type of animal acceptable to God for a sacrifice (such as a donkey) the people would offer an acceptable animal (like a lamb) in its place. The owner of the donkey could then retain the animal for his own use, such as riding the donkey or using it to pull carts or to perform other work on the farm. But if the donkey's owner refused to redeem it, he was not allowed to keep the donkey and had to kill it instead.
I had to do some research to try and find an answer for why the donkey had to be killed, but from what I was able to glean from various commentaries is that this redeeming of animals such as the donkey was intended to foreshadow the redemption that Christ (the Lamb of God) would bring about through His sacrifice of Himself. The donkey, for example, was of no use unless it was redeemed. It was of no use as a sacrificial animal and it could not be used for any other purpose unless it was redeemed by a lamb. Neither are we acceptable in the eyes of God unless we have been redeemed! What do we accomplish of any eternal significance if we don't give our hearts and lives to the Lord? Are we fit for the Lord's service if we don't honor and obey Him? Can we lead others to Christ if we don't belong to Him ourselves? If we are not redeemed by the blood of the Lamb then we are still in our sins and must answer for them in the presence of a holy God and Judge someday, and in that sense we are no better off than a dead donkey, for we are no use to ourselves or to God. We are lost and undone, consigned to an eternity separated from the presence of our Creator and from the presence of all that is goodness and light. Just as the donkey had no hope if not redeemed with a lamb, we also have no hope if not redeemed by the Lamb.
The people are to explain the meaning of the redemption system to their children. "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 Egypt. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. That is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.' And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us up out of Egypt with His mighty hand." (Exodus 13:14-16) If a person had a message written on the back of his hand or on his forehead, he would see the message every day. Every time he used his hand or looked in a mirror he would be reminded of what the message said. The yearly observance of Passover and the observance of the dedication of the firstborn of flock and herd and family will be a perpetual message, and the message is that the Lord loves and the Lord saves and that there is nothing the Lord cannot do!
The people will soon see further displays of God's mighty power at work when He begins leading them through the wilderness and when He rescues them from Pharaoh's army at the Red Sea.
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