Gods Continual Reminders(Exodus 13: 1-16- 3689)
As you know we are all prone to forget things. I forget where I put my car keys all the time. I forget appointments if I don’t put them in a my phone and set up two reminders, one 24 hours before and a second one hour before. Any husbands out there forgotten their wives birthday or anniversary. Have you ever lost you phone, did you know that some recent research done last years showed that 50% of all calls from landlines were made by people ringing themselves to remind them of where they had left their mobile phone. We do that all the time in our house. We all forget we forget all kinds of things all the time well, but that is true spiritually. Well because the Lord knows that already he has put reminders in the scripture, things he wants us to remember, memory aids so to speak. He puts them in the scripture to remind us of certain spiritual truths.
So, the question is what it is he wants us to remember and that’s the question. I want us to not forget as we go through this. We are in exodus chapter 13. One author said commenting on this first section of chapter 13, I quote, “This section is somewhat repetitive, but the repetition is there to stresses its importance. That makes a lot of sense, when you repeat something, you are emphasising it and stressing it, so that’s what the Lord does in this passage. Some of this not all but some of this is repetition from the previous chapter but that’s for emphasis and in addition to that he adds somethings we need to note.
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.”
(Exodus 13: 1-2)
This passage opens with the consecration of the firstborn. The word "consecrate" in the passage means to sanctify or dedicate something to the Lord. When something is consecrated, it is separated for the Lord's purpose. As you read further, it may seem that everything firstborn, whether child or animal belongs to the Lord. However, in verse 12 it will clarify that only the firstborn males of animals belong to the Lord. This distinction excludes females, both humans and animals from being consecrated.
Moving on, let's connect this concept to the Passover, which we have just previously witnessed. The Passover involved the lamb's blood being applied to the doorposts to protect the firstborns. By saving the firstborns, God asserts ownership over them, they are his because he has saved them. This aligns with the principle stated in Ephesians and 1 Corinthians, in the Net Testament. In 1 Corinthians 6:19, it is emphasized that believers' bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, bought by God with the blood of the lamb. Thus, what God saves and buys belongs to Him. That principle is first established in the opening verses of Exodus 13.
But why are both children and animals mentioned in the coming passage. The firstborn male child is designated to be a priest, set apart, although this changes later when the tribe of Levi becomes the Lord's possession. As for the firstborn animals, they were set apart, intended for sacrifice. Setting something apart for the Lord implies dedicating it to His service. Therefore, the firstborn males and some animals were set apart for the Lord to function as priests and sacrificial offerings. With this introduction, we move on to the discussion of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover in verses 3 to 10. Later in verse 11 to 16, the focus will shift back to the firstborns.
But today we will examine two aspects of this: the feast, and the firstborn. Let's begin with verse 3, where Moses instructs the people to remember. What follows now is an important memory aids as humans tend to forget. The following 16 verses of this chapter can be summarized with this one word: remember.
3 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. 4 On this day you are going out, in the month Abib. 5 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. 6 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. 7 Unleavened breads 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. 8 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.’ 9 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; for with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. 10 You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.
(Exodus 13: 3-10)
The phrase "remember this day" refers to Passover. In Chapter 12, we learned that after the one-day Passover, there were seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. During this time, leavened bread was prohibited, symbolizing the removal of sin from their lives. Hence, the sequence of events was first celebrating being saved by the blood of the lamb followed by memorialising the continuing eliminating sin. Therefore, God instructs the people to remember the day when the death of an innocent lamb saved the firstborns from death but also to remember the need to banish sin.
Let me pursue this just a bit and see if I can lay this out. The Passover delivered them from what? Slavery and Death! How? Answer: By the blood of the lamb. "I want you to remember this day in which I got you out of Egypt and you were delivered from slavery and death.
Then he goes on in verse 4 and says, "On this day, you were going out in the month of Abib, which is our mid-March to April. The months title as “Abib”, which means green ears, and it gets its name because it's the spring of the year and the ears of corn or grain appear and they are green. That's how this month got its name." Then he says, "You're going to remember this day. I want to remember the time." Verse 5, when, " the Lord brings you into the land which he swore to give to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey." God says, "I'm going to take you to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I also know you're going to forget about all this when you get there, but I want you to remember this so the Passover and the blood of the lamb, will help you remember that with my strong arm I got you out of slavery and helped you escape destruction.
The expression "flowing with milk and honey" pictures an abundance of grass, fruit trees, flowers where sheep, goats, and bees thrive, and where the best drink and food abound. The keyword is "flowing”, with milk and honey." Which would be in contrast to what was going on in Egypt where they were manually farming. In Canaan, the Israelites would experience a different form of life, namely, a pastoral lifestyle. The land of Egypt could depend on rainfall, whereas Egypt did not. It depended on the Nile River. So, there's going to be great abundance in this land compared to Egypt. However, God is saying, when you get there, don't get so involved in the milk and honey that you forget what it was like when you were in slavery.
The keyword here is “remember. We should remember Passover. And the aid memoire is the feast of unleavened bread. So, as I said this a repetition of what was said in the last chapter back and God is saying what I've said before several times, but I am going to memorialise it with festivals the first if Passover to remember your salvation and the second is the feast of unleavened bread, and you should not eat leaven for seven days after Passover.
The second follows immediately after the first so that they are connected in the mind of the people. Telling them to remember to tell their sons of that day. Saying, 'This is done because of what the Lord did to me when I came up from Egypt, this is to be a memorial of the day when the Lord, with a strong hand, the Lord has brought us out of Egypt." And this is really interesting. It says it's going to be a sign on your hand and a memorial between your eyes. What is that about?
Later some Jews created a little leather box, and they literally put this box between their eyes on their forehead and around their forearm, have you ever seen these? Those little boxes contain four strips of parchment on which were written 4 verses. Deuteronomy 11:13-21, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Exodus 13:11-16, and Exodus 13:1-10. During prayer, some wore them on the forehead between the eyebrows and on the left arm, close to the elbow. They are held in place by leather bands. From what I've been able to determine, we don't exactly know when this started. We just know it's based on this passage scripture, and most experts say it probably didn't begin where they literally wore it until after returning from the exile, which is dated around 586. So, over 1500 years later some Jews started wearing the little leather box with scripture in it. But it's based on Exodus 13, as well as Deuteronomy 6 and Deuteronomy 11.
He then says, "You should therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year." I want you to keep Passover and with-it unleavened bread, and I want you to do this year after year after year after year after year. Why? Because I want you to remember. These are two memorial festivals I'm giving you so that you don't forget that I redeemed you by blood and delivered you by power. So, we have now talked about the first main divisions of the passage are, first of all, he talks about the feast, the feast of Passover and the feast of unleavened bread.
Then, beginning in verse 11 and going down through verse 16, he talks about the firstborn again. So, let's pick up the second major part of this passage.
11 “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, 12 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. 13 But every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. 14 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. 15 And it came 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 males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ 16 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.
Exodus 13: 11-16)
He the first verse talked about the Lord bringing you into the land promised to their forefathers and that they then set apart the firstborn that comes from any animal which you have, all the male offspring shall be the Lord's." So God is saying, when you get to the land, I want you to remember, I saved the firstborn of my people, by the blood of an innocent substitute lamb, so because of that you are always to remember this by the act of setting aside your firstborn as belonging to me. When you get into the land, remember, give me the first born.
Initially back in verse 2 we thought it was all the firstborn animals but now he says, "Well, not all the animals." He's going to clarify later in the Mosaic law. You redeem the firstborn male animals one way, but you must also if you have your firstborn son, you've got to redeem him also.
The keyword of this passage is remember, God says remember that by remembering that the firstborn belongs to me. Sacrifice one, redeem the other. We're repeating again the Passover. Only this time, he adds that in future when you celebrate it your son should ask you, "What are we doing?" And of course, the father thereafter teaches the son to ask the question. If he doesn't ask it naturally, he is taught to ask this question. So, the idea is, he's going to educate the children so that the future generation will remember down through the ages and the conversation at the table will remind them of everything that happened, that in the Passover, the firstborn was saved from death by the sacrifice of a lamb, and they were delivered by the strength of the Lord. Very interesting. So, God says, "That's what I want you to remember. And it should be a sign on your hand and at frontlets between your eyes." Most today interpret this phrase placing the word, "between the eyes" to mean you should desire to remember these words, and these words should determine what you desire, and the hand then determines what you do, how you apply them in your life.
What some Jews did, is they reduced this to a ritual, and they put the little leather square box between their eyes and on their arm, and by doing that they thought they had fulfilled what this said here. But in my estimation, they entirely missed the point. The point is the Lord wants his word to affect what you think about and what you actually do in your life. In other words what you desire to do in life, and then that is going to affect what you do, symbolised by the actions of you hands. Israel’s rituals created to remember and to keep remembering what God has done. But as with a lot of things in life the ritual for some becomes the thing itself and not what it was meant to immortalise.
At the start of our time together today I said there were two things to remember but immortalised by three rituals.
The first one is Passover.
The second one is unleavened bread.
The Third one is the dedication of the first born.
These three signs are a memorial to remind them that they were delivered from Egypt by blood and by power. Did you notice how many times this passage refers to power?
Four times
Take verse 3, "Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, out of the House of Bondage, for by strength of the hand of the Lord brought you out of this place."
Drop down to verse 9, "It shall be assigned to you on your hand and a memorial between your eyes. I want you to remember." That's what a sign is, that's what a memorial is. I want you to remember that the Lord's law may be in your mouth, for it was with a strong hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt.
Okay, verse 14, "It shall be when your son asked you in time to come, saying, 'What is this?' that you shall say to him, 'By strength of the hand of the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the House of Bondage.'"
Or verse 16, "It shall be a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, for by strength of the hand of the Lord brought you out of Egypt."
That's four times. First 3, verse 9, or 14, or 16. What I want you to remember is my strength, so God constantly he says, remember my power and my strength to deliver you. The Passover reminds us of the blood of an innocent lamb that saved the firstborn from death. The feast of unleavened bread mentions we should get sin out of our lives. But what is added in the first part of chapter 13 is a memorial to remember that it was all done by the power of God. The whole Exodus will be by power, He will very soon part the Red Sea by the ultimate demonstration of power as if to underline all this.
I started out saying, we tend to forget everything, from our car keys to your wife's or husband’s birthday. However, Spiritually, we forget also. So, the Lord has given us reminders. And in the case of the Old Testament, he gave them the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, and the dedication of the first born, but how does this link in with the New Testament. In the New Testament God also he gives us reminders. The Lord's Supper, that replaces the Passover? Like the Passover, it reminds us that we are redeemed by the blood of an innocent lamb. In baptism, where we're identified with Christ and with other believers as we go down into the water and raised to walk a new kind of life, we ourselves then become like unleavened bread, purges of our sin? Those two memorials are the churches main ordinances, but are there other reminders? May I suggest that there are?
How about gathering together on Sunday? Is that a reminder? As a matter of fact, in the New Testament, they observed the Lord's table every Sunday.
Singing, that’s praising the Lord and reminding ourselves of how good he is, and what he has done for us. That's what's intends our worship to be.
Preaching, also, the reading and the study of the word is meant to be a memory aid. Done right, it reminds us of and instructs us from the scriptures. So, the Lord gives us memorials, memory aids, signs, to constantly remind us of what He has done.
Second question I asked at the beginning, I repeat now. What are we meant to remember? Answer, that we're redeemed by the blood of an innocent lamb and were saved from the bondage of sin by the power of God. He delivered us from the bondage of sin by his power. Put all this together, I'm redeemed by the blood of the lamb. I'm to put sin out of my life, but how am I going to do that? I have to have what? How do we, today? Answer, to put the word of scripture between their eyes and by the use of their physical members, today. How am I going to do that? To do that I have to have, power. So, the Lord wants us to remember, not only that we're saved by the blood of an innocent lamb, blood, He's given us the power to do what He told us to do.
The disciples spent three years with Him. During those three years, He talked repeatedly about preparing them for the coming Kingdom of God. But they were not prepared, even though He told them repeatedly. They were not prepared for the crucifixion, and they certainly didn't believe He was going to be raised form the dead. They get the shock of their life when he was crucified. And if that wasn't enough, they get the second shock of their life, when he raised from the dead. He appears to them, and they have one question. You know what that question is, the first thing they said to him was "Lord, are you going to restore now the Kingdom? The Lord does not answer that except to say, "That's for the Father to know. But let me tell you what I want you to remember on this day is this. You shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
So, they are thinking about prophecy in the future, and He is thinking about power available to them today. Prophecy has its place, but what the Lord wants us to remember in the present. Yes, He's coming again, but we don’t know exactly when, but in the meantime, we have been given the power to do what He told us to do. Maybe what we need to do remember the fact that God passed over our sin through the blood of the lamb and keep that at the forefront of our eyes, and that by the Word and the Spirit we might also be purged of sin so that we might live a life of power and faith empowered by the Spirit of God.