The Lord, Yahweh, gave Moses instructions about Passover within the context of the tenth plague. In that plague, the firstborn male would die, if the doorpost of the house was not covered by the blood of the sacrifice. After such an event where the firstborn males are spared, God then commands that they are to be set apart for some type of holy service.
Consecration of the Firstborn
Read Exodus 13:1-2
Through His command to consecrate the firstborn, Yahweh was imprinting on the mind of His people several things.
- The firstborn belonged to the Lord because He spared their lives in the tenth plague.
- This consecrating (or setting apart of the firstborn for sacred service) reminded the Israelites of God’s grace to His people in Egypt. Earlier in Exodus, we saw that the firstborn collectively represented all of Israel (Exodus 4:22-23). In the Old Covenant, God set Israel apart for sacred service as a nation, where Israel then collectively represented the entire world.
- Thus, the consecration of the firstborn foreshadowed another Firstborn who would be set apart to save the people. And because the Messiah would come through the people whom God had consecrated as His own, and Israel collectively represented the rest of mankind, the Messiah to come would be for the salvation of all.
Here, Moses says little about what this consecration entails. However, Moses included more detail later in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The firstborn sons of the Israelites (the word for “firstborn” in the Hebrew is in the masculine gender) belonged to Yahweh. To figure out what the nature of their consecration entailed, we have to look at other passages that Moses wrote. It’s then that we find out that they were consecrated for sacred service. For instance, in Numbers 3:12 and 8:14-18, God chose the Levites to serve as substitutes for every first-born son dedicated to the Lord. God told the Levites to perform the liturgical rites in the sanctuary. Because of that, we know that the first-born sons had originally served in that role during the Old-Covenant Divine Service. We can trace this change in spiritual leadership to the golden-calf incident at Sinai, where the tribe of Levi remained faithful to Yahweh when the rest of Israel did not (Exodus 32:29). We’ll explore this later.
The firstborn of clean animals (those acceptable for food and sacrifice according to the Mosaic Law) were to “belong to the LORD” to serve as sacrifices (Exodus 13:15, 22:30, and 34:19; Numbers 18:17). Here also, this pointed forward to the Messianic Firstborn, who would become the sacrifice to end all sacrifices.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
Read Exodus 13:3-16
In the last lesson, Yahweh told the people to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Here again we get a repeat, with some new information but also a deeper understanding of how the Feast of Unleavened Bread was to shape the Israelites in understanding who they are as God’s people.
Chapters 12 and 13 emphasize that the people of Israel are to remember God remembering them. The remembering goes both ways. This is not simply an intellectual exercise of remembering–the ritual itself also becomes an act of remembrance. (We find this also to be true of the Lord’s Supper, which Jesus instituted to supersede and fulfill the Feast of Unleavened Bread.)
– How does the Feast of Unleavened Bread become a way to inculcate to the next generation who Yahweh is? (vs. 14-15)
Yahweh then says that the Feast of Unleavened Bread will be a sign to the people. The word “sign” tells us that God is getting metaphorical: The Feast is to shape how they live out their lives (their hand, symbolizing their deeds) and even how they think (frontlets between their eyes).
Thus, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was not something to do to be righteous in God’s eyes but a way that God set up to inculcate the faith from one generation to the next, showing who He is as their God, always having an ever-present status and significance. In other words, even after the ritual was finished, the effects of it were to continue in one’s life until the next celebration. The cycle would then continue until one’s death. (In the New Covenant, this is also the effect that the Lord’s Supper is to have in one’s life. If we don’t understand the New Covenant as a fulfillment of the Old Covenant, we miss much that God would have us to understand and know.)
The Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt
Read Exodus 13:17-22
– Which way did God lead the people? Why?
The Red-Sea Conundrum: The words for “Red Sea” in the Hebrew are Yam Suph, which means “reed sea” or “sea of reeds.” We don’t know the body of water to which those words referred. The Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, translated Yam Suph as “Red Sea.” So, to this day, translations have stayed with “Red Sea,” although we have to admit that we don’t know if Yam Suph referred to the Red Sea.
– Whose bones did the Israelites bring with them? Why?
Equipped for Battle: The Hebrew reads that the people were organized in fives. This could be five large groups, or groups of 50, 500, etc. This means the people were not just one mass mob but organized into formations. This is why our translations say “battle formation” or “equipped for war,” even though that was not the case. The Septuagint says “fifth generation,” meaning into five groups.
1 Corinthians 10:1-2: Now I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea. They all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
We learn later that the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire pointed forward to baptism. Because of this passage, and others, those in the early Church called those who had been baptized “illumines ones.”
Read Exodus 14:1-9
– What takes place in the heart of Pharaoh and “his servants”?
– What then takes place?
Read Exodus 14:10-13
– How did the Israelites respond when they saw Pharaoh’s army in pursuit?
– How did their response testify to their faith?
