“The Lord spoke to Moses: ‘Consecrate every firstborn male to me, the firstborn from every womb among the Israelites, both man and domestic animal; it is mine.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Firstborn children – especially firstborn sons – have long held an incredible significance in human cultures around the world. Monarchial societies depended on them to be the next king in the line of royal succession. They are the ones who often carry the weight of continuing the family name. They are looked to as the leader of the family when the previous generation begins to pass on. The expectations of success on them are often high. It’s a lot of weight to bear. As God is framing out some of the instructions for the Passover celebration once the Israelites reach the Promised Land, He gives some instructions regarding the firstborn son of everything in the nation that are a bit challenging to get our heads around. Let’s talk about them.

What we see here is what I have identified as the second major theme in Exodus 13. If you’ll remember from last week (here’s a link to that post in case you need to jog your memory), I made the argument that there are three major themes in the first part of this chapter. The first was the importance of unleavened bread in the Passover celebration. The third, which we’ll tackle tomorrow, Lord willing, is the importance of passing on our faith to the next generation. Here in what many scholars identify as the most important theme – a point on which I break from them – God is giving Moses instructions on the importance of the firstborn males of Israel, both human and animal.

If you’ll remember way back to Exodus 4, when God was giving Moses some of his final instructions and encouragement before his first confrontation with Pharaoh, He told Moses to say this to Pharaoh: “Israel is my firstborn son. I told you: Let my son go so that he may worship me, but you refused to let him go. Look, I am about to kill your firstborn son.” God claimed Israel as His own. He looked on the nation not just as one of His children, but as His firstborn son. Israel was the one who was going to carry the weight of carrying out his Father’s plans for the nation. But there at the beginning of the Exodus journey, Egypt was holding God’s firstborn son in bondage. Well, just like you would move heaven and earth to get your own child out of bondage, God was willing to do the same. And indeed He did. Now that He had done that, and they were free from slavery in Egypt, some of the implications of Israel’s being God’s firstborn son are coming to bear on them.

Because Israel as a whole was God’s firstborn son, He had a claim on them. Claiming the whole nation, though, didn’t make sense. Then there wouldn’t be a nation. So, He made His claim on all the firstborn males of the nation. Still, though, claiming all the firstborn males wouldn’t work either. So, God allowed for all the male children the male work animals to be redeemed with a firstborn male from the flocks and herds of Israel. This was to be an ongoing exchange that was intended to be a constant reminder to the nation of their identity: they belonged to God.

Now, this idea sounds and feels very odd to us. The idea of a God demanding something like that doesn’t make much sense. But in the ancient world – and the not-so-ancient world for that matter – the idea of a sovereign claiming the firstfruits of his people was not at all unheard of. In the feudal system of the Middle Ages, the serfs who worked the land for the wealthy landowner would have been required to bring him the first and best of their harvest. The rest was for them to keep to eat or sell. In most ancient religions, the various deities expected their people to bring them the first and best of whatever they produced. Some things could be redeemed for others, but the first always belonged to the god. As foreign as those ideas seem to us, though, they really shouldn’t. Our own government still does this same basic thing through the income tax system. While you may be someone who pays quarterly taxes, it is vastly more likely that you have money withheld from your paycheck each pay period to pay your taxes throughout the year so you don’t get hit with a huge tax bill in April. In other words, the government takes the first part of your earnings as its own. Same thing, different form.

As far as its working in Israel, though, this was yet another example of God meeting the people where they were and engaging with them in terms they could understand. He was establishing Himself as their king. They didn’t need a human king like all the other nations. When they operated according to the design He would yet set before them in the Law, they would be able to get along just fine with Him as their only Lord and King. Of course, they didn’t do this consistently, and things went badly for them because of it, but this was a fault of the sin in their hearts more so than the system itself.

The system of redemption of the firstborn sons God would put in place, though, mattered not just because it stopped what could have developed into the practice of child sacrifice practices by many ancient nations, it mattered because it was a pointer to what God was planning for them and all of us in the future. It was a pointer to an even greater firstborn gift. God was making Himself their king, and He would eventually establish for all time the kind of king He is. He is the kind of king who doesn’t simply demand that His people give to them so that He can live off of their labor. He gives to them. Instead of continuing to demand their firstborn sons, He would ultimately give His to them, to all of us, redeeming His perfect life for our sinful ones, granting us the gift of eternal life if we are willing to receive it.

What God ultimately did for us was not a surprise. He started laying out clues very early on. They very often doubled as messages that were able to be understood by their original audiences (and not always modern ones), but when we see through the lens of the Gospel, things become much clearer. Claiming and redeeming the firstborn sons of Israel is one of these messages. There may not be much in the way of direction application for us, but it does reveal to us more of His character when seen through a Gospel lens. For that, it is worthwhile.