Firstborn, Redemption and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
John Plunkett
Part 1: April 22, 2016
As Jacob was dying, he issued some blessings and also some prophecies regarding his twelve sons – in the order of their birth. He began with Reuben.
Genesis 49:3:
Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.
The word ‘beginning’ here is translated from the Hebrew word ‘reshiyth’ and it means first fruit.
If Trish or I were going to make a similar proclamation, we would
say, "Joanne!... You are our firstborn – and you are very special to us!"
Also, our other firstborn children here today – Zane and Madison – you too, are very special to your parents.
Before continuing, and for the benefit of you children who are not the firstborn in your families, I should stress that we parents, and we
grandparents too, certainly do not love you any less than your older brothers and sisters!
In ancient Israel, however, the firstborn child in every family was considered to be extra special.
This apparent favoritism within each family was not just a Hebrew tradition.
It was a set of rules given to them by the LORD God, through Moses, and was recorded in detail in the books of Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
I find it amazing that, frequently, throughout the Bible, the instructions with regard to firstborn children are given in the same scriptures as the instructions for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
But why?
In this sermon, I would like to examine the special significance of the connection between the firstborn children and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
First of all, then, let us go back to the instructions for that first Feast of Unleavened Bread at the time of the Exodus; and let’s see how God, at that time, set apart the firstborn of Old Covenant Israel.
By that time, the Israelites were already accustomed to a certain level of special treatment of their firstborn from the period covered in the Book of Genesis.
I'm sure that you are familiar with such scriptures that detail the favoritism
regarding Esau and Jacob, Rachel and Leah, Joseph and his brothers, Ephraim and Manasseh.
But here, at the very beginning of His commission to Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, and despite the fact that the human “Israel” (whose name the LORD changed from “Jacob”) had an older brother (Genesis 32:28; 25:25), God clearly identifies the children of Israel, collectively, as His firstborn:
Exodus 4:
22: And you shall say unto Pharaoh, "Thus says the LORD, 'Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
23: And I say unto you, "Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your son, even your firstborn."'"
Please notice that the LORD's warning to Pharaoh – actually to all of the Egyptians – that He would kill their firstborn was pre-planned right from the
beginning of the Exodus account. It was not, as "The Ten Commandments" motion picture would have you believe, a last minute decision that God resorted to when all the other plagues failed to achieve their desired effect.
Throughout the first nine plagues, God in His mercy, repeated his warning to Pharaoh, thus giving him plenty of opportunity to repent.
After the ninth plague of darkness, here's what happened:
Exodus 10:
28: Then Pharaoh said to him, "Get away from me! Take heed to yourself and see my face no more! For in the day you see my face you shall die!"
29: And Moses said, "You have spoken well. I will never see your face again."
While Moses was still in Pharaoh’s presence, the LORD communicated this to Moses’ mind.
Exodus 11:1:
And the LORD said unto Moses, "Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether."
Moses then relayed the LORD’s words to Pharaoh.
Verse 5: "And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sits upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.
Verse 8: And all these your servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, 'Get you out, and all the people that follow you': and after that I will go out." And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger.
Throughout Exodus chapter 12, God gives Moses detailed instructions on how to keep the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Then, at the beginning of chapter 13, seemingly right out of the blue, the LORD ever-so-briefly introduces His setting apart of the firstborn male children within the nation of Israel:
Exodus 13:
1: And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
2: "Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine."
The LORD told Moses to sanctify all the Israelite firstborn. The Hebrew verb for ‘sanctify’ here is qadash (Strong’s 6942) and it can mean to hallow, to dedicate, to make holy, to prepare, to consecrate, to appoint, to purify, to separate, and to set apart. The firstborn were to be all of these things – sanctified.
In verses 3 to 10, the LORD continues giving more detailed instructions for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Then, in verse 11, He returns to the subject of the firstborn, and He gives some more detailed rules on this evidently important topic:
Verse 11: And it shall be when the LORD shall bring you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore unto you and to your fathers, and shall give it you,
12: That you shall set apart unto the LORD all that opens the matrix {womb}, and every firstling that comes of a beast which you have; the males shall be the LORD’S.
13: And every firstling of an ass you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you wilt not redeem it, then you shall break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among your children shall you redeem.
The English word "redeem" means, in simple terms, "buy back."
If a family's firstborn donkey was critical to their livelihood, they could buy it back from
the LORD by offering a lamb in its stead.
Of course, the LORD did not demand that His people offer their firstborn sons as literal human sacrifices.
They too were to be bought back.
When we first read this, the grammar seems to imply that they too – the male human firstborn – were also to be redeemed by a lamb offering.
But it doesn’t actually say that! In fact, it doesn’t tell us right away what the commanded redemption offering for firstborn baby boys should be.
We’re not told until much later (in chapters 3 and 18 of the Book of Numbers,
which we will come to) that they were to be redeemed by a five shekel offering.
Continuing in Exodus 13:
Verse 14: And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, "What is this?" that you shall say unto him, "By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage:
15: And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the LORD slew 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 that opens the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my {human} children I redeem {buy back from the LORD}.
16: And it shall be for a token upon your hand, and for frontlets between your eyes: for {repeating now for emphasis!} by strength of hand the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt.”
This remarkable relationship between the Israelite firstborn boys, and the Feast of Unleavened bread is repeated by the LORD in chapter 34:
Exodus 34:
18: The Feast of Unleavened Bread shall you keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.
19: All that opens the matrix is mine; and every firstling among your cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.
20: But the firstling of an ass you shall redeem with a lamb: and if you redeem him not, then shall you break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.
The LORD gives additional instructions on this back in chapter 22:
Exodus 22:
29: You shall not delay to offer the first of your ripe fruits, and of your liquors {Revised Standard Version: the outflow of your presses}: the firstborn of your sons shall you give unto me.
30: Likewise shall you do with your oxen, and with your sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam {mother}; on the eighth day you shall give it me.
This is important! Here, the LORD told the Israelites that their firstborn cattle and sheep were to be offered to Him on the eighth day of their lives. Likewise, the firstborn of the Israelite male children – or rather for most of them the redemption price (five shekels) with which the parents were to buy back their newborn baby boys from God – were to be offered on the babies' eighth day of their lives.
Something else was going to happen on that day. That was the day of their circumcision when the baby boy was "presented" to the LORD and, even though the parents had already redeemed the baby with the five shekel offering, as we shall see, the LORD still claimed those firstborn baby boys as being special to Him and, amazingly, still belonging to Him!
It should be noted that the eighth day presentation and redemption offering were peculiar to the firstborn boys only and was in addition to the purification offerings (a sin offering and a burnt offering
of lambs, pigeons or turtle-doves) which were required for all newborn babies –
both boys and girls – both firstborn and otherwise – and which were also
required for the ritual purification of the mother.
The LORD God didn’t command these things to complicate matters! He did
so to reveal to us some absolutely fantastic aspects of His plan.
Leviticus 12:
1: And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
2: "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, 'If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
3: And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.'"
Again, this was to take place on the baby boy's eighth day of life, the same day on which he was circumcised and redeemed (bought back) by means of the five-shekel redemption price.
Later on, another offering was to be given:
4: And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty {33} days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.
5: But if she bear a maid child {a baby girl}, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation: and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six {66} days.
6: And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, unto the Priest:
Please note two things here. First, this offering was required for all babies – boys and girls, firstborn and otherwise. Secondly, the mother could not make this additional offering until her purification time was over.
7: Who shall offer it before the LORD, and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that has born a male or a female.
8: And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtles {turtle-doves}, or two young pigeons; the one for the burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for her, and she shall be clean.
This is not referring to the redemption offering for firstborn sons, which was to be done on their
eighth day of life. This is referring to the later, cleansing and purification offering for baby boys or girls, whether firstborn or subsequent children.
This becomes significant as we continue.
Originally then, it appears that the LORD had set apart all firstborn baby boys as belonging to Him, to be used in His service.
Then, at the institution of the Levitical priesthood, the LORD substituted the Levites for His service – in place of the firstborn of the other tribes:
Numbers 3:
11: And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
12: "And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn that open the matrix among the children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine;
13: Because all the firstborn are mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be: I am the LORD.
He is saying that He wanted the Levites to service Him on a full-time basis; but also that "Those firstborn are still mine too"!
Verse 40: And the LORD said unto Moses, "Number all the firstborn of the males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.
41: And you shall take the Levites for me (I am the LORD) instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the children of Israel."
42: And Moses numbered, as the LORD commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Israel.
43: And all the firstborn males by the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those that were numbered of them, were twenty and two thousand two hundred and threescore and thirteen {22,273}.
44: And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
45: "Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine: I am the LORD.
After the count, it turned out that, although there were 22,273 firstborn males, there were only 22,000 Levite males – a shortfall of 273.
The LORD is an organized God, and He does things according to His will and His law.
This shortfall had to be made up for. So here’s what the LORD commanded:
46: And for those that are to be redeemed of the two hundred and threescore and thirteen {273} of the firstborn of the children of Israel, which are more than the Levites;
47: You shall even take five shekels apiece by the poll, after the shekel of the sanctuary shall you take them: (the shekel is twenty gerahs:)
48: And you shall give the money, wherewith the odd number {273} of them is to be redeemed, unto Aaron and to his sons."
49: And Moses took the redemption money of them that were over and above them that were redeemed by the Levites:
50: Of the firstborn of the children of Israel took he the money; a thousand three hundred and threescore and five {1,365} shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary:
51: And Moses gave the money of them that were redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.
If you’d like to check Moses’ accounting, get your calculators out and multiply the 273 redeemed firstborn (non-Levite) male Israelites by 5 shekels each, and you’ll see that it comes out to exactly 1,365 shekels.
Still in the Numbers, let’s move on to Chapter 8:
Numbers 8:
9: And you shall bring the Levites before the tabernacle of the congregation: and you shall gather the whole assembly of the children of Israel together:
10: And you shall bring the Levites before the LORD: and the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites:
11: And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the LORD for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of the LORD.
12: And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks: and you shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, unto the LORD, to make an atonement for the Levites.
13: And you shall set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for an offering unto the LORD.
They were not, of course, to be slain and sacrificed. Rather, they were offered to the LORD as servants. to do His work on a daily basis. From then on, that was the Levites' job:
14: Thus shall you separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be mine.
15: And after that shall the Levites go in to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation: and you shall cleanse them, and offer them for an offering.
16: For they are wholly given unto me from among the children of Israel; instead of such as open every womb, even instead of the firstborn of all the children of Israel, have I taken them unto me.
But now look at this next verse!:
17: For all the firstborn of the children of Israel are mine, both man and beast: on the day that I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for myself.
18: And I have taken the Levites for all the firstborn of the children of Israel.
There is some hint here that, even though the LORD God had taken the Levites for His daily service, He still seemed almost reluctant to let the firstborn off the hook. He still seemed to be claiming the firstborn as His own.
And He did! And He was! And for a very good reason!
Ten whole chapters later… in chapter 18… look what He says:
Numbers 18:
8: And the LORD spoke unto Aaron, "Behold, I also have given you the charge of my heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto you have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to your sons, by an ordinance forever.
12: All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer unto the LORD, them have I given you.
13: And whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the LORD, shall be yours; every one that is clean in your house shall eat of it.
14: Everything devoted in Israel shall be yours.
15: Everything that opens the matrix in all flesh, which they bring unto the LORD, whether it be of men or beasts, shall be yours: nevertheless, the firstborn of man shall you surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shall you redeem.
16: And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shall you redeem, according to your estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.
So, all of the firstfruits and the firstborn were to be given to the Levites on the LORD’S behalf, for the service of the LORD and His Temple.
Even after the institution of the Levitical system, God still claimed all of the firstfruits, all of the
firstlings and all of the firstborn of Israel as His own and special to Him.
It was all given to the Levites for the service of the LORD and His Temple.
However, the redemption system of five shekels continued.
Approximately (possibly exactly!) 1,000 years later, after the Jews had returned from their captivity in Babylon, they re-instituted God's ownership of the firstborn:
Nehemiah 10:
34: And we cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law:
35: And to bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, unto the house of the LORD:
36: Also the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, unto the priests that minister in the house of our God:
One thousand years after those laws were put in place, we see the returned Jews
coming back to them. These post-exile Jews apparently felt quite justified and comfortable in going right back to
God’s laws on this issue and reinstituting the firstborn laws.
Part 2: April 28, 2016
Jesus' fulfillment of laws regarding the firstborn
Let us jump ahead now to (about) the year 4 BC, still in the land of Israel (now split between the Roman provinces of Judea, Samaria and Galilee).
A lot of water had flowed under Israel’s bridge since its early days as a nation and, even though the Levites and the Aaronic priesthood had become increasingly corrupt, God's laws regarding the firstborn were still being upheld in that remnant of the nation.
Now enters Jesus as a baby. Jesus, who had just come into the world as a baby boy, the firstborn, both of His Heavenly Father and of
His physical mother, Mary, was about to begin a life of total obedience to His own
laws that He had given to Israel:
Luke 2:
7: And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn...
Verse 21: And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, His name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before He was conceived in the womb.
On this, Jesus’ eighth day of human life, He was circumcised, according to the terms of His own Old Covenant law.
On that same day, because He was the firstborn, He was also formally dedicated to a lifelong service to God the Father.
I want you to remember two things about Jesus. First of all, He was a Jew. He was born of the tribe of Judah, not of the tribe of Levi.
Secondly, there is no mention of Mary and Joseph giving the five shekel redemption offering which would have excused Him from a life of service to God the Father.
In verse 22, there is a mention of an offering. Bible readers can get confused about this offering. Mary’s purification offerings are mentioned here; but they were not given on Jesus' eighth day; but were presented later, on Jesus’ fortieth day of His human life on earth:
Luke 2:
22: And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought Him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;
He was theoretically being presented to His own pre-human self – YHVH!
23: (As it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord").
24: And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, "A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."
Although the Greek language is very picturesque, the Greek grammar here seems to put the two ceremonies together, and makes it read as though the firstborn ceremony and the purification ceremony were on the same day. It makes it sound as though Jesus’ circumcision and presentation as a firstborn boy took place on the same day as Mary’s purification offering day.
But it wasn’t! If it was, His human parents would have been disobeying His own laws as laid out in Leviticus.
Rather, the statement in verse 23, which reads, "As it is written in the law of the Lord, 'Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord" refers back to the circumcision day on the eighth day of His human life on earth.
The offering of the turtledoves or pigeons refer to the 40th day purification offering mentioned in verse 22.
So, verse 23 refers to verse 21 and verse 24 refers to verse 22. Please read it through it and compare it with Leviticus 12.
Before commenting on what happened here, let’s quickly review (from last time) what was commanded about this “in the law of the Lord”:
Leviticus 12:
1: And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
2: "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, 'If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
3: And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
4: And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.
So, the mother of a baby boy would be ceremonially unclean for a total of forty days.
That’s seven plus thirty-three. The eighth day – the circumcision day – was the first day of the thirty-three days.
Verse 6: And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest:
7: Who shall offer it before the LORD, and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that has born a male or a female.
8: And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtles {turtledoves}, or two young pigeons; the one for the burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for her, and she shall be clean.
For some reason, Mary was in this latter category and was “not able to bring a
lamb,” and so brought the alternative offering of two turtledoves or pigeons – both of which are clean birds according to God’s food laws in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.
Why was Mary unable to bring a lamb to the temple? Was it because the family was poor and couldn’t afford one?
Or was it because it was too long a journey and justifiably inconvenient to drag a lamb all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and
from there to Jerusalem? Or – and this is just my own personal speculation – could it possibly have been because she had the
“real Lamb” right there with her – the true Lamb of God of which all the other millions of
Israelite sacrificial lambs had been symbols?
But why is there no mention of Mary bringing the five-shekel redemption offering on Jesus’ eighth day of life – His circumcision day?
Wasn’t Jesus redeemed on His 8th day of life according to His own law?
No, he wasn’t! Why not? Apparently because:
a) Jesus Himself was to become the Redeemer – the Redeeming Sacrifice to which all other redeeming sacrifices had pointed since Moses’ time,
b) His physical life was now completely dedicated to God the Father, as had been pictured by all the other firstborn boys since Moses’ time,
c) He was not to be redeemed from a life of total service to God the Father – neither by a monetary offering, nor by the service of the (now corrupt) Levitical priesthood. It was also His perfect life of service that the imperfect Levitical priesthood had pictured since Aaron’s time. At the time of Jesus’ birth, the Levitical priesthood was soon to go dormant and Jesus’ own (Melchizedek) priesthood was soon to be reinstated.
The offering of the two turtledoves or pigeons refers to the fortieth day purification offerings, and not to the firstborn redemption offering. Again, this purification offering was required for all births, not just for the firstborn boys.
Back to Luke's gospel account and continuing in verse 27:
Luke 2:27:
And he {the aging Simeon} came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents {N.B. both Joseph and Mary!} brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the law…
This "custom of the law" refers specifically to the fortieth day purification offerings at the temple. Please notice that both Joseph and Mary attended. Back on Jesus’ eighth day of life, Mary was still ceremonially unclean and she would not have been permitted to enter the temple. From this, and from the account of John the Baptist, we learn that it is likely that the eighth day firstborn and circumcision ceremonies were performed in a private home, not at the temple:
Luke 1:
57: Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.
58: And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shown great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her.
59: And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.
Now let’s move on to the second part of this, and let’s look into the significance of God's firstborn laws to God’s
church today.
All of these sacrifices and offerings that we have been looking at were for the
people of Israel, which was under the Old Covenant until the death and resurrection of
Jesus which triggered the New Covenant era. So what is the significance of
these offerings to the people of God's New Covenant church today?
It seems that there are at least two answers to this question – two explanations for the symbolism of the firstborn and redemption, and their connection to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. To find these answers, we need to turn back and review the original instructions in the thirteenth chapter of Exodus:
Exodus 13:
12: That you shall set apart unto the LORD all that opens the matrix, and every firstling that comes of a beast which you have; the males shall be the LORD’S.
13: And every firstling of an ass you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among your children shall you redeem.
14: And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, "What is this?" that you shall say unto him, "By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage."
We, as Christians, are to be like the son in verse 14 who asks, "What is this?
What do all of these rules about the firstborn mean?"
The firstborn of all clean, male animals (cattle, sheep, goats, etc.) were the Eternal's.
They could not be redeemed; but were to be killed and sacrificed to Him.
Amazingly, there is a kind of double symbolism here, in which these animals appear to represent the Egyptian firstborn!
And as such, they represent sin to us!
The firstborn of the physical Israelite male children were to be
redeemed or "bought back" by the offering of five shekels.
In some respects, these firstborn children likely represent the spiritual Israelite people of God's true church today.
But our redemption offering was not a mere five shekels per person; but was rather the
priceless blood of a sacrificed lamb! Not just any old lamb! But the perfect, unblemished, unspotted
Lamb of God!
Repeating verse 14:
14: And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, "What is this?" that you shall say unto him, "By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage."
Again, we sons of God ask, "What is this? What does it all mean?"
The answer begins with the statement that the LORD God brought physical Israel out of Egyptian slavery by His great strength and
power – just as He had promised to do – way back in chapter 6:
Exodus 6:
1: Then the LORD said unto Moses, "Now shall you see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land...
Verse 6: Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:
Even the strong arm of Pharaoh himself would be used as a pawn in the LORD's service in order to accomplish His will.
This is only what we might think of as "the Old Covenant answer" which is merely symbolic of its New Covenant antitype.
The LORD God likewise brought the people of the spiritual “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) – His New Covenant church – out of spiritual Egypt – out of this sinful "world held captive" by the spiritual Pharaoh – Satan. Back to chapter 13:
15: And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the LORD slew 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 that open the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem.
Again, the firstborn animals represented the Egyptian firstborn, which were a one-time sacrifice for the benefit of – for the freeing of – the Israelites.
The all-powerful God released the strong grip of Pharaoh’s strong hand on Israel
(the LORD's Old Covenant firstborn) by killing Egypt’s firstborn on that first Passover night.
Likewise, by having His firstborn Son slain, the almighty Father released Satan’s
powerful grip from the neck of His (the Father’s) subsequent, New Covenant, firstborn
children (the people of the Church of God). And in doing this, He triggered the New
Covenant era.
Please think about this amazing symbolism and try and get your mind around it! This means that our Saviour – the slain Lamb of God – is symbolized (in this case) by the Egyptian firstborn!... who, in turn symbolize sin!
We tend to reject that possibility in our minds. Astonishing?
Yes, it is! Impossible? No, it is not!
In fact, God inspired the apostle Paul to write that Jesus even allowed himself to be degraded to the very bottom of the barrel –
to the level of the lowest of the low – to the very personification of a curse!
And of sin itself:
Galatians 3:13:
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, "Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree."
So Jesus was made a curse! For us! So that we could be redeemed! So that He and His Father could buy us back from our former slavery to the spiritual Pharaoh and his spiritual Egypt! He volunteered to do this! He took this upon Himself!
Looking back, the redemption ("buy-back") of the human Israelite firstborn boys was a reminder of their miraculous preservation on the first Passover night. But it also looked forward to the redemption of the New Covenant spiritual Israelites – the Church of God – and ultimately, to the redemption of virtually the whole world – by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who became sin… like the lambs that represented Egypt and the Egyptian firstborn.
Not only did Jesus become a curse, He also voluntarily became sin!:
II Corinthians 5:
21 For He {God the Father} has made Him who knew no sin {Jesus} to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
This is an amazing and astonishing verse. Jesus was willing to endure the excruciating pain of actually becoming sin for us, of carrying all the sins of the world from throughout all eras of mankind, of having them crammed on to His head and into His blood all of the way from Gethsemane to Golgotha, of allowing all of the world’s sins to be mingled with His blood, and being willing to have His tainted blood expelled into the rocks and dirt of Golgotha, where it will lie dormant until the time comes when Jesus and God the Father will put those sins where they rightly belong – on the head of the spiritual Pharaoh – Satan the devil.
As the apostle Paul tells us in this verse, Jesus being willing to do all of this for us made it possible for us to become the righteousness of God. Yes. By allowing Himself to have all of those things done to Him, to become a curse and to become sin, all of this made it possible for us to become the very opposite of sin; that is, the very righteousness of God.
Paul adds the words "in Him" at the end of the verse. This is what Warren was talking about in his message: us being in Jesus and God the Father and having them in us. We cannot get any closer to them than that. With regards to proximity and attachment, we can't get any closer than that!
But there's even more:
Romans 8:
29: For those whom He {God the Father} foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He {Jesus} might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Again, He did all of this for us. Not only are we blessed to become the righteousness of God; not only are we blessed to be in God the Father and Jesus, and to have them dwelling in us; but by Jesus doing all He did back then, He has become the Firstborn among many brethren. And we are those many brethren! We are blessed to have become the brothers and sisters of Jesus. He has become our Elder Brother.
Not only is He the Firstborn among many brethren, He is very much more than that. Just as Jesus was and is the First of the Firstfruits (Exodus 23:19; 34:26; Ezekiel 44:30), He is also the First of the Firstborn of God the Father.
So we – Jesus' “many brethren” – are the "subsequent firstfruits" and the "subsequent firstborn" of the Father.
The writer of the book of Hebrews has a couple of different collective titles for us:
Hebrews 12:
22: But you are come unto {the spiritual} mount Sion, and unto the {spiritual} city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23: To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God {the Father} the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24: , And to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
We’ll come back to these verses again before we close; but for now, let’s go back to another of Paul’s epistles:
Colossians 1:
12a: Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet {qualified}…
Please notice how all of the writers bring God the Father into this process.
12b: … to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13: Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated {conveyed} us into the kingdom of His dear Son:
14: In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
15: Who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of every creature…
So here we have Paul reuniting the topics of redemption and the firstborn; but in their New Covenant sense! And there is yet more:
Verse 18: And He is the Head of the Body, the church: who is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.
Yes… that Jesus might have the preeminence – first place – in everything (other than His Father, of course, as we read in I Corinthians 15:27-28); even in being the very first human being to be truly born again – from physical death to eternal spirit life!
Yes, YHVH and Jesus had raised other people from the dead; but those people only lived for another seventy or so years (maximum), and then they died again. But Jesus was the firstborn from physical death to eternal spirit life.
Those verses of Paul’s links solidly with this one from John:
Revelation 1:5:
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the First-begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.
Again, we see the redemption aspect here being linked to Firstborn.
This makes very good sense because, before someone – even including the human Jesus – can be
born, he first must be begotten.
Let’s go back to the book of Hebrews for more insight into this:
Hebrews 1:
5: For unto which of the angels said He at any time, "You are my Son, this day have I begotten you"? And again, "I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to me a Son"?
6: And again, when He brings in the First-begotten into the world, He said, "And let all the angels of God worship him."
So, if Jesus was and is the First-begotten and the First-born from the dead (which He definitely was and is!), this fact strongly implies that there must be
others – yes, that there must be other children that are to be the
subsequent-begotten and the subsequent-born from the dead!
And who do you think they might be? The younger siblings of the First of the
Firstborn, of course!
That’s you and me! We who have been blessed, called and chosen to become members of
"the Church of the Firstborn" have also become the subsequent-begotten and
are to become the subsequent-born from the dead! And all this is made possible by our redemption.
Thinking back to Passover night, to the beginning of the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread season, we began with Warren’s references to the attachment between God the Father and Jesus Christ and our attachment to God the Father and Jesus.
Also back on Passover night, I asked the questions: "What was in Jesus’ mind in those last days and hours prior to His crucifixion?" " What did He know?" We have been through a lot of scriptures over the past week; so what do we know now, perhaps better than we did before?
I just happened to be reading through some of the words of Handel’s Messiah this morning, as I was thinking about this question and the answer came to me from one of its better known arias:
Job 19:25:
For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
We know that He is our Redeemer! We know that He was resurrected and that He lives!
Also, in that same aria of Handel’s Messiah, Handel quotes this scripture:
I Corinthians 15:20:
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the Firstfruits of them that slept.
Again, all of this was made possible by Jesus’ redemption of us.
So, thinking back to the Old Covenant rules, in order for each of us to be redeemed in the New Covenant Israel of God, does someone have to go to the temple and pay an offering of five shekels to God on our behalf? The apostle Peter answers the question:
I Peter 1:
18: Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold {e.g. 5 shekels} from your vain conversation {our past vain conduct} received by tradition from your fathers;
19: But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot:
No! Our redemption price has already been paid.
And that price was the blood of a sacrificed Lamb – a Lamb without spot or
blemish! But not a physical lamb – all of which have at least
some spots, blemishes and imperfections.
Let’s go back to the book of Hebrews:
Hebrews 9:
8: The Holy Spirit this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing...
When the writer mentions "the way into the holiest of all," he is referring to the heavenly temple and the heavenly Most Holy Place where God the Father lives.
9: Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service {the Aaronic High Priest} perfect, as pertaining to the conscience…
Verse 12: Neither by the blood of goats and calves; but by His own blood He entered in once into the {Most} Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us...
Verse 15: And for this cause He is the Mediator of the New Testament {Covenant}, that by means of {His} death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament {covenant}, they which are called {that's us!} might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
These are all piece-parts of the huge jigsaw puzzle of salvation.
As we draw this sermon, this Holy Day, and this Spring Holy Day season to a close, let me repeat what we read just a few minutes ago in Hebrews 12; but allow me to read it from the Revised Standard Version, as it sheds a little bit of extra light on the meaning:
Hebrews 12:
22: But you have come to mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering…
This Revised Standard Version translation of this verse refers to these angels as being "in festal gathering" – gathered just like we have been during these seven Days of Unleavened bread – for a feast – those angelic beings rejoicing with us human members of the assembly of the firstborn:
23a: And to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven…
Yes. Our names are written in heaven.
23b: … and to a Judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Although not yet perfect, we are so very blessed to have been called and chosen to be part of God's assembly or church of the firstborn. We are so very blessed to have become His special New Covenant “subsequent firstborn”!
As we conclude now, for our final scripture, let’s read just one verse – a short statement from Zacharias – the father of John the Baptist – a statement that was inspired by God’s Holy Spirit:
Luke 1:68:
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he has visited and redeemed His people.
I believe that, during these Spring Holy Days, the Lord God of Israel has visited us – in Spirit of course; and that Jesus has kept His promise that He would be with even small groups who gather in His name (Matthew 18:20).
I find the biblical subject of the redemption of the firstborn and its inseparable links to the Feast of Unleavened Bread to be astonishing! It is amazing, inspiring, even miraculous that it all dovetails and fits in like that.
In closing, let us not forget, especially so soon after our pre-Passover self-examinations, that, just as each of our children and grandchildren are so very special to us, we, individually and collectively as members of His “Church of the Firstborn” are very, very special and precious to our Heavenly Father and, of course, to our Elder Brother and our Redeemer, Jesus Christ!
JHP/pp/jhp