Exodus 13
The Law of the Firstborn
1The Lord spoke to Moses:
Jehovah spoke directly to Moses once again.
2“Set apart to me every firstborn male – the first offspring of every womb among the Israelites, whether human or animal; it is mine.”
All of the firstborn of Egypt were dead. The Egyptian gods claimed all of the firstborn of Egypt. Now, all of the firstborn belonged to God. This law did not apply to Gentiles, but only to Jews.
3Moses said to the people, “Remember this day on which you came out from Egypt, from the place where you were enslaved, for the Lord brought you out of there with a mighty hand – and no bread made with yeast may be eaten.
Jehovah wanted the Jews to remember this special time in history. This was the birthday of the Jewish nation.
4On this day, in the month of Abib, you are going out.
Abib 10 was the birthday of the nation of Israel. It originally fell in November. After the Babylonian Captivity, God changed this holiday to Nisan, which is March.
5When the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, then you will keep this ceremony in this month.
God gave these Gentile nations 400 years to repent. They refused to turn to God, so now God was going to remove all of these nations out of Canaan. He was going to replace them with the nation of Israel.
6For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to the Lord.
The Passover feast will last for seven days. Since leaven is a symbol of evil, the Jews were to eat bread without leaven. The bread without leaven is a symbol of their Messiah to come.
7Bread made without yeast must be eaten for seven days; no bread made with yeast shall be seen among you, and you must have no yeast among you within any of your borders.
During this Passover celebration, there was to be no leaven among the Jews. Leaven was a symbol of sin.
8You are to tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’
The purpose of this celebration was to teach the Jewish children about the historical event of the exodus. The exodus today is ridiculed and censored by liberal scholars. Unless God intervenes and opens the eyes of the skeptics, the price of this rejection is loss of eternal life.
9 It will be a sign for you on your hand and a memorial on your forehead, so that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth, for with a mighty hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt.
The first law of Biblical hermeneutics is “when the plain sense of Scripture makes perfect sense, then seek no other sense.” Believers must study the Bible literally. Otherwise, believers will spiritualize the Scriptures away to make the passage mean what the believer wants it to say rather than what God intends for it to say.
Literally, this passage commanded the Jews under the Mosaic Law to keep the Scriptures close to their hand and head. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with Jews who were living under the Mosaic Law to keep phylacteries on their hands and feet. The phylacteries were leather boxes which contained Bible Scriptures. The four Bible passages kept in these leather boxes were Deuteronomy 11:13-22, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Exodus 13:11-16, and Exodus 13:1-10. They also kept mezuzahs over their doorposts with the same passages. Jesus did not condemn the Pharisees for wearing phylacteries. He condemned them for wearing large phylacteries to show off their outward spirituality. The purpose of the phylacteries was to remind the Jewish nation of the historical accuracy of the Exodus.
10So you must keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year.
The Passover was to be kept by the Jews annually.
11When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you,
Jehovah promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would eventually give the land of Canaan to their descendants forever. Jehovah was about to fulfill this promise through Moses.
12then you must give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. Every firstling of a beast that you have – the males will be the Lord’s.
All of the firstborn males belonged to Jehovah.
13Every firstling of a donkey you must redeem with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, then you must break its neck. Every firstborn of your sons you must redeem.
Every firstborn of animals also belonged to Jehovah. If a donkey was born, a lamb could be sacrificed in its place. If the lamb was not to be substituted in sacrifice, then the donkey’s neck would be broken. This sounds cruel to those who are not operating on divine viewpoint. The purpose of these sacrifices was that sin is so terrible in God’s eyes, that it takes the innocent blood of an animal just to cover it up for a short time period. Once the individual sins again, then another animal must be sacrificed. This temporary covering of sin would take place among the Jewish people until their Messiah returns and ends this atonement system for eternity.
14In the future, when your son asks you ‘What is this?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the land of slavery.
The purpose of this sacrificial system was for the teaching and instruction of the Jewish children. The Exodus was to be taught to the Jewish children as an actual historical event.
15When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to release us, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of people to the firstborn of animals. That is why I am sacrificing to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb, but all my firstborn sons I redeem.’
The purpose of offering the firstborn to Jehovah was to teach the future generation of Jewish children that Jehovah redeemed them out of Egypt by taking the firstborn of Egypt.
16It will be for a sign on your hand and for frontlets on your forehead, for with a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”
The phylacteries remind the Jewish children that they were redeemed from Egypt by the slaying of the firstborn.
The Leading of God
17When Pharaoh released the people, God did not lead them by the way to the land of the Philistines, although that was nearby, for God said, “Lest the people change their minds and return to Egypt when they experience war.”
There were two major paths from Egypt to Canaan. The short route was through the land of the Philistines. However, there were many Egyptian fortresses on this route. This route would discourage the Jews.
The other route was through the Sinai desert. This was the longer but safer route. However, there would not be enough food or water for this journey. The journey would be burning hot during the day and extremely cold at night. There would be no possible way that two million Jews could survive this trip, unless Jehovah supernaturally intervened and provided food, water, and shade for them.
18So God brought the people around by the way of the desert to the Red Sea, and the Israelites went up from the land of Egypt prepared for battle.
Notice that the Jews were armed for battle, but they were not yet ready to fight. Therefore, Jehovah took them through the more difficult environmental route, but the easier military route.
19Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the Israelites solemnly swear, “God will surely attend to you, and you will carry my bones up from this place with you.”
Joseph believed that God would one day return the Jews back to her land. The Jews would carry the bones of Joseph for 40 years. His bones will be buried in Ephraim, in a town called Shechem.
20They journeyed from Sukkoth and camped in Etham, on the edge of the desert.
The Jews were now camped at the edge of the Sinai desert.
21Now the Lord was going before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them in the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel day or night.
It would be impossible for one person to travel across the Sinai desert, much less two million. Therefore, Jehovah would have to make supernatural provisions to help the Jews survive.
The Shekinah Glory was the visible representation of God on earth. He often revealed Himself as God inside of light, fire, cloud, or a combination. Sometimes God revealed Himself as an angel. Jesus was God appearing to the Jews as a man.
The Shekinah Glory revealed Himself as a cloud during the day to provide air conditioning to the Jews traveling in the burning heat of the Sinai desert. He appeared as a light at night to give them night vision and heat during the dark and freezing desert nights.
22He did not remove the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people.
When the Shekinah Glory departs from camp, the Jews departed. When the Shekinah Glory was stationary, the Jews remained stationary in camp.