SCRIPTURE: Exodus 13
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
(Read my reflection from 2008)
“In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’” [Exodus 13:14-15]
God unleashes judgment against unrepentant Pharoah and Egypt by taking their firstborn son.
In ancient culture, the firstborn son represented the strength and future of the family; the family name and inheritance passed on to the firstborn son, who then was responsible for the family.
The message is this: our future depends on our relationship with God, our sin and refusal to repent cuts us off from God and life.
God spares Israel’s firstborn sons (i.e. they retain their future) because of the blood of the lamb on their doorposts, but God makes it clear that their future (firstborn) belongs to Him.
To symbolize this, they sacrifice all firstborn animals and pay for (redeem) their firstborn sons.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. [John 3:16-17]
In the bible, through symbols of sacrifice and redeeming firstborn sons, God makes it clear that there is a price for sin that must be paid – the price is their life and their future.
But we also see how God steps in to cover for our sin with the blood of a firstborn lamb.
Jesus is the firstborn lamb, God’s one and only Son who is punished so that we might be forgiven.
Not only is our sin forgiven because He has died, but we receive the inheritance through Jesus.
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. [Hebrews 9:14-15]
We may find these practices and symbols disturbing or unfair, but they are God’s way of communicating to us our need for Him, for forgiveness, and for a Saviour.
We have sinned, our sin deserves the death penalty, we need God to step in and save us, God has stepped in through Jesus, we can be forgiven and set free through faith in Him.
Yes, there is a lot of blood and gore in the bible, but that is an accurate picture of this sin-messed world, and it requires the death penalty.
Jesus takes that death penalty for us!
PRAYER:
Lord, I do not like to think of my sin as this bad, but help me to feel the weight and the horror of sin, so that I can feel the weight and wonder of Your grace!