God of the Firstborn

Exodus 13:1-16

You were, are, will be saved. Remember the Savior.

Enough Thank-you Already

A couple years ago I took Logan, my son, to a Broncos game. He was so excited to go. My friend gave us his season tickets and he had two rules. We had to stay the whole time, like a true fan. And Logan had to wear his Bronco hat for luck. Logan was so excited, and took these requirements very seriously.

We parked over here at the park n' ride and took the bus down. Logan loves the bus.

We arrived at the stadium, Logan is thrilled.

We figure out where our section is and get on the escalator. On the way up the people behind us are talking about this particular escalator... why the security guards only let a few people at a time because one time it went crazy, malfunctioned, went into warp speed and threw people off and piled them up...

I'm like "cool story, I want to look that up." What I didn't see is that Logan's eyes going wide.

We get our hot dogs and sodas, and we walk out to our seats. We are on the third level and we are high up. The stairs are tiny and steep. We sit down and Logan is kind of shaking.

"Are you Okay?"

"Yeah... just... I didn't expect to be so high!"

He tries, like a champ to hold it together. He is more and more terrified. Then, late in the first quarter, we score. And everyone goes nuts, like you do. And they start stomping... and the stadium starts shaking... and Logan just starts losing it. He is terrified.

Now, I have to get my son home.

The buses don't start heading back until halftime. We take a taxi.

Logan is clutching me the whole way back for dear life. He kept offering to pay for the taxi. "I'll pay you back, Dad. Thank you so much! I'll pay for it, thank you so much." Over and over and over.

I missed the game. Don't care. I was his Savior. In his mind, I saved his life from the earthquaking stadium and the people-eating escalator.

He mentioned it again in the days following. Off and on. Less and less. And then, not at all. He remembers it, he remembered it when I asked if I could tell this story. But he doesn't REMEMBER it, or thank me for it constantly.

Not, for example, the way we thanked God over and over this morning. Over and over and over and over. We thank God for being our Savior.

If that felt strange... or repetitive... or even unnecessary. Maybe just a bit much, then you will just hate our passage today.

Remember the Savior – Exodus 13:1-16

Last we looked at the miracle of Passover. In this final miraculous act of judgment on the Egyptian people, an angel of death kills every firstborn, man and animal, in all of Egypt. The Hebrew people were commanded to paint the blood of a lamb across the door, and the angel of death, the angel of God’s judgment, passed over them.

There were all sorts of details about what to eat and who could eat it and how to cook it. And all the Israelites did “just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.”

In that very moment, the moment of success, the moment of victory, God commands two things, two acts of remembrance.

Exodus 13:1-2

The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.”

Consecrate or sacrifice the firstborn, that’s the first command. Then God commands the commemoration of the Passover miracle through the Passover feast:

3 Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast.

… and he continues with the timing of the ceremony on the calendar… and it lasts for seven days. And as in chapter 12,

8 On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9 This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. 10 You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year.

We are repeating ourselves from last chapter, but remember that Hebrew uses repetition to show emphasis. On that note, we then repeat the first act of remembrance:

11 “After the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he promised on oath to you and your ancestors, 12 you are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord. 13 Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons.

This is like a little remembrance sandwich. Sacrifice the firstborn. Keep the annual Passover celebration. Sacrifice the firstborn.

Sacrificing the Firstborn

We got a great picture of the significance and meaning of the Passover feast last week. It celebrates that miracle, that act of deliverance from Egypt, and goes through many of the motions those first Israelites went through.

What is this about sacrificing the firstborn?

Now, we love our children, so we completely get the love and attachment due to all of our children, and even how the first experience of that is particularly memorable and special. That is part of it.

We add to that the sense of legacy and honor of the firstborn. In a primarily agrarian society, surviving off the land through crops and livestock, having children was your future. Your family was your small business. Your children would carry on your legacy and provide for you in your old age. Connected to this was a huge social stigma against childlessness, far more than that experienced today. Without a child you had no legacy, no wealth, and no security.

This sense of wealth applied to livestock as well. If you have two goats, well and good. If your two goats can breed and multiply, you have breeding stock, and that is an entirely different thing. That is a self-replicating business.

So the first-born represents, in a very practical way, earthly wealth and security in addition to all the emotional attachment we are familiar with.

So to sacrifice the firstborn... that is an incredible act of trust. It says

You are my wealth and security

It says: I will trust you that there will be provision for tomorrow.

It says: even that that is most precious to me, I recognize that even that belongs to you. I only have life and children, wealth and security, because you have saved me.

Firstborn sacrifice is an act of remembering God as provider and Savior

Thankfully, there was no human sacrifice here, the human children were to be redeemed, but the symbolic act was there and powerful.

Mnemonic Rituals

We have this remembrance sandwich. These Mnemonic Rituals.

Every year, through the Passover week, you remember God as Savior.

Every momentous birth signifying earthly wealth and prosperity, you sacrifice and remember God as Savior.

What does it say about the people of Israel... and about us, that included in the very moment of salvation, God commands these mnemonic rituals, these acts of remembrance?

They were likely to forget.

We have a tendency to forget our Savior.

We have tendency to forget. We forget our gratitude, we forget our sense of relief. We forget what God saved us from... we forget what God saved us to...

We have a tendency to forget our Savior.

So we have our own structures of remembrance.

Our Primary structure of remembrance: do this in remembrance of me. In communion (or the Eucharist) we echo the Passover ceremony, we do it every three months here. We remember our Savior.

We echo the giving of the firstborn also. It is the same principle as the tithe. Every time I gain earthly wealth and security, I worship God with it first by giving a portion in sacrifice. It is an act of worship and it is an ongoing reminder of where my real wealth and security lie: in him who is saving my life.

We remember our Savior.

Why so much gratitude?

Now maybe you don't have one of these, but I have this little cynical voice that whispers little questions and criticisms at the back of mind. Sometimes in worship. Maybe you have this question:

How many thank you's is enough?

Like when does this whole gratitude thing become excessive. All these reminders of what God did for us. Is God like the guy who helped you out once and then never lets you forget it.

What if I did that to Logan. Remember that time we took a taxi home? Yeah, clean up your room. Get me a soda. Do your chores... and mine too.

How many thank-yous does God want!

Or, to put it a little less angrily, why do we need constant reminders that God saved us.

You need constant reminder of salvation because:

1. It was that big of a deal.

You should be eternally grateful. See the thank-you is kind of proportional to the favor or the gift. He saved your life. That's worth your life. So it is worth it, though we can fall into a what-have-you-done-for-lately attitude. God saved their nation from slavery in Egypt. God saved us from slavery to sin and death. That is that big of a deal, a million-billion thank-yous doesn't cut it.

But we have more reasons

2. Savior is the character of God

The fact that God saved us is not just a historical event. It is the very character of God. God is Savior. God is Redeemer. God is love, the kind of love that sacrifices and saves.

This defines the ongoing character of the relationship. Forever Savior and Saved (just as forever Creator and created). We remind ourselves that God is Savior because it is absolutely foundational to who God is and how we relate to Him.

3. You are still being saved

But if all of that still doesn't seem enough... well that kind of means we don't just don't get it... but maybe this will help too.

We need to be reminded of God as Savior because.... we are still being saved.

To use a graphic image, God has tossed us the rope, and we grabbed a hold of that Jesus rope, and now we are safe, we are saved... but hold on to the rope.

This parallels the moment we find ourselves in Exodus 13.

"You are saved..." because Pharaoh has consented and the miracle of the Passover lamb has happened. But they are still in Egypt, they are still escaping, there are miracles yet to come and there is still the Promised Land to reach and inherit.

Similarly, Jesus has accomplished the victory, "It is finished..." but we are still in Egypt, we are still being sanctified and we await glorification.

Take a look at Romans 5:9-11, one of the great concise descriptions of our salvation:

9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

See the tenses in there. Here and in other key salvation Scriptures. We have been justified... we shall be saved... we were reconciled, we shall be saved... we have now received.

Now theologians parse these aspects of salvation, trying to get precise about exactly what stage and aspect of salvation we are at... and that is useful and profitable and great.

But you can see there are aspects that are past and aspects that are present and future.

So hold on to the rope!

Hold on to the Savior.

You are saved when you reach the end of yourselves and you hold on to Jesus. Hold on!

Remember the Savior. Not just because we are crazy grateful. We are. Not just because we know that God is forever our Savior, that is part of His character and our relationship. It is.

It is the guy who threw down the rope reminding your forgetful brain.. "Hold on to the rope.... hold on to the rope... hold on... don't stop holding on... remember to hold on... I'm saving you... you hold on." Hold on to me.

You were, are, will be saved.

You were, are, will be saved.

You were, are, will be saved.

Remember the Savior

We Remember the Savior

Remember the Savior by regular ritual. We do that in communion. We do that in worship and gathering together weekly on His Sabbath.

Remember the Savior by giving first-fruits. Worship God with your money, a reminder in the face of temporary earthly wealth and security where your real wealth and security lie.

Remember the Savior... hold on to the rope

You were, are, will be saved.