Exodus 13:1-22 – “Alive Sacrificially”
Outline:
I.) Intro.
II.) Vs. 1-10 Separate from sin
III.) Vs. 11-16 Separate to the Lord
IV.) Vs. 17-22 Led by the Lord
Intro.
Last week we saw the Lord instituting a memorial day in which what He had done for Israel would be celebrated. Clearly, God wanted a party in which those that participated would know the reason for the celebration. In this chapter, God goes on to explain how He now wanted them to live. In the first section (vs. 1-10), He tells them that they are to live separate from sin. Then in verses (11-16), He tells them that He wants them to live surrendered to Him. Lastly, in verses (17-22), He tells them how to accomplish these two ways of living: being dependent upon Him.
Throughout Israel’s deliverance, God’s miraculous hand was clearly seen, but God did not want Israel just to see His hand only upon their deliverance. He wanted them to know that it was His hand that would continue to sustain them no matter where He took them. We put an awful lot of importance on how we start things and not on how we finish them. The purpose of these memorials or mementos was to cause Israel to continue to depend upon the Lord.
The 1968 Olympics, held in Mexico City, will forever be remembered not upon the victories of the contestants but rather upon the last-place finish of a marathon runner from Tanzania, Stephen Akhwari. Soon into the race, he injured his right leg after a horrible fall. The race had concluded for over an hour when a bandaged Akhwari entered the stadium, wincing with every step. Several thousand spectators began to clap as he limped around the track, finally crossing the finish line as the crowd leaped to their feet in wild approval. Later, at a press conference, he was asked the obvious question: “Why bother to finish when you had no hope of winning?” Akhwari looked at the reporter as if he had just asked the dumbest question anyone could ever ask and replied, “Sir, my country did not send me 5,000 miles to start a race, they sent me 5,000 miles to finish it.” Stephen Akhwari had run sacrificially and knew that what mattered was not who came in first, but rather who finished!
II.) Vs. 1-10 Separate from sin
Vs. 1-2: God had already spoken of the Passover feast and how they were to celebrate it without leaven. As I said last week, leaven or yeast is a symbol of sin and hypocrisy. Now, in these two verses, God is showing them how that related to them personally. He is showing that He alone owns them or, if you will, they belong to Him.
The firstborn in scripture carries with it several important ideas:
a.) Exodus 4:22 tells us that Israel was God’s firstborn and this honored that truth.
b.) The firstborn was thought of as being the best.
He was the one in whom all inheritance and privilege were passed on from parents to children. So, what God was showing them was that our best always belongs to Him.
c.) Finally, God wanted to remind them that He had spared the firstborn of Israel through the shed blood of the lamb.
So, He is saying that the nation belongs to Him. Does He need them? No! He is giving them a living object lesson. Every time the firstborn member of their own family or animal was born, they would be forever reminded of whose they are — they belong to the Lord.
The idea here is that of being devoted to the Lord, and the price paid for that devotion. Clean animals were to be sacrificed; unclean animals and humans were to be redeemed or bought back with a price, which recognized that there was a price paid for their freedom (about 2½ ounces of silver according to Num. 18:16). Now in the N.T., the word “firstborn” appears only nine times, and seven of those times it is in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ being the “firstborn.” Once it is used, as it is here in Exodus, to refer to Israel being God’s firstborn. Lastly, in Heb. 12:23, we believers are described as “..the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven.”
Now, hold on with me a moment because every one of us is called the “firstborn” of God. Therefore, we too have experienced God’s mighty hand of deliverance from sin by the outstretched hands of His Son, the Lamb of God, slain for us. So, we are His exclusive possession. Now in verse 5, we are told that this was to take effect when they entered into the promised land, but we have already done so, which according to Eph. 1:13-14, the Holy Spirit is the seal of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance. So, what am I saying? Well, we ought to be living as Paul described in Gal. 2:20:
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
But just what does that look like?
Well, for one it ought to look as though we give Him the best of everything. Now, I don’t want you to misunderstand me — what you have is yours to do what you want with as far as I’m concerned, but may I ask you:
- Whose children are they?
- Whose possessions are they?
- Hey now, don’t get mad, but whose money is that anyway?
If you are God’s firstborn, then the answer is His. So the question is: are you living that way? Don’t give these things to Calvary Chapel — they’re not mine either — but give them to the Lord. Don’t give Him your leftovers; give Him your best. If you aren’t doing so, then you are not remembering to whom you belong. Paul writes in 1 Cor. 6:19-20:
“..do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Vs. 3-10 So, How do we give the Lord what is His?
A.) Vs. 3 “No leavened bread shall be eaten”:
Paul said it this way in 2 Cor. 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Simply put, the old self-lifestyle of sin is gone; it’s passed away. In Jewish thought, you really became what you ate. That is why rules were made about what you could eat & with whom you could eat. So the Lord is saying don’t be partaking of the old eating habits of the flesh. You’ve been purchased with a price, so turn away from those things of sin.
B.) Vs. 4-5 “It’s a new beginning & a new place to live in”:
In other words, it’s a new time and a new place in your life, so don’t live in the old place and the old way any longer.
C.) Vs. 6-7 “Your new way of living is 24/7 & is a joyful celebration”:
Before, sin meant death & separation from God. Now, they are alive & separated to God. Not only have they changed location, but also God wanted them to know that it was a permanent change of address. Folks, I just love the fact that God tied all of this to having a feast, as verse 6 says. Do you not see that the Lord wanted to tie together that the life of purity is a party? Man, has the enemy sown a lie here. He has continued to show that the party is in depravity and not in purity. But what kind of party is it if it has to be centered on escaping? “Hey, man, just gotta tune out, drop out, dope up!” Then the next day they don’t know where they’ve been and who they’ve been with. Not so with the Lord — you want to be totally conscious of where you are & whom you are with, and you are there not to forget but rather to remember. Folks, do you realize that what God has for you now is a constant celebration with Him?
D.) Vs. 8-10 “Bring others with you with a testimony & His word”:
It is here that we are told that they were to share this celebration with their sons. Being that this is Father’s Day, we can see the responsibility to share the truth of Who the Lord is with our children. So start with your testimony of how the Lord delivered you from your old lifestyle. Then we ought to be sharing with them the Word of the Lord (vs. 9). It is based upon this verse that they started wearing phylacteries, which were small leather boxes, which held these verses on their foreheads & wrists. What the Lord wanted them to do was put it on the heart so that it would be in their mouth. Today, you can go to Israel & see them wearing these leather pouches. Clearly, what God wanted was for them to “keep this ordinance.” In other words, God wanted them to obey the word & so display it in their lives that others would see it, not wear it as an ornament.
III.) Vs. 11-16 Separate to the Lord
Vs. 11-13: Now we come to the second part of our separation. The first part is what we are separated FROM, sin. Now we come to what we are separated TO: Himself. But what does that mean?
a.) Vs. 11 “..when the Lord brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, & gives it to you.”:
God wanted them to know that He is the One who is faithful to keep His promises. It does not say “if” the Lord brings you into the land, but “when” He brings you into the land. More than that, it is clear that God wanted them to realize that their inheritance was a gift and not something that they had earned. The promise was not even made to them, but to many generations before them. Yet, they were the ones reaping the benefits of His promise to Abraham.
b.) Vs. 12 “..Shall be the Lord’s.”:
God wanted them to realize that He was their Father. He was their protector, deliverer, and provider. What a great Dad they had. Yes, we are to give Him our best, but we have received from Him His best. It goes both ways! I have no problem with the Lord being my boss because He loves me & everything He does is for my benefit.
c.) Vs. 13 “..every donkey you shall redeem..& every man among your sons.”:
Hey, every beast of burden, or whatever troubles you, give to the Lord. Is that not great? God wants you not to carry around those things that weigh you down. Every morning I look in the mirror, I’m thankful that He redeems the jackass! You see, the donkey was not a clean animal, so the blood of the lamb could only purchase it. Now, if they were not going to redeem it, then its neck was to be broken. And so today, if those donkeys out there don’t want to be redeemed, then they will one day have their necks broken.
Vs. 14-16:
Again, clearly God wanted to remind the future generations of Who He was & how that would impact their lives now. I dare say that so often our failures are because we don’t understand who God is in our lives. That it is by “His strength that we live” (vs. 14-15a). God had ordained this to always be the reason why they serve (sign on their hand) & a motivation for why they now live (a sign between your eyes). Now, we shall see how God starts them off with dependence upon Him for the work as well as the motivation behind it in the last section.
IV.) Vs. 17-22 Led by the Lord
So they were separate from sin & separated to the Lord, but how was this to be done daily? By simply following Him.
Vs. 17-18:
The first thing to notice is that God did not lead them in the way that was the easiest. The way of the Philistines was along the coast and would have been the quickest route to the promised land. So? Well, God does not care about what is the quickest route in your life — He cares about what is the best route in your life. Did you get that? You may think that there are quicker routes in your life to get to where you want, but it may not be the best. And now look at why!
Vs. 17b:
God knew that they were not ready for the battle they were to face if they went by way of the sea. There was the Egyptian army posted along that route as well as the Canaanite army as they came into the promised land. So God saw that they would just go back into slavery. So, the quick route would not have been so quick after all. Perhaps you’re trying to get to some place in your life now & there are all these roadblocks, & you just can’t figure out why God does not just remove the roadblocks. Well, there are some battles that you would have to face that He knows that you would change your mind & go back to the world.
Vs. 18:
So how does He lead them? By way of the Reed Sea, but now get this: in orderly ranks. So? Well, He was already training them. So although they were not yet ready for the battle, He was preparing them for the day they would be. Folks, God never puts you on a shelf — you are always in training for the life ahead of you.
Vs. 19-20:
Now look at some ways that He led them:
1.) Vs. 19 “He guided them by faith”:
They took with them the bones of Joseph. Well, now, Joseph was a man of faith who made them promise over two hundred years prior to take his bones with them when they left. In Gen. 50:24-26, he made his brothers promise that when God took them out of the land to the land of promise, that he wanted to be buried in the land that God had promised. So, for 200 years, Joseph’s bones lay in a coffin above ground. And you know what they were doing? Why, they were speaking to the nation the way of faith! So what does that tell us today? Well, it tells us that God will guide us by faith, not by sight! We may want to go some way & yet God is saying that we are to follow Him by faith, not by sight.
2.) Vs. 20 “He guided them one step at a time”:
It is guidance one step at a time. Now we want to know how all of it is going to turn out, and God says no: “I’m only going to show you this much today!” Did you ever notice that we are always camped at the edge of the wilderness? I mean, it seems to me that we are always in that place of uncertainty, not knowing what life has for us the next day. Say what you will about the Christian life, but one thing is for certain: it is not boring.
3.) Vs. 21 “He Guided them by His visible presence”:
First, His presence was there 24 hours a day, and it was in a way that demonstrated His assurance of safety. It is interesting that in 14:20 we are told that this same pillar that was light to Israel was darkness to Egypt. Now that speaks to me of the Word of God, which is light to us, but the non-believer cannot comprehend it. Today, we are given His word to guide us. You know what the acronym for the word Bible is? Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth!
So there you have it: how God guides us today — by faith, one step at a time, through His word. One last little thing to notice in verse 22: He did not stop guiding them through the presence of His word until they came to their home. And you know what? He won’t stop guiding you either, so why not trust His word?