EXODUS 13 - FREEDOM FROM SLAVERY
Exodus 13
The people of God are meant to be a celebratory people. We are told throughout the New Testament to rejoice. And the first thing God instituted when he freed the children of Israel from slavery was a celebration. Before there was the law, there was a feast.
Exodus 13:5-6 And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD.
The simple premise of these scriptures is that if we fully appreciated the goodness of our God we would rejoice far more. And chapter 13 begins with the ultimate reminder (or to the Israelites, ultimate foretelling) of the greatest reason to celebrate God’s goodness.
In chapter 1 we read: The LORD said to Moses, “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”
Why did God command the Israelites to consecrate the firstborn of all creatures? Because God was preparing for the coming messiah; His Son, the first born of all His new creation. And God tells us what the symbol of the first born was to represent.
Exodus 13:14 And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.
This was true for Israel and it is true for all mankind. Just as God freed the Israelites from their bondage to Egypt by a strong hand; God has freed mankind from the slavery to sin, also by a strong hand. But unlike the freedom for the Israelites, which came at the cost of Egypts’s firstborn, freedom from sin comes through the sacrifice of God’s firstborn son, Jesus.
Through His death the bible tells us (Exodus 13:13-15) …you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
And this is what the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread are all about.
On the fourteenth day of the first month of the Israeli calendar they are to celebrate the Passover. And for 7 days after they are to eat nothing with leaven, in fact they are to have none in their house. Notice it is called the Passover and not the slaughter. It is not the death of the Egyptians firstborn that is being celebrated. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
Rather we are to celebrate the salvation God has provided—when He passed over each house covered with blood, just as he will forgive those who are marked by the blood of Jesus.
Note also that this salvation was open to anyone who acted in faith and accepted the grace of God available by the blood over the doorway. God did not go in the houses to make sure they were Israelites. He simply passed over every home that acted by faith in obedience and accepted the blood sacrifice of the lamb. This is the simple story of God’s grace. Jesus has paid for our sins, and God is prepared to forgive all our wrongdoings, if we simply act in faith and accept that sacrifice.
This all points to Jesus. After the Passover the Israelites were called to celebrate for 7 days without any leaven in their homes. Leaven throughout the bible is a symbol of sin. And the feast of unleavened bread is a 7 day reminder that God has freed us from all the leaven in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
Chapter 13 ends with a powerful reminder that salvation is just the beginning of the journey to the promise land. Like the Egyptians we may be free, but we are not home. And God gives us two beautiful lessons as he ends this chapter.
First he tells us that God did not lead the children of Israel by the shortest path out of Egypt, towards the promise land. That path required them to go through a dangerous people. And God knew their faith was not ready for such a test.
So often we think God is being slow, when in reality we are simply not ready for what God intends in our life. Whenever we think we are waiting for God, truth is He is waiting for us. And the answer to strengthening our faith to be prepared for all that God has for us, is to spend time with Him. And that is what God will do with the children of Israel in the desert. He will spend 40 years with them be preparing them by getting to know Him better.
But secondly, and this is the greatest promise of all, God was with them every step of the journey.
Exodus 13:21-22 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
How good is our God, who never leaves us or forsakes us, but goes before us in a cloud by day (a covering from the withering sun) and a fire by night (a light to guide and keep us warm).