Remember this

DEVOTION

EXODUS

REMEMBER THIS

Ex 13:1-16

13:1 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 man or animal." 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. 4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving. 5 When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites — the land he swore to your forefathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey — you are to observe this ceremony in this month: 6 For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the LORD. 7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. 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 the 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. 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 forefathers, 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. 14 "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. 15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.' 16 And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand."

NIV

There is a repeated story, a continuous thread showing us our own redemption through the firstborn, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. There is also a constant reference to ridding ourselves of the yeast from within our borders, when we celebrate our redemption, which for us cannot be simply one week out of every year, but it should be every day of our lives. How can we live with the yeast of our old lives fifty-one weeks of the year and only spend one week without it? There is something to be said about commemorating the day we were brought of out slavery. Perhaps we take that day, that experience as an event of the past and just move forward in our journey with the Lord. It is possible some may not be able to point to a day of their salvation, yet there has to be a day in which the Lord marks as the day he brought them out of their slavery. Here he tells the people to commemorate it, to make it a week-long celebration, making that time different than the rest of the time. Should we set aside a week to celebrate, to commemorate our redemption? What week would that be? We sort of spend the Easter week that way, sort of. We start with Palm Sunday then have Holy Thursday, Good Friday and finally Easter Morning. It does seem that might count as our one week of remembering our salvation. But what about the consecration of the firstborn male to the Lord? We certainly do not do that. Some of us do not even have a firstborn male to consecrate. Some might make the leap to the first fruits belonging to the Lord. It is true the first fruits are supposed to belong to him. Yet another point is about telling our sons, or our children about how the LORD God brought us out of slavery with his mighty hand. Maybe we do not tell them all the details of our salvation, but it is clear we need to tell them how God brought us out, how he redeemed us, how he saved us. Sometimes we just tell them when we got saved, or that we accepted Jesus when we were a certain age. Sometimes we just tell them we became a Christian when we were five, ten, fifteen, twenty, or thirty years old or whenever. But maybe we should be telling them about the mighty hand of God and all he did to bring us out of our slavery, our misery under the oppressive rule of Satan. Yes, the whole nation was brought out at the same time of the year and was to commemorate that week as a nation. We were not all brought out the same week, although we use that Easter week as our united remembrance, perhaps it would still be good for each of us to spend time contemplating the moment in time the LORD God used his mighty hand for us personally. It might even be good to record that moment in words so that our children and their children’s children can read and know how their forefathers were redeemed. If nothing else it would remind us from whence we came and our journey through this wilderness, as believers, under the protection and watchful eye of our Lord.