Title: Give Me All Firstborn/Exodus 13
1. "Give me all the first-born" (1-2,11-16)
After the Exodus, God's first command to the people of Israel was to set apart all firstborns and give them to God. All the first-born in Egypt died, but the first-born of the Israelites were resurrected from death by God's grace, so it was a command to remember God's grace and set apart all the first-born to God.
Not just the first-born Anyone who has been saved by God's grace should know that it belongs to the Lord. And give it to the Lord. “You are not yours, but you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20). “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Romans 12:1). It is right to give to God the best, the first thing you get.
2. "Eat unleavened bread in remembrance of that day, and keep feasts to the LORD" (3-10)
Another word that God repeatedly commanded the people of Israel after the Exodus was to keep the Feast of Unleaved Bread and the Passover in commemoration of the salvation event of the Exodus. We should always remember and commemorate the events of God's salvation and guidance, and keep the feasts. In the New Testament era, we must celebrate the Lord's Supper while remembering the salvation event of the cross, remember the victory of the resurrection, and keep Sunday holy.
And to tell the story of the salvation event of the Exodus to the generations to come. “In the future, when your son inquires of you” (14), “For the Lord brought us out of Egypt by the power of his hand” (16).
3. “God led the people by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea” (17-22)
God not only saves us, but He guides us step by step. The word India appears 9 times in Exodus 13.
He leads them, “turning back to the way of the wilderness,” and leads them. It was Canaan, which could be reached in two weeks if it went straight east, but in order to avoid war with the Philistines, because of God's hidden providence, or to train and train Israel, he led them to the southeast of Etham Wilderness. That is, he departed from Rameses (Exodus 12:37) to Succoth, and from Succoth to Etham (20).
leading them, God walked before them, and led them with a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. Going before them showed that God was close with them, and leading them with the pillar of cloud and fire showed the direction in which they were to walk and protecting them day and night. The pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire did not leave them. The Lord promised, “I will always be with you, even to the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). God never leaves us and is always with us until the end of the world.