As we consider God's Word together tonight, we're going to do so from Exodus 13. And we're going to look at the first 16 verses. Exodus 13, verses 1 through 16. Where God's Word reads as follows, 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. Then Moses said to the people, Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out, 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. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. No leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. You shall tell your son on that day, it is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand, the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year. When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. 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. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first opened the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem. It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt. So far the reading from God's word this evening. May he add his blessing to our hearts. Well, how many of us here tonight are firstborn? How many are the eldest sibling in the family? Seems like there's a bit of a preoccupation with firstborns when it comes to kind of pop psychology, right? They've done all sorts of studies about the tendencies of the firstborn, and depending on what side of the firstborn issue you're on. These studies will appeal to you in different ways. Some will talk about The tendencies of firstborns in relationships, right? They will say either, if it's not made by a firstborn, they will say the firstborns are kind of bossy, right? Or if it's not made by firstborns, they'll say something about how firstborns really know how to organize people and really know how to get people going, right? Talks about their personality preferences. Again, some will talk about firstborns as being presuming and assertive because they have this position of privilege. Others will talk about the firstborn as being those who know how to bring people together and get them moving in a direction of being motivators among the people that they know. Now, of course, those are man's observations about man. Those are man's observations about what it means to be a firstborn. And although this passage mentions the firstborn, it doesn't mention it from this understanding at all. It's not introducing firstborns to help us understand something about the relationships that we have with people. No, it's talking about the firstborn in order to help us to understand something about our relationship with God. It's talking about the firstborn to help us to relate to God as we should. It's showing Israel how the firstborn that is born among them relates them back to God who claimed them as his own firstborn. And so what we see in this passage tonight, much more so than an observation about man, we see that the consecration of the firstborn in Israel is a reminder that God's people belong to Him. And as we seek to learn that lesson, we want to see the setting apart of the firstborn in the first two verses. Then we want to see the setting apart of the Passover in verses 3 through 10. And then we want to finally see the setting apart of the children in verses 11 through 16. So we want to see the consecration of the firstborn is a reminder that God's people belong to Him. We want to see setting apart the firstborn, setting apart the Passover, and setting apart the children. So let's begin by looking at what it means to set apart the firstborn in our passage of Scripture. The first two verses of our text tonight deal with this idea of consecration. Israel is about to leave Egypt. They've been crying out to the Lord for at least 80 years that God would release them from the heavy burden that the Egyptians have laid on them. And they have begun their prayer for deliverance even before Moses was born. And now this Redeemer has come. This Redeemer is 80 years old. An 80-year-old man. They've been praying for Moses since before he was born. Now he's 80 years old and he comes to Egypt. And now the 10 plagues have happened and Israel is about to make their exodus. They're about to go out from Egypt. And right before God sends them out of Egypt, He spends some time giving some foundational instruction to the people of Israel. Instruction that they will need as they depend on the Lord to lead them through the wilderness. And as God gives this instruction, part of it is marked by repetition. So, for example, in Exodus 12, in verse 1, we were introduced to the Passover. There, Moses, inspired by the Holy Spirit, the mouthpiece of God, gives practical instructions about what the Passover is, what's to be done, how it's to be used in the family. And then, of course, After verse 28, you have a little bit of an interlude. You have the 10th plague, the death of the firstborn in all the land of Egypt, and you have something about the Exodus itself. But then in verse 43 of chapter 12, it picks up on the Passover again. And there it gives some instructions about who can participate in this Passover. The sojourners whose males are circumcised, all the people of Israel. It makes some distinctions about who cannot participate in the Passover. And then we come to today's text which is again another set of instructions about the Passover showing the ownership of God over Israel via the firstborn and the celebration of the Passover is something that helps them remember it. And so there's this ongoing instruction from the Lord, repetitious almost, where God is teaching them. God is setting the stage for the exodus, for leading them through the wilderness. And as God gives that instruction, it says in verse 2, that very first word is a very important word. They're about to leave Egypt and God says, consecrate. Consecrate all the firstborn, both man and beast. So we want to think about this word consecrate. What does this word consecrate mean? It's not a word that we use in our everyday language. Well, we can look to other places in Scripture to help us to understand what this word consecrate means. And we can look at two other places here in the book of Exodus, a little bit later on, but two different places in Exodus where we gain a very clear understanding of this word, consecrate. So in Exodus 20, which is of course in the giving of the Ten Commandments, in Exodus 20 in verse 8, God speaks of the Sabbath day. And he says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Holy. It's the same word, the same Hebrew word as consecrate. So, consecrate the Sabbath day. Consecrate the firstborn. A little bit later on in Exodus 28 and verse 3, there Moses is giving instructions as God's mouthpiece again about the sanctity of Aaron's garments. And he says, Aaron's garments will consecrate him for the priesthood. So there's a consecration of the firstborn. There's a consecration of the Sabbath day. There's a consecration of Aaron through the garments that he wears. And through those three examples you can see consecration as something of a setting apart. Setting apart for a holy use. Setting apart somebody or something for a holy use. A special use by the Lord. Now in a sense, all of creation is set apart to the Lord. All of it belongs to Him. But within that creation, God consecrates certain things, certain smaller subsets set apart for specific purposes according to His good pleasure. And so you can see that, for example, in time. Time, all time belongs to God. Right? We should never have the idea that there's one day that belongs to God and all the other days belong to us. No, all of the days belong to God, but He has consecrated this one special day for the worship of Him. And so that's consecration. It's setting apart by God of something for a holy use. When you look among men, not time anymore, but when you think about the men, think about the Hebrew men at the time of the Exodus. We know from scripture that there were 600,000 men in Israel at the time of the Exodus. They were all God's people. They all lived under the blessing of the promise to Abraham. And so, in a sense, they were all consecrated. But of those 600,000, there was one who was consecrated to be the high priest, Aaron. One man out of the 600,000 set apart by God for a holy use. In the same way, the firstborn males are consecrated in that way. They don't have the same use as Aaron had. God doesn't consecrate them for the same purpose, but they were consecrated. God takes this segment of the population and says, well, these are mine. I'm separating them from everyone else. They have a special significance. They fulfill a special purpose among the people of God. And so the firstborn are to be seen that way, to be seen as those set apart for a special use by the Lord. Now, why does God set apart the firstborn? In our society, as we've talked already in the introduction, the significance of the firstborn is largely lost. For us, when we talk about the firstborn, we're mostly thinking about personality impact. But in the time of the people of Israel, when you're talking about the firstborn, you're talking about a privileged position. You're talking about one who would receive the bulk of the material inheritance from his family. You're talking about the one who would be in his family viewed as more significant than all the other siblings. In the Old Testament especially, in the Bible times, a firstborn son was treated with great respect. And so, if you think about Genesis 27, Esau, rightly or wrongly, thinks he deserves the blessing simply because he is the firstborn. He is expecting the blessing of Isaac simply because he was born first. And that's only by a matter of minutes, because he was a twin. But he was the firstborn, and so he expected this position of privilege. Joseph himself, when he is reunited to his family in Genesis 49, and he brings his sons Manasseh and Ephraim to be blessed by Jacob, who's dying. You remember that story where he brings his sons into the presence of Jacob to be blessed by him, and he's very careful. He takes his firstborn in his own left hand. He takes his firstborn in his left hand, he takes his youngest in his right hand to present them to his father, so that they would be in the right order. So that when Jacob goes to bless the boys, he would put his right hand on the firstborn, and his left hand on the secondborn. But you remember that account, how Jacob there, he crosses his hands, and he puts his right hand, the hand of power, on the youngest. And what's Joseph's response to that? Joseph's not pleased with it because he assumes the firstborn is the one who has privilege. The firstborn is the one who's most important. Moreover, as you work your way through the Old Testament, when you think about genealogies in Scripture, they're often traced through the firstborn. Not always are all the children listed, but the firstborn is often listed. And it is that special privileged position that God assigns to Israel. We saw that right when He confronted Pharaoh for the first time. Exodus 4 and verse 22. There God says to Moses, You shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son. So God, the Lord, warns Pharaoh to let his heir go, to let the most important of his children go. And he warns him that in fact if he will not let his firstborn son go, that there will be an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth in the land of Egypt. That's what ends up happening. That's what the 10th plague is. It's the fulfillment of Exodus 4, where God's firstborn son is oppressed by Pharaoh. And so God, in His power, after much suffering with the insolence of Pharaoh, He strikes down all of their firstborn in all of the land of Egypt. And so Israel belongs to God as his firstborn son. And so here to help us remember that, or help Israel remember that, God reminds them, set apart for me all the firstborn. Set apart for me the firstborn now, and remember it when you go into the land of Canaan. Certainly, our passage also talks about how it is because God slew the firstborn in Egypt that they are to set apart the firstborn. But also this concept of the significance of the firstborn runs all throughout the Exodus account. There is an abiding reminder for the people of Israel. All the firstborn sons are mine, says the Lord. That's man and animal. All of them belong to the Lord and that is formalized by this call to consecration. setting apart for specific use by the Lord God Almighty. So we see that the firstborn are set apart. But then we also see the setting apart of the Passover. Now it follows right after this discussion about the firstborn. There's an instruction about the Passover, a two-verse interlude about the firstborn, and then God returns to the Passover. Now it may seem very curious to us, this call to consecrate the firstborn and then this back and forth about the Passover. It talks about issues of timing in our text. It talks about which month the Passover is to be celebrated in, in verse 4, the month of Abib. It tells us how long this Passover is supposed to last. It's supposed to last 7 days in verse 6. It talks about issues of diet, that only unleavened bread is to be eaten in the houses of the people of Israel during this feast, which really is a rehearsal of what already was taught to us in Exodus 12 and verse 18. Now all of these things are just a contribution to the Feast of Remembering, which is the purpose of the Passover, of course. There is a Passover given by God to the people of Israel for worship primarily, but there's also a partial reason given in the Passover for the participant to remember in the first place, and in the second place, to be able to teach the next generation about the faithfulness of God. For the participant, it says in verse 9, That the Passover is given as a sign on your hand. So that's to the one who's participating directly. The Passover is given as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes. So it's something that you can touch, something that you can think about that shows you the work of the Lord. So for the participant, there is a sense of remembering. And the Passover is given for that specific reason, to help remember the things that the Lord has done. Now we're grateful. We should be grateful when God gives us opportunity to remember his righteous deeds. It's necessary for us to have those kinds of opportunities to remember because people are forgetful. Even lessons that we've learned before and we swear to ourselves, I'm never going to forget this lesson because it was so painful as time goes by. We're prone to forget and we can forget the lessons that the Lord has already taught us. That's true in the spiritual realm. That's true in nations as well. And that's why in nations, nations build monuments. Nations build things to help the citizens remember. So for example, at Arlington National Cemetery, there's the tomb of the unknown soldier. It's a big tomb on display. was a soldier who was moved there on November 11th, Armistice Day, 1921. It was a soldier who was unearthed from a battlefield grave, an unknown, unmarked grave. And that soldier was brought with much pomp and circumstance to be laid in this grave here at the Arlington National Cemetery. To the west of the crypt for the First World War soldiers are crypts for the Second World War and the Korean War soldiers that are not known either. And it is a place where our nation commemorates the great sacrifice of soldiers who died protecting the freedom that we enjoy. And that memory is protected. That memory is guarded. that memory is guarded by soldiers whose changing of the guard is filled with dignity and ceremony. When you observe it, there is almost a hushed respect for the ceremony that is being witnessed. But isn't it amazing that even people who are in front of that monument are still prone to forget what it is there for. And so you will hear people standing around this tomb of the unknown soldier and chatting with each other and giggling with each other and what does the guard do? The guard shouts, calls them to remember, to respect the significance of this monument that has been established in our land. The purpose for their call is that we would not forget. That we would remember what this man died fighting for. The Passover is that kind of memorial. Something to help us remember an event that we never experienced. Something to help us to remember the power of God that we didn't see on display in the manifestation of the 10 plagues. And so the Passover is that kind of memorial to help us to remember. It's given, it says in verse 9, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. That's another example where The law of the Lord helps us to see him, helps us to see the Lord. It helps us to see our need for him. Like in the Lord's Supper, when we participate, we proclaim the Lord's death as part of the memorial aspect of the Lord's Supper. And the Lord commands us to do that, doesn't he? Isn't it the law of God in our hearts that makes us express ourselves in this memorial aspect of the Lord's Supper? But the memorials are not just for the one who is eating. The memorials are also an opportunity to teach those who never saw but only heard of God's work for Israel. And so like the memorials of today, like the tomb of the unknown soldier, people bring their children there. Rightly so, and they show them the significance of this tomb, that the next generation would remember their sacrifice, that the next generation would know what it is that was done for them. Well, the Passover is that kind of tool, to help fathers to teach the next generation. It says in verse 8, that you shall tell your son on that day. It's easy to forget the works of the Lord. Even the big works of the Lord. It's easy to forget the works of the Lord. And here God provides a tool to help Israel to remember. When they are in Canaan, when the land is good, and the next generation has not experienced the power of God to deliver them from 80 years of crying out to Him, they will forget. When things become easy, they will forget. But there is the unleavened bread. And the unleavened bread prompts the discussion, why are we doing this? Why are we doing something out of the ordinary? That's the purpose of the Passover. That's why it's celebrated once a year. So once a year you do something that you don't usually do. And that participation in this extraordinary event prompts these questions. There is a law from God that says, in the month of Abib, you're going to celebrate this feast for seven days. Why do we celebrate it for seven days in this month? Why do we only use unleavened bread? Well, we do that to remember that God brought us out of Egypt by his own strong hand. So we see the setting apart of the firstborn, we see the setting apart of the Passover. Lastly, we'll want to see the setting apart of the children. Now when it comes to the Passover, we have to guard ourselves against kind of an emotionalism when it comes to the feasts of the Lord. That we participate in these feasts so that we can have a feeling or so that we can have some kind of connection to the past or something like that. It's not primarily an emotional response, although you can never separate the emotional aspect of a life of faith. but it's not strictly an emotional experience. It's different than the memorials that men set up, right? The Passover feasts and the feasts that are an equivalent in our day, they're not set up primarily to help us to see something about men. It's a reminder instead about the right order of things, and that right order of things begins with a right understanding of the power and might and possession of God. It is set up primarily to help Israel remember that though they receive special blessings from the Lord, that they are still owned by Him. And so, in verse 12, it says, you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. This celebration of the Feast, it's to be celebrated without exception. that people might remember that they belong to the Lord. That means that every family's firstborn is consecrated to the Lord. Every animal's firstborn is consecrated to the Lord. None of them have an exception All sons are to be redeemed. They're offered as a substitutes to be offered for them. All animals are either to be paid for or to be killed themselves. And so in Numbers 3, there's more explanation about what it means to redeem the firstborn. In verse 46 and 47, we see that the Levites themselves are used to consecrate They are consecrated in the service of the Lord rather to stand in the place of the firstborn of Israel at that time. And from that time onward there were still 273 firstborn in Israel whom the Levites didn't cover and they were redeemed with five shekels of money that was paid into the treasury of the tabernacle. And so we return again to the warning that God gave to Pharaoh in Exodus 4, verse 22. Israel belongs to the Lord. They are my firstborn son. And if you will not recognize my ownership over them, you will pay for it with your own firstborn. There will be judgment and punishment. It's a reminder to Israel that the Lord redeemed you out of that land with mighty power, that you belong to Him and you're to acknowledge it. You're to remember it every year. The children that you have, the children that live among you, they do not belong to you. They belong to me. That's what the Lord is saying with the consecration of the firstborn. And so that has implications. When the people of Israel are raising these children in the land of Egypt, training them up is not an exercise of personal preference or personal convenience. The people of Israel are to raise up their children according to this fear and instruction of the Lord. When the Passover comes, they're to use it as a mechanism to teach their children about the things of the Lord. They are the Lord's. Their children are the Lord's. The law is the Lord's way. And so you, as a possession of the Lord, teach the children that belong to the Lord the way of the Lord. The law is to be in the mouth of the parents because the parents are to be God's stewards with these children. Now, instead, as we see later about the land of Israel, Israel doesn't do that, of course. Israel leads their children into idolatry instead, offering their children in fire, even for sacrifice in the most grotesque and horrible manifestations of blasphemy against the Lord. They forsake the ways of the Lord. They turn to idols because they're prone to forget and they don't use the things that God has given to them to help them remember. So that causes us to ask several questions as we reflect on this text. And the first question that I want to ask of us all, generally speaking, are you diligent to have the law of God in your mouth? Now that's an application for parents, but it's also an application for anybody. Is the law of God in your mouth? God gives us opportunities that allow us to speak of him because we are doing something unusual. You ever speak to the people around you about the things that you do, that you take for granted? I guarantee you in the United States of America, as a Christian, if you talk to people about the things that you do, they will think you're nuts. They will think you're crazy. They will think that you're doing something unusual. Right? This whole notion that you would give up your own fun, so to speak, to come and worship him every day. Do people know that you do that and do people understand why you're doing that? What about something as simple as an in-person worship service in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis? Is the law of God in your mouth when it comes to that? Are you able to explain to people why it is that this is so important to you? Are you able to set that before them with grace that communicates the might and power and redemption of God? Do you have God's law in your mouth? Let's stay with the COVID-19 track for a second. Are you here because you have First Amendment rights? Or are you here because of the First Commandment? You see, there's a difference. Are you here because you want to exercise First Amendment rights? Or are you here because of the First Commandment that God gives to you? Are you fighting against tyranny? Or is there a desire to come together with God's people in accord with Hebrews 10 verse 24 and 25? You see, your reasoning will explain what you're remembering. Your reasoning in this moment will explain what you are remembering. You see, we are not here, brothers and sisters, to worship the Constitution of the United States of America. That is not why we're here. We are here to give glory to the God who purchased us with the blood of His Son. And that is the only reason I trust that we are here today. The only reason that we are here today. We are not here for any other reason than to glorify God and to enjoy Him. We are here to look at His commandments and have them inform what we are doing. Because obeying the commandments of God is an expression of the love that we have for God. The commandments of God are, in addition, a great opportunity to explain the reason behind what you are doing. Have the law of God in your mouth at all times. Why? so that you could speak of the love that you have for your savior, so that you could tell others of the redemption that was purchased for you in Christ Jesus, to know that there is something worth following, someone worth following, the almighty God of heaven and earth, and his ways don't look like the ways of the world. Have the law of God in your mouth. And the second thing that we learn from this passage of scripture Well, it's another question. Are you diligent to set the law of God before your children and others? So, when it came to the Passover, we saw two-fold use, right? To help the person who's participating remember. Second place, to help the people who follow after them remember. So, are you diligent to set the law of God before your children and before others? Now, when we come to this specific commandment, there is, of course, an obvious application for parents, because that's what's specifically addressed here in our passage. But there's also an instruction for all of us to have the privilege of having our voice be heard by the little ones that are around us. When the church calls to worship and the word is preached, Are you talking about that with people? Are you setting that before the people that you come into contact with? Are you talking about it with your children? When your child asks what is meant by eating bread and drinking wine or juice out of those little cups, are you teaching them about the death of Christ, our Passover lamb? Do they know that his body was broken and his blood was shed so that the angel of destruction would pass over all who believe in him? When the water is poured or sprinkled on the head of the child or on the head of the convert, are you talking about the forgiveness of sins that cleanses us? Are you talking about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon a person as the only way to be born again to a living hope? When they ask, when your children ask why everyone else goes shopping or why everybody else is playing sports, do they understand, do they know why it is that you and your family are going to worship the Lord instead? Those are the opportunities that we have. Those are the memorials that God has given to us in the New Testament Church. He has given to us the Sabbath, and He has given to us baptism, and He's given to us the Lord's Supper, and there are many other things that you can bring to light from your own experience, where you can point to the ways in which God has cared for you, how God has cared for your family. We have those opportunities to encourage each other. You don't have to encourage only your children with these things. To encourage the saints with the things that God has done. Now think with me about how eager we were to return to worship this morning. Think about that. Will you remember that in six months? Will you remember that in six months when you've had a difficult week and you're tired and you don't necessarily feel like going anymore? Will you remember what you craved today? Will you be giving your attention to the things that help you, or will it be business as usual again? We forget the great blessings of the Lord, but every Lord's Day again, we have an opportunity to set the law of God, the promise of God before us, that it would be in our mouths when we live in a world that doesn't know Him, when we live in the presence of our children. Today, we remember the resurrection. Today, we remember that the gospel promises are guaranteed for those who believe in Christ. Today, we remember that we will be raised with Christ if we trust in Him. And what are you going to say to that? But hallelujah. Praise God. To turn yourself to Him and to worship Him. And to lead your family in remembering that every week again. In our passage, in our text here tonight, the firstborn is set apart. We have the exodus. We have the 10th plague. Pharaoh desecrated what belonged to God, where he made himself an owner when he was only a servant, and he was judged for it with the most severe judgment that we could even possibly imagine. And even for those who live through the power of God on display in that deliverance, there is a proneness to forget. But God, in His grace, gives an annual reminder to His people, remember me, remember me. Remember me. That's the call to the Christian as well. To remember that we belong to the Lord. To remember that he has brought his people out of the land of slavery. To remember the law and promise of God that it would be in our mouths that we would speak gratefully of him to the next generation and to those who live around us. Let's pray together.