Part 4: Exodus chapter 13

A GENTLE ENGLISH BIBLE STUDY!

EXODUS

-A CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY WITH APPLICATIONS-

-by Bill Hawkins

Part 4

Exodus chapter 13

Outlines (plans) help us to understand the Bible better and to KEEP what we learn in our minds. Exodus chapter 13 is easy to outline.

I. TEACHING, Exodus 13:1-16 II. TURNING, Exodus 13:17-18 III. TESTIMONY, Exodus 13:19 IV. TENDERNESS, Exodus 13:20-22

I. TEACHING, Exodus 13:1-16

Exodus 13:1-16 makes some ideas clear to us for the very first time.

1. The Consecration of the Firstborn, Exodus 13:1-12 2. The Redemption of the Firstborn, Exodus 13:13-16

1. The Consecration of the Firstborn

-The Lord said to Moses, <Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to Me, whether man or

animal.>- Exodus 13:1

-<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, 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.>- Exodus 13:12

What does CONSECRATION mean? To consecrate something means to give it up and set it apart to be used for some purpose or reason. After God had sent the Death Angel to take all the firstborn (the oldest) of all animals and people in Egypt (but not from the

Israelites) He then made a rule for the people of Israel.

<I saved all your oldest sons. They did not have to die when I killed all the oldest sons of Egypt. NOW I want you to CONSECRATE your oldest sons to me NOW and FOREVERMORE. They are MINE! Set them apart for me. They are NOT for your use. They are for MY use.

Give them to Me! Set them apart for ME!> To

consecrate, or to give, something to God was understood to mean that it must be sacrificed, killed, as God had done with the firstborn sons of Egypt. That is how we GIVE SOMETHING TO GOD. Even today, when we give ourselves to God, we must DIE to ourselves, to OUR own lives.

2. The Redemption of the Firstborn, Exodus 13:13- 16

-Redeem with a lamb every firstborn...if you do not

redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn

among your sons...- Exodus 13:13

-<This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my

firstborn sons.>

Exodus 13:15

In Exodus 13:13 we see for the first time the word

REDEEM. The word means TO BUY SOMETHING BACK.

Each year the people were to celebrate the Passover.

They were to celebrate by killing the firstborn male of every animal and family. But our God has NEVER wanted human sacrifices. NEVER! Here, very early, God gave the plan of REDEMPTION. Do you understand how you redeem something? To redeem something, there must be a SUBSTITUTE to take its place. You redeem something by giving something else to take its place. You redeem a LIFE by killing something else to take its place. Other religions of the world say that the idea of

SUBSTITUTION is not in the Bible. They say this is an idea that PEOPLE made up. Yet here very clearly we see that the oldest sons of each family were REDEEMED because the family killed an animal in place of (a

SUBSTITUTE for) their son. This is what the Old

Testament priests did. They killed thousands of animals as substitutes for the people. In that way, they

REDEEMED the lives of the people who believed God and gave animals to be sacrificed to redeem themselves.

Finally, Jesus Christ died as our Substitute. He

REDEEMED us with His own blood so that we can live

forever with God. And so that we can live FOR GOD now.

This is how we first learn about Consecration (being set apart for God) and Redemption (your life being

bought by the death of another). These wonderful truths are taught over and over again throughout the remainder of the Bible.

II. TURNING, Exodus 13:17-18

-When Pharoah let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, <If they

face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.>

The thing that is important in this part of chapter 13 is that GOD KNOWS HIS PEOPLE! Of course He knows WHO they are. Jesus said, in John 10:14, -I know My sheep...I call them by name.- Yes, He knows WHO His people are. But, more than that, He knows WHAT WE ARE MADE FROM. Genesis 2:7, -...the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground.- Psalm 103:14, - ...He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.- He KNOWS we are just DIRT (dust). And He CARES about that! I Corinthians 10:11-13, -These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you do not fall! No temptation has seized you

except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He

will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.- (Now read Exodus 13:17-18 <above) again. That is SO interesting! God REALLY knows His people!

So there they were, God's Chosen People, all smiles and very excited about -their- victory over Egypt and their wonderful escape! They were ready to make WAR!

They could beat ANYBODY! And God KNEW them. He said, -If someone jumps at them, they will run screaming back to Egypt and bow down to Pharoah again!- They thought they were tough soldiers, ready to make war.

They had forgotten that GOD did all the fighting with Pharoah, not THEM! Already they thought THEY were great and THEY were powerful. They were sure that it was by THEIR greatness and power that they were FREE from Pharoah. And God said, -Oh, my! Look at them! If war comes they will run back to slavery and not fight!- God knew they were NOT READY. And He knew that He must get them ready before they had to fight a real war!

So what did God do? Did He do like you and I would

do? Did He yell at them? No, God is very patient with

His dumb little people THEN and NOW! He just led them

to go around ANOTHER WAY that took them to the Red

Sea. But it was a LONGER WAY! They could have gone

the short way, the straight-ahead way, right into the

Promised Land, if it had not been for their weakness,

their UNBELIEF! You and I can be WEAKER Christians

than God wants us to be but, if we are, we cannot go straight on in and defeat the demons of hell. Are there two ways to Heaven - the short way for those who will stand up and fight - OR the long way for those who are not as strong in the Lord as they THINK they are?? One of the most important ideas of the book of Exodus,

maybe of the whole Old Testament, maybe of the whole Bible, even for us today is this: GOD IS MAKING

WARRIORS (SOLDIERS) OUT OF

THE PEOPLE WHO USED TO BE SLAVES!

III. TESTIMONY, Exodus 13:19

-Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear an oath.

He had said, <God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this

place.-

Genesis 50:25, -And Joseph made the sons of Israel

swear an oath and said, <God will surely come to your aid,

and then you must carry my bones up from this place.>-

Over 400 years before the time of Moses, when things

in Egypt were very good, before the Israelites became

slaves, Joseph had known that God would not want the

people of Israel to stay in Egypt. He knew God has

chosen a place for them. So he told the sons of Israel,

his brothers, -When God takes you back to our country,

do not forget me! Take my bones with you so that you can

bury them in our homeland.- 400 years later Moses

remembered that promise. This was a testimony to what God had been teaching Moses. It was also a testimony that Moses listened to the voice of God. It was a lovely testimony to the vision and faith of Joseph, that pure and holy man of God. Most of all, it is a testimony to the love and faithfulness of our God! He showed Himself MORE to Joseph than to anybody else in that time. He told Joseph that He (God) would NOT forget or leave His people. He made Joseph understand that when they

would be completely helpless and without hope, God would come to them and deliver them! Joseph understood. He believed God and God stayed completely faithful. He is still completely FAITHFUL today! Completely

dependable, He keeps His word. Exodus 13:19 is a marvelous testimony to the faithfulness of God!

IV. TENDERNESS, Exodus 13:20-22

-By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could

travel by day or night...-

At that time God was trying to SHOW himself, trying to

make Himself known to His people. These people were

not ready for God to fully reveal Himself (make Himself

known). They did not even know that humans COULD

know God personally. Maybe they did not even WANT to

know God personally. They just wanted a God to LEAD

them, tell them where to go and what to do. God had

always wanted to make Himself known to humans but He

saw that it was necessary to do that little by little,

tenderly, as people were able to understand. Why didn’t an all-powerful God just MAKE them ready? It did not fit His plan to have robots. He has always wanted His people to CHOOSE to follow Him. We are NOT robots (machines). God chose what we call Progressive

Revelation. This means that He revealed Himself little by little and more and more as time went by. He did this, it seems, so that over a period of many thousand years people would finally be able to understand when He

revealed Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. At that time He appeared to His people as a PILLAR, a tall, strong, upright post. He came as a CLOUD in the daytime and as a FIRE in the night.

I think it is interesting that God always appears in the form of light. John tells us that God IS Light (I John 1:5). If we compare many Scriptures (Bible verses)

together we get a better idea of God. He is a Spirit with no body. But He wears LIGHT so bright that a human eye cannot look at God and live! The Bible never shows God as DARKNESS or UGLINESS. So in Exodus 13 God appeared as a CLOUD (easy to see) in the day and as a FIERY CLOUD (easy to see) at night. Sometimes they had to travel at night. So God made Himself easy to see and follow. When He moved, His people moved. He was always in FRONT of His people. They had to FOLLOW.

They could NOT lead God or tell HIM where to go.

Our outline helps us to summarize Exodus chapter 13.

I. Teaching, Exodus 13:1-16, God introduces us to His beautiful plan of REDEMPTION.

II. Turning, Exodus 13:17-18, God began making soldiers out of slaves.

III. Testimony, Exodus 13:19, God is FAITHFUL!

IV. Tenderness, Exodus 13:20-22, God tenderly, gently, began to reveal Himself as men were able to understand.

End of Lesson 4.