The Law of Redemption
The importance of the firstborn has been lost in many ways in our culture, and of course we want to love each of our children the same. But in the ancient world, the firstborn son represented the future of the family. He was given rights and privileges that were not given to the others, including the right to inherit a double portion from his father. But this was not to show favoritism. He was to be consecrated, set apart, to demonstrate that the whole family was set apart to God. We are all yours, God. It is the same principle that is illustrated later in Exodus when the people are told, “The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.” When we give a tithe or an offering to the Lord, we are saying, “Everything I have belongs to You, God. This tithe or offering represents your bountiful giving to me.”
When Israel, God’s “firstborn,” was about to leave Egypt, He gave them a commandment to set apart the firstborn son. “Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.” They did this by sacrificing a lamb to God. This ritual of redemption was a reminder for every father and mother in Israel that their son did not belong to them but to God. It is the same for all of our children, and one of the reasons why we encourage child dedication at Antioch. We don’t have to sacrifice a lamb or even a turtledove. We simply ask the father and mother to hand their child into the arms of one of the elders, and by doing so they acknowledge their complete dependence on God’s grace for that child’s salvation. The elder prays for the child and for the parents, acknowledging that same dependence on God the Father. When the child is handed back into the parents’ arms, they receive him with a renewed desire to be good stewards of this precious gift that belongs to God, to do all they can, by God’s grace, to love and nurture and bring up their child in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
The people of God leaving Egypt were being given a new catechism and instructions on how to teach their children. They were being taught how to speak to their sons and daughters about God and faith. The firstborn son may say when he is old enough to understand it, So you dedicated me to God when I was born? Yes, we did. And you had to kill a lamb in my place? Yes, we did! A lamb had to die so that I could live in a holy way for God? Yes, son. You belong to God. You were born for a reason. You were redeemed for a purpose. God wanted you to be here now to ask me these questions so you could see that your life matters. You are not your own. You were bought with a price. You were not created by God to go your own way. You were not created by God to live for your own pleasure. You were created by God and redeemed by a lamb so that you may come to know the greatest pleasure, the greatest treasure in all the world: to know and love the Father, the one who loves us and redeems us and with a strong hand brought us out of Egypt.
How does all of this relate to us? You and I are redeemed by the One who “like a lamb (was) led to the slaughter…and opened not his mouth.” You and I were redeemed by the “firstborn of all creation.” God offered up His firstborn for us!
I read this week that the greatest amount ever paid for anything at auction was $450.3 million dollars. That amount in 2017 purchased a painting by Leonardo da Vinci called “Salvator Mundi,” or “Savior of the World.” That is a lot of money. What if the owner of that painting gave everything he owned to be able to buy that painting and proudly display it in his home? And what if he now invites everyone he knows, everyone he meets, to come and see it? That would be generous of him, to share that painting with others. But what if the person who owns that painting has not come to a saving knowledge of Christ, the subject of the painting, the one who laid down His life to save all who come to Him by faith? That would be a sad irony, indeed.
None of us own that painting. We don’t have a DaVinci original painting of Christ. We have much, much more to invite people into our homes and into our lives to see.
We have Jesus.