Redemption

Exodus 13:11-16

 11 “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, 12 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. 13 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. 14 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. 15 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 open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ 16 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.”

 Each first born male animal each first born male child the Lord claimed. The Israelites were required to sacrifice the first born male animal and redeem each first born male child with sacrifice. This was to be a powerful testiment for all generations of the cost of redemtion (the death of the first born) to bring the Isrealites out from a slavery under the Egyptians to a new slavery under the only true God. What a powerful picture of the price paid by our Redeemer Jesus Christ, God's first born over all creation to redeem us from slavery to sin to slavery to himself.