10aYou shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.
The Law of the Firstborn
11 “And it shall be, when the Lordabrings you into the land of the bCanaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you,
12athat you shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have; the males shallbe the Lord’s.
13 But aevery firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons byou shall redeem.
14aSo it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, b‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
15 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that athe Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’
16 It shall be as aa sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, for by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”
The Wilderness Way
17 Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people achange their minds when they see war, and breturn to Egypt.”
18 So God aled the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.
The implication is that, when Israel finally came into the land, God made it possible for them to come into it. In other words, it was because of what the Lord did, not only in Egypt, but also in the wilderness, that enabled them to reach and enter the land. It is what the Lord does.
This is not a minor bit of trivia. It is not merely that we come out of sin and this world, but this fact puts everything about our coming out—our growth and overcoming, and eventually entering the Kingdom of God—into its proper perspective, because human nature is ever ready to take the credit for more than it actually accomplishes.
The firstborn of all clean, male animals (cattle, sheep, goats, etc.) were God's, and they were to be sacrificed to Him. Amazingly, these animals appear to represent the Egyptian firstborn (verse 14), and thus represent a sin offering for us.
The word redeem means "buy back." If a family's firstborn donkey was critical to their livelihood, they could buy it back from God by offering a lamb in its place. Of course, God did not demand that His people offer their firstborn children as literal human sacrifices. They, too, were to be bought back by means of a lamb sacrifice.
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