And every firstling of an ass shalt thou ransom with a lamb; and if thou do not ransom it, thou shalt break its neck; and every firstborn of a man among thy sons shalt thou ransom.
Exodus 13 turns the lessons of Passover night into lasting practice: God claims every firstborn, and every firstborn needs a redeemer. Verse 13 adds a strange exception — a donkey, standing in the middle of a law about firstborn sons.
The law of clean and unclean decided which animals people could bring to God. The donkey failed that test.
To begin with, it fell into the class of unclean animals. To be counted clean, an animal had to have a divided hoof and chew the cud (Leviticus 11:26). The donkey does not belong to that class. Is man a clean creature in the eyes of God, or an unclean one? … Let us not deceive ourselves. In the eye of God, man, with all his boasted light and learning, is as unclean as the donkey he despises.
Uncleanness is only half the picture. Scripture gives the animal a second trait.
In the Word of God the donkey is not only pictured as unclean; it is also the very synonym for self-will. And what is sin? 1 John 3:4 defines it correctly: "sin is lawlessness." In other words, sin is doing our own will and neglecting the will of God. Who can claim exemption here? Who among us does not love to have his own way, whatever the cost? … Genesis 16:12, correctly translated, says of Ishmael, "He shall be a wild donkey of a man."
The verse puts the donkey and the son in the same breath, and both need a redeemer. One commentator traces that parallel back to Passover night.
It is striking that the law joins the firstling of a donkey to the firstborn of man. It is more striking still that both alike needed redemption. There is also another thing. A lamb had to redeem the firstling of the donkey. A lamb had redeemed the firstborn of Israel on Passover night. Add one more thing. If no one redeemed the donkey, it had to die. Israel would have died too when the Lord struck the Egyptians. The parallel is complete. What then do we learn from it? We learn this: God places man, as he comes into the world, in the same class as the firstling of a donkey. Both are unclean. Both are doomed to destruction unless a lamb redeems them.
Why a lamb, and not some other animal?
For both the firstborn of the donkey and the firstborn of man a lamb had to be sacrificed in Israel. The lamb pictured Christ. "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). In its characteristics the lamb is the very opposite of the donkey. It is clean, so it pictures Him. Though born of a sinful mother, as we all are, He entered the world unstained in nature. All His ways too were holy. His own judge had to say of Him, "I find no guilt in this man." The lamb is also the symbol of meekness. How fitting, then, that Isaiah 53:7 says of the Lord Jesus: "like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth."
The wording allows no middle path — redeem it, or break its neck. One writer puts the choice as an answer to a man who has no lamb.
"Then go, buy one, and come back, or the donkey's neck must surely be broken. The lamb must die, or the donkey must die."
The broken neck matches the animal's nature, and ours.
We belong to that race with a neck that refuses to bear a yoke. So the wild-donkey nature shows itself as something God cannot own. Yet in sovereign grace He has provided the Lamb that gave up its life for our redemption — for us, who were stiff-necked and stubborn in our rebellion against God. … as rebellious sinners we fully deserved death. Our escape from it, and our possession of a life that death cannot touch, rest on one ground alone: the ransom price has been paid in the shed blood of Him, the spotless Lamb of God's providing.
The verse ends with the sons, and redemption carries a consequence.
If God spared the firstborn because of the Passover Lamb, He then claimed them as His own. It is so now. We belong to Him who has redeemed us, because He took our place and bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. It is well to ask ourselves often: are we recognizing His claim — His claim on us, on all that we are, and on all that we have?
- Unclean. No one could offer a donkey to God. Scripture puts man in the same class.
- Stiff-necked. The animal stands for self-will, a neck that refuses the yoke; sin is doing our own will instead of God's.
- Doomed. The law leaves no third choice: the lamb dies, or the donkey dies.
- Redeemed. A lamb — clean and meek, the opposite of the donkey — dies in its place, pointing to Christ, the Lamb of God.
- Owned. God spared the firstborn, then claimed them. Those Christ has redeemed no longer belong to themselves.
And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say to him, With a powerful hand Jehovah brought us out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
A child in an Israelite home sees his family do something other families do not, and he asks what it means. The answer God gives the father starts with God Himself: a strong hand brought them out of slavery.
The question starts at home. Commentators say the child asks because his parents live so differently from the world.
This great truth the father was to impress upon the son (Ex. 13:14-16). It is very searching to observe that this is a household matter. How gratifying to the heart of the Lord if, as parents, our ways are so distinct from the world, that it raises the question with our children as to why this should be so.
The manner of keeping the memorial decided whether a child would ever be curious. Warmth invited the question; routine killed it.
So much would depend upon the way in which the Israelites looked forward to the Passover; if they were eager for it, and celebrated it with reverence and warmth the children would most surely be interested and ask, Why? If it were treated with indifference, or as a tiresome duty, they would not. But when the interest was aroused, what a gripping story the parents would have to tell of God's care for them, and how He delivered them from slavery and made them a free people.
The answer fixes two things in the child's memory: a day, and the hand that acted.
It was to be connected for ever with the remembrance of two things. First, with the day of their redemption. "Remember this day, in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery." The Lord always wants His people to remember the day of their deliverance. It was the day He brought them out of darkness into light. It was the day He brought them out from under the judgment due to their sins into the perfect favour of God in Christ. Second, they were not to forget the source of their deliverance. "For by a strong hand the LORD brought you out from this place."
after fix: To Him alone had they been indebted. No other arm could have broken their chains or struck down their oppressor. No one else could have protected them from the destroyer and set them free.
The father's answer moves from the death of Egypt's firstborn to the sacrifices he now makes. Commentators show what ties the two together.
Israel was spared on that dreadful night only because of the sprinkled blood of the slain lamb — because another had died. So it rested on the principle of substitution, and that is the ground of God's claim in this chapter. If God spared the firstborn because of the Passover Lamb, He afterwards claimed them as His own. It is so now. We belong to Him who has redeemed us, because He took our place, and bore our sins in His own body on the tree.
A firstborn donkey had to be bought back with a lamb, or else killed. Commentators see our own case in that rule.
The firstling of a donkey was to be redeemed with a lamb. The firstborn of Israel were redeemed with a lamb on the Passover night. The donkey was to be destroyed if it was not redeemed, as the Israelites would surely have been when the Lord struck the Egyptians. So man, as he is born into the world, is classed with the firstling of a donkey. Both alike are unclean, and both are doomed to destruction, unless redeemed with a lamb.
In the father's answer God acts first, and the family's own offerings come after. Writers make that order the rule for everything we do.
All we do must be "because of what the Lord has done," and not to get something from Him. Struggling to win life and peace shows that we are still strangers to the power of the blood. But the pure fruit of a redemption we have really tasted brings praise to Him who has redeemed us.
God expected the children to ask, and He had them in mind too. That places a duty on parents now.
The children of the Israelites came into the divine thought also. Parents were to teach them what the Passover feast meant… Today let us make sure of two things. We ourselves must be under the shelter of the blood of the Lamb, and our children must be in that same place of God-given safety.
- Blood. Israel lived through that night only because a lamb died in the firstborn's place. Their rescue rested on the death of another.
- Strength. The answer to the child credits no human effort. No other arm could have broken their chains or struck down their oppressor.
- Claim. Because God spared the firstborn, He owns them; the redeemed belong to the One who took their place.
- Order. Everything we do afterwards is because of what the Lord has done, never to get something from Him.
- Household. This is a family matter. Live so differently that your children ask, and bring them under the same shelter of the blood.
And it came to pass, when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, that Jehovah slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of men and the firstborn of cattle therefore I sacrifice to Jehovah all that breaketh open the womb -- being males; and every firstborn of my children I ransom.
In this verse a father answers his child's question. Why give every firstborn male animal to God, and why buy back every firstborn son? The answer reaches back to one night in Egypt. It raises a sharp question: who owns a life that God spared when others died?
Pharaoh had long treated Israel's firstborn as his own property. God now claims the same lives.
Exodus 13 begins with God asserting His claim on the firstborn, who had been sheltered from death. They were now to be "sanctified" — that is, set apart for God, as belonging to Him. Of each firstborn God said, "It is Mine." But for many years Pharaoh had been saying of them and of all Israel, "They are mine; slaves to do my pleasure." Among men, when two parties claim the same object, conflict is bound to follow.
The verse ties God's ownership to the death of Egypt's firstborn. Why should that night give God a claim on Israel's sons?
It is important to notice the ground on which God claimed the firstborn. It links directly to the destruction of the firstborn in the land of Egypt (v. 15). As we have seen, God spared Israel on that dreadful night only because of the sprinkled blood of the slain lamb — only because another died in their place. It rested therefore on the principle of substitution; and this in fact is the ground of God's claim in this chapter. If God spared the firstborn because of the Passover Lamb, He then claimed them as His own. It is so now. We belong to Him who has redeemed us, because He took our place and bore our sins in His own body on the tree.
"All the firstborn of my sons I redeem" points to a price paid. What was that price worth next to ours?
They knew, and so do we, that we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Their fathers had been redeemed with silver and gold — a redemption under Jewish law that pictured something greater. Sometimes they paid actual money, as in Exodus 30:11-16 and Numbers 3:44-51. Sometimes it was by sacrifice, as in Exodus 13:13-15. Even then silver and gold came into it, because they were needed to buy the animal for the sacrifice. Silver and gold are the least corruptible of metals, yet they are corruptible. The price of our redemption was incorruptible and precious.
Notice the order in the verse. God acted first. Only then does the Israelite say "therefore I sacrifice." Reverse the order and the effort is hopeless.
By the power of the Spirit of God we enter into the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. The more fully we do so, the more decided our separation will be, and the more whole-hearted our devotedness. Trying to produce either one before we know redemption is the most hopeless labour possible. All our doing must be "because of what the Lord has done," and not in order to get something from Him. Struggling to get life and peace proves that we are still strangers to the power of the blood. The pure fruits of a redemption we have known, by contrast, are to the praise of Him who has redeemed us.
The claim did not stop with the sons. It reaches everything a redeemed person owns.
Whatever I have is the Lord's, and if I cannot devote it, I judge it — and others can see this. If your ways are changed, that is plainly seen by those around you. Many young Christians lose a great deal of blessing because they do not take a decided, bold stand for Christ when they are converted. If you confess Christ out and out, it will save you a great deal of trouble. If you stay quiet, you escape persecution, but you lose the Lord's support and the comfort the Holy Spirit wants to give you.
A father speaks this verse to his son. Children who never saw Egypt still had to know what happened there.
Again (vv. 14-15) the people must impress on their children the full strength of the Lord's hand in delivering Israel out of Egypt. In that deliverance the Lord killed the firstborn in Egypt, both of men and animals. "Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem." They were not merely to tell their sons about God's deliverance. By keeping up the sacrifice they were to impress on them how real and important that deliverance was.
- Claimed. Pharaoh had called Israel's firstborn his own. God answers, "It is Mine." Two owners of one life must end in conflict.
- Spared. A lamb died in their place, so the firstborn lived. That is substitution, and it is why they became God's.
- Bought. Silver and gold bought Israel's sons back, and both metals corrupt. Christ's precious blood bought us, and it cannot corrupt.
- Given. "Therefore I sacrifice" comes after deliverance, never before. Devotion is the fruit of redemption, not a way to get it.
- Told. Each father hands all of this to his children. Words alone are not enough; the sacrifice they watch teaches them too.