Exodus 13

Read Exodus 13 here or at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraphs:

13:1-10 {p} Ordinance of the firstborn and Unleavened Bread
13:11-16 {p} Ordinance of the firstborn a sign to future generations
13:17-22 {p} God led them Himself in a pillar of cloud and fire

Really, to us non-native Hebrews, the instruction concerning the firstborn and Unleavened Bread might seem like two separate instructions. But the redemption of the firstborn is intrinsically and forever tied to the memorial feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread, for it was during the slaying of the firstborn that Israel’s firstborn were redeemed.

The memorial feasts teach our redemption by the blood of the Lamb, as we would expect, since Yeshua told us that Moses wrote about Him (Joh 5:46). But the interesting thing about the ordinance of the firstborn, and the ordinance of the memorial feasts, is that they are signs for future generations. This is Bible language, kind of like idiomatic code. And when you see it, pay attention, because what it is telling you is this, in modern English:

Do you want your children to see and understand and receive for themselves the redemption purchased for them by the blood of the Lamb? This is how you transfer that important living concept from one generation to the next. Observe the ordinance of the firstborn and observe the memorial feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread. We do these things, year after year, so that the children grow up immersed in the history, honor, teaching, and family and social traditions, which act as living parables and paint living pictures in concrete terms, teaching spiritual truths.

Yeshua taught us this way. He opened His mouth in parables, when He wanted to teach the people something about the kingdom of heaven. He told stories of every day people and things, pursuing every day pursuits, in their every day lives, that we could look out the window and see with our own eyes, or experience for ourselves. This is how God teaches men about Himself, and why the foundational books of the Bible, the Torah, are books of history-prophecy. The Torah tells the True Story and real events that actually happened in the natural world, which nevertheless prophesy of spiritual truths and events to come.

The Church has traditionally discarded the practice of the memorial feasts of YHVH (Lev 23:1-2) as something Jews do (even though they are never called ‘the Jewish feasts’ in Scripture, only men call them that. Scripture always calls them ‘the feasts of YHVH’). And today we wonder why 90% of the young people raised in Church leave the faith upon adulthood. What if God is smarter than we are? What if we should listen to Him when He gives us keys for future generations? What if we would teach spiritual truths the way He teaches spiritual truths, by concrete example in a repeating memorial cycle, if we want to be successful in transferring our faith and culture to the next generation?