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SERIES C --- EXODUS FROM BONDAGE --- LESSON 11

THE FIRSTBORN

A PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE

From Exodus 13

Adonai gave these Commands to Moses concerning the firstborn. [You must dedicate your firstborn sons and animals to Me,] Adonai said, [for they belong to Me.] Then Moses instructed his people concerning the Passover. [Each year you must commemorate this day, for it is the day Adonai brought you with mighty miracles from your bondage in Egypt,] Moses said. [When you observe the Passover, use no leaven in your bread. Set aside the tenth day of Abib, which is near the end of March, to celebrate your journey from Egypt. And when Adonai brings you into the Promised Land, the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites, the land of milk and honey which He promised your ancestors that He would give to you, remember the day of your Exodus. For seven days eat your bread without leaven and keep no leaven in your homes. On the seventh day hold a feast to worship Adonai. While you celebrate the Passover, be sure to tell your children that you are remembering the day that Adonai brought you out of Egypt. It will be as though Adonai stamped His own mark upon your hand and head, showing that you are His own special people. Celebrate the Passover each year on this day. When Adonai brings you into the land of the Canaanites, which He promised your ancestors, you must dedicate all of your firstborn sons and male animals to Adonai. You may redeem a firstborn donkey by buying it back from Adonai with a young lamb or goat. If you do not want to redeem it, then you must break its neck. But it will be required of you that you redeem your firstborn sons. When your son asks why the firstborn males must be dedicated to Adonai, you will tell him that Adonai brought you out of Egypt and your bondage. When Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to let your people go, Adonai took the life of every firstborn Egyptian male and even their firstborn male animals. Therefore, you are giving every firstborn animal to Adonai and redeeming every firstborn son. The dedication ceremony will be like a mark which Adonai stamps on your hand and head, for it were with great and mighty miracles that He brought you out of Egypt.] At last, the people of Israel were free, for Pharaoh had let them go. But Adonai did not take them on the shortest route to the Promised Land, because He did not want them to have to pass through occupied lands. He knew that the Israelites would become discouraged if they had to fight a war so soon. Even though they were armed for battle, they might be tempted to return to their bondage in Egypt rather than fight a war. So, Adonai directed the people to a much longer route through the wilderness by the Red Sea. Many years before, Joseph, knowing that the Israelites would be saved, had made his people vow that they would carry his bones with them when Adonai took them from Egypt. Moses had brought the bones of Joseph with him. From Succoth, the people of Israel went on to Etham, by the edge of the wilderness. During the day Adonai led the people by a pillar of cloud and at night, by a pillar of fire. He led His people by day and by night, for the pillar of cloud or the pillar of fire was always with the people, leading them where Adonai wanted them to go.

COMMENTARY

AN ANCIENT MYSTERY STORY

In Bible times the firstborn was the son through whom the family line was maintained. Now, because YHVH brought Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand, the firstborn of every man and animal would belong to Him. All firstborn must be redeemed {bought back} with a gift or sacrifice. In Egypt, Israel had belonged to Pharaoh and had been crushed under hard labour. Now they belonged to YHVH and would be freed and given their own land. How much better to belong to YHVH! A mystery almost four thousand years old has never been solved. No one knows for sure just when the Israelites left Egypt and who was pharaoh at the time. However, there are two leading opinions. Some think the pharaoh at that time was Amenhotep II, who ruled after Thutmose III. If this is correct, then Moses would have grown up during the reign of Thutmose II or III. He might have been rescued from the bulrushes and raised by Hatshepsut, who sought revenge against her husband, Thutmose II and his son by another woman, Thutmose III. Other people believe that the period of the Exodus was about two hundred years later. That was during the reign of Ramses II {the Great}. If this is true, then Ramses’ daughter was the princess who raised Moses during the oppression of the Israelites. The character of Ramses II makes this opinion more likely true. For he was a very brutal and ambitious man. The name {Ramses} meant [Ra is the one who created him.] Ra is one of several names for the Egyptian sun god. And Ramses II tried his best to live up to his name. He had many wives and children; one hundred sons alone have been recorded! He even married his own daughters. He ruled for sixty-five years, living into his eighties. That was more than twice the number of years most people lived in ancient Egypt. In fact, Ramses II outlived twelve of his sons. His thirteenth son, Merneptah, was in his sixties when he took the throne after Ramses II died. Ramses II commanded and supervised the building of many temples and cities. He made sure that the bricks used and the inscriptions carved included his name. He even took the credit for some buildings that other pharaohs had built. He had his name carved somewhere on the monument or else he replaced a few things here and there with the bricks that were stamped with his name. The Bible records in Exodus 1:11 that pharaoh forced the Israelite slaves to build the store-cities of Pithom and Rameses. Store-cities were groups of buildings where the government kept the Egyptian people’s tax payments. In those days, taxes were paid in the form of grain, flax or farm animals and the government stored them there either for use during famine or for resale to the people. Ramses II boasted that he had been responsible for the building of the store-cities of Pithom and Rameses. He had this recorded on a stele {pronounced STEE-lee}. A stele is a large piece of flat stone or a tall stone pillar on which important events were carved. But sometimes the Egyptians recorded what they wanted to have remembered, not what had happened. Ramses II did that often. The detectives of the Exodus mystery cannot believe everything they read. Ramses II also stole another pharaoh’s stele and reused it to record his power over the Israelites. Translated into English, it says: […Israel is laid waste, his seed is not; Palestine is become a widow for Egypt.] Was Ramses II trying to pretend the Israelites’ Exodus out of Egypt was a great victory for him? Was he trying to make a short campaign of his into Palestine seemed like a big battle? Or was Ramses II simply lying? No one knows. This stele is the only one in all ancient Egyptian history that mentions the Israelites by name and it is called the {Israel Stele.} As Ramses II got older, he cared less and less about war and politics. He wanted to be remembered forever as a successful and victorious pharaoh. He either refused to record bad events or changed earlier accounts to make himself sound good. A pharaoh like this would surely have no fear of man or Elohiym. Ramses II might well be the answer to the mystery of the Exodus.

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