In Exodus chapter thirteen, verse 2, the final plague in Egypt was the death of the firstborn of all households.
God revealed to Israel the one and only way they would be spared was to sacrifice an unblemished lamb and brush its blood on the lintel and doorposts of their homes. Only then would the Angel of Death pass over their homes and spare their firstborn. After the Passover the Lord switched to new instructions concerning the first born child in each Jewish family. These rules preceded the Levites, when a sub group within the Levites, carried out all the rituals involving animal sacrifice that were designated. In other words, these men were set aside for temple service. The Lord’s rule was: Sanctify unto me all the first-born. To “sanctify” means to “consecrate”, “set apart”, from a common to a sacred use.
The foundation of this duty rested on the fact that the Israelites, having had their first-born preserved by a distinguishing act of grace, from the general destruction that overtook the families of the Egyptians, were bound in token of gratitude to consider them as the Lord’s peculiar property At that time in Jewish history a mother’s first child was supposed to be dedicated to the priests. They were consecrated to service for God. Later in the Torah there was a law which designated that 31 days after the child is born the father could pay a priest five silver shekels to “redeem” or free the child from temple work A shekel is 14 grams of silver. A U.S. silver dollar contains 9.83 grams of silver. And we know that the price of the silver in any coin today sells at a very inflated rate, but at this time in history.
And even today, the price was never intended to be a large sum of money. It was not to be a burden for poor people to redeem their first born son. It may seem extreme to have to give your first born to the temple. But to Sanctify unto God all the firstborn was a reasonable demand when you stop to realize that the existing firstborn of Israel, were spared by God when the Egyptian firstborn were destroyed. The firstborn should be regarded as God’s and set apart for His service. But the command is limited, when it says “whatsoever openeth the womb”.
To be clear, in that command we learn it says that every child which is the firstborn of his mother. So if a man had many wives, either together or successively, his first child by every one of these was a firstborn, and, if a male, he was claimed by the Lord. But if a female came first, and afterward a male, that male was not devoted to God, because it was not the firstborn. Thus the parents were not to look upon themselves as having an interest in their firstborn, if males, till they had first solemnly presented them to God, and received them back from him again, by special right and title, as being by singular favor preserved from the common destruction.
The firstborn of man, if male, were claimed for the sacred ministrations of the priestly office and the firstborn were to be redeemed at a certain rate, which was part of the priest’s maintenance. But after the Jewish commonwealth was formed, the Levites were chosen to officiate in their stead.
The extension of the demand to existing beasts was also reasonable, since they too had been spared. God’s further requirement, that henceforth all the future firstborn should also be His, was intended to perpetuate the memory of the recent deliverance, and to help to fix it in the mind of the nation.
The substitution of a redemption in the case of unclean beasts was necessitated by the circumstances of the case, since they could not be sacrificed; and the redemption of the firstborn sons naturally followed when the Levitical priesthood was established, and their services were no longer necessary.
Can you imagine giving away your firstborn son to be raised by a priest and committed to temple service for God. It wasn’t meant as a punishment, it was meant as a privilege.
And it even carried down in our lifetimes when you think about the fact that in many Old Catholic families it was a privilege to have your first born son become a priest. First born sons seem to come equipped for special service or position in most families even today.
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