I wonder how good you are at thinking and planning for the future.
Young people, you have exams in a few weeks time.
Sorry if you didn't realize that, and this is new information
for you now, but I know talking to some parents, your revision
has already begun.
If it hasn't yet, can I encourage you to maybe start thinking
about it?
Because you either approach exams in one of two ways.
You either start preparing early so that you know that you have
the work done, or you are a late night crammer.
In other words, you'll start a couple of days before the exams and
you live in the here and now.
And your mantra is it'll be okay.
Speaking from experience, it may not be okay to leave it until
the night before.
So if you haven't lifted a book yet, maybe now's the time to
start.
Do it.
And so that's our young people thinking about the future.
And why are you thinking about these things?
Because you're thinking of not just GCSEs, not just a levels, but
what you might go on to do and work.
And so you're thinking of the future.
What, whenever the question is asked, what do you want to do when
you leave school?
You already have an idea of what that is.
But of course, it's not just our young people who think and plan
for the future.
The problem is we live in a culture that is very much about the
here and now being in the present.
And it's a culture that doesn't want to prepare us for what
is ahead.
And at times there are valid reasons as to why we don't want to
think about the future.
The main one being is we don't know what is ahead.
And that's the truth, we don't.
For some, the thought of the unknown is so overwhelming that we
stay in the present and live each day as it comes, not thinking
too far ahead, because we simply cannot plan or depend on it.
I remember reading a book back at school of traditional careers
that in the 1990s I would be encouraged to pursue.
And there was still one career from the 1960s and 70s that might
just have been around in the late 80s whenever these bits of literature
were written.
And the one that was mentioned that struck me was a door to door
salesman.
I wonder, do you remember them?
They would come and knock at the door and I think we all make
fun of, you know, the encyclopedias, someone wanting to
come and buy you the encyclopedias.
But there were more serious people who came to your door, people
wanting to sell you life assurance or maybe a pension, they'd
want to come and make sure that you did think about the future.
You would invite them in, you would set them down in front of the
fire, you'd offer them a cup of tea, and you'd chat through what
it meant.
And they would, quite literally, they'd be the man from
whatever agency and go through pensions and life assurance policies.
And I'm sure some of you will remember this.
And indeed, had these people come to your door and you welcomed
them in and you chatted with them about future plans and what
it meant to be financially stable as you got older, and you
would have things in place for your family after you died.
Well, this was how society at that time considered preparing for
the future.
And I'm told that being an insurance or a pension salesman was
a very respectable career of choice.
And it's very true that none of us know what the future will be
like.
We can have all the pensions in the world and all the life assurance
policies in the world, but we may never get to benefit from them
because we simply do not know what is ahead.
And as we come to chapter 13 in Exodus this morning, we see a
picture of the future that God wants and has for his people.
They may not know what is ahead of them.
They're not thinking about pensions or life assurance.
They're thinking about getting out of Egypt in that moment.
But you see, the Lord does know what their future is, and he
wants them to know how they are to live beyond Egypt.
Remember, Egypt isn't just a country.
Egypt is the land of their enslavement.
And as I mentioned, whenever we came to read the passage, we again
come to verses that seem out of place.
Last week, we saw that as soon as the people left Egypt, God instructs
Moses as they quite literally walk the regulations of the Passover.
And perhaps we thought that getting into chapter 13, we would
pick up the story again and the crossing of the Red Sea, which
will come in verse 17 of this chapter, but before the people leave
the land of Egypt, because at this stage they are at Succoth, which
lies south of Goshen.
God wants to prepare them for their lives of freedom as his people.
And this is what verses one and two tell us.
The Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me, every firstborn
male, the first offspring of every womb among the Israelites,
belongs to me, whether man or animal.
And so the Lord commands the people to consecrate to him every
firstborn male.
And this shouldn't surprise us whether they be human or animal,
because Remember what happened just the night or two before.
It was the firstborn male as well as the firstborn animal that
was killed as the Lord made his way through Egypt and passed
over the houses that had the blood on the doorposts and the lintels,
but yet brought tragedy and death to those houses that didn't.
And so whether now human or animal, they are to be consecrated
to him.
And verse 12 gives a bit more detail as it says they're to be given
over to him or set apart is probably a more literal translation.
And the meaning of this describes the transfer of property
from one person to another.
And in this context it means to give the child or the animal to
the Lord as his special property.
For ritually clean animals, this would be done by sacrificing
them.
But ritually unclean animals, such as a donkey, which is mentioned
here, could not be sacrificed, nor could children, since the Lord
decrees against human sacrifice later on in Deuteronomy,
chapter 12, verse 31.
Instead, verse 13 tells us that they're to be redeemed.
Redeem with a lamb every, every firstborn donkey, but if you
do not redeem it, break its neck.
Redeem every firstborn among your sons.
So what God's asking for here is we've jumped over quite a bit
of the middle of the passage which we will come back to.
But this is a book ended passage.
It kind of repeats itself at different stages.
But what this redemption means is that payment is to be given to
the Lord so that ownership may be transferred back to the Israelites.
For animals, the payment is a lamb, which is richly clean and presumably
sacrificed.
So if they're gods, then the Israelites need to buy them back.
And if no payment is given, then the animal's neck is to be broken,
which has the practical effect of making sure that, remember it's
God's property because it hasn't been redeemed, is not put
to improper use, and is perhaps a non sacrificial way of
returning the animal's life to God.
For sons.
Later texts tell us that the Israelites are to offer a 5 shekel
payment to support the Lord's work at the tabernacle.
These are a people who belong to God, and so they can't simply
use anything the way they want it, because if they are consecrated
to the Lord, then they are set apart and holy.
And so they have to be redeemed, they have to be bought
back so that they can be used.
And we can read and we can hear this and we can wonder why in
Fact, isn't that the question that comes whenever the sons ask,
what does this mean?
There in verse 14?
And we can wonder that ourselves.
What is the purpose of God telling this to his people?
Well, the consecration of the firstborn is to be used to teach
the next generation about the Lord's powerful deliverance.
Parents now have the opportunity to explain to their children
how Pharaoh wouldn't release them from slavery.
So the Lord, in His great power, struck down all the Egyptian
firstborn, but spared all the firstborn of Israel because they
were protected by the passover lamb's blood.
And by giving this protection, the Lord set apart their firstborn
as belonging to him in a special way.
So therefore there are those who are rescued by the Lord, and
as such they belong to Him.
But the people will also consecrate their animals to the Lord
and so declare that they acknowledge his ownership of them
by giving the firstborn animals to him through sacrifice
and by redeeming their firstborn sons from him by payment.
And this will help them to remember that it is not only the
firstborn that belongs to him.
Because the Lord has already told us who his true firstborn is.
And we have to go back to chapter four of Exodus and verses
22 and 23.
And this is what the Lord says.
Israel is my firstborn son.
And I told you, let my son go so he may worship me.
And this of course, is in the context of Pharaoh, who refused to
let the firstborn of the Lord go.
And so every time the people perform the rite of the firstborn,
they remember that they, as the people of God too, belong to
him in a special way.
And as we read through the Old Testament, we hear more of this,
that they are a people who are of God's own choosing.
They weren't the strongest, they were the weakest of the nations.
And yet God chose them out of all the nations so that they would
belong to him and in a special way.
And so the Lord rescued all of them, rescued all of his firstborn.
And because of that, they owe him their whole hearted worship and
love.
And so consecration of their firstborn focuses their minds and
their hearts as each generation will remember what God
has done for them, but also who they are to Him.
For God's people to prepare for the future as they leave Egypt,
they're told to remember who he is.
God instructs the people in this way because he knows them.
He truly knows them.
He knows how quickly they will turn against him, how quickly they
will complain, and with rose tinted spectacles think that Egypt
is better than the journey to the Promised land.
The people are in a mixture of high with adrenaline leaving Egypt
as well as looking forward to what the Lord's going to do.
But they don't know it's going to be 40 years, but the Lord knows
what their hearts are like.
And they will look back and say, wasn't it better in Egypt?
Of course it wasn't.
Isn't that why they cried out to the Lord in the first place?
And so what the Lord is graciously doing, even before they
leave the land and cross the Red Sea, is to set a standard by
which this people will live and remember who God is and remember
who they are to Him.
And it's not just the Exodus generation who are like this with
their bad memories.
Haven't we just seen this in the Easter story, where the cries
of hosanna on Palm Sunday give way to the angry shouts of crucify
him on Good Friday.
When it comes to the things of God, we are so quick to be focused
on the things of this world and leave him out of our lives because
it suits us.
Living for Christ means a completely new way of thinking about
him and how everything we do is to include Him.
Nothing is to be excluded.
This is what Paul tells us in Colossians, chapter three and verses
one to two, when he writes, since then you have been raised with
Christ.
Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at
the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Paul has it here for us in black and white that this is the
Lord's standard, that we're to set our minds on things that are
above and not on earthly things.
This is to be our new way of thinking.
Remember, in Christ, the old has gone and the new has come, so
there should be a different way of doing life.
And that way is to think always of Christ.
When Paul says or speaks here of things that are above, he's speaking
of eternal things, the things that won't perish, the things that
won't pass away in the fire of judgment.
He's saying, look to heaven.
We may not know exactly what goes on there, but look to the One
who is there and live by what he has told us through His Word.
And so as God's people leave Egypt, they were to be a transformed
people because of his salvation, so too are believers today
to be transformed in our hearts and in our minds.
And whenever we are transformed there, then this will
lead to a complete change in our actions of how we speak to one
another.
How we regard one another, of how we do business, of what language
we use, whether we're dishonest or whether we're truthful,
even at whatever cost.
These words of Paul are true, that they're not just to be picked
up if we want to and set down when it doesn't suit us.
We are to set our minds on things that are above, not unearthly
things.
If we are simply living as we always did, except on a Sunday when
we're in church, then we seriously need to question how deep
our faith and our trust is in Jesus, because he has told us in
His Word that we are to be different, that we are to be transformed,
that we are to set our minds on things above where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God, and not earthly things.
Now, that doesn't mean we don't do well in our places of work.
Of course we do, because Romans 12 tells us that everything
we do is our spiritual act of worship unto the Lord.
So therefore, in our places of work, we do what we must and should.
But it is by God's standard and not by the world's.
It means that tea break or lunch break, we don't get into the
conversation of crass language.
We don't fall into the temptation of going into conversations
that we shouldn't.
And it means we guard how we use our devices and our smartphones.
It means we're careful about what we believe that can be so easily
generated, that isn't true, that we always look to the truth.
We don't go looking for satisfaction in any other way, but
in the truth of the word of God and by its standard, so believer.
It's not simply about saying, I believe in Jesus.
Even the devil believes in Jesus and trembles.
It's about a transformation, a transformation that sets our minds
on the things that are above.
That's what the Exodus generation were to do, to look to
God.
And so we must continue to do that as his redeemed people, through
the blood of Jesus, to be transformed.
And if you don't feel you're doing it as you think the Bible says,
well, then there's still time.
It begins now to start to think in a different way and do things
differently, so that we will be ready for the day when Christ
indeed will call us home and we will truly be perfect in his sight.
So this first half, or it's really the first and the third part
of this passage, warn us about what it means to be consecrated to
the Lord, to live for him to be set apart, to be different, which
is a good thing, so that we can live by his way.
But the consecration of the firstborn was the only thing God
wants, wasn't the only thing God wants for his people to remember.
So verses 1 and 2, 11, 13 speak of that.
But verses 3 to 10 detail further commands regarding the celebration
of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Now, the feast of Unleavened Bread was celebrated seven days after
Passover.
So so far, God has reminded the people about keeping the Passover.
But this is a festival.
This is a period of time by which they were to celebrate and
remember.
And so the Lord begins in verses three and four with a summary
highlighting the reason for celebrating the feast, which is to
remember the Lord's power of his people from Egypt.
He then goes on to tell the people of the feast's main feature,
which is of eating unleavened bread in the Passover meal.
And the third instruction is that it is to be at a set time of
year, so they are to celebrate it in the month of Abib, which is
the month in which they're in.
So from this the people are clear as to what and why they celebrate
so that they remember.
And it's given to us three times in this passage.
The mighty work of the Lord, or the mighty hand of the Lord.
So having given them then these instructions, the Lord now
turns to more specific Instructions in verses 5 to 9.
The instructions in these verses look forward to a time when
the Israelites will be settled in the Promised Land.
Now, they don't know it's 40 years or 44 years ahead of them,
but the Lord does.
But he wants them to be ready.
And there's a beautiful picture here for them in verse 5.
Look at what the Lord says when the Lord brings you into the
land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites,
the land he swore to your forefathers to give you, a land flowing
with milk and honey.
You are to observe this ceremony in this month.
Now, isn't that a beautiful verse?
I know it challenges us because you thought County Down.
In fact, the Mourns was the land flowing with milk and quite
literally, honey.
I always thought it was County Armagh, but there you go.
But here's a weary people, years and years and years of slavery.
And what are they now promised as they set foot from Succoth to
cross the Red Sea?
They're given the most beautiful picture of a land, a land
of promise to Abraham, a land that meets all their needs and more,
because it's flowing abundantly with milk and with honey.
And so not only will this be a land of abundance and plenty for
the people, but God is reminding them that it is what he
promised he will do.
And the people need to know this.
As they set out on their journey again, they don't know it's
going to last 40 years.
And so the Lord gives them an assurance of what this promise means
for them.
And in verses 6 to 7, the Lord gives instructions that summarize
his earlier commands from chapter 12.
He tells them that the unleavened bread is to be eaten for
seven days with a feast to the Lord on the last day.
And as they eat bread without yeast, they are to retell the significance
of what they're doing.
Verse 8 tells us, on that day, tell your son I do this because of
what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.
This was to be a good news story of what the Lord has done to
point the next generation to believe the truth that he had told
them.
And so this instruction is something new for the people and
tells them to focus on how the feast is meant to strengthen and
give rise to their faith.
Parents are to use this feast to tell their children about how
the Lord has rescued his people and how they personally experienced
it.
And so in this way, the feast is to serve as a sign on your hand
and a reminder on your forehead.
Think of it as you maybe would have seen, or maybe you did yourself,
tying a piece of string around your finger so that you won't forget
something.
I remember doing this as a child.
And of course, why did I tie that piece of string to my finger?
Because again, we are so forgetful.
Our memories aren't that long, it turns out, and God's trying to
put away now in front of the people that they will remember.
The Israelites took this quite literally in the post exilic Judaism
after they came back from Babylon.
They returned to and made little wooden boxes with scripture
inside it.
And they tied it quite literally to their hands and to their
wrists and around their heads to show their orthodoxy in being
faithful to God.
And still today, these wooden boxes, called phylacteries, are worn
by Jews.
And in doing all of this, the Israelites will be retelling the
Lord's amazing salvation to their children for each generation.
And so in turn, remember all that their redeeming God has commanded
them.
They're to speak to one another, and they're to strive together
as his people to obey it.
And they owe such allegiance to him for one Very simple reason,
what's now repeated a second time at the end of this passage.
For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand.
He is their redeeming king and utterly worthy of their loyalty.
That's why we read Psalm 96.
That's why we sang the old hundredth that remind us all people
that on earth do dwell sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
Why?
Because of this and everything else he's done.
He is the great God, worthy of our praise.
And so we are to be utterly worthy and loyal to him.
And so, as this section concludes, before we pick up the
crossing of the Red Sea next week, verses 14 to 16 repeat what
has been given here in verses 3 to 10.
But look at verse 15.
Moses records for us succinctly the very reason why they
must remember.
Through the consecration of the firstborn and the feast of unleavened
bread, when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed
every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal.
This is why I sacrificed to the Lord the first male offspring
of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.
This is Israel speaking, giving justification of why they
do this.
Not simply is it a command of the Lord, but because of its deep
significance.
Because this memorial is to focus on God and his amazing deliverance
from Pharaoh who refused to let the people go.
And by the way, the children of Israel would meet many pharaohs,
not quite literally the Pharaoh of Egypt, but many who would
be like Pharaoh and would be Pharaoh to them, who would persecute
them, who would try and enslave them.
But yet the Lord remained faithful.
And Pharaoh's punishment, and that in all the Egyptians was the
death of the firstborn sons and the animals in the 10th plague.
So Israel was saved, and will be saved yet again because of the
blood of the lamb.
And they were to never forget the sacrifice and deliverance of
God.
And they were to tell each generation so that they would know
this truth for themselves.
And once again, we must remind ourselves how quickly we can forget.
We're all very good at knowing and remembering the stories of the
Bible.
And as with the recent celebration of Easter, there's no
problem in any of us retelling that story.
And none of us would disagree with it.
But trusting in Jesus is not just knowledge of facts.
Any one of us can believe in the historical account, but knowing
the historical account will not save.
Rather, like the exile generation and the generations after
them, the celebration of the memorial feast was to point them
to their true savior, so that they would trust in him for their
salvation, because they would forget.
And as we see in that period of the kings of Israel, they did
forget.
And they worshipped false gods who fulfilled nothing.
It was only the one true living God to whom they could turn
for their salvation.
And it remains the same for us today.
To have salvation means we trust in Jesus, not the facts and
the figures about him, but in what he says about Himself as being
our only sacrifice for sin.
It means that we are transformed into his likeness so
that we will live his way and we will be different from what was
the old way.
It means that we know where our future will be and it will be
with him in heaven.
There was a bit of a cheery conversation in the manse last night
amongst the young adults as we told one another what was the date
of our retirement.
And it's sobering.
Well, I feel a wee bit hard done by, to be truthful.
I'm 67, and there's a few of the others who have just started
out in work have said they're also 67 when they're going to retire.
And I think that's not fair.
They should work longer than me.
But it is sobering to know that a bit of future has been planned
out, not by us, but on our behalf, by the government to tell
us when we'll stop working so that we can get our pension.
You see, we all have a future ahead of us.
From the youngest one here, that potentially is a long future.
But for some who are a lot older, that future is a lot shorter
than when it used to be.
See, as we think of the future, we're not primarily to think
about pensions and life assurance policies.
We're to actually cast our minds to what is more important.
We're to think about the eternal assurance that we can have
today.
You see, for the one who is a true Christian, this is a wonderful
assurance of knowing that when Christ comes, we will be brought
to him in his glory.
And so, believer, as you live the words of Paul that we looked
at earlier in Colossians 3, you'll have this wonderful assurance
that you are Christ for all eternity if you are truly transformed
and setting your mind on the things that are above and not the
things here on earth.
But perhaps this morning you haven't thought about the future,
or you have.
If you have, you're depending on your knowledge of Jesus rather
than living faith in in Him.
Today, he presents you with an invitation to trust in him for salvation.
And I'm going to show you his very words that do this from John,
chapter 14, where Jesus says to us, to each of us, don't let your
hearts be troubled.
As he said to the Exodus generation, trust in God.
And Jesus says, trust also in me, the atoning sacrifice of your
sins.
He goes on to say that in his Father's house, in my Father's house
are many rooms or mansions.
If it were not so, I would have told you.
So Jesus is saying, I'm telling you the truth.
Here there's a great place being made ready.
And then Jesus affirms that when he says, I am going there to
prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and
take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am.
And of course, we know how this passage finishes, because Thomas
comes, lord, how do we know where you're going?
And how can we know the way?
And Jesus responds by saying, I am the way.
I am the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
You see, this is a wonderful invitation.
The very words of Jesus, no mistake, here in red, so that we
will know they are His.
The redeemed voice speaking to you today, saying, have assurance.
Have this wonderful assurance that salvation is in Christ alone,
so that you can be transformed.
And just as the land flowing with milk and honey were words of
promise, but great beauty to the Exodus generation, aren't these
the most beautiful words of Jesus spoken to you, where he says,
trust in Him.
Don't let your heart be troubled.
He speaks to you today to trust in him so that this day you
can truly trust in him and know a future in heaven.
I will not get to heaven because of any good of myself.
And I know you all think I'm a very good person, but I will not
get to heaven because of any good in me, nor will I get to heaven
based on my understanding of Exodus or revelation.
As we're looking at in the evenings, I will only.
I will only get to heaven because of Jesus.
And it's the same for you so this day.
Trust in God.
Trust also in Christ so that as he has gone to prepare that place,
it will be a place for you.
And he will come again, and he will take you with full assurance,
assurance that you will be where he is.
And what a day that will be, of great glory and praise.
Trust in the Savior.
Come to him and be transformed and have this wonderful hope and
assurance in him and in him alone.
Let's pray.
Our Father, for your Word planted deep within our hearts so
that we will know its truth and we will live it and thereby be
faithful to you as a redeemed people.
And we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.