Fri.’s Devo - The First Born

Read Ex. 13:11-20 The first born were the family priests and got double the inheritance. They were saved by an act of grace from the doom of all the other first born of Egypt. Remember, God did not spare his firstborn, Jesus, but gave him up to save all the firstborn of the world. The firstborn is a picture of all of us. We are born first of the natural (from the womb). We are saved spiritually when we are second born - born again by the blood of the Lamb. The first born had to be sanctified to be the priests of the family. Their sanctification stood for their salvation. We are all called to be priests and to share in a double inheritance. Verse 16 speaks of keeping the remembrance of God’s deliverance as a token for the forehead and on their hands. This was so they would always see it in their minds and act on it with their hands. They took this more literal later and actually wore scripture rolled in a box and wrapped around their head and around their arm called phylacteries. God wasn’t talking about a literal wearing as much as he was talking about a spiritual wearing. We are always to “wear” the Word in our hearts and before our spiritual eye so that it can flow from our hands. God knows our level of faith and he knew their level of faith, so he graciously led them the long way and not through the Philistine land. They were not ready for a war. God knows when we are ready to fight and win. So God led them to the Read sea where He could fight for them. They emptied Joseph’s tomb and carried his bones with them just as God emptied Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb where Jesus was laid and took him to the Promised Land of heaven. The first place they went was Succoth which is Hebrew for booths. It is also the name of the last feast: Feast of Succoth, or Feast of Tabernacles. Feast of Tablernacles is where they make a booth and spend the night in it gazing through the branches on the roof to heaven. It is to remind them that their home was not here on this earth, but in heaven. This is a picture of the underground called death, where people went until Jesus came and released them. From this place of refuge, God led them to Etham which means “with them”. That was God’s promise: to tabernacle with them. That is God’s promise with us to tabernacle with us. Lord, thank you for your abiding presence in our lives. May we wear your Word always before us and allow it to flow from our hands.