Firstborns, Unleavened Bread, and the Way of the Sea

 Exodus 13

            A firstborn son had a truly outsized place in ancient societies. Usually, the firstborn son was taken as a sign of the father’s vitality, the heir, and a promise that one’s name would carry on. Recall Genesis 49:3, where Jacob describes Reuben, his firstborn, as “my might, the first sign of my strength.” It makes the Lord’s choice of Jacob, the second son, all the more remarkable. Similarly, when Jacob named Judah his heir and gave the firstborn’s blessing to Ephraim. The destruction of the Egyptian firstborns, then, was truly devastating.

            But the destruction of the Egyptian firstborn was fitting. First, Pharaoh had ordered the murder of all Hebrew sons. Second, the Lord had declared Israel his firstborn son (Ex. 4:22). In oppressing Israel, Pharaoh was mocking the Lord’s strength and trying to foreclose His future. The tenth plague was a firstborn for a firstborn.

            This also explains why the firstborn sons of Israel were consecrated to the Lord. The price of Israel’s redemption was the firstborn of Egypt. Now the firstborn of Israel would be holy to the Lord. (Later in the story, the tribe of Levi is set aside for this role.)

            A second note on this reading: what is it with yeast? Another comment on the feast of unleavened bread. I often say, “They were ancient, not stupid.” I say it to remind people that ancient civilizations actually understood quite a lot about how the world worked. Apparently, though, they didn’t know how yeast worked. They didn’t know that yeast digests sugars and produces carbon dioxide which gives leavened bread its typically fluffy consistency. What they saw was a lump of dough swelling, and they apparently connected that with the way a carcass bloats. Therefore, they understood leavening, the work of yeast, as somehow connected to decomposition, to death. It’s not that yeast was evil, but it reminded them of death and was therefore excluded from holy purposes

            A final thing: the Lord did not lead them the straight route to the land He had promised. The Lord knew His people: warfare would have frightened them and sent them scurrying back to Egypt. Frankly, as the story progresses here in Exodus and also in Numbers, the people are often ready to head back to Egypt. They’re not much cut out for hardship! This will be one of the great ironies of the story: no matter how bad it was in Egypt, some Israelites thought it was better than whatever it was Moses was leading them, too. Let’s be fair, though: it’s tough to walk by faith, to follow the Lord into an unknown and frightening future.