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Reading Ex.13:1-22

There are different kinds of forgetfulness.

There is the annoying kind of forgetfulness – we put a book down and then can't remember where that was or we go upstairs and when we get there can't remember why we're there. These kind of things happen seem to happen more as we get older and I'm not sure that there is a whole lot we can do about it. But it is not this kind of forgetfulness that I have in mind.

The kind of forgetfulness I believe that this chapter brings to us is more akin to carelessness – when we can't be bothered to make the effort to bring to mind the things we do know so well and which we could recall if only we were concerned enough to do so.

In Ex.13 we find the LORD calling upon His people and His message involves a number of "Don't forgets".

1.       Don't forget what the LORD has done for you

2.       Don't forget that the LORD keeps His promises

3.       Don't forget that the LORD requires commitment and consecration

4.       Don't forget that the LORD leads His people forward

Let's look at these in turn.

The people of Israel are heading out of Egypt. The mighty signs and great acts of deliverance have finally secured their release and the people are on their way.

They have not got completely away yet but already the LORD through Moses is providing means whereby His people may be regularly reminded of what He has done for them. In two different, yet related ways, the people are to be encouraged to look back and remind themselves what great things the LORD had done for them.

A feast is to be celebrated on an annual basis – the Feast of Unleavened Bread – and the firstborn is to be set apart for the LORD. The whole purpose of these two events was to help the people to remember what the LORD had done for them.

v.3 "Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the LORD brought you out from this place."

When the kids do what kids do and ask questions – "Why are we doing this? What's it all about?" then they are to be told and what the LORD had done must be explained to them:

v.8 "You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’"

In fact again and again the central fact is repeated through this chapter:

v.9 "For with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt."

v.14 "By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery."

v.16 "for by a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt."

Moses emphasises to the people the importance of keeping these things to the fore in both their thinking and in their practice. The word "memorial" that he employs highlights this for us – but it is to be a memorial that plays a present and active role in the life of the people. It is not to be treated as so many of our War Memorials as a mere geographical focal points but is figuratively to be upon their foreheads and on their hands. (Now some Jews developed this idea in a literal manner and later began wearing little boxes, known as phylacteries, strapped to their heads and arms.) It is easy for any such practice to become more concerned with the outward show than with the inward reality and it is the inward reality with which are to concern ourselves.

We might be tempted to think that the recent events of the Plagues in Egypt were so dramatic and so climactic for the Israelites that any call to remember just what it was that the LORD had done for them was really pretty unnecessary.

For the new convert full of the joys of the Lord to be told to be careful not to forget but to take pains to actively remember God's deliverance might seem an irrelevance.

But God know best!

Indeed it will be hardly be any time at all before some at least of that great company that left Egypt were already forgetting aspects of their very recent past.

In the very next chapter before the crossing of the Red Sea we read that already the severity of the slavery in Egypt was being downgraded:

Ex.14:11-12 "They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”"

In chapter 16 the question is over the shortage of foodstuffs:

Ex.16:2-3 "And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”"

In Numbers the problem was over the lack of variety in the wilderness diet:

Num.11:5 "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic."

Following on from the negative report brought back by those who had gone to spy out the Promised Land:

Num.14:1-2 "Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!”"

At the time of Korah's rebellion Moses' own leadership of the people was contested in no uncertain terms. How attractive the past life in Egypt was made to appear – life there was now being described in the same way the Promised Land itself was usually described:

Num.16:13-14 "Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also make yourself a prince over us? Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards."

On yet another occasion the lack of water prompted further hankering for the "good old days" in Egypt:

Num.20:4-5 "Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink."

In each of these cases the LORD's role in delivering His people is either downplayed or eliminated entirely – Moses is the one who was responsible! And how quickly the sufferings of Egypt have been forgotten! What need there was for them to remember clearly and properly what the LORD had done for them!

It is possible for us to make similar mistakes and to fail to appreciate what the LORD has done for us in saving us. If we do not take care to "remember" we may find ourselves slipping back, envying those who are still living in sin and sin's slavery. Looking back with rose-tinted spectacles can set us on the road to disaster:

"Remember Lot's wife!" (Lk.17:32)  was a warning that fell from our Saviour's lips! He also said:

Lk.9:62 “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Is the LORD God really dependable? Can the people trust Him to keep His promises? And can we?

Here in this chapter we have further evidence of the reliability of the LORD.

Take a quick look down to v.19 where we read that when the people went up out of Egypt they took with them Joseph's bones.

Joseph had lived centuries before this Exodus event and he had lived the vast majority of his life in Egypt – 93 out of 110 years to be precise. But he believed that the Israelites stay in the land would come to an end one day because God had made promises concerning the land of Canaan. Joseph identified himself wholeheartedly with his people and wanted to be somehow part of it all when God fulfilled His promises so he left instructions concerning what was to be done with his dead body:

v.19 “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.”

Well during those long hard years of slavery the accomplishment of God's promises didn't seem at all probable – but accomplished they were. As the Israelites made their way out as they looked at Joseph's coffin they were reminded of God's trustworthiness.

Moses too in this chapter demonstrated his own confidence in the trustworthiness of God's promises. Do you see that in v.5 + v.11? In these verses Moses looks ahead to a time when the Israelites will have been safely brought in to the Promised Land. He doesn't talk about possibilities – if – but of certainties – when!

As we're thinking about this matter of the LORD keeping His promises we must remind ourselves of something that is very obvious but sadly something that we can easily overlook. The LORD keeps His but He has not promised everything that we might like to think He has.

What do I mean by this?

Well how easily we like imagine that in keeping His promises the LORD will work in ways which like and approve of. And how easily then we try to imagine that God will pursue our personal peace and happiness! Even if we eschew the health, wealth and prosperity gospel we can still cherish the idea that God will give me good feelings!

But God works for His glory and our spiritual maturity which will further glorify Him!

We catch a glimpse of this by the way in which He leads the Israelites.

v.17a "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near."

The easy way, the direct way, was exactly the way the LORD chose NOT to lead the people. To all intents and purposes they were made to "wander around being shut in by the sea" (cf.14:3) But this was no mistake on God's part, it was no failure to accomplish what He had promised He would do. It was done for a real reason though it was not the way of ease and comfort:

v.17b-18 "For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle."

 Let us be careful that we don't expect the LORD to do something He has never promised to do and then accuse Him of failing us when He doesn't do what we had no right to expect in the first place!

I've already touched upon the matter of the firstborn being set apart for the LORD. It is there in the opening verses of our chapter:

13:2 "Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine."

The theme is picked up again further on:

13:11-13 "When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the LORD all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the LORD’s. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem."

This is once again tied back to what the LORD did in Egypt as He delivered His people.

But the important additional lesson is that although a lamb was sacrificed in Israelite homes allowing the LORD to pass-over that home and the life of the first-born was spared this did not mean that life could be lived any old how. Rather because of what the LORD had done He had established His right to the firstborn. (Later in Jewish history the Levite tribe would take the place of the firstborn in the full-time service of God).

The clear lesson is that the LORD required the serious commitment of His people. This commitment was also to be a holy commitment as signalled by the prescription of eating leavened bread during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. You'll remember that leaven spoke of sin that readily permeates life just as yeast permeates bread dough.

In the NT the same truths are taught as applying to Christians:

1Cor.6:19-20 "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

The price that was paid was high and the apostle Peter didn't hesitate to compare it to that of the Passover lamb:

1Pet.1:18-19 "knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot."

We have already touched upon the fact of the LORD's guidance for His people as He led them towards the Promised Land. He led them but not in the most obvious way and some of the people when they realised that they weren't going the most straightforward route may well have begun complaining. But the LORD was fully intent on doing what He had promised in His way!

We've been speaking a lot about the past but now as we look at these last verses in ch.13 we must remember that the Christian life contains a future and not merely a past. The LORD is leading and will lead His people home. There may be obstacles and there may be difficulties to be encountered along the way but we must never interpret that to mean that all is over, that all is finished for us.

No, the people have a future and a wonderful one it is too!

The LORD led His people towards that future in some new and special ways. Never before had He used a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire to lead His people but this was the way He would do so through what would turn out to be the long years of desert wanderings. The pillars spoke of His presence with His people and their movement showed the people when and where to move.

vv.21-22 "And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people."

Never again in the history of God's people did God direct His people in such a manner and so we shouldn't expect that of Him in our lives today. He directs us by His Word which we now possess in the Bible – how important for us then to take and read often, how important to hear it often, so that we might understand what Christ would say to His church!

With this clearly in mind we should be kept from looking back to the past in the wrong sense. We are meant to remember what has happened in the past and in particular what the LORD has done for us in the past. But we are not to imagine that the best lies in the past! Sometimes we can begin to think and act as though that is the case and we must be careful not to get out of balance here.

A Christian will sometimes think that the days of his usefulness are over and he looks back to some supposed "golden time" when his service for Christ was somehow better than it is now or ever will be again. He's forgotten that the LORD continues to lead His people on!

Another Christian will look back on some progress made in his Christian life and, perhaps unconsciously, imagine that he's made all the progress that he can make or should make! He too has forgotten that the LORD continues to lead His people on.

Paul described his own attitude as he wrote to the Christians in Philippi:

Phil.3:12-14 "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

May this indeed be our attitude too. Paul has a right view of the past – "Christ Jesus has made me his own" he says referring back to what Jesus had already done for him. But he doesn't get stuck in a sterile way in the past but rather looks forward – pressing on toward the goal!

May God help us all!

Amen.