Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn.
The sanctification of the firstborn to the Lord
I. That the good are required to sanctify their firstborn unto the Lord. “All the firstborn”--that is to say, the most excellent of their possessions, the most valuable, and that which is viewed with the greatest regard.
1. This sanctification of the firstborn was required by the Divine commandment.
2. This sanctification of the firstborn was a grateful acknowledgment of the Divine mercy in sparing the firstborn from the midnight destruction. Heaven never asks more than it gives, or more than is consistent with the gratitude of a devout heart to bestow.
3. This sanctification of the firstborn was to be associated with the deliverance of the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt.
II. That the good, is sanctifying their firstborn unto the Lord, are not called upon to give up the sole use of their property, but to redeem and to put it to a lawful use. Who would not desire his firstborn to be the Lord’s?
III. That the good are required to connect the sanctification of their firstborn with sacrifice. “And all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem” (Exodus 13:14). This redemption was to be by sacrifice. Parents need reminding of this duty.
1. Because they are liable to forget the service which past mercy requires of them.
2. Because they are apt to be selfish in the use of their property.
3. Because they are not sufficiently spiritually minded to see God in their property, and therefore forget His claims.
4. Because they do not like to pay the redemption price.
IV. That the good are to teach the right of God to the firstborn, to their posterity (Exodus 13:14-15). Children are very inquisitive. They will ask questions, even about religious matters. At such times they should be carefully and solemnly instructed in Divine truth. The family is the best school for the young. They should early be taught the meaning of self-sacrifice, and the moral grandeur of giving to the Lord. Even the young have their firstborn, which they can be taught to give to the Lord; and if they grow up in the spirit of this obligation they will in after days, impart to it a truer meaning, and give to it a more solemn influence than before they were capable of. Lessons:
1. That the good must sanctify their best things to the Lord.
2. That this can only be done by the redemption of the Cross.
3. That the young must be early taught their obligation to the Lord. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn
1. A command.
2. A duty.
3. A privilege.
4. A benediction.
5. A prophecy. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The man-tithe
I. Observe the first rule: “Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn of man.” As the redemption of the firstborn of the more valuable animals was graciously commuted by the sacrifice of less valuable ones, so there was a commutation for the firstborn of man; not indeed by inferior substitutes as in the former case, but by his fellowman--by the institution of a priesthood, “sanctifying,” or setting apart, the whole tribe of Levi in place of the firstborn of all Israel. But as this arrangement had not yet transpired at the period of the text, the explanation was deferred till then, that in the meanwhile the whole nation might fully realize the amount and weight of their liability to God; and further, that when Levi was sanctified, the whole Levitical priesthood--a priesthood of their brethren, “bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh”--might symbolize the High Priesthood of the Mediator who “was in all things made like unto His brethren,” that He too “might also make intercession for the sins of the people.” This lies at the root of the Levitical principle, the layagency in the church of God. Admirable is the advice of Jethro to his son-in-law, and incidentally it bears upon this subject. “This thing,” that is, the whole burthen of the work, “is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. .. Thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.” Thus the work of religion, benevolence, and rule was divided, subdivided, and redivided still, from considerable districts down to classes of tens, as we should desire to see the work of God among ourselves distributed among our lay deacons and elders, district visitors, collectors and Sabbath-school teachers, who in their respective ministries should act on the suggestion of Jethro, “The hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.”
II. Secondly, the text presents the rule of consecrated wealth--“Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn of beasts.” On this point there is some difficulty. “All the firstborn of cattle” were given to the Lord by sacrifice; and yet in the forty-fifth verse of the third chapter of Numbers the whole of the cattle of the Levites were considered as a substitute for the firstlings of the general cattle, just as all the men of the Levites were accepted as the substitute for all the firstborn of men from the rest of the tribes. Possibly the cattle firstlings were redeemed, as the excess of human firstborn over the number of the firstborn of the Levites were, by the half-shekel atonement for each, which was payable at the census or periodical numbering of the people. It is probable that David’s omission of this payment was the sin which incurred God’s heavy displeasure in that unseasonable numbering of the people, which, in omitting the soul-tax for atonement, seemed numbered for David himself, and not for God. Be this as it may, the Lord claimed all the firstborn of their beasts, which were the staple property in the ruder forms of society.
III. The text presents its demand for consecrated time. We need not dwell upon the Sabbath, or the Divine claim upon the sevenths of our time. Assuming we are all agreed that this, the minimum of God’s requirement, is due from every man, we may deplore the manner in which, for the most part, even this holy debt is discharged. The abuse of the Sabbath and insubordination to its constantly recurring, bounden, and emphatic law, lies at the root of the national irreligion. There is a significancy in the proportion of the Divine demand of only a tenth of all other things, but a seventh of our time. (J. B. Owen, M. A.)
The Divine right to the best things of man
“It is Mine.” This is the language of God in reference to each one of us. It is Mine.
I. Because I created it.
II. Because I preserved it.
III. Because I endowed it with everything that makes it valuable. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The first born, types of Christ
I. As they were God’s peculiar.
1. By common nature,
2. By common grace.
3. By a special right.
(1) In His nature, Christ is Firstborn, as Son of God.
(2) In His office, by special prerogative.
(a) For the kind, in that He was Mediator, God and Man in unity of person, and the only Redeemer of His Church.
(b) For undertaking of His office.
(c) For the accomplishing His office, in His resurrection. He is called the First-begotten, or Firstborn of the dead, two ways:
(i) In respect of His Father, who first begot Him from the dead;
(ii)
In regard of Himself, whose privilege it was to raise up Himself from the dead by His own power.
II. The firstborn of Israel was the second, and next to the father of the family, yea, after the father instead of the father. So is Christ to His family, the Church; He performs all offices of a careful and tender father, and” takes on Him, not the affection only of a father, but even--
1. The name of a father (Isaiah 9:6).
2. The office of a father.
(1) He supplies the means of spiritual life, as they of natural.
(2) He nurtures and teacheth His Church.
(3) He provides for the present, and bestows the inheritance of eternal life.
III. The firstborn had the pre-eminence among the brethren, and were chief in office and authority, rulers in the house after their fathers, and priests in the family, before the Levitical order was established. Herein they were special types of Jesus Christ; who in all things must have the pre-eminence, as first in time, in order, in precedency, and in the excellency and dignity of His person.
IV. The firstborn had a double portion in goods (Deuteronomy 21:17). Signifying--
1. The plenitude of the spirit and grace in Christ, who was anointed with oil of gladness above His fellows.
2. The pre-eminency of Christ in His glorious inheritance, advanced in glory and majesty incomprehensible by all creatures. Use--
(1) Out of the occasion of the law of the firstborn, learn that the more God doth for any man, the more he ought to conceive himself to be the Lord’s, and the more right and interest the Lord challengeth in him.
(2) If Christ be the true firstborn, of whom all they are but types, we must give Him the honour of His birthright.
(3) Here is a ground of much consolation.
(a) In that Christ being the truth of the firstborn, from Him the birthright is derived unto us believers, as it was from Reuben unto Judah, and we partake of the same birthright with our head. For here is a difference between the type and truth of the firstborn. They had all their privileges for themselves: but Christ not for Himself but for us.
(b) Being God’s firstborn throughout, we are dear unto God.
(c) God takes notice, and avenges all wrongs done to the saints, because they are His firstborn.
(4) Seeing in Christ the firstborn we attain the birthright; let every Christian beware of profaneness, and passing away his birthright as Esau, who sold his birthright for pottage (Hebrews 12:16).
(5) Learn to grow in conformity with our Elder Brother Christ, with whom we cannot be equal, but like as brothers. We must be like Him in affection, like Him in affliction, like Him in the combat, and like Him in the crown. (T. Taylor, D. D.)
Consecrated to the Lord
When Bishop Selwyn spoke to Sir John Patteson, then a widower, of the desire of his splendidly gifted son, Coleridge, to join him in the New Zealand Mission, the father’s first exclamation was: “I cannot let him go!” but he immediately added, “God forbid I should stop him!” And he closed the conversation by saying: “Mind, I give him wholly, not with any thought of seeing him again. I will not have him thinking he must come home to see me.”
A consecrated child
A young man was about to enter the foreign missionary work. A gentleman said to the young man’s father, “It’s hard to give up the boy.” “Yes,” replied the father, “but it’s just what we’ve been expecting.” “How so?” inquired the friend. “When he was a little baby,” answered the father, “his mother and I went to a missionary meeting. An appeal, most earnest and touching, was made for men to become missionaries. We ourselves could not go. When we returned home the baby lay asleep in his crib. We went to the crib. His mother stood on one side, I on the other. We together laid our hands on his forehead, and prayed that it might be God’s will for him to become a foreign missionary. We never spoke to him of what we did. But all through these twenty-five years we have believed that our prayer about him would be answered, and answered it now is. Yes, it is hard to give up the boy, but it’s what we’ve been expecting.”