One week ago, our daughter gave birth to her firstborn, a son. It just so happened that as I’ve been reading through the Bible, the timing of his birth overlapped perfectly with scripture. I love the way God highlights things in His Word as they pertain to my everyday life. I read with new eyes the passages about Abraham and Isaac, the birth of Moses, and the first Passover. God led Jocabed, mother of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to take a crazy chance to preserve the life of her son when she floated him out into the rushes along the Nile. Her faith in God carried her and she was given wages to nurse her own son for Pharoah’s daughter for a time.
When I really stop to think about the life of this woman of faith, I am reminded of something my own mother shared with me when my children were small. She reminded me that each child entrusted to me belongs first to God. I love them with a mother’s love, but their Heavenly Father loves them with an everlasting love! I may have big dreams for their lives, but God knew the number of their days before the first one began. I trust my life to God. I can trust the lives of my children to Him also. As a symbol of this trust, my husband and I dedicated each of our children to the Lord.
When the Israelites journeyed toward the promised land, God met with them and gave them a new way of life. This people who had only ever known slavery now walked in exclusive relationship with the God of the universe and His law was given to remind them of their new identity in Him. In order that they would never forget how He saved them when the angel of death passed over Egypt on the night of their departure, he gave them this command.
“Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.” You are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord…Redeem every firstborn among your sons.”
Exodus 13:2, 12-13 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.13.2-13.NIV
Redeem- to save, rescue or buy back. God claimed the firstborn as His own. Redemption is God’s idea from start to finish. He sent the ram to take the place of Isaac as a sacrifice. He told the Israelites to put the blood of a lamb on the door posts of their houses when the angel of death passed by, and He gave His one and only Son for my sin on the cross.
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
Romans 8:29-32 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.8.29-32.NIV
“When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.””
Luke 2:22-24 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/luk.2.22-24.NIV
In keeping God’s command, Joseph and Mary redeemed the One who was born to redeem them. Tonight, I hold my first grandson in my arms. As I look into his tiny, precious face, I imagine what Mary must have felt as the shepherds knelt in worship. There’s no way she could have imagined all that her firstborn would face, but she trusted God on that first night and on many others, and that trust would sustain her.
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
Luke 2:19 NIV
I’ve forgotten so much of my children’s earliest days that I thought I’d never forget, but one thing I will always remember- they belong first to God. Abraham and Sarah knew this. Jocabed knew it. Mary knew it too. I’m so thankful that my daughter and her husband acknowledge this truth as well.
Thank You, God, that they can trust You with their firstborn. Thank You for this gift of life that you’ve entrusted to them. Guide and protect them, guarding their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as they teach their boy to follow You. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
A Fitting Reply 