What Can We Learn From Rituals?
So today’s passage is about rituals, and I don’t know exactly what you think when you hear the word “ritual” but my guess is that it does not sound super exciting to you. The idea of a ritual — and especially an ancient ritual that we don’t celebrate today — it probably feels irrelevant and disconnected to where you live … and that’s because most of us, I think, are mainly just trying to make it.
How are we going to get through Monday? That’s the kind of question a lot of us have.
How are we going to afford our rent?
How are we supposed to raise our kids?
How do we know which career path to take?
How do we know we’re not making a mistake today that 20 years from now we’re going to look back on and regret?
How do we build meaningful friendships, and love our neighbors, and not waste our lives?
How do we break through the clouds of sadness that might surround us and experience the joy of the Lord that we hear so much about?
These are the kind of questions we have, but this morning we’re talking about rituals — because rituals are what we have in Exodus Chapter 13. But here’s the thing: I believe this chapter is one of those occasions where the answers we most need are found in the places we least expect.
And I say that because in this passage of rituals, there are at least three lessons we see that could change the way we live. We’re going to look at these three lessons this morning. Let me go ahead and just tell you what they are:
Worship is the goal
Freedom means saying no
Your future will cost you everything
We’re going to spend some time on each of these. Let’s pray and we’ll get started.
Father in heaven, in this moment we humble ourselves before you and ask that you would speak to us according to your will. We don’t come here demanding answers, but we come listening, with open hearts, and we trust that you have good for your people. Have your way, our God, in Jesus’s name, amen.
1) Worship is the goal.
The first thing we should do is take a step back and remember the context of what’s going on in Chapter 13. Remember that this is immediately after the 10th plague when all the firstborn sons of Egypt were killed — these were all the sons in the houses that didn’t have the blood on their doorpost. And then that’s when Pharaoh finally lets the people of Israel go. At the end of Chapter 12 we see that a mixed multitude of Israel — which means Israel and others who feared God and all their animals — are actually walking out of Egypt. This is the moment of the literal exodus. Israel is exiting the land of Egypt.
In the Middle of the Action
And it’s on this day, in this moment, that Yahweh commands and institutes three rituals we read about in Chapters 12 and 13. There are two rituals in Chapter 13, but if we look back at Chapter 12, overall there are three rituals:
In Chapter 12 is the Passover.
In Chapter 13 is the Feast of Unleavened Bread; and the Consecration of the Firstborn.
Altogether these are three rituals, and they are instituted right in the middle of the story’s most intense action.
When Yahweh is going house to house slaying the firstborns, when there are screams happening all throughout the land of Egypt, and the people of Israel are getting ready to walk out of the most powerful nation in the world that has enslaved them for 430 years — when all this is going on — Yahweh prescribes three things that he wants the people of Israel to do every year for the rest of their life as a nation.
This Special Week in Abib
These three things together make one, big, week-long celebration, and I think it’d be helpful for us to just get a sense of what this week-long celebration looks like. So for just a minute here I want to walk through how these rituals fit together and what this week would be like. Going forward for Israel, this is how it’s supposed to go.
This is the first month of the year. It’s the month called Abib (which corresponds to our March or April) — basically, Israel’s first month of the year is the first month spring. And on the 10th of that month each household acquires a lamb, and they keep the lamb for four days, and then on the 14th, they kill the lamb at twilight as a sacrifice. That’s the Passover (see Exodus 12:3–6).
And then on the next day, the 15th, all Israel assembles together and they start the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now leaven is the ingredient in bread that makes the bread rise and taste good — so beginning with the Passover on the 14th, the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the 15th and the people of Israel eat bread without any leaven over the next seven days — and then on the 21st, after a week, they all assemble together again and they conclude the Feast of Unleavened Bread (see Exodus 12:14–20; 13:3–10).
And it’s at this same time that there is the consecration of the firstborn. This is when all the firstborn males of the sacrificial animals are sacrificed to the Lord (the firstborn of non-sacrificial animals like donkeys are redeemed by sacrificing lambs in their place). And all the firstborn sons are redeemed by also sacrificing lambs in their place. So rather than kill a firstborn son, a lamb becomes his substitute (see Exodus 13:2, 11–16).
And that’s the week — it starts on the 14th and goes through the 21st — and Israel is supposed to observe this forever: The Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the consecration of the firstborn — and of course each of these rituals find their origin in the exodus. Each of these are connected to how Yahweh rescued Israel from Egypt — and we’re going to come back to that — but there is something deeper going on here I want us see.
The Deeper Reality of Worship
It’s the fact that these are rituals. God tells Israel to do these ceremonies. He gives them a tradition to repeat every year. He doesn’t just say to Israel: Hey, Israel, don’t forget about what I’ve done for you — but he actually gives Israel a way to remember what he’s done for them every year at the beginning of the year. God gives Israel a new calendar even, and it starts with these rituals. This means that Israel’s new year always starts with remembering what Yahweh has done.
And I think it’s important that Yahweh commands these rituals right in the middle of the action. He doesn’t wait for all the dust to settle. Now he is looking forward to when Israel enters into the Promised Land, but he goes ahead here, right in the thick of the rescue, and he tells Israel how to remember the rescue. As God is acting on behalf of Israel he is also telling Israel how they are supposed to relate to him in light of that action.
Which means, overall, this passage teaches us something about worship. We see that worship is the goal.
The ultimate goal is not that Israel be simply out of Egypt, or freed from slavery, or away from Pharaoh, but the ultimate goal is that Israel worship Yahweh — which is what Yahweh is saying to them as he is saving them.
Remember worship is how this whole thing started.
Back in Chapter 5 in that very first conversation between Moses and Pharaoh, Moses told Pharaoh to let Israel go — for what? It was because Yahweh wanted to feast with his people. He wanted to have a worship service. Worship has been the goal the whole time, and worship is always the goal. Even today. This matters for us.
Because as a church our mission is to make disciples — because that’s what Jesus tells us to do. We want to make disciples of Jesus from all nations. But when we say disciples — when we’re talking about what it means to follow Jesus — the first identity-marker of a disciple is a worshiper. Disciples of Jesus worship Jesus — and it’s worship that endures when everything else is said and done.
There are a lot of things going on right now, in the world, in our church, in our lives — there are all kinds of things going on, and all kinds of good things — but all of it is moving toward one great end, and that’s the worship of Yahweh.
And this worship brings together the past, present, and future. We know that looking backwards is important. Israel is supposed to remember what God has done in the past — but the point of remembering God’s past faithfulness is for them to have hope in the present.
It’s because of what God has done, that we can be here now and face tomorrow. And in worship that is what we’re doing.
We are not just reminding ourselves of God’s faithfulness, but in a sense we are reminding God — we are saying to him this is what you’ve done; this is what you said. This is why worship has an aspect of renewal to it. We are remembering and renewing God’s faithfulness to us.
And that should look like a feast! It should look like the gladness of people in the greatness of God. We want joy in the air! Because worship is a feast in the glory of God — and that’s what Yahweh has wanted from the very start. And ultimately everything is taking of here. Worship is the goal.
That’s one thing we learn here. Here’s the second.
2) Freedom means saying no.
I want us to look closer for a minute at the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Moses first talks about this in Chapter 12, and then again here in Chapter 13, and it’s pretty straightforward: To remember the exodus, every year for one week the people of Israel are to eat unleavened bread. And we know for sure that this is directly connected to the exodus because in verse 8, in the future, when a son asks his dad: Hey, dad, why are we eating this unleavened bread?
The dad is supposed to say, Because of what Yahweh did for me when I came out of Egypt.
And I don’t know about you, but to me that kind of feels like one of those dad-answers that leaves you hanging. You know what I’m talking about?
Hey, Dad, why do I need to change my socks everyday? // Because it’s good.
Hey, Dad, why do you want me to clean my room? // Because you need to.
Hey, Dad, why are we eating this bad bread? // Because God saved us.
What Is the Point of No Leaven?
Now we might assume that this Jewish dad explains more to his son about the unleavened bread, but here in the text we don’t see that explanation. We don’t know exactly what the unleavened bread has to do with the exodus —
It’s because God rescued us from Egypt with a strong hand.
Okay, but still, why no leaven?
It’s because in the Passover, when God rescued us, we ate bread with no leaven.
Well, okay, but why was that?
If the kid in verse 8 is like most kids, he wants to know the why to the why. Why, really, are we doing this no leaven?
It has to do with what the leaven represents.
Within the Bible, in most cases, when leaven is mentioned it’s a symbol of sin. Remember Jesus told the disciples to “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (see Matthew 16:6). And the disciples at first didn’t understand what Jesus meant. They thought Jesus was just talking about bread, so Jesus had to tell them: I’m not talking about bread, I’m talking about the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Their leaven is their sin and hypocrisy (see Luke 12:1). Leaven is a symbol of sin.
And then we really see this come through in 1 Corinthians 5.
How Paul Understands the Unleavened Bread
In 1 Corinthians 5, the context is that a church member has been living in unrepentant sin, and Paul exhorts the church to excommunicate this member. Paul says, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” — leaven here is a symbol of sin, and the one person’s sin is like leaven to the whole congregation. It affects the whole church.
And so Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:7, “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.” Paul is saying: get rid of the sin in your midst because that is no more. Now you are new. Now you really are unleavened. And then right after that sentence Paul says, “For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.”
This means there’s no doubt that in 1 Corinthians 5 Paul has Exodus 13 in mind. Paul is thinking about the Feast of Unleavened Bread and he makes that his argument for why a church and its members cleanse themselves from sin.
And then Paul says in verse 8: “Let us therefore celebrate the festival.” Paul is speaking to the church —Paul is talking to us — and he tells us to celebrate, to keep, the festival — he’s talking about the Feast of Unleavened Bread!
We’re supposed to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread! So see, Exodus 13 is relevant!
But here’s the thing: the Feast of Unleavened Bread today, in the life of the church today, this feast takes on its true spiritual meaning. Paul says, “Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” That’s the point. That’s what the unleavened bread is all about.
So in the New Testament, for the church, the apostle Paul looks back at our passage here in Exodus 13 and he sees that leaven represents what is sinful and passed away, and unleavened represents what is holy and new. So church, put away the leaven; you are unleavened!
And then some of our kids say: Dad, how does Paul make that connection?
How does Paul get that from Exodus 13?
The Purification Symbolism
And I think Paul understands the unleavened bread this way because in Exodus 13 the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a seven-day ritual, and all other seven-day rituals in the Old Testament are purification rituals. If someone touches a dead body, there is a seven-day purification ritual (see Numbers 19:11). For someone to be cleansed of leprosy, there is a seven-day purification ritual (see Leviticus 14:1–9). If a woman gives birth to a son, there is a seven-day purification ritual (see Leviticus 12:2).
And in Exodus 13, Yahweh gives new birth to a nation, and so there is a seven-day purification ritual.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread has a sanctifying, purifying symbolism.
In the exodus, when Yahweh gives Israel a new beginning, it means that they are leaving something behind. The absence of leaven is supposed to highlight this break. We’re going to walk out of here free, but freedom means we are turning away from something else. Freedom means we need to be like Moses and forsake the fleeting pleasures of sin; we need to consider God’s promises greater than the wealth of Egypt (see Hebrews 11:24–26). Freedom means saying no.
That’s why there’s no leaven.
And you can’t have the freedom any other way.
Leaving the Sin Behind
In Exodus 12, verse 15, Moses says that if anyone eats leaven that person shall be cut off from Israel. If you will be made new, you will be unleavened. You cannot have Jesus and your sin.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread is about that.
That’s what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 5.
We’re not in Egypt anymore, son. Church! That’s not who we are. We left that behind. Yahweh has done a new thing here. Freedom means saying no.
3. Your future will cost you everything.
So another question in this passage is about why the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the consecration of the firstborn are so intertwined. What is the connection between the two? I think the answer is in understanding this feast as a purification ritual and in understanding the exodus as the new birth of Israel — that’s why we see the consecration of the firstborn here.
In the ancient world, the firstborn son represented the strength and authority of the father and his family. In Deuteronomy 21 the firstborn son is called the “firstfruits of [his father’s] strength” — and the firstborn son actually received a double portion of his father’s inheritance (see Deuteronomy 21:17). Basically, the family’ entire hope was bound up in the firstborn son. The firstborn was the symbol of the family’s significance in the world. One way to say it is that the firstborn son was the family’s future.
Yahweh Wants Your Future
That helps us understand the meaning of Exodus 4:22 where Yahweh says, “Israel is my firstborn son.” Israel was meant to be the witness of Yahweh to the surrounding world. Israel was Yahweh’s plan to save a people from all nations, but of course Israel was captive in Egypt, and that was a problem. So for Israel to truly live out their identity as Yahweh’s firstborn son, they had to be set free. So Yahweh does that. And Yahweh makes a statement in how he does that.
Yahweh’s firstborn son would be freed — the nation was basically born again — but all the firstborns sons of Egypt would be slain. So the entire nation of Egypt was put in their place, the entire nation of Israel was stepping into a new calling.
The Passover is a new birth; the feast is a purification; and then Yahweh says: Give me your firstborn sons.
See, Israel has his new calling; they have this promised future with God, but that future will cost them something. What does it cost? Everything.
Israel knows the only reason they have their sons is because of Yahweh’s rescue. It’s because we put the blood on our door. We are saved by Yahweh, and therefore we belong to Yahweh — so here, Yahweh, we’re yours.
And they understand that he says Give me your firstborn son — he’s saying, Give me your future.
They know what he’s saying.
God has given us these sons; he has given us our future — and now we give it to him. Our future is in his hands.
And in a word, this is called faith, and father Abraham knows all about it.
Abraham at the Altar
Think about the story of Abraham back in the book of Genesis. Remember that God promised Abraham that he would make him a great nation, that his offspring would outnumber the stars, and that through his family all the families of the earth would be blessed. The only problem was that Abraham and Sarah could not have children. And then after years and years of waiting, finally God gives them Isaac. Isaac is the promised son — he’s the one through whom all God’s promises hinge. But do you remember what God says in Genesis 22?
God tells Abraham to go and lay Isaac on the altar. God had given Abraham a son, he gave him a future, but then he says, Now give it to me.
And this doesn’t make sense to us — because if Abraham sacrifices the promised son, how will the promises come true? It doesn’t make sense.
But it doesn’t really matter. God says to Abraham: Give him to me, trust me, and so Abraham does. And Hebrews 11 tells us that’s faith (see Heb. 11:19).
Isaac is on the altar. Abraham’s future is on the altar. And in the moment, when Abraham’s hand is lifted with the knife, God stops him and says Okay, Abraham, enough. Don’t hurt the boy. You’ve given him to me. And Abraham looks up, and just a little ways over there is a ram caught in the thicket, and instead of sacrificing his son, Abraham sacrifices the ram — and do you remember what Abraham called that place? He called it “Yahweh will provide.” And he does.
If you give Yahweh your firstborn son — if you give Yahweh your future, he will provide. He will make a way … a ram caught in the thicket, blood on the doorposts, a lamb as the substitute.
He Will Provide the Lamb
Isn’t this amazing? We see this theme of blood and substitution. God says: Give me your all, and I will provide the sacrifice in your place. Give me your all, and I will provide the lamb.
Do you remember when Abraham said that to Isaac? They are walking to the altar, and Isaac has the fire and the wood, but he says, Dad, where’s the sacrifice? Abraham says, God will provide the lamb.
Church, God has provided the lamb. “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”
So your future will cost you everything, and your future will cost you nothing — because Jesus has died in your place. Give your future to God to receive your future from God. God has provided you a lamb.
Look, I don’t know exactly what questions you bring in here this morning. I don’t know all the challenges that might be weighing on you in this moment, but I want to tell you the greatest news in all the world. It’s that Jesus has died for you. Jesus has died in your place. And you can trust him with your everything.
That’s what we’re doing at this Table each week — this ritual.
The Table
The Lord’s Table is a new covenant ritual and when we celebrate this ritual we are remembering and renewing God’s faithfulness to us seen most vividly in the cross of Jesus.
At this Table, we remember that Jesus, the Lamb of God, has been sacrificed for us, and our future belongs to him. So we eat the bread and drink the cup in that faith. And this morning, if you share that faith, if Jesus is your substitute, we invite you to eat and drink with us.
The Bread
We will serve the bread first. You can take it and hold, and then we’ll eat it all together.
His body is the true bread.
The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
The Cup
As we prepare for the cup, we have a couple options. Grace juice is the outer ring. Everything else is wine. His blood is the true drink. Let us serve you.
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. Amen.
