Redemption Money: What Is This? Text: Exodus 13:11-16
Introduction: The World Belongs to God
We live in an age that has forgotten the concept of ownership. Or rather, it has forgotten the ultimate Owner. Modern man struts about as though he is an autonomous creature, a self-made man, a little god who gets to define his own reality, his own morality, and his own identity. He believes he owns himself, and therefore owes nothing to anyone, least of all to the God he has tried so hard to forget. But the Scriptures begin with a thunderous declaration that obliterates this childish fantasy: "In the beginning, God created." And because He created it, He owns it. All of it. Every atom, every star, every animal, every person. You are not your own; you were bought with a price.
This is the fundamental truth that undergirds everything else. If you get this wrong, you get everything wrong. The conflict between the City of God and the City of Man is, at its root, a property dispute. The world, the flesh, and the devil all conspire to tell you that you are your own, that your children are your own, that your property is your own, and that you may do with it all as you please. But God, in His Word, lays an absolute and total claim to everything. The drama of the Exodus is the story of God reclaiming His property. Pharaoh thought Israel was his slave labor force. God corrected him: "Israel is my firstborn son" (Ex. 4:22). The final plague was not just an act of judgment; it was a legal transaction. God executed the firstborn of Egypt to purchase the firstborn of Israel. He claimed His people by right of conquest and by right of redemption.
The passage before us today is a covenantal statute, a memorial law, designed to bake this foundational truth into the very bones of Israel. It is a lesson in applied theology, a catechism for the home, a constant reminder of who they are because of who God is and what He has done. It is a lesson about ownership, substitution, and covenant memory. And like everything in the Old Testament, it is a shadow, a type, a finger pointing forward to the ultimate reality in Jesus Christ. Our secular world asks, "What is this?" with a sneer. God commands us to answer our children's honest questions with the glorious story of our redemption.
The Text
"And it will be when Yahweh brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, and you shall devote to Yahweh the first offspring of every womb and the first offspring of every beast that you own; the males belong to Yahweh. But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. And it will be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ then you shall say to him, ‘With a strong hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. And it happened, when Pharaoh hardened his heart with stiffness about letting us go, that Yahweh killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to Yahweh the males, the first offspring of every womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ So it will be as a sign on your hand and as phylacteries between your eyes, for with a strong hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt.”
(Exodus 13:11-16 LSB)
Covenant Claim and Consecration (v. 11-12)
We begin with the context of God's promise and His subsequent claim.
"And it will be when Yahweh brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, and you shall devote to Yahweh the first offspring of every womb and the first offspring of every beast that you own; the males belong to Yahweh." (Exodus 13:11-12)
Notice the flow of the logic here. The command is grounded in the faithfulness of God. "When Yahweh brings you..." This is an act of pure grace. God is giving them a land He swore to their fathers. This is not a wage they have earned; it is an inheritance He is bestowing. And because He gives them everything, He has the right to claim the first portion of everything. The land is His gift, and the life that springs forth from that land is His possession.
The principle is this: God claims the firstborn. "The males belong to Yahweh." This is a declaration of total ownership. The firstborn, in the ancient world, represented the whole. He was the strength, the beginning of the family's future, the heir. By claiming the first, God was claiming everything that followed. It was a token payment that acknowledged His ownership of the entire estate. This is the principle of firstfruits. When you give God the first, you are acknowledging that He is the source of the rest.
This law was a direct polemic against the pagan gods of Canaan, particularly the child-devouring Molech. The Canaanites sacrificed their firstborn in fire to appease their bloodthirsty deities, hoping to secure blessings on the rest of their family and crops. God is showing a stark contrast. He does not demand the bloody death of Israel's sons. He claims them, yes, but He provides a way of redemption. His claim establishes life and blessing, not death and terror. He is not a cosmic tyrant to be bribed, but a covenant Lord to be worshiped.
The Logic of Redemption (v. 13)
Verse 13 gives us the mechanics of this claim, and it is here that the gospel begins to shine through with startling clarity.
"But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem." (Exodus 13:13 LSB)
Here we have the central mechanism of the covenant of grace: substitution. The firstborn belongs to God. This means it is forfeit; it must be given over. For clean animals, like a lamb or a calf, this meant being sacrificed on the altar. But for an unclean animal, like a donkey, or for a human son, sacrifice was not an option. God does not desire human sacrifice, and an unclean animal was unfit for His altar. So what is the solution? Redemption.
To redeem means to buy back. The donkey is God's property. The son is God's property. If you want to keep them for your own use, you must pay the redemption price. And what is the price? A lamb. A clean, acceptable substitute takes the place of the unclean and condemned. The lamb dies so the donkey may live and work. A price is paid so the son may live and serve his family.
But notice the stark alternative. "If you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck." There is no third option. Either a substitute dies in its place, or it dies itself. God's claim must be satisfied. Justice must be done. The debt must be paid. Either the redeemer pays it, or the sinner pays it. This is the logic of the cross in a nutshell. Either the Lamb of God dies for you, or you will die in your sins. There is no middle ground. To refuse redemption is to choose destruction.
Catechism in the Home (v. 14-15)
God does not intend for these laws to be dry, dusty regulations. He intends for them to be conversation starters, teaching tools for the next generation.
"And it will be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ then you shall say to him, ‘With a strong hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. And it happened, when Pharaoh hardened his heart with stiffness about letting us go, that Yahweh killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to Yahweh the males, the first offspring of every womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.’" (Exodus 13:14-15 LSB)
This is the blueprint for covenantal education. The rituals are designed to provoke questions. A little boy sees his father take a lamb to the priest to redeem his newborn brother and asks, "Dad, what is this? Why are we doing this?" The question is the open door. And the father is commanded to walk through it, not with a lecture on abstract theology, but with a story. "Let me tell you who we are. We were slaves. We were owned by a tyrant in a land of death. But Yahweh, our God, came for us with a strong hand."
The answer is rooted in history. Our faith is not a collection of good ideas; it is based on mighty acts of God in time and space. The father recounts the tenth plague. God passed through Egypt and laid claim to every firstborn. The firstborn of the Egyptians, who had no substitute, were slain. The firstborn of Israel, who were covered by the blood of a substitute lamb on their doorposts, were spared. They were passed over.
Therefore, the father concludes, this is why we do what we do. "Therefore, I sacrifice... but every firstborn of my sons I redeem." Our worship, our obedience, is a response to our redemption. We give God the firstborn animals because He owns them. We buy back our firstborn sons because He owns them too, and He bought them for Himself out of Egypt with the blood of the Egyptians and the blood of the Passover lamb. Every time a son is redeemed, the entire story of the Exodus is retold and reapplied. This is how faith is passed down: not through osmosis, but through intentional, story-shaped instruction.
Embodied Theology (v. 16)
Finally, God explains the purpose of this entire ordinance. It is to be a permanent, physical reminder of their identity.
"So it will be as a sign on your hand and as phylacteries between your eyes, for with a strong hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:16 LSB)
This is not yet a command to create the little leather boxes that the Pharisees would later parade about for show. The meaning here is metaphorical, as it is in Deuteronomy 6. The truth of their redemption is to govern everything they do (the hand) and everything they think (between the eyes). It is to be the lens through which they see the world and the motivation for all their actions. When you lift your hand to work, you are to remember that this hand was freed by God to work for His glory. When you consider a matter in your mind, you are to remember that this mind was liberated from the darkness of Egypt to think God's thoughts after Him.
Your identity as a redeemed people is to be as plain and obvious as something tied to your forehead. It is your worldview. It is the banner under which you live. What is the central creed, the summary statement? "For with a strong hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt." This is the gospel in its Old Testament form. Everything circles back to this mighty act of salvation. This is who God is. This is who we are. This is why we live the way we do.
The Firstborn of All Creation
As with all Old Testament shadows, this entire chapter is a magnificent portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ. If an Israelite son were to ask, "What is this?" we can now give him the complete answer.
God has always claimed the firstborn. And so, when God determined to redeem the whole world, He sent His Firstborn Son. Jesus is called "the firstborn of all creation" (Col. 1:15) and "the firstborn from the dead" (Col. 1:18). He is the one who represents the whole, the heir of all things.
We, like the firstborn sons of Israel, were forfeit. We were unclean. We belonged to God by right of creation, but we were enslaved to sin and death, a much greater Egypt. We stood under the sentence of condemnation. A price had to be paid. A substitute had to be found. And God, in His infinite mercy, provided the Lamb. John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and declared, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).
Jesus is the ultimate redemption price. He is the Lamb who was slain so that the unclean, the sons of Adam, might be bought back. On the cross, God did not spare His own Son. The judgment that passed over the houses of Israel fell in full force upon Christ. He was not redeemed; His neck was, figuratively, broken. He was crushed for our iniquities so that we could be redeemed, bought back from slavery and adopted as sons.
And now, this gospel is to be the sign on our hands and the frontlets between our eyes. It is to define our every action and our every thought. When our children, or our unbelieving neighbors, look at our lives, at our families, at our worship, and ask, "What is this? Why are you so different?" we have our answer ready. We must tell them the story. "With a strong hand, God has brought us out of the house of slavery to sin and death, through the death and resurrection of His Firstborn Son, Jesus Christ. We were forfeit, but He was our substitute. We were owned by sin, but now we belong to Him. Therefore, we live for Him."