Bible Commentaries

Exodus 13:14-17

The Book of Exodus introduces that new epoch in the scriptural history of sacrifices when they began to be regulated by fixed laws, to be part of a national economy.

I. The offering of the firstborn was the dedication and consecration of the whole Jewish nation. The firstborn represented its strength, its vitality, its endurance. This act signified that its strength lay only in its dependence on God's strength, that its vitality came from the life which is in Him, that it would endure from generation to generation, because He is the same and His years fail not.

The calling of the Israelites was the calling to confess a Redeemer of Israel, a righteous Being who had brought out their fathers from the house of bondage.

II. Moses taught the people that by looking upon themselves as beings surrendered and sacrificed to the God of truth, the Deliverer of men, by feeling that they held all the powers of their minds and bodies as instruments for the great work in which He is engaged,—thus they might be a nation indeed, one which would be a pattern to the nations, one which, in due time, would break the chains which bound them to visible and invisible oppressors.

III. When once we understand that we are witnesses for God, and do His work, self-sacrifice can never be an ambitious thing—a fine way to get the reputation of saints or the rewards of another world. It will be regarded as the true ground of all action; that on which all the blessed relations of life stand; that which is at the same time the only impulse to and security for the hard and rough work of the world.

F. D. Maurice, The Doctrine of Sacrifice deduced from the Scriptures, p. 49.

References: Exodus 13:17, Exodus 13:18.—J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp, p. 83; W. Landels, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 184; G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 6. Exodus 13:17-19.—Parker, vol. ii., p. 316. 13:17-14:4.—Expositor, 2nd series, vol. vi., p. 448.

Exodus 13:18

These words expound to us a whole philosophy of life. The way of the wilderness has become a household word in Christendom, and this decision of Jehovah is the proclamation of the law of man's earthly life. God leads none of us by the rapid and easy path to knowledge, fortune, or happiness. The short way might bring us to rest and glory sooner, but the rest would relax and the glory blind us. We travel by a longer, harder path; that muscle may be disciplined by toil, courage assured by conquest and self-government, studied in many a season of shame and pain. Then the crown will fit us, rest will be calm and noble activity, and glory we shall wear like kings.

Among the special reasons why the Israelites were guided by the way of the wilderness, the following may be noted:—

I. They had been sated with the magnificence of man's works; God led them forth into the wilderness to show them His works in their native grandeur, and to refresh their exhausted hearts and spirits by the vision of the splendour of His world.

II. God led them forth by the way of the wilderness that He might reveal not nature only, but Himself. He led them into the wilderness, as He leads us, that He might meet with them, speak with them, reveal Himself to them, and teach them to know themselves in knowing Him.

III. God led them into the wilderness that He might there cultivate their manly qualities, and fit them to hold the possessions they might win.

J. Baldwin Brown, The Soul's Exodus and Pilgrimage, p. 58.

References: Exodus 13:19.—Parker, vol. ii., p. 316. Exodus 13:21.—J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp, p. 309. Exodus 13:21, Exodus 13:22.—J. Hamilton, Works, vol. v., p. 154. Exodus 13:22.—J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 391. 13—Parker, vol. ii., p. 82. 14—Expositor, 2nd series, vol. v., pp. 281, 442, vol. vi., pp. 232, 448. Exodus 14:10.—Parker, vol. ii., p. 92.