Exodus 13:8
And on that day you are to explain to your son, 'This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'
Sermons
The Sanctification of the First-BornJ. Orr Exodus 13:1-3, 11-17
Remember This DayJ. Orr Exodus 13:3-11
How to Declare God's SalvationJ. Urquhart Exodus 13:3-16
Importance of Commemorative Days and OrdinancesExodus 13:8-10
LessonsG. Hughes, B. D.Exodus 13:8-10
Truth EmbodiedJ. A. Froude.Exodus 13:8-10














The exhortation in these verses may very well be applied to Christians. They are to remember the fact add the might of their redemption. They are to commemorate it by observance of appointed ordinances. They are to beware of forgetting it in days of prosperity. They are to show their remembrance of it by a holy walk, and by due instruction of their children.

I. REMEMBER THE FACT AND THE MIGHT OF YOUR REDEMPTION.

1. The fact of it (vers. 3-8). How Jesus has brought you up "out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay" (Psalm 40:1); has redeemed you from the law's curse, from Satan's tyranny, from a condition of wrath, and from spiritual death; has introduced you into the liberty of God's children, and started you on your journey to an everlasting and glorious inheritance. Redemption from the thraldom of Pharaoh sinks into insignificance as compared with this "so great salvation." If Israel was summoned to remember the day on which they came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, much more is it the duty of Christians to remember what great things God has done for them.

2. The might of it. "By strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place" (vers. 3, 9, 14). They were to remember this as enhancing their sense of the greatness of their redemption, and as affording a pledge that God was able to accomplish all else that he had promised (ver. 5). The might expended in the Christian redemption is not less, but greater, than in the exodus from Egypt. It does not detract from its greatness that it is chiefly moral strength - power exerted in overcoming evil, in producing moral effects in the minds and consciences of men, and in making them new creatures in Christ Jesus. Redemption has both its objective and its subjective sides, and in both is displayed the power of God. God's might is seen in the upholding of Christ; in the victories which, while on earth, he was enabled to gain over the powers of evil; in the gigantic triumph of the Cross; and in the spiritual effects produced since, through eighteen centuries, by the preaching of his Gospel; in the regeneration of souls, in the strength given to his servants to do spiritual work, in the victory whereby they overcome the world.

II. BEWARE OF FORGETTING YOUR REDEMPTION IN THE DAYS OF YOUR PROSPERITY, ver. 15. Prosperity has a subtle influence in leading away the heart from God. When men have eaten, and are full (Deuteronomy 8:12-18), they are very apt to grow haughty and self-sufficient. This danger is one to be jealously watched against.

III. SHOW THAT YOU REMEMBER YOUR REDEMPTION BY DOING THE THINGS THAT GOD COMMANDS.

1. By observing his ordinances. The special ordinance here alluded to is the feast of unleavened bread - a sequel to the passover (vers. 3-10). Christians are to observe the Lord's Supper.

2. By a holy life. The observance of the outward ordinance would be valueless if that which it spiritually represented was lost sight of, viz., the need of a walk in "newness of life." We are to "keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:7). To this end has Christ redeemed us, that we may walk in holiness (Romans 6:4-7; Ephesians 5:25-28; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:18).

3. By instruction of children. God lays stress on this (vers. 8-14; cf. Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Deuteronomy 11:18-22). It is his chief way of perpetuating a holy seed. The responsibility of instruction rests primarily on the parent. No task should be more delightful to him, or should be discharged more faithfully. If the parent is willing, many opportunities will present themselves. A child's curiosity is ever active. The ordinances of the Church will furnish starting-points for conversation. We have in these verses, and elsewhere in the book, specimens of the instruction that is to be given. - J.O.

Show thy son in that day.
1. The instruction of children is a duty upon parents.

2. God commands continuance of ordinances for instruction of posterity.

3. The reason of God's ordinances must be understood by parents and children (ver. 8).

4. Sacramental signs, and memorials of God, He is pleased to give His Church.

5. God would have these signal memorials at hand and before the eyes of His.

6. The Passover was a true sacramental sign and seal of God's covenant.

7. By sacraments rightly used God's covenant is confirmed on hearts and in profession.

8. God's mighty gracious redemption is a just cause of such memorials (ver. 9).

9. God's sacraments are His statutes and positive laws.

10. It is God s prerogative, to make anniversary memorials of His mercies (ver. 10).

(G. Hughes, B. D.)

As the soul is clothed in flesh, and only thus is able to perform its functions in this earth, where it is sent to live; as the thought must find a word before it can pass from mind to mind; so every great truth seeks some body, some outward form, in which to exhibit its powers. It appears in the world, and men lay hold of it, and represent it to themselves, in histories, in forms of words, in sacramental symbols; and these things, which in their proper nature are but illustrations, stiffen into essential fact, and become part of the reality.

(J. A. Froude.)

The following sentence is attributed to Voltaire: — "I despair of destroying Christianity in any country, so long as millions of human beings meet on Sunday to worship God." Many things have been fathered on Voltaire of which he never heard, but if he really said or wrote this he uttered an unusually sensible thing. It is curious that sceptical writers have regarded so little the testimony of Christian rites to the facts with which they are indissolubly connected. How did the Lord's Supper and the Lord's Day come to be established institutions? Rites and observances do not establish and perpetuate themselves. The origin of these two Christian institutions can only be explained by their connection with the events they commemorate. If the written records of the apostolic age could be blotted from the memory of man, the Lord's Supper would still bear testimony to Christ's death for man's salvation, as the Lord's Day would eloquently witness to His resurrection from the dead.

People
Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Hivite, Hivites, Israelites, Jebusites, Joseph, Moses, Pharaoh
Places
Etham, Red Sea, Succoth
Topics
Declared, Egypt, Forth, Hast, Inform, Saying
Outline
1. The firstborn are sanctified to God
3. The memorial of the Passover is commanded
11. The firstborn of man and beast are set apart
17. The Israelites go out of Egypt, and carry Joseph's bones with them.
20. They come to Etham
21. God guides them by a pillar of a cloud, and a pillar of fire

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Exodus 13:8

     5658   boys

Exodus 13:1-10

     8644   commemoration

Exodus 13:1-16

     7410   phylactery

Exodus 13:3-10

     8467   reminders

Exodus 13:6-8

     5302   education

Exodus 13:8-10

     6659   freedom, acts in OT

Library
Thought, Deed, Word
'It shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth.'--EXODUS xiii. 9. The question may be asked, whether this command is to be taken metaphorically or literally. No doubt the remembrance of the great deliverance was intrusted to acts. Besides the annual Passover feasts, inscriptions on the door-posts and fringes on the dress were appointed for this purpose. And the Jews from a very early period, certainly before our Lord's
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Fifth Day. Holiness and Redemption.
Sanctify unto me all the first-born.'--Ex. xiii. 2. 'All the first-born are mine; for on the day I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt I sanctified unto me all the first-born in Israel: mine they shall be: I am the Lord.'--Num. iii. 13, viii. 17. 'For I am the Lord your God that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.'--Lev. xi. 45. 'I have redeemed thee; thou art mine.'--Isa. xliii. 1. At Horeb we saw how the
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

June the Tenth Pillars of Cloud and Fire
"The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud." --EXODUS xiii. 17--xiv. 4. I need His leadership in the daytime. Sometimes the daylight is my foe. It tempts me into carelessness. I become the victim of distraction. The "garish day" can entice me into ways of trespass, and I am robbed of my spiritual health. Many a man has been faithful in the twilight and night who has lost himself in the sunshine. He went astray in his prosperity: success was his ruin. And so in the daytime I need the
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

The Personality of Power.
A Personally Conducted Journey. Everyone enjoys the pleasure of travel; but nearly all shrink back from its tiresomeness and drudgery. The transportation companies are constantly scheming to overcome this disagreeable side for both pleasure and business travel. One of the popular ways of pleasure travel of late is by means of personally conducted tours. A party is formed, often by the railroad company, and is accompanied by a special agent to attend to all the business matters of the trip. A variation
S.D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on Power

"The Lord Hath Need of Him. " Mark xi, 3
What! of an Ass? Yes, "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world." He gets renown to Himself by "using things which are despised." Let us never despair of the most foolish of men, if he become the servant of Jesus. It is said of the great John Hunt, that when a young man, he gave no promise of the talents he shewed in the work of the Ministry. We have spoken with one who knew him before his conversion, who made us smile as he described his gait and style of life. Yet this ungainly ploughboy
Thomas Champness—Broken Bread

Entangled in the Land
"For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in."--Exodus 14:3. ISRAEL WAS CLEAN escaped from Egypt. Not a hoof of their cattle was left behind; nor foot of child or aged man remained in the house of bondage. But though they were gone, they were not forgotten by the tyrant who had enslaved them. They had been a very useful body of workers; for they had built treasure cities and storehouses for Pharaoh. Compelled to work without wages,
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

Letter xxxvi. To Pope Damasus.
Jerome's reply to the foregoing. For the second and fourth questions he refers Damasus to the writings of Tertullian, Novatian, and Origen. The remaining three he deals with in detail. Gen. iv. 15, he understands to mean "the slayer of Cain shall complete the sevenfold vengeance which is to be wreaked upon him." Exodus xiii. 18, he proposes to reconcile with Gen. xv. 16, by supposing that in the one place the tribe of Levi is referred to, in the other the tribe of Judah. He suggests, however, that
St. Jerome—The Principal Works of St. Jerome

Letter xxxv. From Pope Damasus.
Damasus addresses five questions to Jerome with a request for information concerning them. They are: 1. What is the meaning of the words "Whosoever slayeth Cain vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold"? (Gen. iv. 5.) 2. If God has made all things good, how comes it that He gives charge to Noah concerning unclean animals, and says to Peter, "What God hath cleansed that call not thou common"? (Acts x. 15.) 3. How is Gen. xv. 16, "in the fourth generation they shall come hither again," to be reconciled
St. Jerome—The Principal Works of St. Jerome

Epistle xxviii. To Augustine, Bishop of the Angli .
To Augustine, Bishop of the Angli [136] . Gregory to Augustine, &c. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke ii. 14); because a grain of wheat, falling into the earth, has died, that it might not reign in heaven alone; even He by whose death we live, by whose weakness we are made strong, by whose suffering we are rescued from suffering, through whose love we seek in Britain for brethren whom we knew not, by whose gift we find those whom without knowing them we sought.
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Jesus Living at Nazareth and visiting Jerusalem in his Twelfth Year.
(Nazareth and Jerusalem, a.d. 7 or 8.) ^C Luke II. 40-52. ^c 40 And the child grew [This verse contains the history of thirty years. It describes the growth of our Lord as a natural, human growth (compare Luke i. 80); for, though Jesus was truly divine, he was also perfectly man. To try to distinguish between the divine and human in Jesus, is to waste time upon an impracticable mystery which is too subtle for our dull and finite minds], and waxed strong [His life expanded like other human lives.
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Healing of the Woman - Christ's Personal Appearance - the Raising of Jairus' Daughter
THERE seems remarkable correspondence between the two miracles which Jesus had wrought on leaving Capernaum and those which He did on His return. In one sense they are complementary to each other. The stilling of the storm and the healing of the demonised were manifestations of the absolute power inherent in Christ; the recovery of the woman and the raising of Jairus' daughter, evidence of the absolute efficacy of faith. The unlikeliness of dominion over the storm, and of command over a legion of
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Jesus' Last Public Discourse. Denunciation of Scribes and Pharisees.
(in the Court of the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, a.d. 30.) ^A Matt. XXIII. 1-39; ^B Mark XII. 38-40; ^C Luke XX. 45-47. ^a 1 Then spake Jesus ^b 38 And in his teaching ^c in the hearing of all the people he said unto ^a the multitudes, and to his disciples [he spoke in the most public manner], 2 saying, ^c 46 Beware of the scribes, ^a The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat: 3 all things whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe: but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
The first important part of the Old Testament put together as a whole was the Pentateuch, or rather, the five books of Moses and Joshua. This was preceded by smaller documents, which one or more redactors embodied in it. The earliest things committed to writing were probably the ten words proceeding from Moses himself, afterwards enlarged into the ten commandments which exist at present in two recensions (Exod. xx., Deut. v.) It is true that we have the oldest form of the decalogue from the Jehovist
Samuel Davidson—The Canon of the Bible

Circumcision, Temple Service, and Naming of Jesus.
(the Temple at Jerusalem, b.c. 4) ^C Luke II. 21-39. ^c 21 And when eight days [Gen. xvii. 12] were fulfilled for circumcising him [The rite was doubtless performed by Joseph. By this rite Jesus was "made like unto his brethren" (Heb. ii. 16, 17); that is, he became a member of the covenant nation, and became a debtor to the law--Gal. v. 3] , his name was called JESUS [see Luke i. 59], which was so called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. [Luke i. 31.] 22 And when the days of their
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Cavils of the Pharisees Concerning Purification, and the Teaching of the Lord Concerning Purity - the Traditions Concerning Hand-Washing' and Vows. '
As we follow the narrative, confirmatory evidence of what had preceded springs up at almost every step. It is quite in accordance with the abrupt departure of Jesus from Capernaum, and its motives, that when, so far from finding rest and privacy at Bethsaida (east of the Jordan), a greater multitude than ever had there gathered around Him, which would fain have proclaimed Him King, He resolved on immediate return to the western shore, with the view of seeking a quieter retreat, even though it were
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Among the People, and with the Pharisees
It would have been difficult to proceed far either in Galilee or in Judaea without coming into contact with an altogether peculiar and striking individuality, differing from all around, and which would at once arrest attention. This was the Pharisee. Courted or feared, shunned or flattered, reverently looked up to or laughed at, he was equally a power everywhere, both ecclesiastically and politically, as belonging to the most influential, the most zealous, and the most closely-connected religions
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Concerning the Communion, or Participation of the Body and Blood of Christ.
Concerning the Communion, or Participation of the Body and Blood of Christ. The communion of the body and blood of Christ is [1104] inward and spiritual, which is the participation of his flesh and blood, by which the inward man is daily nourished in the hearts of those in whom Christ dwells. Of which things the breaking of bread by Christ with his disciples was a figure, which even they who had received the substance used in the church for a time, for the sake of the weak; even as abstaining from
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

The Third Day in Passion-Week - the Last Controversies and Discourses - the Sadducees and the Resurrection - the Scribe and the Great Commandment - Question
THE last day in the Temple was not to pass without other temptations' than that of the Priests when they questioned His authority, or of the Pharisees when they cunningly sought to entangle Him in His speech. Indeed, Christ had on this occasion taken a different position; He had claimed supreme authority, and thus challenged the leaders of Israel. For this reason, and because at the last we expect assaults from all His enemies, we are prepared for the controversies of that day. We remember that,
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Third Withdrawal from Herod's Territory.
Subdivision D. The Transfiguration. Concerning Elijah. (a Spur of Hermon, Near Cæsarea Philippi.) ^A Matt. XVII. 1-13; ^B Mark IX. 2-13; ^C Luke IX. 28-36. ^c 28 And it came to pass about eight days { ^a six days} ^c after these sayings [Mark agrees with Matthew in saying six days. Luke qualifies his estimate by saying "about." But if we regard him as including the day of the "sayings" and also the day of the transfiguration, and the other two as excluding these days, then the three statements
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Exodus
The book of Exodus--so named in the Greek version from the march of Israel out of Egypt--opens upon a scene of oppression very different from the prosperity and triumph in which Genesis had closed. Israel is being cruelly crushed by the new dynasty which has arisen in Egypt (i.) and the story of the book is the story of her redemption. Ultimately it is Israel's God that is her redeemer, but He operates largely by human means; and the first step is the preparation of a deliverer, Moses, whose parentage,
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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