Exodus 34: 18-27, “The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt. All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male. But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty. Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end. Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning. The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk. And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.”
After Israel had been in the wilderness for almost a year (see Ex12: 6, “And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.”, Ex 40: 2, “On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.”) the Lord reminded Moses that they had to remember the price that was paid for their deliverance from Egypt. They offered a lamb to take the place of their firstborn children. Because the Lord saved the firstborn of Israel, the firstborn of their families and their clean animals had to be given back to the Lord as well. Instead of killing the animal they had to pay a fee to the priests. The Lord also reminded them about the festivals they were to celebrate so that they could remember all the good things that the Lord had done for them. They were to rest on the seventh day to honour the Lord and the fact that He made the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. They were also to rest at the end of the summer and give the Lord the best of their summer harvest. Every year, all the men were to go to the place where the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, was and honour the Lord God. They were also to keep leaven, or yeast, from their offerings because they didn’t use yeast in their bread when they escaped from Egypt. Yeast takes time to rise and would have distracted Israel from leaving Egypt in a hurry while it affects the entire loaf as well. The wanted their firstfruits, that is the best of the harvest because Israel was His firstborn. They were also not allowed to cook a kid in its mother’s milk as this was part of ancient pagan practices. Moses was commanded to write these words down so that they would never forget what the Lord told them.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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