The Torah section בוא Bo (“come,” Exodus 10:1–13:16) affirms the holiness of the first-born, even if that firstborn was still-born or miscarried, which the state of California has recently denied.
“… that you shall give over to the Lord whatever opens the womb, and every miscarriage that opens the womb of an animal which will be yours, the males belong to the Lord.”
Exodus 13:12, The Judaica Press
Here in California, our attorney general told state prosecutors not to charge mothers with murder for the deaths of their unborn children if the mother’s actions, such as illegal drug use, directly caused the death of the unborn child. Our attorney general has explicitly said that a woman who purposefully shoots up drugs that are known cause miscarriage or stillborn death will no longer be considered legally culpable in the child’s death.
Also, Ralph Northam, the former governor of Virginia as of mid-January 2022, said that after a mother has given birth, the mother could decide whether the child should be allowed to live or be killed.
The truth of the sanctity and holiness of human life is more suppressed in our culture. But God holds all human life sacred, even the lives of the Egyptians who died so the children of Israel could be liberated from slavery.
Cost of freedom: First-born of Egypt, First-born of God
The cost of freedom for the enslaved children of Israel was the death of the first-born of Egypt. The Torah tells us that the first-born son is “the beginning of the strength” or the beginning of the father’s house. From this time forward, Israel were commanded to commemorate the Passover.
And as a reminder to Israel, that the first-born of their families came at a price, they were called upon to bring a lamb to the Temple when they presented their first-born sons to the Temple. All of this was to be a reminder to the Israelites that as they established their families, that their families were bought with a very steep price, a steep price that was paid by the first born of Egypt.
This cost, as elaborated on by the prophets, that the cost of our freedom from slavery to sin was the death of Yeshua haMashiach (Jesus the Christ).
‘Naked’ and not ashamed
While freedom was given overnight, it would take thousands of years of wandering, exiles and regathering for the people of God to learn what real freedom meant. The Passover is not just a reminder of leaving in haste, but the big picture of be sincere and honest with with ourselves and with God.
This transparency between God and man was apparent in the Garden. Adam and Eve were in complete communion with God, but when they decided to seek knowledge from another source, they no longer had communion with God. They now had something to hide. The fact that we wear clothes is a reminder of this lack of intimacy and transparency with God and with each other.
The ancient Greeks and Romans ritualized public nudity. And the nudist movement in Europe and America, just like the Greeks and Romans before them, eschew wearing clothes. They want to deny that humanity have done anything rebellious or shameful. There is a “death of shame” in our secular culture, which has caused a serious degradation of our culture, as expressed in artwork, architecture, music, politics, etc.
There are some who have an overly excessive sense of guilt and shame over things that are not particularly shameful. And this nudist movement partly is an overreaction to this.
We wear clothes but have forgotten the spiritual lessons God expects us to learn by wearing clothes.
Pesach has been given to us as a reminder that freedom isn’t free. As there was a battle between God and Pharoah, that used physical weapons such as blood, gnats, frogs, etc. but there was also a spiritual battle behind between God and haSatan, fighting over the freedom of the Israelites. Both the Angel of Death and the blood on the doorposts of the homes were directly commanded by God. The mezzuzahs, the words of God, that we place on our doors is a reminder of the blood on the door posts and the blood of the Lamb, that was later shed by the Messiah Yeshua, protected the children of Israel from the destroyer of their souls.
There is a real war between Heaven and the kingdom of the Adversary. In Matthew 12:22–31, Yeshua was accused of working miracles with demonic power. How did Yeshua respond to this slander? He said if haSatan is at war with himself, how can he stand? Is it not true that all of us are at war with ourselves? The whole point is that we have this internal battle continuously between what we want to do and what we should do. And that’s a continuous cycle in humanity.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, they were ashamed of what they had done and as God dealt with that sin, He did not tell them that they should not be ashamed of what they had done. They had clothed themselves to try to cover their shame and God turned around and clothed them with something better that the clothes they had made in haste for themselves. The act of clothing oneself is a daily reminder and a permanent consequence of the shame our first parents brought on themselves when they sinned against God.
The war between heaven and earth is over for those who heed the call to teshuvah (return).
3 degrees of sin but only 1 Solution
We will read later in Leviticus that there are three levels of separation from God: sins (“missing the mark,” attempting to “hit the target” of God’s instructions but missing), transgression (missing the mark on purpose) and iniquity (rebellion, treason or sedition against God).
There are offerings that can be offered for sins and transgressions, but there are no offerings that can be presented for iniquities. The only offering for iniquity is the offered on Yom Kippur, that the High Priest offers. The only thing we can do in response is to humble ourselves and accept the work the High Priest does for us (Hebrews 4–10).
King Herod was as duplicitous and evil as the Pharoah who confronted Moses. According to Roman historical records, when a Parthan delegation came into Roman territory, such as the wise men from the east who came to Bethlehem to find the king of Israel, they did not come by themselves.
The Romans tell us that they would have been accompanied by an armed escort of 22,000 armed soldiers. Herod tried to hide his evil motives from the wise men, as he was conspiring to kill the Messiah. He tells them that he wants what they want, to worship this new born King of Israel. He doesn’t tell them that he wants to kill this kid the minute they turn their back and return to Parthia. Herod doesn’t want to start a war with the Parthians by confronting these wise men and their battle hardened escort. Fortunately God revealed Herod’s wickedness to the wise men in a dream and they left Israel safely after they had met the Messiah and give their gifts to Him.
Herod doesn’t want to give up his power to this child in Bethlehem and the Pharaoh who Moses was confronting is in the same boat. He didn’t want to acknowledge and live under the authority of a king above himself.
Yosef served a Pharaoh who had enough wisdom and humility to turn over his entire nation over to Yosef and His God and Egypt was saved from famine and prospered because of Yosef and his Pharaoh’s humility. Yosef’s Pharaoh had humility that even extended to accepting Jacob’s request to be buried in Canaan, not reluctantly or begrudgingly, but willingly. He sent his own chariots, nobles and armed escorts to accompany Yosef and his brothers as they went back to Canaan to bury Jacob.
But the Pharoah who Moses confronted was not humble, and his nation suffered terribly because of his arrogance and selfishness. Pharoah’s servants had warned him several times that he is not winning this battle of wills with Moses and his God, but Pharoah ignored the warnings of his servants and wise men and Egypt was destroyed because Pharoah was in denial of his lack of control over the situation.
Toward the end, they even brought Moses and Aaron back to Pharaoh after Pharaoh had sent them away to try to broker some kind of peace between them to no avail.
The same thing happened in the last days of the Third Reich in Germany. Instead of surrendering, they were conscripting teenage boys and elderly men to the front lines to fight in vain. There were some generals who refused defend Hitler anymore, as Hitler inflicted a scorched-earth policy on his own people. Hitler’s pride ended him and inflicted terrible suffering on his people, because he decided that they didn’t deserve to live because they were no longer supporting him.
When Moses first met Pharaoh, Moses asked for the people to be able to celebrate a festival. Pharaoh says no, and God turns the heat up on him. Eventually, Moses is no longer coming with hat in hand. He is no longer asking for permission to leave; he is commanding Pharaoh to allow them to leave.
Pharaoh tries in vain to cling on to his power over Israel. He didn’t realize that God had given Egypt a role as a caretaker over the Israel. Since Pharaoh had chosen to try to exterminate Israel rather than take care of them, God was taking them back for Himself.
‘Sunk cost,’ sunk family, sunk nation
Why did Pharaoh and Hitler not see what was happening and give up graciously? Why would you inflict damage upon your own people when you realize that you have lost? And one answer is pride. And one framework that can account for that pride’s leading to the downfall of a household or nation is called colloquially “sunk cost.”
You should watch out for this when dealing with your finances as well. Sunk cost explains why we will continue to spend our money, time, labor, etc. on a failing enterprise. We may say, “I’ve spent so much on this already. I can’t give it up and accept the loss of the time, money and labor I’ve already put into this effort.”
The Egyptian advisers had been coming to Pharaoh and telling him to stop antagonizing God and to let Israel go. They tried to warn him about everything that had been destroyed up to this point, even before the final plague, God had wrecked havoc on the health and economy of Egypt with the various plagues He inflicted on the Egyptians. They even brought Moses and Aharon back to Pharaoh after he had sent them away for good. Pharoah then tries extending small olive branches to Moses and Aharon, but they refuse to negotiate with Pharoah and God turns the heat on Pharoah even more.
I wonder if Pharaoh actually realizes that the departure of the children of Israel is only a matter of when they will leave, not if they will leave? Or is he keep trying to cling on to the Israelites and the power he holds over them? So that’s like with the sunk cost fallacy? Do we cling on to things that we should let because they really don’t have the value we think they have? There’s a saying, “Throw good money after bad.”
Pharaoh was given the option to either choose life or to choose death. There’s no middle ground. There is no default setting in the spiritual battle between good and evil.
When the descendants of Israel left Egypt and went through the Red Sea, they were passing from death to life and from bondage to freedom. God was draining away Pharoah’s pride, malice and wickedness. If Pharoah had been humble, God could have filled him with sincerity and truth and become a righteous ruler, just as his predecessor who knew Yosef had been but Pharoah refused and lost everything important to him: his money, status, authority and even his first born son.
To pass from death to life is a conscious decision. It’s not a path that comes from indecision, but a real commitment to God.
Summary: Tammy