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“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 NASB
When God inflicted the final plague on the Egyptians in killing their firstborn, this event persuaded the pharaoh to drive the Israelites out of the land of Egypt in the early morning hours of the 15th of Nisan (first month of biblical Israel’s calendar). The next day, on the 16th of Nisan, God told the Israelites that they will set aside the firstborn that He has now purchased them as His own. God now owns the firstborn.
The firstborn who are covered here are the firstborn sons, not firstborn daughters. The redemption of the first born of male livestock and male humans make sense. The first born male of livestock must be offered to God and the firstborn of humans must be redeemed, but the outlier is the redemption of the first born of the donkey, or any similar animal, such as horses.
For a donkey, you can either redeem it with a lamb or goat, or you have to kill it by breaking its neck. It can’t be offered as a sacrifice on God’s altar. You also can’t redeem it with money like you do for a first born son. The donkey must be redeemed with either a lamb or a goat.
It does seem odd that the donkey is the only unclean animal that must be redeemed or be killed. What did the donkey ever do to anybody? Why kill it?
The donkey is a symbol of us. Just as the lamb or goat stands in place of the donkey, Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus), the Lamb of God, takes our place. If the donkey is not redeemed, it is killed. If we are not redeemed, we will die.
Why does God use the donkey in this symbolism. Why is the donkey the only unclean animal that has to be redeemed, and not dogs or cats? There’s a reason why God chose the donkey for this symbolism.
There are several important stories in the Bible in which a donkey plays a pivotal role. The first one is recorded in Genesis 22, where we read about the story of the sacrifice of Isaac. In this text, and a few others, we will learn what the bible teaches regarding the donkey’s tasks. Hint: Its physical and spiritual duties are similar.
Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. (Genesis 22:1–3 NASB)
In this story, we see that the donkey’s role is as a beast of burden. It’s job is to carry stuff too heavy for humans to carry. Abraham’s donkey was carrying the sacrificial implements needed to offer up Isaac. The donkey’s job was to carry the offering to the place of sacrifice just as the donkey carried Messiah Yeshua to Jerusalem, to his offering place, where he would be sacrificed. The donkey wasn’t being offered itself, it was carrying the offering. The donkey had no reason to be afraid because it wasn’t going to be offered up for sacrifice.
In the story of Isaac, it concludes with Isaac being replaced by a ram as the sacrifice. The first born was replaced with a ram.
So God reuses symbols on purpose, not because he’s bored and can’t help didn’t have a good imagination. He uses symbols to get stories across.
It came about after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, for the prophet whom he had brought back. Now when he had gone, a lion met him on the way and killed him, and his body was thrown on the road, with the donkey standing beside it; the lion also was standing beside the body. And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown on the road, and the lion standing beside the body; so they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.
1Kings 13:23–25 NASB
We read the story of an unnamed prophet who traveled to Samaria on a donkey to prophesy against Jeroboam. The prophet was carried to and from Bethel on a donkey. Now, the reason that the prophet was going to Bethel is that Jeroboam had set up his two golden calves, one in the city of Bethel and one in the city of Dan.
This prophet travels to Bethel to bring a message to Jeroboam from God right as he is preparing to offer incense on his apostate altar. The prophet causes the altar to split in two and as Jeroboam reaches out to have the prophet arrested, he is stuck with paralysis of his right arm, rebuked by the prophet for his apostasy.
Lions and donkeys are natural enemies. Donkeys, horses, zebras, etc. are a lion’s favorite food and will eat something else only if zebras, horses, etc. are not readily available. It’s natural for donkeys to fear lions, but we read here that the disobedient prophet’s donkey was not scared of the lion that was approaching him and the prophet he was carrying.
The prophet knew that the lion was going to kill him. He knew that he was going to die, and the donkey might have known that the lion was not after him but after the man riding him. The lion did not even touch the donkey and attacked the man instead. Even after the lion attacked and killed the prophet, the donkey was not afraid of the lion. This is how we know that this event was an act of God. The donkey carried the prophet to his sacrificial death.
Just as the donkey needs a lamb or a goat to takes its place on the sacrificial altar, so do we.
Yeshua’s triumphant entry (Matthew 21)
When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. “If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”
This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your king is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”
Matthew 21:1–5 NASB
The donkey carried Issac toward his sacrificial death. Now, fortunately for Isaac, a ram replaced him on the altar.
A donkey carried the disobedient prophet, and the disobedient prophet was killed by the lion. The donkey was redeemed by the prophet’s death.
A donkey carried Yeshua into Jerusalem, carrying the burden of the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” to His sacrificial death.
Balaam shouldn’t have had to hear it from his donkey (Numbers 22:21–33)
The angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out as an adversary, because your way was contrary to me. But the donkey saw me and turned aside from me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, I would surely have killed you just now, and let her live.”
Numbers 22:32–33 NASB
Baalam’s donkey was carrying him and cared so much for her master that she protected him from death. The donkey had the spiritual insight to see that Baalam was in danger. The donkey was not scared for its own safety because the angel was no threat to her, but for the safety of her master.
The donkey was carrying an offering and tried three times to save its master. The donkey was carrying Baalam to his death. At the end of the story, Baalam was killed anyway.
The donkey carries death, or those who will soon die. Human beings carry death, unless that death is exchanged for life. The “death” we carry are our sins, transgressions and iniquities, and we will continue to carry them unless we are willing to exchange them.
The other mention of a donkey in the scripture is the story of Samson. We read that he takes the jaw of a donkey and uses it as a weapon to kill a bunch of Philistines. Why the jawbone, when a femur would have been larger and more weighty of a weapon? My theory is that the worst sins we commit comes from what we speak out of our mouths. That is why he used a donkey’s mouth to kill the philistines.
Meanings of four offerings in the Torah
In the Torah, there are four main sacrificial animals, including:
- Bulls (strength) + matzah (unleavened bread)
- Ram (prophecy) + matzah
- Goat (sin) + matzah
- 7 lambs (praise) + matzah
Messiah swapped places with us. Now that He has made the sacrifice for us, what is our duty? Now we have a responsibility, a burden to carry something. We can either carry our own sins, transgressions and iniquities or we can carry our offerings to God.
We have all experienced God’s strength in a different way, based on our own life experience. We testify of God’s strength with our mouths, by telling others about what He has done for us. Whether you are in your 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s, God has done great and mighty things in your life.
God has also given all of us a prophesy of how our lives would be carried out, of how we would talk and we share that with others.
Now, our sins, we normally don’t share with others, but when we share them with God, God swaps them out.
When we see that God has taken away our sins, we bring Him our praise and share that praise with those around us. These offerings are blessings we can give.
We have been saved, swapped out. We were supposed to die, but we were exchanged with the Messiah, who took our place. Now, we don’t have the burden of the baggage or our sins, instead, what we carry are those things that God has done for us.
We can choose to either be counted among God’s people and have the burden be removed or we can refuse to be counted and die in our own sin.
Is the problem that your ‘donkey’ is unbridled? (James 1:13–27)
How do you avoid sin? Bridle your tongue. We should only share good things with our tongues. We should not share gossip and slander, but only things that are true and right. We want to be counted among the righteous, not among the wicked. We don’t want to blaspheme God by not offering our best.
Summary: Tammy