How many of you are the eldest among your brothers or sisters? Are you a firstborn in your family? According to some studies, the oldest in the family are usually high achievers, excellent problem solvers, born leaders, independent thinkers, and the brains in the family! If you are a firstborn, have I just described you? How many of those things I listed are true of you?
On the flip side, as with many things in life, being the firstborn comes with disadvantages, too. There are expectations and responsibilities that come with being a firstborn. All that pressure coming from parents and from the rest of the society can sometimes lead to anxiety, fear, and resentments in life. It is said that firstborns are three percent more likely to have high blood pressure than second-borns, and 7 percent more likely than fifth-borns.
I was born in Taiwan and lived in two more Asian countries before arriving in America. Compared to a firstborn in the West, the firstborn in an Asian-country family, especially the male firstborn, enjoys a little bit more privileges. He usually receives a larger portion of inheritance than his brothers and sisters. Being the firstborn in the East, however, means he is expected to take the parents into his home as they age, and assume a larger responsibility caring for them the rest of their lives. Being a firstborn in the East likely means more than being a firstborn in the West. But as we shall see later, in the days of the Bible, what it means to be the firstborn brings us to a whole new level.
Not only does the firstborn come with special privileges and responsibilities, but one of the most important things for us to know about the firstborn from the Bible is that the firstborn belonged to the Lord. This statement is not a casual statement, and it is not limited to the first offspring from a woman, but extended even to the first offspring of an animal. The firstborn, no matter of man or of animal, belonged to the Lord.
Exodus 13:2 “Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and beast; it belongs to Me.” Leviticus 27:26 "However, a firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the LORD, no man may consecrate it; whether ox or sheep, it is the LORD’S."
What does it even mean to say that the firstborn “belongs” to the Lord? It means just that. He is the Lord’s rightful possession. The Lord has that right, free and clear. Because the right is his, it also means he can do whatever he wishes with a firstborn, much in the same way you and I can do whatever we wish with our possessions, as with our smart phones.
When we say the firstborn humans and animals belonged to the Lord, it doesn’t mean he wanted to take and hold them as it were to bring them into a big house. But the Bible says that the firstborn of all clean animals was to be offered as a sacrifice to the Lord, more specifically eight days after its birth. The Israelites, however, were to redeem the firstborn of all unclean animals, and firstborn of man. The redemption could come in three different ways. Firstly, it could be exchanged with a financial payment to the temple. Secondly, it could be redeemed at the temple altar with a clean animal. The necessary requirement of redemption shows that the firstborn belonged to the Lord. Thirdly, it could be killed (another way to understand the Lord can do anything with the firstborn as he pleases). Just because a firstborn is going to be killed anyway and “not used” by the Lord, it doesn’t mean a man can take it home and “use” it to benefit his family.
Numbers 18:15 “Every first issue of the womb of all flesh, whether man or animal, which they offer to the LORD, shall be yours; nevertheless, the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem." Exodus 13:13 “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."
We come to better understand how the firstborn belonged to the Lord in the story of Esau and Jacob in Genesis. In Genesis 25, we learned that Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of soup. You and I living in the 21st century, we don’t understand very much why the author of Hebrews called Esau an immoral or godless person simply because he sold his birthright for a stew. “What is the big deal?” we think to ourselves. But the reason is because we don’t understand that there is great significance with being the firstborn, and that the firstborn belonged to the Lord. When Esau sold his birthright (even though he belonged to the Lord), he did something he had no business doing. That was not Esau’s right. That right belonged to the Lord. The Lord was essentially saying to Esau, “What are you doing?”
On top of this, if you recall, there was a day we learned that the Lord instructed Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, in Genesis 22. Considering how detestable it was to the Lord when Israel’s surrounding nations practiced child sacrifices, it is alarming that the Lord himself would instruct Abraham to do such a thing. But he did, and he meant it. Could it be that Abraham already knew at least a little bit that the firstborn belonged to the Lord? I think so. Isaac, as Abraham’s firstborn, belonged to the Lord. It was perfectly the Lord’s right to do whatever he pleased with Isaac. If the Lord wanted his firstborn, Isaac, to be killed, it was well within his right to do so. Abraham may have understood that the firstborn belonged to the Lord more than we think.