Beshalach 2023: Exodus and Hebrews: Establishing The Firstborns

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NOTE: The transcript may not read exactly like the recording.

Exodus 13:1-17:16 | Joshua 24:2-7, Psalms 106:7-12 | Matthew 14:22-33, John 6:16-59

 

As soon as the yet unborn nation had left Egypt, YHVH told Moses:

Exo 13:2  “Sanctify to me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of animal. It is mine.” 

They were barely gone from Egypt when YHVH revealed to the Israelites that the structure of the coming “about to be born” formalized nation will be an Order of Melchizedek government. He would set the firstborns as administrators in His government. This nation would be the first and only one of its kind ever on earth.

There is a caveat about the firstborns, though, and this caveat affected the as yet unborn government of YHVH. That caveat is that not all firstborns are the natural firstborns even though all the natural firstborns will be sanctified for YHVH’s purposes. The natural firstborns represent YHVH’s as yet unborn firstborn, Yeshua. Every one of them.

Just think about this. This how many billions of times, yes billions with a “b”, number of times Yeshua was pointed to just with the sanctification of all of Israel’s firstborn sons and animals. The natural pointed to the spiritual, as it always does. The spiritual is pre-existent, the natural is the witness of the spiritual principles.

The caveat about the firstborns is that there are natural firstborns and there are selected firstborns. We now know from the history of Genesis that YHVH does not always select the first one to exit the womb as the spiritual leader of families.

Going back to the beginning, I suspect Cain was the natural firstborn but Abel was the selected firstborn. I can’t prove this from the text, mind you. It is just a suspicion, but this may be part of the reason for the enmity between the brothers – jealousy. Reading forward in Genesis will show us jealous behavior between brothers, the natural firstborn brother and the selected firstborn, without actually saying the rejected firstborns became jealous. No, we must see and understand that jealousy in the accounts.

It was in the prerogative of the ancient fathers to select the son who demonstrated the capability to lead the family, which YHVH had selected going back to Adam, in YHVH’s ways.

Cain may have lost his place to Abel because he was violent. Later, Japheth lost his place to Shem. Noah selected a younger son to lead the family. We don’t know why because no information exists in Genesis or Jasher about Japheth’s character.

Japheth was the oldest son of Noah but Shem, the youngest, was the firstborn. We know this because Shem is always listed first in the genealogies until we get to chapter 10. In that chapter, Japheth’s genealogy is listed first.

Gen 10:1  Now this is the history of the generations of the sons of Noah and of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood. 
Gen 10:2  The sons of Japheth were…

Shem was the selected firstborn but the natural firstborn’s descendants were listed first. Then came Ham’s genealogy which puts him as second born. Shem’s genealogy comes last, not because YHVH was saving the best for last, but because Shem was Noah’s choice to become the next Melchizedek to lead the earthly family of YHVH.

Abram was his father’s natural firstborn, according to Genesis 11:27 but Abram’s firstborn was Ishmael, the son of his flesh. Isaac was Abram’s second born, the son of the Spirit because he had the sign of the covenant YHVH made with him. Abram was circumcised when Isaac was conceived, so Isaac replaced Ishmael as Abram’s firstborn. Isaac was selected by YHVH, not Abraham, because of Abraham’s circumcision. You will remember that Abraham made a small objection about Ishmael not being the son of promise in Genesis 17:18. This is why YHVH told Abraham that Ishmael would have a place in the Kingdom.

Gen 17:18  And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! 
Gen 17:19  And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. 
Gen 17:20  And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 
Gen 17:21  But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. 

Thus, it was YHVH who commanded Abraham regarding selecting Isaac as the firstborn over Ishmael.

The next in line to lose his firstborn status was Esau. He lost his place to Jacob because he was violent. This is according to the official record. During the birthing process, Esau was trying to kill Jacob by kicking him on the head. The two babies had struggled together in the womb and I will dare say that Esau started each struggle.

The name ‘Yaacov’ means hand on heel. The Edomite world says Jacob’s hand on Esau’s heel means he was trying to stop Esau from being born first. To the Edomite world, it means that Jacob was ambitious to be the firstborn and, in buying Esau’s birthright and obtaining Esau’s natural firstborn blessing, Jacob was proving that “hand on heel” was actually his aggression toward Esau. Not so! Jacob’s achievement came from YHVH’s Holy Spirit as I have taught in Toldot 2022: In Defense Of Jacob.

From the Kingdom viewpoint, Jacob’s “hand on heel” was an indicator of his ability to stand up to Esau, to survive his onslaught while leading his family in keeping the Torah. Then, to further prove Jacob’s ability to prevail, he had to spend one night fighting with God Himself, fighting with Yeshua.

Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, lost his right to lead the family even though Joseph sat him in that place when they from Canaan to Egypt.

Gen 43:33  They sat before him [Joseph], the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth, and the men marveled one with another. 

Reuben lost his firstborn place. He was a weak firstborn, self-absorbed and self-protective, who did not use his firstborn strength to lead or care for his brothers (especially Joseph). His next brothers in line, Simeon and Levi, also did not prevail. Judah prevailed in the natural but failed in the spiritual. However, he redeemed his position when he became the surety, the protector of Benjamin before Joseph in Genesis 44. Jacob had selected Joseph as the family firstborn because of he was willing to obey. He, like Yeshua, obeyed his father when sent to check on his brothers. And he, like Yeshua, had to leave the family for a short time.

Another example of the natural firstborn losing his place is found in the later accounts of Ishmael. Let’s go to Genesis 25:13.

Gen 25:13  These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to the order of their birth: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

Nebaioth was Ishmael’s firstborn. But Ishmael was the son of the flesh. Yet, in Isaiah, we find Nebaioth listed second and Kedar listed first.

Isa_60:7  All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together to you. The rams of Nebaioth will serve you. They will be accepted as offerings on my altar; and I will beautify my glorious house.

Here in Jordan, Michael and I met a man whose surname is Al-Kedar. When I found that out, I excitedly exclaimed, “You’re from the tribe of Kedar!”. He just looked at me for a moment, quizzically I might add, as if he couldn’t understand my excitement, and said matter-of-factly, “Yes, I know”. I guess you had to be there because it was a funny moment.

What is the difference between the natural firstborn and the selected firstborn? It is always that the natural firstborn has failed to meet the requirements to lead the family. It appears that somewhere along the way, Ishmael had enough sense to understand this and make of Kedar a selected firstborn that would, in the end of days, lead the Ishmaelites in caring for YHVH’s people during the Tribulation.

Israel needs One who is both the natural and spiritual firstborn. This had never happened in Israel until the advent of Yeshua walking on the earth, visiting His brethren to see what they were doing down here and reporting it back to His Father. While He walked on the earth, He was the natural firstborn of the Holy Spirit and Mary. At His resurrection, He became the spiritual firstborn of many.

Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 

Yeshua has been Israel’s natural and spiritual firstborn who will lead Israel into the eternal and everlasting future of Israel since 2,000 years ago.

We will find as we move forward in the Torah cycle that a firstborn’s failure can affect an entire generation of people. Let me explain something more.

The natural firstborn is a symbol of strength and the failure of the natural firstborn, then, always requires a replacement, a selected firstborn to exhibit the strength that the natural one was supposed to exhibit. This principle carried over to the entire generation of firstborns which came out of Egypt and then failed as spiritual leaders at the golden calf incident and were replaced 1500 years later by a second generation. That first generation of calf image worshipers was 1500 years long.

The father of the family has the right and authority to supplant a wicked firstborn with a “selected” – or should we say “elected” – firstborn. This not only applies to families, but to the Kingdom’s two generations – the first and second generations.

The first generation failed under the leadership of the firstborns who came out of Egypt. This is why YHVH’s Kingdom will be led by only one firstborn, Yeshua. The Book of Hebrews explains that there will be a second generation comprised of those who desire to do YHVH’s will.

Let’s turn to Hebrews 10 for a minute to look at a second “something” that will come.

Heb 10:1  For the law, having a shadow of the good to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. 

“They”, the Jews at that point in history, continued each year to offer the requisite sacrifices. What are those sacrifices that are offered year to year? The Feast sacrifices from Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot were offered year to year. Were these the sacrifices spoken of in Hebrews 10?

Heb 10:2  Or else wouldn’t they have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins? 

The year to year sacrifices being spoke of here have to do with cleansing. So, this Hebrews author is not talking about the three annual Feasts but of a group of sacrifices that cleanse the people. Passover is not for cleansing or forgiveness. It is our annual covenant renewal that, when we are present in the place where YHVH put His name (Jerusalem), says to Him that we showed up to be counted as those who want to renew the covenant in the memorial in that year.

And the Shavuot sacrifices foreshadow the Jubilee and the Ingathering of YHVH’s people. It is the harvest of the wheat Feast.

Sukkot is for the nations.

So which sacrifices are done from year to year accomplish, or rather, were foreshadows of Israel’s corporate cleansing? Yom Kippur. The Hebrews author is talking about Yom Kippur with its blood of bulls for the High Priest and the goats for the congregation.

Heb 10:3  But in those sacrifices there is a yearly reminder of sins. 

Yom Kippur is the annual reminder of the first generation of Israel’s golden calf sin. This reminder of sins is supposed to make us mourn and repent for our sins and the sins of our ancestors and all Israel! I will have more on the ancestor aspect a little later. But that is what the fast is for! Repentance for ALL Israel’s sins starting with the first one, the golden calf, and all the others which we have inherited in our DNA whether we are physical or spiritual children of Abraham (Galatians 3:7).

And, by the way, if there in an Israelite who does want to fast, who does mourn and repent for corporate Israel on that day, he will be cut off from being an Israelite. Plain and simple.

Heb 10:4  For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. 

The blood of bulls and goats never paid the price for the golden calf. The only expiation for that sin, that national crime against YHVH, was Yeshua, God Himself dying to cleanse and restore Israel. Our God’s death was required as promised to Abraham in Genesis 15 because it was God the Son who promised God the Father that He would die if Abraham’s descendants destroyed the covenant. They did. At the golden calf. That sealed God the Son’s fate. Now He must come to die but, in the meantime, from year to year, Israel had to face its sins and go through this ritual that had no lasting effect until God Himself came to die. His death, His sacrifice is the only sacrifice that endures forever! The others are just a bandaid until the operation can take place.

Heb 10:5  Therefore when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire, but you prepared a body for me. 
Heb 10:6  You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. 

The whole burnt offerings and sacrifices of Yom Kippur is being spoken of here. Of course YHVH does not take pleasure in Israel’s golden calf sin sacrifices! Their sin required the sacrifice of an innocent being, cutting short the life of one who did nothing to deserve that! I’m talking about the bulls, the goats AND Yeshua!

Heb 10:7  Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.’” 
Heb 10:8  Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in them” (those which are offered according to the law)…

For Yom Kippur… 

Heb 10:9  then he has said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first, that he may establish the second, 

Yeshua took away the first “something” so He could establish a second “something. What was taken away and what was re-established? Let’s read the next verse because in there is a clue to this.

Heb 10:10  by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 

“Once for all” takes care of the golden calf sin for ALL of corporate Israel. The word “we”, then, should tell us what was re-established. “We” is a group of people. This particular group of people is a generation, the second generation, that is now sanctified or set apart BECAUSE OF Yeshua’s sacrifice. The first generation had to rely on the year-to-year Yom Kippur bulls and goats sacrifices which were not eternal and which could not fully expiate the rebellion and treason committed against their new King at the golden calf incident. Now, there is a second generation that no longer needs these sacrifices but who will fast until the Bridegroom comes.

Mat 9:14  Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?” 
Mat 9:15  Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 

On what Feast from YHVH’s instructions do we continue to fast? Yom Kippur. But when Yeshua returns to rule and reign, He will 1) be with us, not as our bridegroom but as husband, and 2) the Yom Kippur ritual will not be included in the annual Feasts.

Look, unless you understand the work that Yeshua did on the cross, you won’t understand this. He died to restore Israel, not to hunt and peck for individuals to save. Individuals are saved through Him as they come into the gates of His Kingdom. Then, we are no longer individuals but citizens of the Kingdom and part of His holy congregation.

This is no subtle difference! If people remain autonomous individuals, they are not part of the group. Individuals who are part of the group are not autonomous. They are doing the will of the Father who is in Heaven.

Earlier in the Book of Hebrews, in chapter 8, we read that there was a first generation that made YHVH angry with us. The King James translators inserted the word “covenant” into the text. I explained this in my teaching on the Book of Hebrews in light of the Order of Melchizedek from December 2020. That insertion changed the entire meaning from YHVH being unhappy with the first generation to being unhappy with His own covenant! The church taught this to the people over the last 1700 years and the people have bought it! It’s a lie that YHVH became angry with His own covenant. He was angry with that first generation and sought for a second generation who would do His will!

Yeshua replaced the Yom Kippur sacrifices in a body prepared especially for Him so that He could replace the blood of the bulls and goats with His own blood. In the process, He also replaced the first generation with the second one that is still being established over the last 2,000 years. In the statement, “He takes away the first, that he may establish the second”, is a double entendre, a double meaning.

First, He took away the need for Yom Kippur’s blood of bulls and goats to cleanse us and, second, He replaced that first generation with THIS second one!

Hebrews chapter 10 is dealing specifically with Yom Kippur’s sacrifices. Christianity teaches that He did away with the priesthood administration and the sacrificial law. Not so. Ezekiel is clear that there will be sacrifices in the coming Millennial reign of Yeshua on earth but Yom Kippur’s sacrifices are missing in Ezekiel’s list. Do not think I am saying we no longer need to observe the day of Yom Kippur. Our Bridegroom.

Lev 23:26  Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 
Lev 23:27  “However on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement: it shall be a holy convocation to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. 
Lev 23:28  You shall do no kind of work in that same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before Yahweh your God. 
Lev 23:29  For whoever it is who shall not deny himself in that same day; shall be cut off from his people. 
Lev 23:30  Whoever it is who does any kind of work in that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. 
Lev 23:31  You shall do no kind of work: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 
Lev 23:32  It shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall deny yourselves. In the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall keep your Sabbath.” 

Yom Kippur as a day of doing a fasting memorial will continue forever but its sacrifices have already been replaced with Yeshua’s sacrifice. Memorials are always done differently than the original event. Passover memorial is done differently than the original event. Shavuot, the memorial of the giving of the Torah, is done differently. At the first giving of the Law, the people took a golden calf as their god! We better be doing Shavuot differently than they did!

So please don’t go around telling people that Yom Kippur will go or has gone away. Because the Jews continued putting Yeshua on the cross every year for 40 years after His death and resurrection is one reason their temple was destroyed. I deliberately called it “their temple” because they had made it their own and not a Temple of YHVH to serve 12 tribes. They were doing what THEY wanted, not what their God and King wanted.

Hebrews chapter 10 is but one chapter relating to us the problems brought to the world by the first generation of Israel that created a breach between Israel and YHVH which, then, had to be repaired. The church teaches that the Book of Hebrews does away with what they call “the old law” and establishes a “new law”. Not so. Yeshua never gave a new law during His lifetime or after His ascension. Hebrews establishes the replacement of the first failed substitute priesthood under Aaron, the further replacement Levite firstborns that replaced the firstborns 1500 years earlier, and the entire first generation.

YHVH had, in the first Exodus 4:22 and 13:2, established Israel as a firstborn Kingdom, a Kingdom of firstborns and to make this clear, He requires that all firstborns belong to Him. Yeshua is now the Kingdom’s firstborn.

Rom 8:29  For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 

He is the one and only firstborn of the Kingdom now.

Before Moses would speak another word to the fleeing Israelites, YHVH made sure they knew what kind of government they would be citizens of and would serve. This message should have taken their thoughts back to Abraham, Isaac and, in particular, Jacob, the man who was given the name “Israel”. I am not talking about that they did not know the name “Israel” but that we will now begin to see that they did not know their forefathers’ character and how they loved YHVH, and because they loved YHVH, they obeyed Him. Abraham was obeying YHVH long before him believing what YHVH told him in Genesis 15 which was counted to him for righteousness. Abraham was selected from Ur because he had been already doing the Father’s will. It is doing the Father’s will that pleases Him.

Is there any mother or father who delights in a child who constantly rebels against the rules of the family? No! Well, neither does YHVH delight in children who rebel against Him!

This generation now coming out of Egypt would begin to sin against YHVH with complaints almost out of the shoot. (Exodus 14:11 – “were there no graves in Egypt, Moses?”). As soon as they were chased by Pharaoh, they complained. A little hardship, a little bit of “scary”, a little thought of harm and that first generation was done in! Did Abraham complain? No. Did Isaac complain? No. Did Jacob ever complain? No! This generation from Egypt were complainers.

I’ve heard it said that a complaint is really just an un-asked question. Well, it is an angry and passive-aggressive way to deal with a situation and they took their passive aggression out on Moses and, then later, on YHVH Himself!  

Every year we scratch our heads over what these people did, how they acted toward their God and King. Every year, I think I might be able to explain their behavior but I quickly realize I cannot. All I can do is what Yeshua told us about fruit.

Luk 6:43  For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit. 
Luk 6:44  For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don’t gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. 

Our ancestors clearly bore bad fruit. Period. So what are we to do about it now, 3500 years later? That first generation are ancestors to billions of people today but their twisted minds still affect us. We must still fast and mourn over their sins at Yom Kippur because we have inherited that in our DNA. Their sins that remain in us is what we daily struggle over and it is the dross that still needs to be burned away.

YHVH gave us instructions on how to ask for forgiveness which involves us taking responsibility for their sins that are still in us. Let’s go to Leviticus 26.

Lev 26:40  “‘If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me, 
Lev 26:41  I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity; 
Lev 26:42  then I will remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land. 

The Hebrew word for “iniquity” is ‘avon’ (Strong’s H5771). It means perversity, faults, crookedness. It is the condition of the flesh, always. The flesh is always where our perverseness, our crookedness our not straight ways, comes from. We must ask YHVH to forgive us for what we inherited from them and take responsibility for our spiritual disease so that we can overcome it. Our responsibility must even extend all the way back to Adam.

Let this second generation break the fetters that bind us to Egypt and Babylon!

Be Blessed!
Kimberly Rogers-Brown
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Kimberly Rogers-Brown has been teaching Torah and special Bible topics since 2008. She is also the author and publisher of Beast Watch News dot com and is heard internationally via two radio programs on Hebrew Nation Radio. Kimberly now lives in Aqaba, Jordan close to the Exodus wilderness area where the Bride (i.e. "the woman" of Revelation 12:6) will flee for 1260 days of the Great Tribulation.