Divine Substitutes – The First Commandment

Divine Substitutes

The First Commandment

No other gods

Exodus 22:29

“You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me.”

Numbers 3:11-13

God Himself substituted for the first-born of the sons of Israel. He took the Levites unto Himself in the place of the sons of Israel (Num. 3:11-13). Still, all the first-born sons were His, and each time a father or mother looked on that first-born son, he or she would be expected to look upon the Levites as their own family, an entire tribe given to the Lord and His service in lieu of the child who labored with his father in the fields.

The people of Israel doubtless knew that God had a right to the first-born. They remembered how He had dealt with the first-born of Egypt. But in the Levites they had a perpetual emblem of God’s grace and of His own ability to “substitute” offerings pleasing to Him in place of His sinful people.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.