Firstborns and the Role of the Mind in Faith

Jim:

Exodus 4:10-31
I don’t think I had ever really noticed the fact that God had determined to kill Pharaoh’s firstborn son even before Moses left for Egypt. But there it is in verses 22-23, “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. I said to you, “Let my son go that he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; now I will kill your firstborn son.’” This certainly puts the killing of the firstborns into a context by tying it to Israel whom God claims as a firstborn. But Israel (Jacob) wasn’t the firstborn of his generation. Esau was the firstborn and Jacob, the supplanter, was born second. Jacob only becomes the firstborn in a manner of speaking by way of the birthright he finagled from his brother and the blessing he duped Isaac into to giving him. Later of course he wrestled with God by the ford of the Jabbok and gained a blessing and a new name (and a limp). So Israel (and specifically the descendants of Israel now living in Egypt) is the firstborn of God only in a figurative sense, the way the nation of Israel will later be referred to a the bride of God, or perhaps by way of the covenant to which Jacob has become a party. But either way, because of this relationship between God and the people of Israel, one that is as dear to God as that between a parent and a firstborn child, God will kill the firstborn of Pharaoh. And Moses knows this before he even leaves Midian.

1 Corinthians 14:1-19
Those of us who are Presbyterian and who put great stock in an intellectual approach to the faith should take interest in Paul’s words in verse 15. “What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also.” There are a number of ways to apply this verse, but today I’m led to consider it a call to worship God with all of who I am. It’s not enough to go through the motions, to participate in worship physically while my mind is on something else. I need to give everything I am to God, body and mind, and use everything that God gives me to the glory of God, day in and day out. As the ad campaign for the United Negro College Fund says, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” We “waste” the intellect that God has given us when we try to separate it from our lives of discipleship, whether in worship or wherever we happen to be.

Mark 9:30-41
Interestingly, no mention is made by Mark as to whether the child that Jesus places in the midst of the disciples was the firstborn of his or her family (verses 36-37). And yet this unnamed child served as an example of discipleship anyway, just the way that Jacob (Israel) served as God’s firstborn in the Exodus passage.