Firstborn Redeems

Read Numbers 3:14-27; 3:33-4
 
Numbers 3:46-47 To redeem the 273 firstborn Israelites who exceed the number of the Levites, 47 collect five shekels for each one, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs…49 So Moses collected the silver for redeeming the firstborn sons of Israel who exceeded the number of Levites.
 
TO redeem is to pay the full price to buy back something you once owned. We typically understand redemption in the Bible as Jesus paying the full price for our sins. Satan has stolen mankind from God’s possession. Jesus bought us back to be God’s own with his blood.  
   A key to God’s redemptive plan comes through the role of the firstborn. “Firstborn” refers to the order of birth in a  household and among the animals one owned. It came to mean that which is the best, most excellent. This meaning of firstborn began in Genesis 4:4 Abel also brought a gift—the best of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift. In God’s redemptive plan, Abel’s firstborn lambs were a foremost and excellent means of sacrifice. They illustrated Jesus, the firstborn Lamb of God, would redeem our sins:    
  
Jesus firstborn of Mary: Luke 2:7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
 
Jesus firstborn of the church: Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 

Jesus the firstborn of creation: Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
 
Jesus the firstborn is head of the church: Hebrews 12:23-24 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
 
Jesus firstborn from the dead: Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.
 
God also calls Israel his firstborn. He formed Israel to be his foremost nation in the world. Out of Israel came the Redeemer. In Leviticus, God named the Levite men aged 20-50 as firstborn to redeem Israel’s firstborn for Tabernacle service. When the Levites were short 273 men to fully redeem all Israel’s firstborn, God set a price of five sanctuary shekels for each person. We might think, “273 is close. Isn’t that good enough?” But there is no partial payment in God’s redemptive plan. To redeem is to fully buy back. Be thankful God so loves you, he has set determined the foremost and most excellent way to buy you back from death.