some insight from Rabbi David Fohrman at rabbifohrman.com in his series on the exodus on the significance of the “firstborn”. God called Pharoah to give to him his firstborn so that they could worship him. As we know from scripture you cannot serve two masters and as long as they were slaves to Pharoah they could not serve God wholeheartedly. He needed his people free, but not just any people, he was after his firstborn. Looking at our natural families helps us understand the purpose or role of the firstborn. We might say the firstborn is a leader…but why is a leader needed among siblings when the parents are adequate for the role of leadership?
The problem always has been and still is today that there is a span of many years between parents and offspring we know as the generation gap. This gap makes it difficult for children to see how the values of the parents are to be lived out in their own context. It raises the question of whether they are even still relevant as the contexts change. Never truer than today. Rabbi David’s statement of interest was that the firstborn is given a special responsibility to be that bridge between the values of the parents and those of the children. He shows them how to live out those values in the different context that they live in and demonstrates that they are relevant and timeless. When the others look at him they are able to say, “hey, I can act that way or live that way too.” Now apply that role to Israel and we begin to see that God chose them not because he loved them more than the other nations but because he needed to build a bridge to demonstrate how the values of the high and lofty God could be lived out in the context of a lowly and fallen creation.
