Blood, Fire, and the Bones of Your Past

Date: Saturday, February 7, 2026

Readings: Exodus 13 | Psalm 34:12-22

The Israelites walked out of Egypt carrying Joseph’s bones. Let that sink in. They’re freshly liberated, Pharaoh’s army is still wiping chariot dust from their eyes, and Moses is hauling a coffin. This isn’t efficient. This isn’t practical. This is a 400-year-old promise being honored at the worst possible time.

Here’s what gets me: consecrating the firstborn wasn’t just religious ceremony, it was divine warfare. Every firstborn son, every firstborn donkey, every first fruit was a living reminder that death passed over them. The Egyptians lost their firstborns; Israel’s were marked for life. Not as survivors, but as sanctified. Set apart. Holy. Owned by the God who draws the line between life and death with the lamb’s blood.

We love the exodus story for its liberation narrative, but we hate what comes after: the consecration. God doesn’t just want you out of Egypt; He wants Egypt out of you. The pillar of cloud by day and fire by night wasn’t just an ancient GPS navigation system. It was leadership that refused to let them navigate by their own wisdom. When you’ve been enslaved for generations, your instincts are corrupted, because our “common sense” is formed in bondage.

Psalm 34 echoes this truth: “The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” The Passover lamb’s unbroken bones pointed forward to another Lamb, another Passover, another firstborn: Jesus, who absorbed death so you could live your life, and let His life live through you. Let's go!

You don’t just need rescue. You need re-consecration. Your firstfruits, your first instincts, your first loyalties; they all belong to the One who passed over you when you least deserved it. Stop navigating by the Egypt in your head. Follow the fire.

Devotional Prompts:

• What “bones of the past” (promises, wounds, or histories) is God asking you to carry forward rather than leave behind? How does honoring the past shape your present consecration?
• In what areas of your life are you still using “Egypt instincts” to navigate by survival patterns learned in bondage rather than following God’s disruptive guidance?
• The firstborn principle meant everything that comes first belongs to God. What first fruits (time, energy, money, creativity) are you withholding from consecration?
• How does Jesus as the ultimate Passover Lamb, bones unbroken, death absorbed, change what it means for you to be “set apart” today?

Prayer: God of cloud and fire, You don’t rescue us to leave us unchanged. Consecrate what Egypt corrupted in us; our instincts, our loyalties, our very first fruits. Where we navigate by bondage through human logic, disrupt us with Your presence. Teach us to follow fire even when it makes no sense, to honor old promises even when they slow us down, because You are making us new. Through Christ, the Lamb whose bones remained whole so ours could be protected. Amen.