13:11
“When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites...” There are a couple key points to bring out from this. The first is that the land was currently occupied by someone else. If we look at our world there are many parts of society that are occupied by ungodly philosophies. Secondly, giving the land to Israel was not a whim, or a recent idea. It was the fulfilling of a promise given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, hundreds of years ago.
13:12-16
We now get the details of the consecration of the firstborn. The animals' firstborn were to be sacrificed to the Lord. The firstborn sons also belonged to the Lord, but they were not to be sacrificed, but redeemed. Firstborn sons were to be made especially aware that they had been rescued by the power of the Lord and belonged to Him. There is repeated mention in this chapter of the “strong hand of the Lord”.
13:17
The Lord did not take the Israelites by the most direct route to the Promised Land. Why did God do this? He had the power to overcome the Philistines! God works with us and His primary purpose is to win our hearts, to win our trust. If they saw war then they would be tempted to go back to Egypt.
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