And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand. The chapter closes by returning to the sign-on-hand and symbol-on-forehead language of verse 9. The inclusio brackets the whole section: verses 9 and 16 frame the feast instructions and firstborn laws with the same embodied memory language. The body is the archive. The hand that works and the forehead that thinks are both inscribed with the memory of the mighty hand that brought Israel out. Revelation 13:16 records the mark of the beast placed on the right hand and forehead — the anti-Passover, the inscription of allegiance to a different lord on the same body parts that Israel was instructed to dedicate to the memory of the Lord who freed them. The contest for the body's allegiance has deep roots in Exodus.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse