Chapter Four
Exodus 11:1–13:16
One More Plague
This section of the Book of Exodus focuses on an unpopular subject: death. King Jehovah (Ps. 95:3) was about to confront King Pharaoh with another king—death, the “king of terrors” (Job 18:14). The last enemy, death (1 Cor. 15:26), would visit Egypt with one last plague and deliver one last blow to the proud ruler of the land. In one solemn night, all the firstborn sons and all the firstborn livestock in Egypt would die, and there would be a great cry throughout the land (Ex. 11:6; 12:30). Only then would Pharaoh let God’s people go.
However, death wouldn’t visit the Jews and their livestock in the land of Goshen, because the Israelites belonged to the Lord and were His special people. In the land of Goshen, all that would die would be innocent yearling lambs, one for each Jewish household. This night would mark the inauguration of Passover, Israel’s first national feast. In this chapter, we want to examine five different aspects of the Passover event.
1. Passover and the Egyptians (Ex. 11:1–10)
The people of Egypt had been irritated by the first six plagues, and their land and possessions had been devastated by the next two plagues. The ninth plague, the three days of darkness, had set the stage for the most dreadful plague of all, when the messengers of death would visit the land. “He unleashed against them His hot anger, His wrath, indignation and hostility—a band of destroying angels” (Ps. 78:49, NIV).
Moses heard God’s Word (vv. 1–3). These verses describe what happened before Moses was summoned to the palace to hear Pharaoh’s last offer (10:24–29). Moses’ speech (11:4–8) was delivered between verses 26 and 27 of chapter 10, and it ended with Moses leaving the palace in great anger (10:29; 11:8).
God told Moses that He would send one more plague to Egypt, a plague so terrible that Pharaoh would not only let the Israelites go but would command them to go. Pharaoh would drive them out of the land and thus fulfill the promise God had made even before the plagues had started (6:1; see 12:31–32, 39).
Moses told the Jewish people that the time had come for them to collect their unpaid wages for all the work they and their ancestors had done as slaves in Egypt. The Hebrew word translated “borrow” in the Authorized Version simply means “to ask or request.” The Jews didn’t intend to return what the Egyptians gave them, for that wealth was payment for an outstanding debt that Egypt owed to Israel. God had promised Abraham that his descendants would leave Egypt “with great substance” (Gen. 15:14), and He repeated that promise to Moses (Ex. 3:21–22). God had given His servant Moses great respect among the Egyptians, and now He would give the Jews great favor with the Egyptians, who would freely give their wealth to the Jews (12:36–37).
Moses warned Pharaoh (Ex. 11:4–10). This was Moses’ final address to Pharaoh, who rejected it just as he did the other warnings. Pharaoh had no fear of God in his heart, therefore, he didn’t take Moses’ words seriously. But in rejecting God’s word, Pharaoh caused the finest young men in the land to die and therefore brought profound sorrow to himself and to his people.
Two questions must be addressed at this point: (1) Why did God slay only the firstborn? (2) Was He just in doing so when Pharaoh was the true culprit? In answering the first question, we also help to answer the second.
In most cultures, firstborn sons are considered special, and in Egypt, they were considered sacred. We must remember that God calls Israel His firstborn son (Ex. 4:22; Jer. 31:9; Hosea 11:1). At the very beginning of their conflict, Moses warned Pharaoh that the way he treated God’s firstborn would determine how God treated Egypt’s firstborn (Ex. 4:22–23). Pharaoh had tried to kill the Jewish male babies, and his officers had brutally mistreated the Jewish slaves, so in slaying the firstborn, the Lord was simply paying Pharaoh back with his own currency.
Compensation is a fundamental law of life (Matt. 7:1–2), and God isn’t unjust in permitting this law to operate in the world. Pharaoh drowned the Jewish babies, so God drowned Pharaoh’s army (Ex. 14:26–31; 15:4–5). Jacob lied to his father Isaac (Gen. 27:15–17), and years later, Jacob’s sons lied to him (37:31–35). David committed adultery and had the woman’s husband murdered (2 Sam. 11), and David’s daughter was raped and two of his sons were murdered (2 Sam. 13; 18). Haman built a gallows on which to hang Mordecai, but it was Haman who was hanged there instead (Es. 7:7–10). “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7, NKJV).
As to the justice of this tenth plague, who can pass judgment on the acts of the Lord when “righteousness and justice are the foundation of [His] throne”? (Ps. 89:14, NIV) But why should one man’s resistance to God cause the death of many innocent young men? However, similar events happen in our world today. How many men and women who died in uniform had the opportunity to vote for or against a declaration of war? And as to the “innocence” of these firstborn sons, only God knows the human heart and can dispense His justice perfectly. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. 18:25)
When you read the Book of Genesis, you learn that God often rejected the firstborn son and chose the next son to carry on the family line and receive God’s special blessing. God chose Abel, and then Seth, but not Cain; He chose Shem, not Japheth; Isaac, not Ishmael; and Jacob, not Esau.
These choices not only magnify God’s sovereign grace, but they are a symbolic way of saying that our first birth is not accepted by God. We must experience a second birth, a spiritual birth, before God can accept us (John 1:12–13; 3:1–18). The firstborn son represents humanity’s very best, but that isn’t good enough for a holy God. Because of our first birth, we inherit Adam’s sinful nature and are lost (Ps. 51:5–6); but when we experience a second birth through faith in Christ, we receive God’s divine nature and are accepted in Christ (2 Peter 1:1–4; Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:9).
Pharaoh and the Egyptian people sinned against a flood of light and insulted God’s mercy. The Lord had endured with much long-suffering the rebellion and arrogance of the king of Egypt as well as his cruel treatment of the Jewish people. God had warned Pharaoh many times, but the man wouldn’t submit. Jehovah had publicly humiliated the Egyptian gods and goddesses and proved Himself to be the only true and living God, yet the nation would not believe.
“Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecc. 8:11, NKJV). God’s mercy should have brought Pharaoh to his knees; instead, he repeatedly hardened his heart. Pharaoh’s officials humbled themselves before Moses (Ex. 11:3; 8); why couldn’t Pharaoh follow their example? “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18, NKJV).
Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Delivered, “Be” Commentary Series (Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor Pub., 1998), 48–52. 
© 2024 Faithlife. All rights reserved.
List of books available to purchase on Logos.com which are sometimes quoted in this blog
Posts
.jpg?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/quality,q_70/resize,m_mfit,w_350,h_350/format,webp)
No comments:
Post a Comment