Exodus - Part 14 - Exodus 11:1-12:30

We have reached the final plague that befalls Egypt in Exodus. The consistent theme has been that picking a fight with God is futile. You won’t win. This final plague will emphasize that point and signal to Pharaoh and all of Egypt that it is finally time to let the Israelites go.

The Lord told Moses He would bring one more plague on Egypt and that afterward, Pharaoh would let them go and drive them out of the land. God instructed Moses to have the Israelites ask the Egyptians to give them silver and gold, and when they did, the Egyptians gave them whatever they asked for. The Egyptian people had a respect for Moses.

Then Moses announced that all the firstborn children and animals among the Egyptians would die in one night. But no animal or child among the Israelites would die. But Pharaoh once again didn’t listen. God warned Pharaoh at the beginning that He would treat Egypt’s firstborn the same way Pharaoh had treated God’s firstborn, the Israelites. Remember, at the beginning of Exodus, Pharaoh tried to murder all the Hebrew male babies and when that didn’t work, he abused them with hard labor. Pharaoh will reap what he has sown.

This last plague marked a new beginning for the Israelites. God implemented the Passover which would mark the first month of the year. On the tenth day of the month very household was to take a year old male lamb that had no defects, keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, then kill it, roast it and eat it. It was to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This was to be done every year in memory of what God did in Egypt.

Moses instructed the Israelites to take the blood of the lamb and put it on the doorposts and lintels for their houses. When the destroying angel saw the blood, he would pass over their houses, which would protect them from the plague of death. That is a perfect picture of how the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, spares believers from the consequences of sin and death.

So, that night all the firstborn of Egypt died, just as the Lord said it would happen. There was a great cry throughout the land because every house had someone who had died. Pharaoh could ignore God all he wanted, but he couldn’t avoid Him. Anything that he worshipped as a god, got turned into a plague. God wanted Pharaoh’s heart but Pharaoh refused to yield. This is still true today in our own lives.