"Now the Lord had said to Moses, 'I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.'" (Exodus 11:1) On the way to Egypt the Lord revealed this information to Moses in Exodus 4, saying that because Pharaoh would refuse to listen and repent and let the Israelites go, the Lord would take the life of Pharaoh's firstborn son. Moses has known all along this was coming. He was forewarned that Pharaoh would refuse time and time again to let the people go, willfully hardening his heart against feeling any compassion for the Israelites until he reached a point where only the most extreme distress will compel him to not only let the Israelites go but to basically throw them out of the country. The king has brought all of the nine previous plagues upon himself and upon his nation by remaining in sinful stubbornness. Now Pharaoh will be responsible for the loss of his own son and the heir to his throne. Let's just stop and think for a minute about how immovable and how uncaring this man is that he resisted the Lord through nine plagues and how he cared nothing for the impact the plagues had on his citizens and on his land. This man has no common human decency whatsoever.
The Lord is not going to allow the Israelites to leave empty-handed. He's already promised they won't have to leave without their livestock (Moses said in yesterday's passage that "not a hoof" will be left behind), but back in Exodus 3:22 the Lord also promised the Israelites would "plunder" the Egyptians. They're going to leave the country of their oppression loaded down with silver and gold. The Lord instructs Moses, "' Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.' (The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.)" (Exodus 11:2-3) The Israelites aren't stealing anything from the Egyptians; the Egyptians willingly give them these expensive items when asked. The Egyptians have seen the might of Israel's God and they fear Him. They do not want to get on His bad side where Pharaoh is, so when the Israelites ask them for vessels of silver and gold, the Egyptians happily hand the vessels over with their blessing. They are more than ready to see the Israelites set free and to see an end to the plagues. Pharaoh's heart is harder than ever toward the people he uses as slaves, and he still regards them as sub-humans undeserving of basic human rights, but Pharaoh's subjects have become soft-hearted toward the Israelites and have actually begun to root for them to be victorious in their bid for freedom.
At the end of Exodus 10 we were told that Pharaoh ordered Moses to get out of his sight. He said he'd kill Moses if he ever appeared before him again. Moses answered, "Just as you say. I will never appear before you again." But before Moses left the king's presence he warned him what was coming and we are about to study Moses' final words to Pharaoh before the plague of the firstborn falls. "So Moses said, 'This is what the Lord says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt---worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.'" (Exodus 11:4-6)
Every family of Egypt, from great to small, will suffer some type of loss. Everyone who is the parent of a son will lose their firstborn son, and although in some movies and TV specials these tend to be depicted as children, the males who died could have been any age from one day old to a hundred years old. For example, a father of a son may be a firstborn son himself, so in that household both the father and his eldest son will die. A great-grandpa who is 100 years old but who is a firstborn son will also die. The tenth plague will greatly affect the population of Egypt, but if the plague had not only affected firstborn sons, the people and their king might have been able believe that it was just a naturally-occurring plague capable of killing hundreds or even thousands of their citizens. Our world is undergoing a pandemic (a plague, if you will) at this very moment but the coronavirus doesn't discriminate according to birth order. Granted, the coronavirus appears to be more deadly for males than for females, but it strikes males irrespective of birth order. We aren't losing only the firstborn males to the coronavirus, but in the ancient Egypt of Moses' day we find a plague that is capable of selecting its victims. This is because the plague is supernatural. The plague is directed by Almighty God.
In the tenth plague, even childless Egyptian couples or couples who have only daughters will suffer loss. Moses warns Pharaoh that the firstborn males of all cattle will perish. So we see that the plague strikes every household of the Egyptians. Most households will lose at least one family member. All households who own livestock will lose a percentage of their farm animals.
But the Israelites won't lose anyone. The plague will "pass over" them if they apply blood to their doorposts, as we will see as we move on through the book of Exodus and study the story of the first Passover. Moses says, "'But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal. Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, 'Go, you and all the people who follow you!' After that I will leave.' Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh." (Exodus 11:7-8) There will be wailing in Egypt this night. But there won't be wailing in Goshen where the Israelites reside. Even the dogs will be quiet in Goshen while the plague passes over the Israelites and strikes the Egyptians. Last night when I was outside taking my dog on her bedtime walk I heard dogs barking to each other all over the neighborhood. It's a common sound, but on the night of Passover all will be still in Goshen while the death angel strikes the firstborn of Egypt. I am not sure whether this deep silence is the silence of creatures at peace or the silence of creatures in reverent awe. I tend to think it's the latter, for in Revelation we find thirty minutes of total stillness before the Lord brings the final plagues of judgment upon the earth. So I feel that it's a breathless stillness, a respectful stillness, and the type of stillness we're familiar with when observing "a moment of silence" for those who have departed this earth.
Moses leaves Pharaoh in a rage and I think he's so hot with anger because things never had to get to this point. None of the plagues had to happen, but Pharaoh brought them on himself and on his people with his stubborn and rebellious refusal to obey the Lord. Now the greatest and most tragic plague is about to unfold and it doesn't have to. Pharaoh could prevent it. He has until midnight to relent. But he won't, so he and all his people will suffer a great loss. Death and grief will stalk the streets of Egypt this night and the blame for all of it lies at the feet of Pharaoh.
Nothing Moses and Aaron has done or said has made even the slightest dent in the king's hard heart. None of the signs and wonders of God has had any effect on him whatsoever because he doesn't want anything to have any effect on him. Because Pharaoh wants to have a hard heart, the Lord lets him keep his hard heart. The Lord doesn't force him to be someone he doesn't want to be. "The Lord had said to Moses, 'Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you---so that My wonders may be multiplied in Egypt.' Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country." (Exodus 11:9-10)
Sadly, there are some human beings who would never bow their knees to the Lord no matter what the consequences. Like Pharaoh, they'd rather endure the worst of conditions than submit their will to the Lord's. They won't allow anything to change them or persuade them. As the Lord Jesus said, there are some who would not listen to the word of God even if a person rose from the dead and testified to them. (Luke 16:31) Pharaoh is the type of man who wouldn't repent even if he were placed at the gates of hell and told he could either bow to the Lord or walk on through into eternal darkness and torment. I think he'd choose the pains of hell over the peace of eternal life with the God he refuses to acknowledge or serve. No wonder Moses is angry. He's angry on behalf of the people of Egypt and on behalf of Pharaoh's firstborn and on behalf of Pharaoh himself. It didn't have to be this way. Waste ought to make us angry and Moses is angry over the waste of time, the waste of life, and the waste of all the years the Israelites spent in slavery due to the wickedness of the current king and those kings who came before him.
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