Of all the Egyptian plagues, the last--the death of the firstborn--seems the cruelest and most unjust. Of course, a situation in which everyone suffers because of one person's choice, even one endowed with unlimited power, does not look...
Of all the Egyptian plagues, the last--the death of the firstborn--seems the cruelest and most unjust. Of course, a situation in which everyone suffers because of one person's choice, even one endowed with unlimited power, does not look just from either a human or a divine point of view. The problem, however, is that the fallen world is not just at all. Nature knows no justice; neither does a society that lives by laws very much like the laws of nature, the laws of the herd or the pack. And a society made up of fallen people lives exactly that way. In the natural world it often happens that a leader's mistake destroys the herd; the same thing happens among people when the mistake of a ruler endowed with power, who does not know God, destroys an entire nation.
It would seem that God has the power to prevent such a course of events, and that God, who wants good for humanity, certainly should have done so. That is true, of course, but with one reservation: they could have been prevented only if Pharaoh had acknowledged God's authority over him. In this respect the last plague is no different from all the others. The point here is not God's revenge on those who reject Him, but that without such acknowledgment a person simply cannot make use of the salvation God can give him. It is impossible to grasp the hand stretched out to you and push it away at the same time.
Meanwhile Pharaoh finally decided to do exactly that: to push it away, and to push it away roughly and harshly, threatening Moses with death if he appeared before him again (Ex 10:28). Every relationship with Moses, both as a man and as God's prophet, was broken off, and Moses himself confirmed it (Ex 10:29). Now Pharaoh had to meet the power of God in all its fullness, while God's love and mercy were completely hidden from him. For God, this choice of Pharaoh meant enormous possibilities for Egypt, lost forever (v. 9). What they were, and what miracles God might have revealed in that country, one can only guess.
For Pharaoh, an encounter with God's power had to become truly terrible, all the more because its blow fell not only on him personally, but also on all his subjects. Yet given the position Pharaoh had taken toward Moses and toward the God of Israel, this was the only way to carry out God's plan. Now the situation would unfold so that practically nothing would depend on Pharaoh's choice anymore, and the Egyptians' only thought would be the desire to be rid of Moses himself, his people, and his God, whose mercy Pharaoh had rejected, making Him for himself a truly fearsome God.
11 Pharaoh had bid Moses get out of his presence, Exo 10:28.
and Moses had promised this should be the last time he would trouble him, yet he refuses to say out what he had to say, before he left him. Accordingly we have in this chapter,
together with the interest Israel and Moses had in the esteem of the Egyptians, Exo 11:3.
and the event answering it, Exo 11:10.
11:2 Let every man ask (not borrow!) of his neighbour jewels - This was the last day of their servitude, when they were to go away, and their masters, who had abused them in their work, would now have defrauded them of their wages, and have sent them away empty, and the poor Israelites were so fond of liberty that they themselves would be satisfied with that, without pay: but he that executeth righteousness and judgment for the oppressed, provided that the labourers should not lose their hire. God ordered them to demand it now at their departure, in jewels of silver, and jewels of gold; to prepare for which, God had now made the Egyptians as willing to part with them upon any terms, as before the Egyptians had made them willing to go upon any terms.
11:5 The death of the first - born had been threatened, Exo 4:23, but is last executed, and less judgments tried, which, if they had done the work, would have prevented this. See how slow God is to wrath, and how willing to be met in the way of his judgments, and to have his anger turned away! That sitteth upon his throne - That is to set.The maid - servant behind the mill - The poor captive slave, employed in the hardest labour.
11:8 All these thy servants - Thy courtiers and great officers: The people that follow thee - That are under thy conduct: and command. When Moses had thus delivered his message, he went out from Pharaoh in great anger, though he was the meekest of all the men of the earth.Probably he expected that the very threatening of the death of the first - born should have wrought upon Pharaoh to comply; especially he having complied so far already, and having seen how exactly all Moses's predictions were fulfilled. But it had not that effect; his proud heart would not yield, no not to save all the first - born of his kingdom.Moses hereupon was provoked to a holy indignation, being grieved, as our Saviour afterwards, for the hardness of his heart, Mar 3:5.