Redeeming the Times
We are now down to the last two plagues. The plague of darkness and the plague of the firstborn. Before we delve into these let’s think back to Moses’ beginnings and what was happening at the time of his birth. There was an order for all the Israelite baby boys to be killed. Moses was spared, but may very well have been the only one in those days. That is a tragic ordeal to have in one’s history. So as we get to the plague of the firstborn this seems to be the retribution God handed to Egypt for the mistreatment of His people decades earlier.
This is also why I think it is so amazing that the process of the plagues seemed to be God working to teach the Egyptians how to have faith as well as the Israelites. We know from Scripture that God is unwilling for any to perish. And it is amazing to me how God comes in at the very beginning of the process to free Israel trying to also convince the Egyptians who He is. We’ve talked about how at the plague of the gnats the Egyptian magicians were themselves declaring: “This is the finger of God.” They go from skeptics to believing at least in the power of God and likely convince many others in the process.
God still is going to provide retribution for His people for the atrocities the Egyptians brought upon them, but He is going to do it in a way that allows both time and ability to repent first. I believe that is why God says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” He is looking to bring as many to repentance as possible before executing His retribution.
So now let’s look at the very last plague, that of the death of the firstborn. This was going to affect any person’s household whose doorframe did not contain the blood of the lamb. The Lord would pass over any house whose door contained the blood, but struck down the firstborn male of any house without the blood. Does that ring any New Testament bells for you? That is why it is so important to be in Christ. He is our blood of the lamb here today. He provides the way for us to be holy today so that we can have eternal life. So we can be spared.
Exodus tells us there was not one house in Egypt without someone dead. This last plague was severe because of the evil the Egyptians had done themselves. There had to be recourse for their wicked deeds. When Moses was born Pharaoh had ordered that all Israelite males born were to be killed, and there has to be consequences for the shedding of innocent blood. This was Egypt’s punishment for their offenses against Israel.
The Old Testament is filled with so many different stories, that I think are hard, but the more I study, the more I see that God is working under some impossible conditions trying to redeem people. For the Israelites, they had this awful part of their history with an infant genocide. The Egyptians were the perpetrators, but God was not willing to just blindly wipe them all out. He worked to change their hearts before delivering judgment so that some could be saved. When the Israelites finally do leave Egypt, they leave with a mixed multitude- presumably including some Egyptians who had chosen to worship the one true God rather than the false idols of Egypt.
Today, God is still working to save people from their sin by the blood of Christ. His desire is for us to be His. For us to choose Him through Jesus. His heart is for us, and I think that is a beautiful thing.
