20 A SETUP

In Exodus Eleven God is now setting up the final act in the drama of Israel’s release from Egypt, the plague of the passover. Chapter 10 verse 24 says that Pharaoh summoned Moses, so supposedly Moses is still with Pharaoh probably at Pharaoh’s court until verse 8 of this chapter. Pharoah had said Moses could not see him again as the previous chapter ended. But Moses is still there and the conversation is not over. Pharoah does not have the last word; God does. In verses 1 – 2 God had been instructing Moses. Verse 3 is a parenthetical insert about the “borrowed” things. Verses 4 – 8 describe what Moses said to Pharaoh concluding with Moses’ angry departure. God and Moses, not Pharaoh, were in control of the conversation. The chapter ends with verses 9 & 10 summarizing what happened during the process of the ten plagues. It is important to remember who is in control. The contest sometimes appears to be between two angry and stubborn visible human actors, Moses and Pharaoh, but it is really a much more profound drama controlled by God the omnipotent Creator and Mighty One, the faithful One, using human players for His own purposes to show His glory. Here is the “setup.”

We can readily see the high favor Moses and Israel were in with God. Moses was a favorite of Heaven, for God will not hide from him the thing He will do. God not only makes him His messenger to deliver His errands, but communicates to him His purpose. Moses was the servant of God and had an inside track. God said to him that He would bring one more plague, the final one by which He would complete the deliverance of Israel. Notice in verse 1 the confident air of God’s word to Moses,  “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.’” Can you imagine with me that Moses wanted to see an end of this dreadful work, to see Egypt no more plagued and Israel no more oppressed? Moses was ready for this to be over. Well, says God, now it is near an end; the point will soon be gained and the warfare will soon be over. Pharaoh will be forced to acknowledge that he is conquered and give up his self-inflated, prideful, selfish and conceited cause. After all nine plagues, each of them ridiculing one of Egypt’s gods, the true God says, “I will bring one more plague.” In this same way after all the judgments executed on sinners in this world we may observe in the history of mankind, still there is one more reserved to be brought at last on them in the other world, which will completely humble all those whom nothing else would humble.

The Israelites were favorites of Heaven; for God Himself identifies closely with their injured cause, and takes care to see them paid for all their pains in serving the Egyptians. This was the last day of their servitude; they were about to go away. And their masters, who had abused them in their work, now by a force they themselves did not comprehend are about to pay the slaves their back wages. God will see to it that the Egyptians will not have cheated them of their wages, and send them away empty. The poor Israelites were so eager for liberty that they would have been satisfied with just that, liberty without pay, and would have rejoiced to get their freedom under any circumstance, but God’s fairness is demonstrated in His instructions to request payment now at their departure. In verse 2 God had instructed Moses this way, “Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.” God had prepared the Egyptians to pay these wages to the Israelites by having sent the plagues. The Egyptians would gladly pay them from their household possessions and treasures rather than continue to suffer from the plagues. God used the plagues in multiple ways. The Israelites obtained their freedom and saw the glory of God. The Egyptians were willing not only to let them go, but also to give them treasures. Later God would use part of these treasures to build the tabernacle and prepare the vessels to be use in it. And all of us who read this story know God better for having seen how He operates. Though the patient Israelites were content to lose their wages, yet God would not let them go without pay.  One way or other, God will give proper payment to the injured who in a humble silence commit their cause to Him, and see to it that at last no one is a loser by his or her patient suffering.

Moses and Israel were in high favor with the Egyptians. The Egyptian citizens in general may have had a more accurate sense of fairness, right and wrong, than Pharaoh. This may be the reason verse three says what it says, “(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.)”  Even the Israeli people that had been hated and despised now came to be respected. The wonders that were performed by God for them put an honor on them and suddenly made them respectable. When we serve the Lord, how great do they become for whom God fights like this! Through the miracles of the plagues the Lord gave the Hebrew slaves favor in the sight of the Egyptians, by making it appear how much He favored them. He changed the attitude of the Egyptians towards them, and made them to be pitied instead of persecuted by their oppressors. Psalm 106:46 succinctly tells us this, “He caused all who held them captive to show them mercy.”

Moses’ reputation also became notable. How could this not happen when everyone saw the power with which Moses seemed to be clothed and what wonders were performed by his hand? In the same way the apostles, though otherwise just common and despised men, came to be magnified as Acts 5:13 tells us, “they were highly regarded by the people.” Those who honor God He will honor; and for those that prove themselves faithful to Him, no matter how humbly or in whatever low position they may pass through this world, the day will come when they will look great, very great, in the eyes of all the world. Even people who disregard believers and treat them with contempt to their surprise will see the day when they learn what it has been all these years that we were living for and for Whom we were living. They will see us honored by the One whom we have been desiring to honor, the only One from whom the best kind of honor can come.

Though Pharaoh hated Moses, evidently some among Pharaoh’s servants respected him. Soon we will see that when Israel marches out, some Egyptians also left Egypt with the Hebrews, throwing their lot in with the people of God who were finally proven to be in the right. Similarly in Caesar’s household, even among Nero’s staff, there were some who understood Paul’s situation including his chains and respected him as Philippians 1:13 says, “As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.”

To demonstrate how God was setting up the final plague and how God, not Pharaoh, was in control of the conversation we next see Moses giving to Pharaoh a warning of the last and conquering plague which was about to be inflicted evidently at midnight that night. This was the death of all the first-born in Egypt which Moses had known about since just before Zipporah saved his life on the road to Egypt recorded back in Exodus 4. In verse 23 of that chapter God gave Moses advance notice about what he would say to Pharaoh, “and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so he may worship me.’ But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.” Smaller plagues, lesser judgments, had been used but now the time had come for the final and greatest one. If the lesser plagues had been fruitful, this one would not have been necessary. See how slow God is to become angry, and how willing to be meet man and be met with man in consideration of His judgments. He prefers to have His anger turned away and particularly values, as precious in His eyes, the lives of men. If the death of their cattle had humbled and reformed them, their children would have been spared. But, if men will not discern and take advantage of the opportunities inherent in the intentionally gradual advances of divine judgments, they must thank themselves if they find in the end that the worst was reserved for the last.

The specific plague itself is foretold in some detail in verses 4 – 6, “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.”’” The time is fixed—about midnight, evidently the very next midnight, in the middle of the night. Did the parents stay awake to see if the message was true or to rouse the families at midnight to stand by and watch them die? When they would all be asleep, all their first-born will sleep the sleep of death. Would it be quietly so as not to be discovered until morning. Whom would this include? According to verse 7, “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.”According to the narrative there would be loud mourning. The extent of this plague is described. The prince that was to succeed on the throne was not too high to be reached by it, nor were the slaves at the mill too low to be touched by it. Moses and Aaron were not ordered to summon this plague. No, the Lord said “I will go throughout Egypt.” God  would do it. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It is dangerous to ignore His warnings.

In contrast, notice the special protection under which the children of Israel would be safe and the great difference that would be put between them and the Egyptians. While the death angel drew his sword against the Egyptians, there would not so much as just even a dog bark at any of the children of Israel. As in some of the previous plagues, specific advance warning and a detailed notice of the difference which would be made on that terrible night between God’s people and His enemies was given. Verse 7 makes this clear, “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.” Were men to know what a difference God makes, and will make in eternity, between those who serve Him and those who do not, seeking God would not seem such an indifferent thing as they now pretend it to be, nor would they act with so much careless indifference as they do now.

Even the humble submission with which Pharaoh’s servants will request Israel to leave Egypt is included in what Moses said to Pharaoh in verse 8, “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.” They will come down, and bow themselves. The proud enemies of God and His Israel will be made to fall under God’s authority at last, perhaps something like what is recorded in Revelation 3:9, "I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.” Yes, Satan and the magicians of Egypt were liars whom Pharaoh believed to his own destruction. A similar thing will soon happen again as Israel enters the promised land as recorded in Deuteronomy 33:29, “Blessed are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will tread on their heights.”

When Moses had delivered his message to Pharaoh, it is written he went out from him in great anger. This, though he was the meekest of all the men of the earth! Had Moses not been given advance notice by God that Pharaoh would not let the people go, he may have expected the threatening of the death of the firstborn would have induced Pharaoh to comply. Surely Pharaoh had already seen so far how exactly all Moses’s predictions were fulfilled! Why did the plagues not have effect? Why no success? Pharaoh’s proud heart would not yield, no, not to save all the firstborn of his kingdom. No marvel that men are not turned away from wrong paths by advance notice given them of eternal misery in the next world, when even here and now in this world, with no fright, they risk losing all that is dear to them. The good man, Moses, was provoked to a holy anger, being grieved by the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. It is a great vexation to the spirits of good ministers to see people running headlong to ruin, even with all the kind efforts, fair warnings and methods used to prevent it.

The Bible says to be angry and sin not. To be angry at sin as Moses was here before Pharaoh is one understandable way to be angry and not sin. Moses, having sincerely delivered his message to Pharaoh, next reflects on the previous notice God had given him that this would happen. “The Lord had said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you—so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt.’” That was regarding Pharaoh, but what about the many humans who today do not believe? Let us never think the worse of the good news about Jesus just because people make light of it or refuse to believe it. We too are told before how it would be rejected and what a cool reception it would receive.

Here in verse 10, Moses himself recapitulates all he had said before about this, that Moses did all these wonders, as they are related here, before Pharaoh and yet could not prevail. “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.” Anyone in succeeding generations who rejects the good news of Jesus commits such a gross absurdity. The Gospel is so beautiful against the dark and sad background of eternal destruction that one would think that all would quickly respond favorably to it. But no. After people harden themselves against the light of the Gospel, God will, as with Pharaoh, allow people to not believe. God honors human’s use of their free-will even when they use it poorly.

The “set-up” is finished and God is ready to act.