Exodus 11-The Lord Announces To Moses The Tenth and Final Plague
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday November 20, 2011
Journey Through The Bible Series: Exodus 11-The Lord Announces to Moses the Tenth and Final Plague
Lesson # 11
Please turn in your Bibles to Exodus 11:1.
Chapter 11 contains a narrative that presents new information for the reader as well as material that is a reminder in order to orient the reader to the fact that the tenth plague and the resulting Exodus of Israel from Egypt was the culmination of a long process that God had ordained and oversaw.
He predicted it and brought it to pass. Pharaoh’s disobedience to Him did not thwart His plan for Israel but in fact was figured into His plan.
This is to help the reader to trust in the Lord since the Lord uses evil against itself and to accomplish His will.
Exodus 11:1 Now the Lord said to Moses, “One more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt; after that he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out from here completely.” (NASB95)
In Exodus 11:1, the Lord announces to Moses the tenth and final plague which He says will result in Pharaoh driving the Israelites out of Egypt.
This statement by the Lord to Moses echoes what He said to him in Exodus 3:19-22 and 7:3-5.
So Moses knew along that the death of the firstborns in Egypt would be the last plague since the Lord’s statements to him in Exodus 3:19-22 and 7:3-5 preceded the first nine plagues.
This last plague would be the ultimate demonstration that the God of the Israelites was sovereign over not only Pharaoh and Egypt but over life and death.
Exodus 11:2 “Speak now in the hearing of the people that each man ask from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of gold.” 3 The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Furthermore, the man Moses himself was greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people. (NASB95)
In verse 1, we see the Lord instructing Moses to ask the Egyptian people to give the Israelites articles of silver and gold for their departure after He strikes Egypt with the tenth plague.
In verse 3, the Lord tells Moses that the Egyptians will gladly respond to their request since He gave the Israelites favor in the sight of the Egyptian people.
He also says that Moses was greatly esteemed by the Egyptian people as well as Pharaoh’s servants.
This response by the Egyptians reveals how out of touch Pharaoh is with his people and how they do not trust him.
The Egyptian people have suffered greatly because of Pharaoh’s policy towards the Israelites.
The nation is in ruins because of Pharaoh’s arrogance.
The Egyptian people knew that stubborn refusal to give in to the Lord’s demands to free Israel was pointless and destructive.
After the death of their firstborn children and the firstborn of their herds and flocks, the Egyptian people were in awe of Moses and the Israelites.
Unlike Pharaoh, they knew that they were no match for the God of the Israelites.
Exodus 11:4 Moses said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘About midnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt, 5 and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; all the firstborn of the cattle as well. 6 Moreover, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again. 7 But against any of the sons of Israel a dog will not even bark, whether against man or beast, that you may understand how the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 8 All these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves before me, saying, “Go out, you and all the people who follow you,’ and after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. (NASB95)
These verses record Moses’ final confrontation with Pharaoh and the announcement of the final, decisive plague.
He makes clear to Pharaoh that this announcement of the final plague is directly from the Lord to him.
In these verses, we see Pharaoh receiving advanced warning, which was the case with the first, second, fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth plagues.
This was to give Pharaoh an opportunity to repent and spare himself and the Egyptians from further suffering.
In Exodus 11:4-5, Moses describes the tenth plague saying that at approximately midnight the Lord will kill all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of all the Egyptians from Pharaoh’s firstborn to the firstborn of the slave girl.
Then, in Exodus 11:6, Moses says that this event has never taken place in history and will never again happen after it takes place.
Interestingly, in this plague, the Lord would put to death the firstborn of the Egyptians quietly in their sleep and not by violence of war or a storm, which is God’s grace.
The wailing or crying in the morning was not from the suffering anguish of the firstborns but rather the parents of these children.
A firstborn son received special honor and Pharaoh’s son, who was the heir to throne in Egypt, was considered to be a god.
This tenth plague like the previous nine was directed at the gods of the Egyptians.
It was against Min, who was the god of reproduction as well as Heqet, who was a goddess who attended women at childbirth.
It was also against Isis, who was a goddess who was said to protect children.
Lastly, it was against Pharaoh’s firstborn son, who was considered by the Egyptians to be a god.
Thus, the Egyptians were being rightly judged by the Lord for their idolatry.
Moses says in Exodus 11:7 that the Israelites will be untouched by the tenth plague so as to make clear that the Lord is making a distinction between the Israelites and the Egyptians.
The former is marked out for deliverance and blessing and the latter is marked out for judgment.
Like the fourth, fifth and seventh plagues Moses make clear that the land of Goshen where the Israelites resided would be untouched by this plague.
Now, the question arises as to why the Lord killed the firstborn and not Pharaoh himself.
Was God unjust?
Well, first of all, the great premise in the universe is that God is never unjust.
He is holy.
He does not sin since He never contradicts or denies Himself.
Sin is against His character and nature.
His creatures sin by rejecting His will.
Sin is sin because it goes against God’s will and His character and nature.
Now, we must remember that every firstborn in Egypt like the rest of humanity were sinners by nature.
Romans 1:18-3:10 makes clear that every member of the human race has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and there is none righteous not even one.
Every member of the human race is born into sin and possesses a sin nature.
Therefore, if God kills anyone in the human race, He is justified since He is holy and they are not.
Furthermore, if the firstborn had not reach the age of accountability, then this child goes to heaven and will live with God forever.
This is illustrated when David’s child with Bathsheba through an adulterous affair was taken by the Lord.
David wept and mourned when the child was sick but when the child died, he no longer mourned.
When asked to justify his behavior once the child died, he said that the child could not come back to him but that he would go to be with the child when he died, thus implying that the child was in heaven (2 Samuel 12:16-23).
Thus, if some of these firstborns had no reached the age of accountability, then they went straight to heaven to be in the presence of the Lord.
This is true of every child that has not reached the age of accountability.
This is God’s grace and is made possible by the Lord Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.
Those firstborns in Egyptian that had reached the age of accountability and did not trust in the Lord would go to Torments upon their death and eventually will stand before Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment and will be thrown into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:11-15).
They have no excuse.
Like Pharaoh, they were given every opportunity by the Lord to repent and stop practicing idolatry and trust in Him and worship Him so as to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9).
Therefore, God was being gracious with the Egyptians who were sinners since He gave them every opportunity to stop practicing idolatry and trust in Him and worship Him.
Their failure to do so resulted in their death and eventual condemnation.
They were responsible for their own actions and were being held accountable by God who is holy and who created them.
Because God is holy, He would be justified for throwing them into the Lake of Fire immediately since He is holy and they are sinners by nature and practice.
However, because God is love which manifests itself in grace meaning that sinners do not earn or deserve anything but eternal condemnation, God treated sinners better than they deserve and offered them every opportunity to trust in Him and worship Him but they refused like Pharaoh.
Exodus 11:8 records Moses making a prediction to Pharaoh telling him that there will be a role reversal between the Israelites and the Egyptians.
The Israelites who once bowed down to Pharaoh would bow down to Moses.
However, this would not be to acknowledge Moses as their leader but to beg of him to leave Egypt.
The implication is that the Egyptian people are totally against Pharaoh’s policy with regards to the Israelites and Moses.
Thus, verse 8 records that the Lord will vindicate the Israelites and Moses in the eyes of the Egyptian people.
Notice that Moses leaves Pharaoh in anger, which is not sin but rather it is an expression of righteous indignation, which is the legitimate anger toward sin.
The difference between righteous indignation and anger is that the former is based upon concern for the holiness of God whereas the latter is emotional, selfish, self-centered, vindictive and intent on harming another.
Moses is concerned with God’s holiness and is legitimately angered by Pharaoh’s decision to sin by refusing to let the Israelites go since it will result in the needless death of every firstborn child in Egypt and it is a refusal by Pharaoh to acknowledge the Lord as sovereign over him.
Moses is angry with Pharaoh because Pharaoh is sinning against the Lord and insulting the Lord by his stubborn disobedience.
Exodus 11:9 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that My wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” 10 Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; yet the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land. (NASB95)
Exodus 11:9-10 is retrospective in the sense it is a review of Pharaoh’s prior history of resistance to the Lord’s demands that he free the Israelites to serve Him.
Verse 9 is a summary of Exodus 4:21-23 and verse 10 is a reminder to the reader what has happened to Egypt throughout the previous nine plagues.
The Lord has glorified himself through Pharaoh’s stubbornness.
Each time Pharaoh rejected the Lord’s demands, the Lord would demonstrate His power and strike Egypt with a plague.
Verse 10 makes clear that Pharaoh brought this destruction upon himself and his fellow countrymen by refusing to submit to the Lord’s demands.