Exodus 11-13 - Commentary by Rev. John Schultz

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:30:49utc

Exodus 11 and 13

Tenth Plague, the Passover and the Exodus Chapter 11-13.

In the chapters 11-13 the last plague is announced and executed and the meaning of it is expounded. Here the climax of the confrontation between light and darkness, between good and evil, between God and Satan is reached. God is the Victor.

One of the amazing features of this section is that history is made known before it is executed in time and space. From our finite, human perspective, we understand only the value and importance of history in retrospect. In these chapters God throws the light of eternity upon a scene before it happens. This is awesome to behold.

Not only does God have Moses announce to Pharaoh what will happen, but He tells Moses how generations of Israelites who will live centuries later are to commemorate God's deliverance. No part of the Bible gives us a better illustration of the interaction between eternity and time and the paradox between the two than the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. The events prove that God is the God of history; that the Eternal One moves in time and space.

The first three verses of chapter 11 are obviously reaching back to an earlier communication of God with Moses. They provide the basis for Moses' announcement of the tenth plague during his last audience with Pharaoh. As mentioned before, the verses 4-8 give the parting words of Moses during the conversation that is recorded in the previous chapter.

God had let Moses know that the tenth plague would be the last one. Whether this was communicated to him during the three days of darkness or at an earlier stage, we are not told. At this point the Israelites -- and especially Moses -- have made such a deep impression on the general populace of Egypt that the Israelites are given anything they ask for. The demand for gold and silver articles should be seen as a just reward due to the people of Israel for almost four centuries of free slave labor which they had performed.

God did not bring His people out of Egypt as a bunch of paupers. They were well provided for. They were not saved out of darkness and bondage "by the skin of their teeth." The Israelites had enough gold and silver, precious stones, and other valuables to build the tabernacle. And that was after they had squandered a large amount of gold to make the Golden Calf, which was crushed and flushed down the stream. How affluent the Israelites had become is clear from the offerings they made for the construction of the tabernacle. In ch. 36:5-7 we read that the builders said to Moses: " 'The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done.' Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: 'No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.' And so the people were restrained from bringing more, Because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work."

In vs. 4-8 Moses announces to Pharaoh that the tenth plague will involve the death of all the first-born sons in Egypt as well as the first born of all the animals. Again, we have to emphasize that the announcement of the plague was and act of mercy. It left the door open to repentance. Even at this point Pharaoh could have surrendered. The massive killings that follow are ultimately his responsibility. But in his insanity the king had pushed himself beyond the point of return.

The first-born were important both to the Egyptians and to the Lord. The Pulpit Commentary says about the first-born: "The law of primogeniture prevailed in Egypt, as among most of the nations of antiquity. The monarchy (under the New Empire, at any rate) was hereditary, and the eldest son was known as erpa saten sa, or 'hereditary Crown Prince.' Estates descended to the eldest son, and in many cases high dignities also. No severer blow could have been sent on the nation, if it were not to be annihilated, than the loss in each house of the hope of the family - the parents' stay, the other children's guardian and protector."

The importance of the first-born to God becomes evident in chapter 13 where God says to Moses: "Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal." Psalms 24:1 explains what this means: "The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it." God's claim upon every first-born living being shows that everything that lives belongs to Him. The first-born becomes a token, a representation of the whole. He who has the first has everything.

The chapter ends with a recapitulation of the mystery of Pharaoh's hard heart. He had separated Himself from reality, which is the essence of sin. Sin is rooted in a lie, that is in that which is not true, which is not real. Pharaoh could no longer react reasonably or logically to facts. He had made a fool of himself; his degeneration had started slowly with relatively harmless signs. The transformation of sticks into snakes and of water into blood did not kill anybody. At that point Pharaoh still maintained some hold on reality by basing his decisions on the assurances given to him by the magicians. But when they failed and the proofs of God's existence and majesty become irrefutable he did not change his mind. He may have seemed an honest agnostic in the beginning, but when hard evidence accumulated, he proved to be a hardened sinner who chose death above life.