Who will have the last word? In an ongoing feud, there will be that final moment when opposing sides want to have the last word before turning on their heels to leave the scene. We humans seem to demand having the “last word” in any argument as one last line of defense and push for power.  But what happens when God has the last word?  God is the One who has all power, wisdom, and strength to accomplish His good, pleasing, and perfect will.  What God says will happen—happens!

When God speaks, all should listen!  After nine other debilitating plagues, Pharoah still refuses to listen.  God knew he would not give in, so now God will force him to lose what he holds dear—his first-born son.

In this passage, nine of the ten plagues in Egypt had already occurred. Pharaoh, despite the pleadings of Moses at their last in-person meeting, refused to give in. God will prepare His people, the Israelites, for this last plague of death with what they must do to protect their first born from death.  Because of hardened hearts with refusal to repent to God; the rescue and redemption of Israel will require the sacrifice of Egypt’s first-born sons. 

Exodus 11

The Plague on the Firstborn

11 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. ² Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.” ³ (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.)

⁴ So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. ⁵ 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. ⁶ There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. ⁷ 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. 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.” Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.

⁹ The Lord had said to Moses, “Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you—so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt.” ¹⁰ 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.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Chapter 12 will outline the exact instruction from God to His people which we will talk over tomorrow.  But realize what is happening in the court of the Pharoah.  Moses will no longer plead with Pharoah to let the people of the Hebrew nation go.  Moses has done and said what he was told by God to do.  Now, God will show His power to a hardhearted leader who thinks he is in control.  God will bring Pharaoh to his knees through the death of his own first-born son. Imagine the mourning cries and wailing of Egyptian families over the deaths of all their first-born sons! Every family must be in state of shock.  Pharoah’s grief and shock, however, will give the God’s people, who have been prepared for the journey by God, to leave town for good—with no looking back. 

Hold this thought as we continue:  God did not protect the Israelites because they were better than the Egyptians, but because they were his people. God gives grace to his followers—whether through the blood of a lamb or the blood of the Lamb, Jesus—not based on merit but on his loving-kindness.

God is a God of miracles. God will not force His will but He will provide opportunities for people to change their minds and attitudes by His powerful works seen by all men and women.  Warren Wiersbe comments;

“Moses told the Israelites that the time had come for them to collect their unpaid wages for all the work they and their ancestors had done as slaves in Egypt. The Hebrew word for “ask or request” is sometimes incorrectly translated “borrow” in this verse. The Israelites didn’t intend to return what the Egyptians gave them, for that wealth was payment for an outstanding debt that Egypt owed to Israel.

God had promised Abraham that his descendants would leave Egypt with great wealth (Genesis 15:14), and he repeated that promise to Moses (Exodus 3:21, 22). God had given His servant Moses great respect among the Egyptians, and now He would give the Israelites great favor with the Egyptians, who would freely give their wealth to them (12:36, 37).” Wiersbe Study Bible

As we read the Book of Genesis, we learn that God often rejected the firstborn son and chose the next son to carry on the family line and receive God’s special blessing. God chose Abel, and then Seth, but not Cain; He chose Shem, not Japheth; Isaac, not Ishmael; and Jacob, not Esau.  These choices not only magnify God’s sovereign grace, but they are a symbolic way of saying that it is not our first birth that makes us right with God.  It is in our second birth of repenting to God of our sins that clears the debt and makes us right with God.  It is laying down our will for God’s good, perfect, and pleasing will.  It is not conforming to the world around us but transforming into a new person who follows what God says because of our newly forming, lovingly intimate relationship with God.  We love Him because He first loved us. (See Romans 12:1-2; 1 John 4:19)

God’s mercy should have brought Pharaoh to see his need for repentance to God; instead, he repeatedly hardened his heart and refused. Pharaoh’s officials humbled themselves before Moses; why couldn’t Pharaoh follow their example? Here’s why, “Pride goes before destruction, and haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverb 16:18). Pharoah’s pride cost him the life of his son.

Lord,

Cleanse our hearts of all that does not belong there and is not of you.  Remove the pride of demanding that we be in control of all things.  Renew our minds, transform our behaviors.  Refresh our souls with your tender mercies, fresh for us each morning. Restore the joy of your salvation at work within us by the power and leading of your Holy Spirit.  Lead us. Lead me all day long and into the night. I’m listening for I am yours.

In Jesus Name, Amen