And it came to pass at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. (Exodus 12:29–30)
This dreadful passage from the Old Testament records the execution of the tenth plague forewarned by God on the Egyptians. It happened more than three millennia ago, circa 1300 BC.
Successive Pharaohs, kings of Egypt, had enslaved the people of Israel living in Egypt. Israel was originally welcomed to settle in Egypt some four centuries prior, during the time of a great famine. Over time, the Israelites (Hebrews) grew in number and became despised by their hosts. They were put to hard labour, made to work in construction and in the fields, under slave masters who dealt ruthlessly with them (Exodus 1:11–14). A Pharaoh had also murdered the children of the Hebrews, commanding that all boys born to them be thrown into the River Nile (Exodus 11:15–22).
Moses, born to Israelite parents in Egypt, was one of the boys that were to have been drowned at birth according to the decree of Pharaoh. But his mother put him in a basket and set him adrift on the Nile. An Egyptian princess, daughter of Pharaoh, was bathing in the Nile and retrieved the basket with the baby. She took him as her son, giving him the name “Moses” which means “drawn out” because she said, “I drew him out of the water.” (Exodus 12:3–10). Moses would be educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and become powerful in speech and action (Acts 7:22).
When Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his own people, the Israelites, and witnessed the hard labour they were subjected to by the Egyptians. After witnessing an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he killed the Egyptian in secret but was found out. Pharaoh wanted to kill Moses for this, and Moses ran away from Egypt to the Midian desert in Arabia (Exodus 2:11–15, Acts 7:23–29). He was then 40 years old.
After Moses had lived in the Midian desert for 40 years, he encountered God at Mount Horeb, where God spoke to him from a burning bush. The king who tried to kill Moses had died, but the Egyptians continued to oppress the Israelites, who groaned in their slavery and were crying out for help. From the burning bush, God told Moses that He was sending Moses back to Egypt, to Pharaoh, to bring the Israelites out of Egypt (Exodus 3:1–10, Acts 7:30–34).
Once back in Egypt, Moses met with the elders of the Israelites and told them all God had commanded him to do for them (Exodus 4:29–31). Then Moses went to Pharaoh and told him that the God of Israel had said to let His people go. Pharaoh responded defiantly by saying, “Who is the LORD that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and will not let Israel go.” And on that day, Pharaoh commanded that his slave drivers make the Israelites work even harder (Exodus 5:1–9).
Facing this setback, and with the Israelites complaining against Moses that he had made their lives even tougher, Moses negotiated with God what he was to do next. God sent Moses back to Pharaoh to execute a series of judgments on Pharaoh and the Egyptians, until Pharaoh would relent and let the Israelites go (Exodus 7:3–5).
A series of 10 plagues was successively pronounced on Egypt:
1. The plague of blood — God turned the Nile into blood, but Pharaoh was unrepentant (Exodus 7:14–24).
2. The plague of frogs — God caused Egypt to teem with frogs until Pharaoh asked Moses to pray to the LORD to stop it. After the LORD answered that prayer, Pharaoh hardened his heart again (Exodus 9:29–8:15).
3. The plague of gnats — God sent gnats over people and animals everywhere in Egypt, so much so that the magicians in Egypt said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God!” But Pharaoh would not listen (Exodus 8:16–19).
4. The plague of flies — God sent dense swarms of flies to afflict the Egyptians but spared the Israelites. Pharaoh knew it was the LORD that did this and summoned Moses to pray to stop it. After the LORD did what Moses asked, Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go (Exodus 8:20–30).
5. The plague on livestock — God struck the livestock of the Egyptians which all died, but spared the livestock of the Israelites. Still, Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the Israelites go (Exodus 9:1–7).
6. The plague of boils — God afflicted the people and animals of Egypt with festering boils, but Pharaoh would not listen (Exodus 9:8–12).
7. The plague of hail — after prior warning to Pharaoh, God sent rain, thunder, lightning and hail on the Egyptians, the worst storm that Egypt had ever had, killing people and animals, and destroying crops, and sparing the Israelites. Pharaoh confessed that he had sinned and asked Moses to pray for the storm to stop. After Moses prayed and the storm stopped, Pharaoh again hardened his heart and would not let the people go (Exodus 9:13–35).
8. The plague of locusts — after Moses’ further negotiations with Pharaoh failed, God sent a wind that brought locusts that invaded all Egypt and devoured everything growing in the fields and on trees. Pharaoh again summoned Moses and confessed that he had sinned again, and asked Moses to pray to the LORD to take this plague away. After Moses prayed and the locusts were blown out by a wind to the Red Sea, Pharaoh’s heart became hardened again (Exodus 10:1–18).
9. The plague of darkness — God sent darkness over the land of Egypt for 3 days. Yet, Pharaoh would not cede to the demands of Moses to let all the Israelites and their livestock go, and said to Moses that he may never appear before Pharaoh again, to which Moses replied, “I will never appear before you again.” (Exodus 10:19–29).
10. The plague on the firstborn. This brings us back to the passage at the beginning of this article.
The plague on the firstborn was the last plague that God would unleash on the Egyptians, after which Pharaoh would relent and finally let the Israelites leave. God prepared the Israelites in advance, giving them strict instructions on what they must do to avoid the plague. The Israelites were to slaughter the Passover lamb for their families and to paint their doorposts with the blood of the sacrificed lambs. They were to stay indoors whilst the destroyer of the LORD passed over their houses and struck down the firstborn of the Egyptians (Exodus 12:1–13, 21–23).
By this act, judgment was brought not only on Pharaoh and his people, but also on all the gods of Egypt. In answer to Pharaoh’s insolent response at the beginning of Moses’ engagement with him that he did not know who the LORD was (Exodus 5:2), by these plagues, God showed him and all Egypt who the LORD was (Exodus 12:12).
This last plague unleashed on the Egyptians might seem very severe. However, it ought to be seen as judgment tempered with mercy. God could have exterminated all the Egyptians, as He did to Sodom and Gomorrah half a millennia before. After the sixth plague and before the seventh struck, God had said to Pharaoh through Moses, “For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth.” (Exodus 9:15). God did not do this. Rather, by sending plague after plague to Egypt so that mayhap Pharaoh would repent, and finally by unleashing the tenth plague which was too much for Pharaoh and the Egyptians to bear, God demonstrated His mercy and forbearance toward the Egyptians.
The Bible reveals that God is merciful. His kindness toward humanity often goes unnoticed, as humanity lives on ignorant of God or agnostic toward Him. Humanity needs to be redeemed so that it rediscovers God’s purposes for it. This redemption is provided by Jesus Christ, whom the Bible declares as the slain Lamb of God that takes away the world’s sin (John 1:29, Revelation 13:8).
The blood of the Passover lamb that each Israelite household painted on their doorposts just before the tenth plague struck, was a foreshadow of the blood that Jesus Christ would shed on a Roman cross 1,300 years later. His own blood, Jesus tells us, is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28). Just as the blood of the Passover lamb kept those behind the blood-painted doorposts safe, the blood of Jesus saves all who would accept it to keep them safe from God’s wrath on sin and the destruction of the wicked.