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In rejecting God's word, Pharaoh caused all the firstborns in the land to die and therefore brought profound sorrow to himself and to his people.
Two questions must be addressed at this point: (1) Why did God slay only the firstborn? (2) Was He just (right) in doing so when Pharaoh was the true culprit? In answering the first question, we also help to answer the second. In doing so I have pulled
"In most cultures, firstborn sons are considered special, and in Egypt, they were considered sacred. We must remember that God calls Israel His firstborn son (Ex. 4:22; Jer. 31:9; Hosea 11:1). At the very beginning of their conflict, Moses warned Pharaoh that the way he treated God's firstborn would determine how God treated Egypt's firstborn (Ex. 4:22–23). Pharaoh had tried to kill the Jewish male babies, and his officers had brutally mistreated the Jewish slaves, so in slaying the firstborn, the Lord was bringing Pharaoh's sin before him.
Compensation is a fundamental law of life (Matt. 7:1–2), and God isn't unjust in permitting this law to operate in the world. Pharaoh drowned the Jewish babies, so God drowned Pharaoh's army (Ex. 14:26–31; 15:4–5). Jacob lied to his father Isaac (Gen. 27:15–17), and years later, Jacob's sons lied to him (37:31–35). David committed adultery and had the woman's husband murdered (2 Sam. 11), and David's daughter was raped and two of his sons were murdered (2 Sam. 13; 18). Haman built gallows on which to hang Mordecai, but it was Haman who was hanged there instead (Es. 7:7–10). "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap" (Gal. 6:7, NKJV).
As to the justice of this tenth plague, who can pass judgment on the acts of the Lord when "righteousness and justice are the foundation of [His] throne"? (Ps. 89:14, NIV) But why should one man's resistance to God cause the death of many innocent young men? As to the "innocence" of these firstborn sons, only God knows the human heart and can dispense His justice perfectly. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25)
When you read the Book of Genesis, you 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 our first birth is not accepted by God. We must experience a second birth, a spiritual
In summary, God is sovereign and just and therefore everything He does is perfect and good. His choice of this tenth plague is not a 'blame game' but God using His discernment and discipline on Egypt. Remember that God did provide a way of escape from this plague (blood on the lintel,{doorpost}). In the same way when we are tempted to sin and caught in a sticky situation God always provides a way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13), but many times we choose to sin just like Pharaoh and the Egyptians. We must make the choice to choose to live a life glorifying to God and to say no to ourselves, the world, and ultimately sin.
Do you need to confess sin to the Lord? Take time right now to thank God for His grace and forgiveness from our sins.
-Malachi Hall
Wiersbe, W. W. (1998). Be delivered (pp. 49–51). Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor Pub.
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