Exodus 11: One More Plague

‘I will bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go from here; indeed, when he lets you go, he will drive you away.

This is the final straw. Whatever comes next will  break Pharaoh. He will finally give in to Moses’ demands to let his people go.

Blood couldn’t do it
Frogs couldn’t do it
Gnats couldn’t do it
Flies couldn’t do it
Pestilence couldn’t do it
Boils and skin rashes couldn’t do it
Fire and hail couldn’t do it
Locusts couldn’t do it
Darkness that you could feel couldn’t do it.

But this will.

One more plague. One more terrifying judgment on the people Egypt and then the people of God will go. They will leave and never come back.

Thus says the Lord: About midnight I will go out through Egypt. Every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the livestock.

Every firstborn from Pharaoh’s son to the slave’s son to the slave’s cow’s son will die.

Every.

Single.

One.

photo © 2008 Eric | more info (via: Wylio)

This is chilling.

There is no way around it. If the act itself wasn’t bad enough, the description of what will happen as a result should cause the hair on your neck to stand up.

Then there will be a loud cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as has never been nor will ever be again.

In previous chapters the oppressed were the ones to cry out. Now it is the oppressors’ turn. And what a cry that will be.

I am writing near a window. From it I can see and hear children playing in a pool. I can only guess that several of them are the eldest children in their families.

And had they lived in Egypt that day, they would not be playing in the pool tomorrow.

I doubt anyone would.

Moses Walks Away

After delivering the message to Pharaoh, Moses left his presence “hot with anger.”

At whom I wonder?

At Pharaoh? For being so stubborn and hard hearted? For being so cruel and oppressive to a people who helped his country survive not a few generations ago? For letting it get this far?

Or maybe he was angry at God.

For being capable of the same cruelty. For throwing him into the middle of this horrible situation that he didn’t ask for. For asking him to do terrible things to the Egyptians.

We don’t know.

All we do know is that tonight there will be one more plague.