After refusing nine times to let the Israelites go, it is remarkable that on the tenth time, Pharaoh told them to get out, and that in the middle of the night. He couldn’t even stand to wait until daylight. It took the murder of all the Egyptian firstborns to bring Pharaoh to his knees and to let the Israelites go. The tenth plague was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Every one of the nine plague struck the Egyptians, but afterwards, the world returned to the way it was before. Not so with the tenth plague. After the tenth plague, the world never looked the same again.
Why did the Lord kill every firstborn belonging to the Egyptians? If you see Exodus 13:15 the same way I do, then you must conclude the Lord killed the Egyptian firstborns because Pharaoh was stubborn, and he would not let the Israelites go, plain and simple.
Exodus 13:15a
"It came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast."
This isn’t wrong, but some see more than just Pharaoh refusing to let Israel go. They see a direct connection between the tenth plague and what happened as far back as in Exodus 1. More specifically, the killing of every Egyptian firstborn was retribution for Pharaoh’s order to kill the Hebrew male babies. I actually don’t disagree with this view.
But if that is all we see happening here, then I believe we have missed something rather significant. The killing of the Egyptians was more than a mere tit for tat. If you recall, as early as Exodus 4:22, there was one day the Lord said something quite remarkable. Even before the first plague had hit the Egyptians, the Lord called the nation of Israel his “firstborn”. Up to this point, the Lord called individuals his firstborns. But for the first time here, he called a nation his firstborn. This is very significant.
Exodus 4:22–23
“Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me’; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.”’”
What did the Lord mean when he said Israel was his son, his firstborn? Much in the same way as the firstborns of man and animal belong to the Lord. As the firstborn of Israel held a special place of privilege and blessing in the family, the nation of Israel held a special place of privilege and blessing to the Lord. In the same way there is only one firstborn in the family, there was only one firstborn nation among the nations. In the same way an unclean firstborn animal can be redeemed with a clean animal, Israel can be redeemed. Israel, as the Lord’s firstborn, belonged to him.
Think along with me. The Lord could have killed the Egyptian firstborns in the tenth plague and carried the Israelites on his shoulder out of Egypt. Mission accomplished and end of story. Why was it necessary to go, if I may say it this way, an extra step and have the Israelites smear the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of their houses? The obvious answer is that if they didn’t do that, the destroyer would enter the house and kill the Israelite firstborn in the same way he killed the Egyptian firstborn. But the not-so-obvious answer is because Israel was the Lord’s firstborn, and as such, Israel must be bought with a price.
Remember, as Israel belonged to the Lord, the Lord had the right to do anything he pleased. If the Lord had chosen to kill the firstborns of Israel, well, that was within his right, too. The only reason Israel’s firstborns were spared is because there was blood of the Passover lamb on their houses’ doorposts. Did you catch the redemption in here? If Israel’s firstborns did not belong to the Lord, there would have been no redemption. Why was a redemption necessary? The redemption signals to us Israel’s firstborns indeed belonged to the Lord. We should not understand this any other way. It is only after we have understood this important point that we come to understand what had truly taken place in the last plague. We not only see the tenth plague as retribution for the murder of Hebrew male babies in Exodus 1; we also see the Lord exercising his right over Israel’s firstborn.
Redemption always requires blood. The Lord’s firstborn, Israel, was redeemed by the death of the Egyptian firstborns and the blood of the Passover lamb. The Lord’s instruction to the destroyer was clear and simple. If there was blood of the lamb smeared on the doorposts of the house, the destroyer was to pass over the house. But if the destroyer did not find blood on the doorpost, he was to enter the house and kill the firstborn, whether Egyptian or Israelite. The destroyer was blind as to the occupants of the house. Should an Israelite house forget, or fail to smear the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of the house for whatever reason, the destroyer was to carry out its orders and kill the firstborn inside the house.