Judgment that doesn’t have to come: Lessons from Egypt’s plagues (Exodus 10:1–13:16)

One of the parables of Messiah YeshuaHebrew for Christ Jesus sets the stage for Bo:

“For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’” (Luke 14:28–30 NASB)

Notice how the legacy of the LORD’s actions during the Exodus persisted hundreds of years afterward to the another nation hundreds of miles away. The Philistine leadership were cautioned not to allow their hearts to be hardened like the Mitzraim were because God would make them just as miserable as He did the Mitzraim as long as they refused to return the Ark. God doesn’t play games.

“All these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves before me, saying, ‘Go out, you and all the people who follow you,’ and after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.” (Exodus 11:8 NASB)

Why was Moses so angry? Because all this death and carnage did not have to happen. If Pharaoh had any speck of humility in him, he could have saved his people but he refused. What we see in Revelation is the same, it doesn’t have to happen this way but we know that is how it will go because human nature doesn’t change. The reason history repeats itself is because human nature doesn’t change. Only God’s supernatural intervention will change it.

The Law was added because we needed to know. Common sense wasn’t enough.

Moses and Aaron approached Pharaoh with soft power. On the surface, they appeared to be groveling with hat in hand, but behind them, they had the backing of God Almighty. Just as Pharaoh was given no option except God’s way, it will be the same at the end of the world, as we read in Revelation.

God says “Let my people go!” as a request, but it’s a request He will back up with power when ignored.

I want to discuss the issue of God’s ridicule or mockery of the Mitzraim as He is preparing to free the children of Israel from their bondage.

“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Mitzraim and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.’” (Exodus 10:1–2 NASB)

The Hebrew word translated as “mockery” in the NASB is [עלל Strong’s No. 5953]. Was the LORD toying with Mitzraim or making a memorial?

Carl Schultz said in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament: ¹

“While the thought of mocking is startling, both the contextual and the etymological situation demand a negative type of treatment. God treated the Mitzraim severely because, as the Philistines noted [1Sam. 6:6], they hardened their hearts. It is clearly within God’s power and prerogative to punish and discipline but He never acts in jest; hence the RSV translation ‘made sport of’ can be misleading.”

The Philistine diviners warned against keeping the seized Ark of the Testimony once they started experiencing some uncomfortable plagues.

“Why then do you harden your hearts as the Mitzraimi and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, did they not allow the people to go, and they departed?” (1Samuel 6:6)

It’s not a coincidence that God uses plagues in both the Exodus and the book of Revelation to punish the nations that are persecuting and oppressing His people. History repeats itself because unregenerate human nature doesn’t change.

The legacy of the LORD’s actions during the Exodus persisted hundreds of years later and to another nations hundreds of miles away. Mitzraim was brought down from its exalted superpower status when God took the Israelites away.

The final three plagues were locusts, three days of darkness and the destruction of the first born in Mitzraim.

The LORD reminds the second generation post-Exodus of this plague and some of the others before they enter the Promised Land.

“ ‘The LORD will smite you with the boils of Mitzraim and with tumors and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. The LORD will smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart; and you will grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways; but you shall only be oppressed and robbed continually, with none to save you.’ ” (Deuteronomy 28:27–29 NASB)

Their freedom came at a huge cost, culminating in the death of the firstborn of Mitzraim. The three days of darkness is also a prophecy of Yeshua’s resting three days in the utter darkness of the grave.

The Lord lead them out of Mitzraim, to a Promised Land, where they would be at home. Israel had to decide if they wanted to go God’s way or their own way.

The generation that died in the wilderness went their own way and died in the wilderness. That generation never saw the Promise that God worked so many miracles for them to enter. The second generation were reminded that they could not receive God’s blessing and go their own way at the same time.

God enacted a huge cost on the Mitzraim to liberate Israel. The LORD would personally accompany the Destroyer through the whole land. The Destroyer was not haSatan, the Adversary, but an agent from Heaven. The Lord is the Protector and He is bringing the Destroyer as well. Wrath and mercy traveled side by side through the entire land of Mitzraim.

“Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.” (Romans 11:22 NASB)

The message has not changed between Malachi and Matthew. The Apostle Paul reminded his audience that every year, they recalled the Passover. God sent His only Son to die for us. He didn’t just kill the first born of Mitzraim. He send His own First Born to die.

In Exodus 12 we have the introduction to the “beginning of months” and the instructions for the first and future Pesakhs.

“‘Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.” (Exodus 12:14 NASB)

The Passover lamb is offered just before the 14th day ends and the feast of unleavened bread begins. By the 1st century AD, Passover and Unleavened Bread were bundled together. The Apostle Paul explains why they were to go to such great lengths to get rid of any evidence of leaven in the house.

There is such as strong emphasis on unleavened bread during Passover but by Shavuot, we are commanded to have leavened bread. The people who celebrate Shavuot with joy aren’t looking back at Mitzraim, but looking forward to the Kingdom of God. We are to move into a new realm and become new people.

Exodus 12:19 warns that “whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land” (NASB)

Hebrew Bible scholar Walter C. Kaiser Jr. said of Ex. 12:19: ²

“Verse 19 is not an empty repetition of v.15 but adds the important notice that Gentiles may be celebrants along with Israel even as was contemplated in the Abrahamic covenant of Genesis 12:3: ‘all peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.’ The ‘alien’ (ger) must have included the ‘mixed multitude’ (v.38, KJV; NIV, ‘many other people’) who left Egypt with Israel, the Kenites who joined them in the desert (Num. 10:29-31; Judg 1:16), and those who were converted later like Rahab’s family (Josh 2:10-14).”

The commonwealth of Israel includes Jew and Gentile. A Gentile who is “grafted in” is a citizen of the nation of Israel. Once you are a citizen, your origins are irrelevant. What is relevant is the learning curve and one’s willingness to learn the history, language and culture of Israel.

It’s easier to be “native born” but it’s not impossible for those who aren’t native born to come in.

Let’s take a look at the haftarahHebrew for parallel passage, traditionally a reading that fits thematically with the Torah reading, or parashah. for Bo, which is found in Jeremiah 46:13–28. In this passage, the LORD foretells the coming defeat of Mitzraim by the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar.

The northern Kingdom of Israel had been conquered by Assyria and dispersed throughout the nations.

The southern Kingdom of Yehudah had trusted in Mitzraim as Savior from the downward spiral of power because of the lack of loyalty to the One Who freed Yisra’el from Mitzraim about several hundred years before.  Yehudah’s to God was very thin, but God’s loyalty is everlasting.

God would destroy Mitzraim, which was Yehudah’s false savior, by the hand of the same king that He used to punish Yehudah.

It’s very disconcerting when God tells you “Don’t fight back” but God promised to regather the people of Israel who He scattered. We can’t see them, but God is calling them.

God also quietly calls out to Mitzraim. There was once a Pharaoh in Mitzraim who was humble enough to listen to God’s instruction and Mitzraim was blessed through Yosef.

Sometimes we are caught in narrow places and God has to move mountains to extract us from a bad situation. We should be grateful that God is that loyal to His people.

Every year we are to remind ourselves of what happened back then, as though we were direct witnesses, not merely indirect witnesses.

“You shall tell your son on that day, saying, ‘It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ And it shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt. Therefore, you shall keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year.” (Exodus 13:8–10 NASB)

The Exodus was a real event, with real people, who paid a great cost for freedom. Yeshua HaMashiakh, 2,000 years later, had to die for us. Do we remember our slavery? Do we realize how much we have been forgiven, how much Messiah’s blood has covered?

The people of Mitzraim didn’t “have it coming.” He extended mercy to them for a long time. We shouldn’t gloat or be too pleased with ourselves when reading about what happened to Mitzraim in this generation. When we see how many will not come out of Babylon, we will weep, not gloat.

“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4–9 NASB)

When we see this passage, we see a reminder of what it is about loving God with all your heart, soul and strength. This is Moses’ telling the second generation where they are going and why they are going. Moses is telling them that their heart is not supposed to be in Mitzraim anymore.

Our heart isn’t supposed to be back in the land of our sin either.

Summary: Tammy.