Reflections on Exodus 11

Exodus 11 (Contemporary English Version)


1. The LORD said to Moses: I am going to punish the king of Egypt and his people one more time. Then the king will gladly let you leave his land, so that I will stop punishing the Egyptians. He will even chase you out.
2. Now go and tell my people to ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold and silver jewelry.
3. So the LORD made the Egyptians greatly respect the Israelites, and everyone, including the king and his officials, considered Moses an important leader.
4. Moses went to the king and said: I have come to let you know what the LORD is going to do. About midnight he will go through the land of Egypt,
5. and wherever he goes, the first-born son in every family will die. Your own son will die, and so will the son of the lowest slave woman. Even the first-born males of cattle will die.
6. Everywhere in Egypt there will be loud crying. Nothing like this has ever happened before or will ever happen again.
7. But there won't be any need for the Israelites to cry. Things will be so quiet that not even a dog will be heard barking. Then you Egyptians will know that the LORD is good to the Israelites, even while he punishes you.
8. Your leaders will come and bow down, begging me to take my people and leave your country. Then we will leave. Moses was very angry, he turned and left the king.
9. What the LORD had earlier said to Moses came true. He had said, "The king of Egypt won't listen. Then I will perform even more miracles."
10. So the king of Egypt saw Moses and Aaron work miracles, but the LORD made him stubbornly refuse to let the Israelites leave his country.
    
    

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    God announced the final plague which would guarantee the release of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. Were Moses' words to Pharaoh in verses 4-8 of this chapter spoken while he was still with Pharaoh at the end of the ninth plague? The total darkness of the ninth plague rendered the Egyptians completely helpless prompting Pharoah to summon Moses and tell him to go worship the Lord, as he had requested, but to leave behind their flocks and herds. When Moses refused this offer, Pharoah became angry and told him to leave and if he ever saw Pharoah's face again he would die. In the last verse of chapter 10 Moses told Pharoah, "As you've said. I will never see your face again." Was it at this point, before he left, that Moses spoke the message to Pharoah given in 11:4-8? Verse 11:8 says that once Moses told Pharoah of the final plague, "he left Pharaoh's presence in fierce anger." No words are reported to have been spoken by Pharoah to Moses in these verses. Might Moses' anger be due to what Pharoah said to him in 10:28 and Moses had not yet left? This seems to me the most likely explanation.
    
    Having announced this final plague in which the firstborn of every Egyptian family would die, Pharoah was not given an opportunity to respond concerning release of the Israelites. He was beyond any opportunity for repentance. It was Moses who told Pharaoh what would happen and not Pharoah telling Moses. Once the firstborn were taken, there would be "a great cry of anguish through all the land of Egypt," and "all these officials of yours will come down to me and bow before me, saying: Leave, you and all the people who follow you. After that, I will leave." (11:6, 8) Whether or not Pharaoh was ever willing to let them go, they would go at the request of his officials. No longer would it be Moses seeking permission for the people to go. In the end he would grant the request of Egyptian officials by going.
    
    Many are troubled by the repeated mention throughout these accounts of the Lord hardening Pharaoh's heart so His wonders might be known throughout Egypt and among the Israelites. The concern is that Pharaoh's free will was taken from him. It helps to consider the whole picture in these accounts. In the first seven references to Pharaoh's heart being hardened, it was Pharaoh who hardened his own heart. It was after multiple times that Pharaoh hardened his heart and after he had observed God's wonders through six plagues, still refusing to let the Israelites go, that God spoke of hardening Pharaoh's heart. It is a circumstance we all risk when we repeatedly reject God. A time comes when we are no longer capable of responding to Him favorably.
    
    But even if one were to conclude that God took away Pharaoh's free will, which is not my conclusion, God is sovereign. He has made us all and, by His choice, has given us the freedom to make our own choices. Is He then unjust to take away what we do not use wisely and justly?