Mensa Otabil - God's Night of Judgement
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Exodus chapter 12, verse 12: For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. These are heavy words-scary, weighted. God says, «This is what I’m going to do.» After all the arguments between Moses and Pharaoh and all the signs, God says, «This is a new beginning, and this is what I’m going to do: first, I will protect you, my people, and then I’m going to come upon the land.»
Now, I want you to watch what the Lord says he will do. First, he says, «I will pass through the land of Egypt.» So this judgment is going to cover a certain geographical jurisdiction, and it’s called the land of Egypt. Every part that Egypt considers to be its boundaries is going to be affected by it. Anybody who lives in the boundaries of Egypt is going to be affected by it.
In previous plagues, God makes a distinction between where the Israelites live and where the Egyptians live. But this one is covering the entire land, and that is why he tells Israel to take precautions, because this is going to be quite widespread. «I will pass through the land.» Then secondly, he says, «I will strike all the firstborn in Egypt.» And God says all the firstborn are going to die. This is massive; this is serious.
And the question is: why is God killing the firstborn? Isn’t that too cruel? Well, two reasons. First, because God calls Israel his firstborn. And why does he call Israel his firstborn? Because he’s the first nation that he has revealed himself to and come into covenant with. And so he’s saying to Egypt, «My firstborn came to you, and you’ve killed them. You’ve maltreated them for centuries. And so I’m coming for your firstborn too.» So the punishment is equal to the crime that has been committed. They touched God’s firstborn; God is touching their firstborn.
But if you watch, this is what God has been seeking to prevent in Egypt. That’s why he tells Pharaoh, «Let my people go. Let my people go. Let my people go. Let my firstborn go.» And they didn’t let the firstborn go. He gives them more than nine opportunities to avert this calamity, but they don’t take it. So this is a calamity of last resort. All the plagues are to prevent this from happening, but they persisted and persisted and persisted, and this happens.
So there is a final judgment that God wants to deliver all of us from, and he’s going to give us all the chances to avert the final judgment. But if we don’t, the final judgment comes, and that’s what happened to Egypt. And then God says, «Not only will I strike the firstborn, I will also strike the gods of Egypt.» So there is a spiritual warfare dimension to it. This is a way of God saying to Israel, «You think the gods of Egypt are powerful? Watch how I conclude with them.»
And he’s doing that so that when Israel leaves Egypt, they don’t live in fear; they don’t live looking back; they don’t live thinking, «Oh, the gods of Egypt will come against us and destroy us,» because God has defeated them. In the New Testament, that is what God does when he saves us from sin. He doesn’t want us to look at the gods of our families and the gods of the land and say, «Oh, the enemies will come against us.» God already judges the gods, the principalities, and powers, and frees us, so we can walk in freedom without any fear of what is coming against us.
Let’s pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, there is no God besides you. I trust you fully as my deliverer and protector. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.