All the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die.
The last plague threatened
It was to be.
I. Solemn in its advent. “About midnight.”
II. Fatal in its issue. “All the firstborn. .. shall die.”
III. Comprehensive in its design. “From the firstborn of Pharaoh,” etc.
IV. Heartrending in its cry. “None like it.”
V. Discriminating in its infliction. “The Lord doth put a difference,” etc. Piety is the best protection against woe. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
A contrast
1. The wicked crying--the good quiet.
2. The wicked dead--the good living.
3. The wicked frightened--the good peaceful.
4. The wicked helpless--the good protected. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Separating the precious from the vile
I. The difference.
1. Eternal.
2. Most ancient. Ordained of God from before foundation of world.
3. Vital. An essential distinction of nature between righteous and wicked.
4. This difference in nature is followed by a difference in God’s judicial treatment of the two classes.
5. This distinction is carried out in providence. To the righteous man every providence is a blessing. To the sinner all things work together for evil.
6. This difference will come out more distinctly on the judgment day.
II. Where is this difference seen?
1. In the Temple.
2. In the whole life.
3. In time of temptation.
4. In the hour of death.
III. Why should this difference be seen? Put your finger on any prosperous page in the Church’s history, and I will find a little marginal note reading thus: “In this age men could readily see where the Church began and where the world ended.” Never were there good times when the Church and the world were joined in marriage with one another. But though this were sufficient argument for keeping the Church and the world distinct, there are many others. The more the Church is distinct from the world in her acts and in her maxims, the more true is her testimony for Christ, and the more potent is her witness against sin. We are sent into this world to testify against evils; but if we dabble in them ourselves, where is our testimony? If we ourselves be found faulty, we are false witnesses; we are not sent of God; our testimony is of none effect. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Church and the world
Originally there was “no difference” between the Egyptians and Israel; both were descended from one source, both were tainted with sin. So too, originally, there was no difference between the Church and the world. St. Paul enforces this
(1) as between Jew and Gentile (Romans 10:12);
(2) as between individual members of the human family (Romans 3:22). Consider--
I. The nature of the difference. There can be no doubt but there was a difference--that the Lord “put” one--between the Egyptians and Israel, and “that the Lord doth put” one between the world and the Church. What is this difference? God’s choice. He chose Israel, He did not choose the Egyptians; He has chosen the Church, He has not chosen the world. Herein lies the “difference”; and because it is not a visible or even, in itself, a demonstrable one, the world now, as the Egyptians then, decline to believe in it, and a sign becomes in some sense necessary.
II. The reason for the difference. Not merit on Israel’s part, or sin on Egypt’s part; but--
1. God’s love for Israel’s fathers (Deuteronomy 4:37).
2. God’s oath (based upon God’s love) to Israel’s fathers (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). So the Church was chosen because God loved her; though why God loved her, or how He loved her, in a certain sense we cannot tell.
III. The sign of the difference. As said above, Pharaoh declined to believe in the difference, or, whilst tacitly acknowledging it, refused to act in accordance with it. A sign was given, in order that he might “know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.” That sign consisted in the triumphant exodus of Israel without casualty of any kind, as contrasted with the family distress and national disaster which were about to happen to the Egyptians. Observe that the deliverance was a sign of the difference, not the difference itself. So salvation, in the ordinary but very partial sense of deliverance from future punishment, will be but a “sign” and a consequence of the choice which God has already made, of the “difference” which the Lord has already “put”; a choice and a “difference” about the existence of which the world is sceptical, but the reality of which all will be forced to acknowledge when the sign is given. (E. Armstrong Hall, M. A.)
The importance of the firstborn
The importance of the firstborn may be thus explained: the firstborn naturally enjoyed both precedence and preeminence over the rest, he was the firstling of his father’s strength (Genesis 49:3), the first-fruit of his mother. As the firstborn, he stood at the head of the others, and was destined to be the chief of whatever family might be formed by the succeeding births. As he stood at the head of the whole he represented the entire nation of the Egyptians. Hence the power which slew all the firstborn in Egypt was exhibited as a power which could slay all that were born then, and, in the slaughter of the whole of the firstborn, the entire body of the people were ideally slain. (J. H. Kurtz, D. D.)
The Church and the world
I. The nature of the difference.
1. Not a difference of understanding.
2. Not a difference of physical development.
3. Not even a difference in moral nature. The Israelites were quite as prone to evil, lust, sin, idolatry, as the Egyptians.
4. The difference was that God chose Israel to be His people, He took them for His own, hedged them by special regulations, laws, discipline.
So He has chosen the Church.
II. The reasons for the difference.
1. That God might have a faithful people even in this world of sin.
2. That Christ might not die in vain.
3. That God might fulfil His promise to the patriarchs.
III. The sign of the difference. Deliverance from the sin and bondage of the world. (Homilist.)
Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee.
A people’s efforts for freedom successful
We learn from Professor Bischoff that the steam of a hot spring at Aix-la-Chapelle, although its temperature is only from 133° to 167° F., has converted the surface of some blocks of black marble into a doughy mass. He conceives, therefore, that steam in the bowels of the earth, having a temperature equal to or even greater than the melting point of lava, and, having an elasticity of which even Papin’s digester can give but a faint idea, may convert rocks into liquid matter. These wonderful facts might suggest useful thoughts to the despots of the world. Despotism interdicts the expression of political convictions, and seeks to bury them under the adamantean weight of oppressive decrees and colossal cruelty. But it is an unerring moral taw that the warm aspirations of a virtuous people shall--like the subtle subterranean gases--arise to freedom, and, despite all impediments, dissolve in due time even the hard and hoary foundations of injustice. (Scientific Illustrations.).