It's the Final Countdown - Exodus 11

11:1-10 - The timing here seems interesting because at the end of chapter 10 we see Pharaoh and Moses having a stand off where Pharaoh tells Moses, basically, “if I ever see you again, I’ll kill you,” but then in chapter 12 we see them having a conversation again. TB notes that this obviously is because the parts of chapter 11 where Moses is speaking to Pharaoh happened during their last encounter, so there was some stuff out of order where Pharaoh called for Moses during the time of spiritual darkness, and told him to take his people to the desert but leave the livestock, Moses declines, then tells Pharaoh, as TB says, “that THAT night, about midnight, all of Egypt’s firstborn would die,” which included “the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beast,” but that Israel would be spared. That makes more sense as far as why Pharaoh threatened Moses’ life if he ever saw him again, because I thought that threat was an overreaction to simply Moses saying that they wouldn’t leave their livestock behind. But if Pharaoh was to feel like his personal family were being threatened, then the promise of death is more reasonable the next time he saw Moses.

Honestly, the whole chapter is kind of jumbled to me because God’s talking to Moses, who’s talking to Pharaoh, and also all the Hebrew people taking from their neighbors and death, it’s just a lot that doesn’t go in order or make sense. TB notes that this new “plague” isn’t simply another display of power to convince Pharaoh to let the people go, but instead this is now judgment. He says, “Pharaoh, and Egypt, had been given 9 chances of accepting God’s will, and obeying Him. This 10th blow upon Egypt brings with it NO choices… This is not yet another warning, another chance for Pharaoh and Egypt to repent… the time for warnings and choices has passed. Egypt’s fate is now etched in concrete.” Everything else was persuasion, this is punishment.

God also instructs Moses to tell all the Hebrew people to “let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold.” This goes back to the concept of the spoils of war, the God of the Hebrews had beaten the Egyptians so badly that not only are the slaves going free but they are taking all the valuables with them. TB says that even now, 3400 years later, the Egyptians are still bitter about all their stuff being taken and consider it to be theft. It would be interesting to see just how much negativity the average Egyptian today feels towards Israel concerning the taking of these items over 3,000 years ago, that would be a wild conversation.

Verse 3 says that God gave the Hebrews favor in the eyes of the Egyptians who just gave them their stuff because they viewed Moses as a great man, but TB suggests, “Translation: here, take anything you want, we can’t fight Moses of your God. Just leave us. To the bulk of the Egyptian people, Moses was just a powerful sorcerer… more powerful than Egypt’s magicians. And they had no more interest in testing him further.” The people were terrified of Moses and Moses’ God and by extension the Hebrew people in general and gave up whatever they wanted.

This is the final meeting between Moses and Pharaoh and when Moses leaves, Pharaoh is seething and the Hebrew people are being given all the “spoils” of Egypt just to make Moses and God leave them alone. Pharaoh has been informed that this very night severe judgment is coming to him and his people, and it’s going to be painful.