The story of the tenth plague, if not of all the
plagues in Exodus, raises the question of God’s fairness and justice. Was it
fair for God to kill all the firstborn of Egypt, from Pharaoh’s firstborn down
to the firstborn of the female slave, all because of one man, Pharaoh, and his
rejection of God’s plan? My answer now would be: “No, not if it really happened
this way, which is something that many scholars question.” We have to think,
rather, of how this story would be heard by its first audience, the Israelites,
probably living in exile long after the exodus from Egypt.
Lawrence Boadt writes,
The tenth and final plague stands apart. Although it may
seem coldly brutal to us [yes!], Israel saw the death of Egypt’s first-born as
God’s clear choice on behalf of his people and his life-and-death concern for
their freedom.[1]
Exodus 12 relates the events of the Passover. Richard
Elliott Friedman points out that the Hebrew word pasha does not mean “to pass
over” but rather “to halt”. God “halts on the threshold” and does not allow the
destroying force (there is no destroying angel) to enter the house. However,
Friedman retains the word “Passover” in his translation because “the fact
remains that Passover is now the established, famous name of the holiday, and
there is no point in ignoring this in a translation.”[2]
The "Stopover" just does not have the same ring as "Passover", does it?
In Exodus 12, we read the instruction to the
Israelites about sacrificing a lamb and putting the blood on the doorposts and
lintels of their homes so that the Lord will halt there and not allow the
destroying force to take the lives of their first born. I once heard an
excellent sermon from James Montgomery Boice entitled, “Where is the lamb?”
This question (that Isaac asks of his father Abraham when Abraham is about to
sacrifice him) echoes throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. From a Christian
perspective, the question is answered in a final manner when John the Baptist
says of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
(John 1:29)
One thing that stands out to me as odd in Exodus
12 is the number of Israelite men in verse 37. If there were 600,000 Israelite
men could they not have fought and overthrown the Egyptians? The estimated size
of the Egyptian force in the time of Ramses II is 100,000.[3]
Thus, it would appear that this number in Exodus 12:37 is either an exaggeration (most likely) or a
mistranslation, or an error of some kind. This is not to say that the exodus
did not happen.
So did the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea
really happen in history the way it is recorded in Exodus? Who knows? We have
no independent corroboration of this event though we do have a story of the
Egyptian army chasing after runaway slaves in a letter written down about 1200 BC.[4]
Lawrence Boadt’s conclusion seems reasonable to me:
Behind the greatly magnified accounts of the Lord’s
victory that we find in the present text stands an authentic memory of Israel….
A refugee band such as Israel just does not escape the power of the Egyptian
army unless God chooses to protect and guide it.[5]
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