God Sends the Final Plague

Prepare

Lesson Preparation

CCome On In

AStudying God’s Word

Optional Supplements

Video Clips

PowerPoint

Studying God’s Word

Introduction

If you have hoped that we would finally get to see the Israelites freed from Egypt, you are going to be disappointed. We saw God’s power over both creation and the affairs of man last week, but we are going to stay in Egypt for this lesson.

• • Write on the board, “Where did the word Passover come from?”
  Slide #4
  Who can remind us of how God displayed His character in the plagues and the interactions between Moses and Aaron and Pharaoh? Discuss the themes from the last lesson. God showed His sovereign control over nature in many different ways. He showed his supremacy over the false gods of Egypt. He showed his sovereignty over Pharaoh as he hardened his heart in order to bring to pass the plans for bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. He showed his faithfulness to the Israelites as he worked toward freeing them. He showed His justice in bringing judgment on Egypt for enslaving the Israelites.
• What promise of God are we still waiting to see fulfilled? While he has shown the signs and wonders and hardened Pharaoh’s heart, the Israelites are still not free.

  Today, we are going to look at two key ideas. One is the final plague that God will bring, and the second is the institution of the Passover, especially how it points us forward to Jesus.

The Final Threat

Refer to the Ten Plagues of Egypt worksheet from the last lesson. We moved quickly through the first nine plagues last week, so I hope you took time to look at them more carefully. The final plague threatened by God against Pharaoh is found in chapter 11, and you will find space to fill it in at the bottom of the worksheet we used last week. Don’t forget that Pharaoh had told Moses after the plague of darkness that he would kill Moses if he came before him again (10:28–29).

Let’s read Exodus 11:1–10 together. Have someone read the passage aloud.

• Would this be the last plague? Yes, God said there would be one more plague.
• What do we learn will happen after this plague? God told Moses that Pharaoh would finally let the Israelites go.
• Whom did God tell Moses to speak to? While it isn’t explicit, it is implied that he was sent to talk to Pharaoh, but also to the people of Israel.
• Who were the “people” in verse 2? They must have been the Israelites since they were to ask for the Egyptians to give them their wealth. This is not described until 12:35–36.
• How did the Egyptians view Moses? They had come to esteem Moses, likely recognizing that he was a prophet of the true God.
• How did Moses begin his address to Pharaoh? Thus says the Lord (Yahweh).
• What was the final plague announced to Pharaoh? God would kill the firstborn of all the Egyptians and the firstborn of the cattle.
• When would this happen? About midnight.
• Who would carry this out? God himself. “I will go out . . . .”
• What was the intent of including Pharaoh and a slave girl in verse 5? They were on opposite ends of the social spectrum, so this was a device to show that no firstborn would be spared.
• While the ESV uses only “firstborn,” the NIV translates this as “firstborn son.” Is this a proper translation? The cultural setting of this writing seems to justify that the death was of the firstborn son. The NIV, NLT, CSB, and other translations make this interpretive choice. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, a masculine noun is used.
• How were the Israelites to be treated during this final plague? They would be separated so that not even a dog would growl against them.
• Why were they to be spared? God wanted to make it clear that Israel was His people and leave no doubt that he was in control of who was affected by the plagues.
• How did God say the Egyptians would respond? He said they would bow down as though they were servants of Moses and recognize God as Lord. Then they would tell the Israelites to “get out” of Egypt.
• How did Moses leave Pharaoh’s presence? He went out in hot anger.
• • Help students fill in the last line of the Ten Plagues of Egypt Worksheet.
  What function does verse 10 serve? This seems to be a verse that encapsulates all of the times that Moses and Aaron encountered Pharaoh and the promise God gave that he would harden Pharaoh’s heart. It looks back to Exodus 3 to summarize the events.

Discover the Truth

God sent Moses to Pharaoh with one last threat—and time to repent. At midnight, God would kill all of the firstborn of the Egyptians. All Pharaoh had to do was acknowledge that Yahweh was the Lord and submit to his call to release God’s people. Pharaoh had witnessed the power of God, but he was still clinging to his own power. Even as God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, Pharaoh was pursuing what he wanted. While God was sovereign in directing all of these actions, Pharaoh was still responsible for his own sin and the hardening of his own heart. The text does not separate these two ideas, but has them walking side by side. We must be careful to do the same, honoring what God has revealed to us in the text, regardless of our struggles to comprehend how these things fit together.

The promise of the deliverance of the Israelites from bondage was about to be fulfilled. God had shown His power to save, but Pharaoh was still holding out.

Christ, Our Passover Activity

This activity will take the majority of the class time, so plan accordingly.

You are going to spend some time looking at the connections between the Passover of the Israelites and Christ. I want you to put the skills we have been learning into practice. In your Student Guide you will find the Christ, Our Passover activity. There are several topics listed that come from Exodus 12. Your task is to draw some connections between what you read in these passages and what is later revealed in the New Testament regarding Christ. Paul tells us that the festivals were a shadow of what would be fleshed out in Christ (Colossians 2:16–19). And as we study the Old Testament, we want to be continually looking forward to see how God’s plan of redemption is fulfilled in Christ. Have the students work in groups to complete the activity. Help them if they have difficulty identifying passages that make the connections. If you have high schoolers that have little Bible knowledge, or inadequate Bibles for cross-referencing, then you may want to give them all of the New Testament passages below and allow them to connect them to each question.

Let’s think through these connections, noting they key ideas you have found, and which New Testament passages connect and explain them.

1. The Passover Lamb described (Exodus 12:1–6)

A lamb without blemish (Jesus was sinless—Hebrews 4:15, 9:14; 1 Peter 1:19)

The lamb lived with the family (Jesus lived among those he died for—John 1:1–18)

The lamb was killed at twilight/afternoon (Jesus died at 3 p.m.—Luke 23:44–46)

2. The blood of the lamb (Exodus 12:7–13, 12:21–24)

The blood of the lamb is a sign (The blood of Jesus is the sign of the New Covenant—1 Corinthians 11:25)

The lamb’s remains were not to remain until morning (Jesus was taken down from the cross and buried before the end of the day—John 19:38–42)

The lamb was the Lord’s Passover (Jesus is our Passover lamb—1 Corinthians 5:7)

God would see the blood on the door and pass over, withholding his judgment (Jesus’ sacrifice allows God to pass over us, so that we escape his judgment. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world—John 1:29)

The unleavened bread signified purification from sin (To follow Jesus is to seek to remove sin from our lives. This hatred of our sin is a sign of his true followers—1 Corinthians 5:6–8)

3. The memorial of the sacrificial lamb (Exodus 12:25–28)

The memorial would remind future generations of how God had passed over the Israelites while judging the Egyptians (Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper/Communion as a memorial of his sacrifice—Luke 22:14–20)

4. The foreigners and the lamb (Exodus 12:43–51)

None of the lamb’s bones were broken (Jesus’ legs were not broken on the Cross—John 19:36; Psalm 34:20)

Foreigners had to become part of Israel in order to be passed over (Jesus’ blood covers only those who are in Christ no matter what people group they are from—Romans 3:21–26; Ephesians 2:11–22)

• What does it mean that Jesus is our Passover Lamb? The word “Passover” was coined by William Tyndale in his 1530 English Bible translation as a word signifying that the Lord would “pass over” any house with the blood of the lamb, sparing the firstborn from his judgment. Just as God passed over the houses marked with the blood of the lamb, so all those who have “painted their doorposts” with the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross will be passed over on the Day of Judgment.

Connect to the Truth

While we could probably draw out some more key ideas connecting Jesus and the Passover, I am sure you can see how the New Testament writers used this imagery to show how the Passover lamb was a type of Jesus. Jesus died during the week of the Passover feast, making the connections even more clear. But rather than a repeated sacrifice offered every spring, Jesus offered himself once for all. The blood of the lambs or goats could cover sin only for a time, but the perfect blood of Christ was sufficient to satisfy God’s wrath for our sin, forever! For all of those who rest inside of the house marked with Christ’s blood, there is no fear of death—but hope of eternal life!

Night of Death

Now let’s look at the final events of the plague that God promised.

We find that in verse 29–32. Have someone read the passage aloud.

• When did it happen? It happened at midnight.
• Who was acting to bring about the death? The Lord.
• Did he act alone? Verse 23 mentions the “destroyer.” This could be a reference to death, or some have understood it to be a second person, linked to the Angel of the Lord as in 2 Samuel 24:16, 2 Kings 19:35, Isaiah 37:36, and Acts 12:23. It is possible this was a second person of God, a shadowy reference to the Trinity.
• Who was effected by the plague? As earlier, the range of Egyptian people from Pharaoh to the person in the dungeon is used to indicate that all people were impacted, regardless of their class.
• What else died? The firstborn of all of the Egyptians’ livestock.
• How did the Egyptians respond to the plague? They rose up in the night, and there was a “great cry” in Egypt.
• How is the extent of the death described in verse 30? “There was not a house where someone was not dead.”
• Who is the “he” in verse 31? Pharaoh.
• Whom did he call to him? Moses and Aaron.
• Did he wait until the morning? No, he called them “by night.”
• What did Pharaoh command Moses and Aaron? He commanded them to take the Israelites out of Egypt to serve Yahweh. He also said to take the flocks, as Moses had requested earlier.
• What did Pharaoh ask from Moses and Aaron? He asked for a blessing, presumably acknowledging that God had won the war and had the power to bless him.

Discover the Truth

After ten devastating plagues, Pharaoh and the Israelites had finally acknowledged God’s power and Moses and Aaron as his prophets.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be an Israelite, hearing the screams from the Egyptian houses not covered by the blood of a Passover lamb? And can you imagine the horror the Egyptians felt as they discovered that their husbands, brothers, and sons were dead? The power of God was surely on display, but in a way that displayed the need to fear him as Lord. And God’s love for his own people was on display—the ones for whom he had provided a way of escape from his judgment.

Pharaoh had finally relented, and the Israelites were about to leave their bondage; but God had not finished displaying his power among the Egyptians. Those details will have to wait for next lesson.

Application

As we have moved through the calling of Moses and the demonstration of God’s power through the many signs and wonders, we have encountered some truths that are challenging to reconcile. God is loving, and yet he brings so much destruction to the Egyptians. God holds man responsible but hardens Pharaoh’s heart. Although our finite minds cannot understand all of this, we know that we can completely trust God’s character and that he will always do what is just and righteous.

And we can’t forget that God’s promise to Abraham—of a land, a nation, and a Seed—was still awaiting its fulfillment. The Israelites had grown to be a great nation, even under slavery, and they were about to depart to inherit the Promised Land, but the Seed had not come. Moses was a savior of the Israelites, but he was not the one in whom all the nations would be blessed. And in the Passover, we see so many things pointing forward to Jesus who would come as the Savior, the Seed, and the Lamb who would take away the sins of the world.

Let us make sure that we think of how we can apply these ideas as we leave and go out into the world we live in. We want to make sure that we are not merely hearing the Word, but seeking to be doers of what we read in it.

• Slide #17

  Slide #18

  Slide #19

  Slide #20

  Slide #21
  We know that God said he was going to harden Pharaoh’s heart and that Pharaoh was judged for his own actions. How has your understanding of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility changed over time? Discuss this idea, keeping in mind your denominational views and looking to the Bible rather than human ideas as the authority.
• Have you ever been part of a Passover Seder meal? What did you learn about Jesus in this meal and its ceremony? Discuss the various elements of the modern meal, noting that some of the elements have been added by modern Jews and are not part of God’s prescription for the Passover (e.g., the presence of an egg, the broken and hidden piece of matzah [afikomen], and other elements). Discuss the observance of this feast as a way to understand its origin and especially how it points to Jesus as the Passover Lamb.
• How could you use the account of the Passover to share the gospel with those who have a Jewish background? Most Jews will know the basic idea of a lamb that offered safety from the death of the firstborn. Building from that, we can show how the Old Testament points forward to Jesus. Then, in the New Testament, we see Jesus as the Lamb whose blood takes away sin and protects us from sin’s judgment that is to come.
• As you think about your own life, how are you assured that you are safe from God’s punishment for sin? It is only by trusting in Christ’s work on the cross as our Passover Lamb that we can be delivered from judgment.
• In what ways do you see parallels in your experience of God’s power over all of creation and what we read today? Discuss various answers.
• As you consider all of the events of the plagues, how have you come to understand God’s character more fully? Discuss various answers, pointing the students to God’s faithfulness, sovereignty, and love for His people.

Group Prayer

Be sure to pray with your class before you dismiss them.

• Praise God for providing a way of escape from his judgment.
• Ask God for boldness and wisdom to share these truths with others.
• Thank God for revealing His character to us in the pages of Scripture.