The angel struck the Egyptians at midnight, the symbolic hour of judgment ( Exodus 12:29; cf. Matthew 25:5-6), when they were asleep "... to startle the king and his subjects out of their sleep of sin." [1] Pharaoh had originally met Moses" demands with contemptuous insult ( Exodus 5:4). Then he tried a series of compromises ( Exodus 8:25; Exodus 8:28; Exodus 10:8-11; Exodus 10:24). All of these maneuvers were unacceptable to God. [source][source][source]
There is evidence from Egyptology that the man who succeeded Amenhotep II, the pharaoh of the plagues, was not his first-born son. [2] His successor was Thutmose IV (1425-1417 B.C.), a son of Amenhotep II but evidently not his first-born. Thutmose IV went to some pains to legitimatize his right to the throne. This would not have been necessary if he had been the first-born. So far scholars have found no Egyptian records of the death of Amenhotep II"s first-born son. [source][source][source]
"Thutmose IV claimed that when he was still a prince he had a dream in which the sun god promised him the throne; this implies that he was not the one who would be expected to succeed to the throne under normal circumstances." [3][source]
Remember Joseph"s dreams. [source][source][source]
In contrast to the former plagues, this one was not just a heightened and supernaturally directed natural epidemic but a direct act of God Himself (cf. Exodus 12:12-13; Exodus 12:23; Exodus 12:27; Exodus 12:29).We need to understand "no home" in its context ( Exodus 12:30). There was no Egyptian home in which there was a first-born Song of Solomon , who was not a father himself, that escaped God"s judgment of physical death. [source][source][source]
"This series of five imperative verbs [4], three meaning "go" (dlh is used twice) and one meaning "take," coupled with five usages of the emphatic particle mg "also" ..., marvelously depicts a Pharaoh whose reserve of pride is gone, who must do everything necessary to have done with Moses and Israel and the Yahweh who wants them for his own." [5][source]
Pharaoh"s request that Moses would bless him is shocking since the Egyptians regarded Pharaoh as a god ( Exodus 12:32; cf. Genesis 47:7). [source][source][source]
The reader sees God in two roles in this section, representing the two parts of Israel"s redemption. He appears as Judge satisfied by the blood of the innocent sin-bearer, and He is the Deliverer of Israel who liberated the nation from its slavery. [source][source][source]
Redemption involves the payment of a price. What was the price of Israel"s redemption? It was the lives of the lambs that God provided as the substitutes for Israel"s first-born sons who would have died otherwise (cf. Isaac in Genesis 22 , and Jesus Christ, the only-begotten of the Father). The first-born sons remained God"s special portion ( Numbers 8:17-18). The Egyptian first-born sons died as a punishment on the Egyptians. The Egyptians had enslaved God"s people and had not let them go, and they had executed male Israelite babies ( Exodus 1:15-22) possibly for the last80 years. [6] God owns all life. He just leases it to His creatures. God paid the price of Israel"s redemption to Himself. He purchased the nation to be a special treasure for Himself and for a special purpose ( Exodus 19:5). [source][source][source]