The Flight from Egypt

When the Lord called Moses to the work of leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt He told him that the Pharaoh would not let them go willingly, that he would need to be persuaded (Exodus 3:19-20). Moses questioned whether Pharaoh could be persuaded and so the Lord then gave Moses a preview of the persuasion He would use to convince Pharaoh (Exodus 4:1-9). 

Moses came down from the Mount and returned to his home where he shared with his family, including his father-in-law Jethro, what had happened. Jethro was the High Priest of Midian (Exodus 18:1 JST), the priesthood leader to the saints in Midian, including Moses. After hearing Moses' report, and in response to Moses' request, Jethro told him to go (Exodus 4:18). So Moses took his wife Zipporah, and his brother Aaron and started on the long journey back to Egypt. 

Moses' concern with going back to Egypt came from a number of things, not the least of which was the task he was going back to do. Getting a theocratic monarch to give up a whole nation's slave force was no small undertaking. Yet, here was Moses, about to go before a ruler, who supposedly took his direction from deity, and tell him that some other god wanted him to let all these slaves go. On top of that, Moses was a wanted man in Egypt, he had slain a man, which was the reason he'd left Egypt (Exodus 2:11-15). Still, Moses trusted in the Lord and, with his wife and brother, they left for Egypt, taking with him the rod he'd had on the mount, which the Lord and turned into a serpent (Exodus 4:20).

Along the way, at one of the stops they made, the Lord came to Moses to talk again about the mission Moses was on. One of the things the Lord told Moses was that the men who had sought Moses had all died so it was safe to return. The Lord again reminded Moses that Pharaoh would need convincing to let the Children of Israel go and that it would be necessary to perform all the miracles the Lord had prepared for the occasion. And, referring to Israel as His own firstborn, the Lord said that if Pharaoh wouldn't let His firstborn go, He would slay Pharaoh's firstborn, even his son (Exodus 4:21-23). This was the culminating plague, the greatest curse that was to be brought upon Egypt, and it was also a type, a foreshadow of the atoning sacrifice to be made by the Messiah almost 1500 years later, outside the walls of Jerusalem.

As predicted, Pharaoh did not willingly release the Children of Israel when Moses let him know what the Lord was asking. And so the plagues were unleashed upon Pharaoh and Egypt. When Moses turned his staff into a snake, Pharaoh was unimpressed, his own magicians could do as much. But perhaps Pharaoh and his court should have taken greater notice when the staff of Aaron, which is the staff that became a serpent, overpowered the serpents from Pharaoh's magicians and ate them (Exodus 7:10-12). In any case, that was not the end of it.  The Lord had told Moses that, "the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them" (Exodus 7:5). Only the first wonder was done privately, before Pharaoh. All the rest of the plagues were visited upon the whole nation of Egypt; all the people ruled by Pharaoh were affected. When the waters in the streams, rivers, ponds, pools, and vessels throughout all the land of Egypt were turned to blood for seven days, the next plague, all the people suffered as the waters stank, the fish died, and the people suffered from thirst (Exodus 7:17-25). 

Then frogs overran the country, getting into the people's homes, village, and fields, everyone had to deal with them for a full day before they abated. But then,  after a day with frogs everywhere, the frogs didn't leave, they just died. The people heaped them in piles but the piles of frogs rotted and stank. Once again all of Egypt suffered from the smell (Exodus 8:1-14).

On and on they came, plague after plague: lice, flies, livestock dying, boils and blains, burning hail (and the destruction of crops it brought), locust (and the loss of what crops had not been destroyed by the hail), three days of darkness (another type of Christ). With each new plague the magicians of Egypt tried to duplicate the plague but they were unable to replicate only those plagues up to the frogs. This was not the wisest course because it only made the plagues and suffering of the people worse. Fortunately for the people, they were unable to duplicate the lice or anything that came afterward; the power of the Lord was greater than the power of the magicians. 

But, as bad as everything Pharaoh had put his people through, the worst was yet to come. The Lord had instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh right up front that if he refused to let Israel go He would slay Pharaoh's firstborn (Exodus 4:23) but Pharoah wouldn't hear it, he pushed to the limit, multiplying his own suffering and the suffering of his people. In the dance Pharaoh had been playing with Moses, Pharaoh finally told him to leave and that if he came back he would be put to death. So Moses left the courts of Pharaoh and turned his attention to protecting the Children of Israel from the last plague. When the last plague came upon Egypt, not only Pharaoh's oldest son died, but the firstborn of every family in all of Egypt, from the greatest to the least, no matter where they were, they died, in every house in the country. And not just the families lost their firstborn child, but the firstborn of all their surviving livestock as well. 

It was enough, Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron before him and told him to take his people, their livestock, and all their possessions and get out of Egypt (Exodus 12:31-32). But not only Pharaoh, all the people wanted them gone. And when the Israelites asked to borrow from the Egyptians, the Egyptians responded by pressing them to take what wanted and leave (Exodus 12:35-36). In effect, they paid their slaves to leave. 

Clear back on the Mount of the Lord, when Moses first received his call to lead Israel out of Egypt and to the Promised Land, the Lord had told Moses He would stretch forth His mighty hand and smite Egypt, after which they would let Israel go (Exodus 3:20). And it was done, as the Lord had said it would be done.