Context No. 2720 of 4322 · Exodus

Exodus 12:28-32: in context

28The children of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. 29At midnight, the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. 30Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. 31He called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as you have said! 32Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also!”

Israel keeps the first Passover exactly as commanded, marking the doorposts and eating in haste. Then at midnight the last plague falls, and it should be read with grief, not triumph. Every firstborn in Egypt dies, from Pharaoh's throne to the captive in the dungeon, and a great cry rises through the night, for there is not a house without someone dead.

Pharaoh, who hardened himself through nine warnings, finally breaks. He summons Moses and Aaron in the dark and says go, take everything, serve the LORD, and even adds, bless me also. The contrast is stark: Israel obeyed and was sheltered under the blood of the lamb, while a heart that would not yield held out until it had lost everything. Hardness does not stop the reckoning; it only raises the price of it.

What is God asking me to release now, while I still can, before a harder reckoning forces my hand?

Sources

Exodus 12:13: "The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you."
1 Corinthians 5:7: "For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place."
Proverbs 29:1: "He who is often rebuked and stiffens his neck will be destroyed suddenly, with no remedy."