The charge is frequently levelled against God for wrong doing or evil because of the killing of Egypt’s first born at the Passover. The first born, it is alleged, were not in charge of the evils done in Egypt–Pharaoh was. The accusations continue claiming that the killing of the first born in Egypt makes God a killing vindictive hypocrite who commands us not to murder but turns around and does what He asks us not to do. This question is not just isolated to the Passover. It is related to a much broader issue: what authority does God have to take human life, even the lives of children rather than the perpetrators of the evil?
In this article we will contend that God was not vengeful or vindictive but displayed a higher passion for justice and overall love for humanity. To understand this we will look at the three frameworks of:
- God’s Prerogatives
- God’s Authority
- God’s Omniscience
These three frameworks will be examined in light of the historical and cultural realities of Egypt and the Passover.
Can God Take Any Human Life?
Framework # 1: God has different prerogatives. It seems reasonable to hold God to the same standard of morality He holds us to. “Whatever we can’t do, God shouldn’t be allowed to do either,” we argue. But as the creator, sustainer and redeemer of humanity, God has different aims and objectives from us which shape His decisions and actions. Think about how the police have an authority to use force and coercion under certain circumstances which the every day citizen does not. God functions on an entirely different scope and scale of priorities than we do as humans. So, in governing the universe and carrying out His plan, God may rightfully choose to take life in which it would be wrong for humans to do.
Framework # 2: God has a different scope of authority. As humans we are only allowed to take the lives of other people in limited circumstances (self-defense, capital punishment, just war). Those circumstances are rare. Outside of justified circumstances we are robbing someone of a life that is not ours to take. Sometimes when people take life that they shouldn’t, they are accused of “playing God.” God does not “play God” when He takes life because He is the author and sustainer of life, and He is not robbing what is His in the first place.
See now that I myself am he!
There is no god besides me.
I put to death and I bring to life,
I have wounded and I will heal,
and no one can deliver out of my hand. (Deuteronomy 32:39)
Framework # 3: God has a higher level of knowledge. God is omniscient (He knows everything), so he knows when a group of people have become so wicked that it would be bad for them, and for their children, and for the rest of the world, to remain alive to keep sinning. This is a level of knowledge and understanding that only God has.
To understand how these three frameworks fit with the Passover, it is helpful to understand the 430 year history of slavery which the Jews experienced under Egypt until the Passover.
Putting the Passover In Perspective
The Jews, starting with Joseph and his brothers, are together in Egypt in 1887 B.C. After that generation passes, we are informed that the Jews would experience extreme oppression under the new pharaoh:
Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. (Exodus 1:8-11)
The forced labor which is referred to in this passage is a means of population control, the kind of labor so brutal that it resulted in a thinning of the population through death. Exodus 1:14 describes the Egyptians working the Israelites “ruthlessly.” Nonetheless, the Jews increased in number through the power of God. This compelled pharaoh to resort to infanticide.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” (Exodus 1:15-16)
Moses is born during this chilling time:
Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. (Exodus 2:1-4)
Moses will amazingly get picked up and raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, growing up in the King of Egypt’s family. About 115 years pass from the time of the new pharaoh, who did not know Joseph, to the time Moses was 40 years old. Look at the conditions of the Jews in Egypt.
One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. (Exodus 2:11-12)
Because of Moses’ intervention, Moses fell into trouble with Pharaoh, and he was forced to flee from Egypt and ran to Midian. By the time Moses returns to deliver Egypt, the Jews have been relentlessly suffering in Egypt for about 150 years…150 years, think of it!
During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. (Exodus 2:23)
The Number of Jews Killed
The killing off of Jews started before Moses was born and was in effect when he returned at 80 years of age. It would not be unreasonable to think that there were ongoing periods of infanticide through this time. In any year the killing of first born males would have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands. After the Jews left Egypt, they counted the number of first born males. The total number of firstborn males a month old or more, listed by name, was 22,273. (Numbers 3:43) So, this number could be multiplied by four when you add the younger brothers. (Pharaoh went to kill all the males born, not just the first born.) Over a 150 year period, the death toll of infants and adults could be staggering, perhaps hundreds of thousands.
The Number of Egyptians Killed
It is very difficult to know the population of Egypt. An estimate given by archaeologist Karl Butzer calculated that the population of Egypt was around 2.5 to 3 million. The evidence of stelae and tombs from Dayr al-Madina shows that families with eight or ten children surviving into adulthood were not uncommon. This could place the population of first born males around 5,000. How do we arrive at this number?
- Take 3,000,000 as the general Egyptian population ÷ 12 (number of people per family household) = 250,000 households.
- Take 250,000 households x .08 (first born of each household) = 20,000.
- Of these 20,000, it is likely that at least 3/4 could have become fathers and no longer qualified as first born. So, the number could be reasonably reduced to 5,000.
Though these numbers are unsure, it is sensible to understand that the loss of the Egyptian lives may have been as low as 3-5% (10,000) that of the Jews (hundreds of thousands).
Important Distinctions Between God and Egypt
| God gave the Egyptians a way out ten different times. | The Israelites were given zero ways out. |
| The death would have been at night while the first born were sleeping. | The Israelite babies were thrown in the river to drown. The adults were killed in slave labor. |
| God’s action was a one-time event, which stopped the continuing killing by Pharaoh (and any further damages to his people) | Pharaoh’s program went on for decades. |
| God’s action did not cause evil to occur in the Jewish hearts. | Pharaoh’s program involved massive human agency–all Egyptians–with untold effects on the hearts of the Egyptians with state-sponsored hatred of the Hebrews. |
| God’s actions caused the loss of several thousand. | Pharaoh’s program caused the loss of hundreds of thousands. |
Questions
Couldn’t God have freed the Jews without such destruction to Egypt? The answer would be yes. But the reason for the destruction was not just to free the Jews, but to overturn an oppressive system of power and exploitation. The plagues of Egypt represented as seen by this chart:
| Nile to blood | Hapi (also called Apis), the bull god, god of the Nile; Isis, goddess of the Nile; Khnum, ram god, guardian of the Nile |
| Frogs | Heqet, goddess of birth, with a frog head |
| Gnats | Set, god of the desert storms |
| Flies | Re, a sun god; Uatchit, possibly represented by the fly |
| Death of livestock | Hathor, goddess with a cow head; Apis, the bull god, symbol of fertility |
| Boils | Sekhmet, goddess with power over disease; Sunu, the pestilence god; Isis, healing goddess |
| Hail | Nut, the sky goddess; Osiris, god of the crops and fertility; Set, god of the desert storms |
| Locusts | Nut, the sky goddess; Osiris, god of the crops and fertility |
| Darkness | Re, the sun god; Horus, a sun god; Nut, a sky goddess; Hathor, a sky goddess |
| Death of firstborn | Min, god of reproduction; Heqet, goddess who attended women at childbirth; Isis, goddess who protected children; Pharaoh’s firstborn son considered a god |
Through the ten plagues God was demonstrating His supremacy above the deities (which probably represented evil spirits) of Israel’s oppressors. What is of such critical importance is that through these judgements God is establishing the foundation of His supremacy as YHWH (Exodus 3:14). Referring to the tenth plague, God said:
“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.” (Exodus 12:12)
This was all necessary for Israel to understand the supremacy and uniqueness of God and to destroy the foundations of an oppressive system.
Did God really need to kill the first born? Rabbi Ari Kahn provides this answer:
In order to fully understand this plague we must appreciate the hierarchy within Egyptian civilization. It was a society ruled by primogeniture [The first born]. The first-born had absolute power within the family unit. Pharaoh was the first-born of the first-born of the first-born. It was from this birthright that he exercised power. The attack against the first-born was therefore a powerful polemic against the entire culture of Egypt. The eldest ruled the younger siblings. This is why having slaves was so important to the Egyptians. This gave the lower classes someone else to control and dominate.
The evidence of the Exodus story indicates that it was only at this judgement of the first born that the Egyptians were willing to release the Hebrews, perhaps because that was their greatest source of cultural and religious pride.
Couldn’t God have just destroyed pharaoh and not the children? The challenge is that the corruption and oppression ran through society. It was passed down through different pharaohs. The king of Egypt during the Passover was different than the one who ordered the killing of the Hebrew males. (Exodus 2:23) All of society participated in the abuse and destruction of the Israelites. Pharaoh was the ultimate figurehead and representation of a systematic evil that ran through all of society.
Conclusion
Let’s look at the prerogatives, authority and knowledge of God in light of the Exodus story.
God’s prerogatives: God was establishing the foundation of His uniqueness and glory over all other “gods” and systems of oppression and evil.
God’s authority: The judgements of the Passover were all within the rights of God because of the overall good which He needs to accomplish and the establishment of justice on the earth.
God’s omniscience: God would have known the greater oppression which would have spread and come upon the earth if Egypt’s power had not been weakened with the judgement of the Passover.
Story of Grace 