EXODUS 11 – UNEXPLAINED DEATH
In 2009, when our lovely son left us, the Coroner told us that humans are as much an electrical machine as we are a mechanical one. An autopsy of our son could only check if the mechanics had failed. When the electrics go, however, there’s no way of telling how or why. It made me wonder if more people knew just how precarious life is, when hinged on electrics that modern science can’t explain!
Bizarrely enough, it turns out that the original electrical impulse at 22 days gestation that caused Mikey’s heart to start beating in the first place, remains an unexplainable medical phenomenon. Apparently, at 22 days gestation, an electrical impulse comes from somewhere and kicks start the human heart. It then beats faithfully as a mechanical pump without fail, for the next 90 years – or however long we live. But here’s the thing, at this stage in the womb, the foetus doesn’t have a brain. Therefore there isn’t a central nervous system (power control center) for creating or relying an electrical charge!
To this day, and even with all our clever physics, modern science can’t explain the mystery of the source of our life-power. Without electricity from this miracle power source, our Michael would neither begin, nor continue. The medical answer to “Why?” falls within the supernatural.
Some may wonder why the Creator God doesn’t step into today’s world and do something drastic about everything that’s going wrong. But today’s chapter is one of a few incidences in HIStory where divine intervention from our 100% all-powerful Maker, has left us 100% shocked! That so, I would suggest that we may not be happy with the all-powerful decisions of our 100% perfect Creator who can’t work in half measures!
In HIStory so far, we’ve seen our Creator being forced to get involved after our Free Will has given Him no other option except to intervene. If you have been following my Breadcrumbs since the beginning of the year, we’ve seen a global flood when the inclinations of human hearts became only wicked all the time.[a] Through disobedience to our original design we’ve seen humanity scattered across the face of the earth by family groups with different languages.[b] We’ve seen ancient cities like Sodom and Gomorra destroyed when the outcry against them was great and their sin exceedingly grave.[c] Now, in today’s chapter, we have the collapse of one of the greatest ancient civilizations – Ancient Egypt. Our Maker has given humankind a Free Will and this first and foremost. Unfortunately however, our Free Will has become our proven fault!
I can’t explain to you why on August 1st, 2009, our Maker took our first-born son, our only son whom we loved. Nor do I have conclusive answers that explain away the record in today’s chapter of this fateful day in HIStory, where He took every first-born male away from Egypt. These are two very perplexing days. What I can tell you, however, comes from every other day in my life-story where I can agree with Moses’ experience and what the God of Creation said about Himself:
“The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” [Exodus 34:6-7]
So, if the Creator God is that good, that compassionate, and so abounding in loving-kindness, then I need to reason why harsh moments in HIStory make me think otherwise. Whatever equation I use to get a logical and correct answer, it must certainly use the fractions of my Maker that He listed about Himself above. This is most especially important when I know that He is 100% in every area of His being i.e. 100% good; 100% compassionate; 100% loving; 100% kind; He embodies 100% truth, and He is 100% forgiving. And yet, He is also a 100% righteous judge and can’t be anything but 100% in His own decision making process.
So, to take today’s chapter out of context, would leave you with a wrong understanding of your Creator God whose mercies are new every morning – great is His faithfulness.[d] With that said, here’s some thoughts…
The Creator gave ample warning to Pharaoh. Today’s chapter is now the 10th plague and Pharaoh has had plenty of time to use his free will to turn things around for himself, and for his country. Yet again Pharaoh is warned well ahead of the axe falling, but he wouldn’t listen. [v9]
The Creator knew the outcome in advance. Even as far back as the days of Abraham, God knew what was going to happen.[e] He knew that Pharaoh wouldn’t let the people go unless a might hand compelled him. Father God told Moses this before the trouble started.[f] In fact, a sudden departure of their slave population was exactly the concern of Pharaoh’s predecessors – causing them to tighten the screws on the Israelites in the first place![g]
The Children of Israel had favour with the people, and Moses was held in high esteem. [v1-3] So this final axe-fall could have been avoided had one man not refused to give in, in a battle for his will to be done.[h]
Still, you are no doubt still wondering why thousands of people fell victim to an explained death. Surely that’s wrong! “…Furthermore, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again…” [v6] I know what it feels like to wake up and find your son dead in his bed. Multiply that devastating grief by tens of thousands across the entire nation, such that no home in all the land was without someone dead, and this story is nothing short of apocalyptic! What possible good can be found in that!?
Well, just as we came to find with the unexpected and unexplained death of our own son, let me ask you this: What if there’s another dimension to human experience and physical existence? If so, can we bring this into the equation here and ask: 
What if they didn’t die? And what if the Lord the Giver of Life said to Pharaoh, “Do to others what you would have them do to you.[i] You are insisting on keeping the entire population of my people in your kingdom; so, I’ll take a fraction of your population to my Kingdom.” If King Solomon of Israel was right and our spirit will return to Him who gave it [Ecclesiastes 12:6-7]; then the blameless and innocent didn’t die at all. They “passed away” – just as our Mikey did.[j]
The clue for me in the text, is the reference to midnight. [v4] I don’t believe that this is the spookiest hour for death to strike. I think the Great Playwright included all these specific details, then miraculously preserved them for 3,800+ years for us to read today. His script is a complex and multifaceted Global MasterPlan – like a 3D puzzle with interlocking puzzle pieces that span generations. About two millenniums later, for example, Jesus was describing a Day when the Creator God will bring His people suddenly and unexpectedly into His Kingdom. “At that time,” He said, “the Kingdom of God will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the Bridegroom… But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’”[k]
I’ve always wondered why a bridegroom in his right mind would put the girls in danger by coming out in the dark to wait while he arrived at such an ungodly hour! Jesus parables weren’t just ‘good stories’ to entertain. Every one was filled with important truth. Nothing was ‘trivial padding’ without sense, and there was always a deeper meaning and prophetic element. That true, then I’m wondering if this mention of midnight in both places in the script is a puzzle piece that was deliberately placed into this epic drama, in order to connect it into something that is far bigger than one people group and one nation.
Just as our Creator God told Abraham what would happen to his family 600 years into the future, our Maker wants us to know Him, and know His Plan for this world. That being so, today’s chapter holds an important puzzle piece that should be pocketed away for later. If the two incidents are connected, then it’s highly likely that today’s chapter isn’t about a ruthless god bringing about unexplained death. It’s a gracious Father who, after disciplining his son so upsettingly in 9 previous plagues (with no change of heart at all), His worst and greatest “plague” was actually, in effect, a promotion of blameless children into the Kingdom of their Maker.
These boys aren’t victims but the lucky ones. Like our son, they got to skip over their curse as male humans – who were destined to spend their lives working by the sweat of their brow.[l] Instead, they got to live in eternity, Father God’s Kingdom, as sons of the Living God.[m] But why am I telling you all this?
When our Mikey passed away, and the Coroner used the phrase “no earthly reason why”, we had to process his sudden and unexplained death in a way that others may not have to. In the absence of a natural reason, the only option left to choose from is a supernatural reason. Short of falling into a black hole (and today’s chapter is one of those gaping black holes in HIStory), we needed to cling to Faith.
If the Creator God really is a good God – as His own words say about Himself in this one and only Handbook for Life – then He’ll be warning us, long before the clock strikes twelve, if only we would humble ourselves long enough to take heed. If He is a loving God, then there will be a distinction made for those who love Him. [v7] Moreover, there’ll be a perfectly good explanation about 100% of the Plan from beginning to end. With death now having lost its sting[n], our job is simple: to persevere in Faith to the end.[o]
CLICK to return to today’s “Daily Breadcrumbs”
[a] Genesis 6:5-6
[b] Genesis 11:5-9
[c] Genesis 18:20ff
[d] Lamentations 3:23
[e] Genesis 15:13-14
[f] Exodus 3:19
[g] Exodus 1:10
[h] Exodus 10:7
[i] Matthew 7:12
[j] John 11:25; 2 Timothy 2:11
[k] Matthew 25:1-13
[l] Genesis 3:17b-19
[m] Revelation 7:9
[n] 1 Corinthians 15:55
[o] Matthew 24:13