Why did God kill the firstborn sons?

I absolutely understand the irony of it- how the previous Pharaoh killed all the Jewish male babies. Though morally this is confusing me…

You must've forgot that he wiped out almost all life on the planet before.

People often try to apply human (secular) morality to God, with the inevitable conclusion that God is a monster. Instead, start with the certainty that God is both good and just, and consider His actions in light of His plans for humanity.

By killing the firstborn of Egypt, God was both executing justice and undermining future vengeance. The next few generations of Egyptians would fear Israel and leave them alone.

God was also executing judgment against the false gods of Egypt, though I don’t recall which in this case.

Is it immoral for God to end the life of a human being?

If it is then God who has deemed it nessecary to end the life of every human that has existed must be very evil.. right? No.. Because life in this imperfect world in these faulty human bodies is no where near as Good as the kind of perfect existence and the perfected bodies God intends for us to be living in, in Eternity.. For us to enter into eternity into our perfected bodies our current faulty bodies MUST DIE..

Who suffers the most when the first born dies? Who is the one facing the greater punishment? Answer the Parents.. Not the first born.. Their troubles in this life are over..

God declares that He will avenge His people time and time again in the Bible and thats what happened on the night of the first passover in Egypt..

The pharaoh was considered a god, and the first born son would become the next pharaoh.

@Vinny22 each plague specifically targeted a group of the Egyptian's false
gods/goddesses in order to show forth God's supremacy and power over them.

Besides just being a plague on Egypt, it is also something of a messianic sign. Consider that in order to redeem your firstborn son that the lamb was slain and the blood of the lamb was painted on the lintels to make the angel of death passover the house. In this way we can see Jesus is represented as both the redeeming passover lamb as well as the dying firstborn son which was the price the Pharaoh paid for his disobedience. Besides just being a messianic sign and parallel one considers also that the firstborn, especially a male firstborn is considered to be particularly hallowed to God as explained in Exodus 13, reinforcing the messianic sign for the future and remembering that through the firstborn son God delivered the Israelites out of the hand of the Pharaoh in the past.

Vinny, from what i understand you're a teenager about to get your drivers permit. And i also understand that your father is a Christian.
I would highly recommend you start reading the New Testament first and don't even touch the Old Testament for a year or two or longer if you have to.

There are two ways to learn to swim.
By throwing you in the water, where you could drown, or by teaching you slowly how to swim.
I'd recommend you go slow.

Besides just the messianic value and the rememberance value, in terms of morality if you think about it God would be entitled to wholly kill all of Egypt if he really wanted to since the Egyptians disobeyed him 12 times and tried to lie not just to Moses, but really tried to lie to God in order to keep the Israelites as slaves. Really even just from the first time the Pharaoh disobeyed God's command to release the Israelites God would have been entitled to just totally kill the entirety of Egypt right there, but God is patient and through his patience with Pharaoh he shows his might through Pharaoh. There are two big purposes for this then; for one God shows himself to be God to the Israelites whom already knew of him and thus shows Moses was sent by him to deliver them, and for two God shows himself to be God to really the whole world as even those that disbelieve God know of this story and thereby are left without the excuse of ignorance that there is a God.

Haha this scared me for a minute- I’d forgotten I’d posted these details abt my life!
First I want to thank for for giving such a thoughtful reply, but also out of curiousity I wanted to know why you’d recommend not reading the Old Testament until I’m a bit older?

Because it's going to confuse you and going to give you the wrong impression of who God is. You have to see it from the point of view when Jesus joined the Creation to relate to us humans.
If you go directly into the OT you will immediately have some moral questions from a human point of view which is going to give you the wrong impression of who God is or how you relate to Him and how you call some of His attributes.

Thanks Eli!

Wickedness and evil he is always going to destroy and good he will always preserve

“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭6:5-6, 13‬ ‭

he created a world full of life and man turned it into a world of violence and death with thier dominion. He’s also promised to end the wickedness of the world again in tbe same way with fire

God owns all babies born to men whether they are Egyptian, Roman, or otherwise.

God is the creator and the source of life.

God owns the end of days also.

God has reduced our lifespan to a mere seven decades.

Does anyone have a problem with a seven decade lifespan?

God knows what's best for us at all times.

In the end you will understand everything and so will everyone else.

Trust Jesus and forget about trivial matters.

1) As another has noted, you need to stand on knowing the goodness of God's character whether you understand why He does something or not.

2) Realize that murder is basically theft of a life from God. Our lives belong in His hands, not someone else's. God cannot steal from Himself.

3) Realize that this life isn't the end of the story. For example, Matthew 10:14-15 speaks of Judgement yet being decided for those who were destroyed in Sodom and Gomorrah. 1 Peter 3:18-20 speaks of Jesus preaching to those who rebelled and were destroyed in the Noachian Flood. God has the good of the slaughtered in mind too whenever He takes someone.

Let us allow Gods written word to us explain.

Romans 9:14-24
14What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”18Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
19You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
22What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

Verse 17 real sums up the answer to your question. God allowed Pharaoh to be born, raised and gave him rise to power just so God could destroy Pharaoh so that the one true God could show his might! What an awesome God!

Firstborn sons usually receive the inheritance. And this was God's severest (and final) judgment on Egypt. But had the blood of a lamb without spot or blemish (representing Christ) not been applied to the door posts and lintels of the Israelites, they too would have been affected. That is exactly why God commanded them to do what was necessary.

There is a lesson for us here at this time. We were all sinners subject to the wrath of God. But when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, God applied Christ's precious blood to our souls. And that is why we are no longer subject to wrath. We have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. This is spiritual and supernatural. Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, and that feast has now been fulfilled . Therefore we are to leave the world behind, as Egypt is a type of the world. So John tells us that we are not to love the world, neither the things of the world.

When Egypt said kill the first born not the girls I think before Moshe(Moses) was born? .. when did they stop that? Yeah did they ever stop it? God has not changed He didn't save some yet kill others. " the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you." The "destroyer"? That is not one of Gods names. Yet this is how some Christians and even the world see God. Insurance call some of the things that happen in this world "acts of God" yet those "acts" are not from God at all. Satan is the god of this world who comes to kill steal and destroy. it was not from God. He has not changed. Christ said “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him." We must do the works of Him that sent me. "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” Hmm no skipping here seems all is all and thats all all means.

It seems Christ came for a reason and finished it. Something with the enemy changed. What the enemy use to have he does not any more. This is fact it cannot well never change. Some do not know or understand just what Christ did for you. What the enemy no longer can ever to do you again. The only way he gets in is "doubt". HAHA after 50+ years in the lord just months ago He had to remind me and He said.. His words "don't entertain doubt". Back up about a year or two before that a dream saying "you do not invoke/speak the name of Jesus enough". If I shared what happened in our life following that.. ooh wow He was as always spot on. Before that I had a dream it was this house exactly and a friend whom I love so much yet have not seen it so many years she calls telling me "you have to have your helmet on. You do not have your helmet on. I knew from the start it was the lord. IF I had listened to Him.. I didn't it cost me. See some of this people hear understand but the enemy comes right in to take it.. doubt, but, if so forth so on. Its faith. My faith is not based on what happens in another believers walk.

It took me one time to hear God say "when God tells you something you do not question it you just do it". Angels do this. Gods says they do not think anything just do it. We have Gods word so I just believe and then do it.. faith with out works is dead. So God from what I read and understand never killed anyone but did keep the destroyer from killing the Jewish peoples children. So much of what gets talked about is based not on faith not on Gods words but speculation. Any child born sick in any way was not from God. A kingdom divided against its self will fall. Shows some do not understand what "the god of this world" Satan is can or cannot do. Yet today Christ crushed him openly. PRAISE GOD GLORY TO JESUS! See I am the righteousness of God I have Gods nature in me. I am an new creation.. i am not the old self that sinner fallen from grace.


Countless I mean countless facts (Stories)
Why does some preacher so many years ago watching some plague killing so many. He crying asking God why? Are you doing this? The short is the lord showed him a verse just before someone came rushing in saying so and so is sick dying. It was one of his members of his Church. He goes over there and the Doc says something about how Gods ways are mysterious. The preacher spoke up but the Doc said he was just to excided. So that preacher that just heard from God prayed the prayer of faith and the girl was healed right there. Then he went out to the next room and prayed for them and fact he never lost another member from his Church to that plague that killed so many.

True. But since God said "I will pass over you" He was accompanied by a destroying angel, the Angel of Death, called "the Destroyer". Through faith he [Moses] kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. (Heb 11:28)

When David took a census of Israel (at the instigation of Satan) here is what he was told (1 Chron 21:11, 12, 16): So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me... And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.

Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of [by] the destroyer ( 1 Cor 10:10)

Amen upon close examination there’s always an angelic presence and ordination on the ot law ( first five books especially 2-4 as the law is being given to the people. What I mean is

“There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. …When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.””
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭3:2, 4‬ ‭


“Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭3:19‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.

For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.”
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭23:20-21, 23‬ ‭

“Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee:

nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.”
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭32:3-4

Instead of this mediation between God and man in tbe New Testament

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”
‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭2:5‬ ‭KJV‬‬

It’s about his name only and there is no angelic intercession for man or rule over them like the ot

Jesus is now lord of all of angels and men and the only intercessor or mediator or testator for man.

“being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, This day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, And he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭1:4-6‬ ‭KJV‬‬

in the ot they were dealing with God but through angels he sent among them to govern over them because when he himself came and gave the law they broke it before he finished writing them down for Moses. Angels are always mediating between God and people not with Adam of course or with Abraham. But otherwise it was angelic mediation between God and mankind