God sees the blood on the frames of the Israelite doors and passes over them, not allowing the destroyer to go in. I find this wording interesting. From Genesis 4:23 onward, God has said that He will personally kill the firstborn. Yet, here we read about Him sending in or withholding a destroyer–a character some refer to as the Angel of Death or Reaper. Only one explanation exists, then, for the identity of this reaper–He is God and is with God, none other than the preincarnate Christ. In Matthew 24, Jesus claims to do the work of the reaper, taking up the wicked and leaving the righteous. In John’s Revelation, John describes Jesus using the imagery of a reaper with a sickle. This trinitarian language is present throughout the Old Testament.

There is not a household of the Egyptians or their servants, excluding Israel, in which someone has not died. Pharaoh instructs Israel to leave and to pray for him as they worship Yahweh. God stands against nations for many reasons, which all stem from human pride and the promise He made in Genesis 8:21-22 to preserve the world and contend with humanity so that destruction never comes again. Not even many Christians understand that when God comes down in judgment against a nation, He does so that the world will not again become a Genesis 6 world–filled with wickedness leading to violence or the mistreatment of others (Genesis 6:5, 11). This is the reason God stands against all sinful pride–He made a promise. His rules are not arbitrary, and neither are His judgments. His wrath is not spiteful but protective. Our pride is evil and would eventually lead the world into barbarism. But, God so loves the world that He stands against all forms of human pride and lust and becomes our humility on the cross.