The Passover Lamb's Blood

The plagues of Egypt were a strike against the false gods of Egypt, and against wicked men, who would not let God's people go.

But there is a trap in it all for Israel, to think that because they were enslaved, then the Egyptians were no good. All through history, we objectify those who mistreat us as those wicked people over there, and naturally, but falsely, conclude that we ourselves are virtuous.

And if the Lord delivers us from their hands, that solidifies our false view that we are saved because we are righteous, as against those wicked folks over there.

This faulty analysis distracts us from a correct view of morality and righteousness as seen from God's point of view.

We deduce incorrectly that the Israelites are virtuous, because of their mistreatment, and thus they are exempt from the need for rescue from their own sins and from God's judgment against sin.

In Israel's case, the difference that God put between themselves and Egypt in the plagues of darkness, lice, boils, hailstones, etc., was enough to convince them that they were right with God. An air of superiority begins to take hold in Israel, which comes to take its special treatment by God for granted, all the while looking down on all the others as dirty Gentiles.

Israel failed to grasp the true distinction made between itself and Egypt. In the end, it wasn't the plagues – the hailstones, the darkness, the boils - on Egypt and not on Israel that marked the distinction.

In the end, the crucial distinction was the Passover sacrifice. God saved the people who were marked by the blood of the Passover lamb.

Egyptians weren't judged because of sin, but because they had no sacrifice.