In Their Sight - Numbers 33:3-4

Numbers 33:3-4 ESV
They set out from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the day after the Passover, the people of Israel went out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians, while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had struck down among them. On their gods also the Lord executed judgments.

The Egyptians were not so dismissive of the people of Israel as they buried their dead. The Israelites were no longer slaves subject to Egyptian whim, but conquerors. Their strength and power was not in their own arm, but a reliance and belief in The Lord. The Egyptians had witnessed what The Lord had done. They were familiar with power. They viewed Pharaoh as a god, but they had encountered God Almighty. They were not able to stand.

Not all of the Egyptians were slain, only the firstborn. Scripture does not tell us that any Egyptians believed in The Lord as a result of these mighty signs and the punishment they bore. Surely as they buried their firstborn they had learned something, but the last book in the Bible may give us insight.

In Revelation we read the wicked will receive the wrath of God, yet do not repent. They even curse God. No matter what God will do, some will oppose Him until their end. So it will be. The wicked will keep on being wicked and their end known. Taking the hand of The Lord, the righteous shall be saved. The end is predestined, but not our individual end. The Lord wishes that no one would would perish, but would choose life. He is that life.

Like Israel, the sons of God will be delivered. Once again God will show His mighty hand. Many in the nations will come to believe. Israel will shine as the beacon of God's light, and many will come to that light. We will shine as the lamp-stands of the church and will be the temple of the Most Holy God. The nations will come and give glory to The Lord.