Remember that there were times when Pharaoh was in a bit of fear, but he always changed his mind, did he not? The fear did not last very long. "Yes, you can go." "No, you can't go." He said that at least three times before he finally let them go. And here he is really representing all of his people. Do you not feel that, basically, the Egyptians felt much the same way as their leader did? I think so. They were probably quite ambivalent about it. There was not any spoiling of the Egyptians, until very late in the process.
Here comes a command to do it! When did this take place? Look at verse 21. It was after the ninth plague, and finally a command comes from God to begin to do some plundering of the Egyptians. When did the ninth plague occur? I do not know how close it was to the tenth one. But I think that Exodus 11 and 12 shows us when the instruction was given because chapter 11 blends right on into chapter 12.
We are already into Abib. Did this take place on the first day of Abib? Second? Third? Fourth? Fifth? We know for sure that it took place before the tenth—because that is when they had to choose the lamb. We are narrowed down here to nine days (day 1 to day 9)—somewhere in that period of time. Do you think that we could calculate, from the Scriptures, that God would have been fair? That is, that God would have given as much warning as He possibly could from this point on, and that these instructions took place on the first day of Abib? Does it not seem to indicate that He said this just as the month was beginning? That is the indication. "This month shall be your beginning of months." I think we can, at least, narrow it down to eight days because they would have had at least one day to do some spoiling. So I think that we got it narrowed down there, pretty well.
God spoke to Moses. Moses called for the elders. The elders then went back to their tribes, and they spoke to the people. So we have to begin to allow some time for the word to get out to the elders, and then for the elders to get back to Moses. Next, Moses had to communicate to the elders. The elders then had to go back to their tribes, and communicate it to all the families in the tribe. That was their communication system. (And they used it frequently, throughout the entirety of the Exodus.)
At the very most, if this command was given on the 1st day of the first month—then allowing a day for those people to get to Moses, hear the instructions, and then to get back (because we are dealing with a fair amount of distance here, for them to travel throughout Goshen), and deliver the message to the people—then can we not say that the Israelites must have known that they could begin to spoil the Egyptians some time, at the earliest, late on the 2nd day of the month? Most likely, in order to be conservative, with the beginning of light on the 3rd day of the month? They then would have had seven days to do their spoiling before choosing out the lamb—and then, a couple of more days before Passover actually arrived.
We are beginning to see that the spoiling of the Egyptians was limited, then, to roughly a thirteen day period—beginning with the first day of the first month, and ending with whatever preparations they had to make, up until ba erevon the thirteenth day.
Notice, they did not say this—they were not that urgent; they were not that concerned—to give the Israelites things—payment for all their years of wages that was owed to them—until after the killing of the firstborn. Now they were throwing things at them! "Here, take it. Get! Get out of here. Go away. Leave!"
We can safely say that the spoiling of the Egyptians began after the ninth plague—the one of darkness. It was interrupted for the Passover, and then it continued after the killing of the firstborn on the fourteenth day of the first month. That is what the Scriptures tell us. So it was done … . . .
