<p>10:10- see on Ex. 12:23; Ps. 78:49; Rom. 5:12.</p><p><em>Neither let us grumble, as some of them did, and were killed by the Destroyer angel- </em><br />The reference is to the murmuring of Korah's rebellion against Moses (Num. 16:41,49). Paul is positioning himself as their Moses; for he spends much of Corinthians answering their various murmurings against him. Likewise the grumbling about the manna (Ex. 16:8,10) was against Moses.</p><p>The number of firstborn males after Israel left Egypt was remarkably small (around 20,000, Num. 3:43). Women in most primitive societies have an average of 7 births. This would mean that given a total population of around 2,800,000 on leaving Egypt (Ex. 12:37), there should have been around 400,000 firstborn males. But instead, there is only a fraction of this number. Why? Did Israel eat the Passover?&nbsp; My suggestion- and this is well in the category of things you will never know for sure and can only ponder- is that many Hebrew firstborns died on Passover night. Israel were warned that if they did not properly keep the Passover, &ldquo;the Destroyer&rdquo; Angel would kill their firstborn (Ex. 12:23). &ldquo;The Destroyer&rdquo; is mentioned in 1 Cor. 10:10: &ldquo;Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the Destroyer&rdquo; (<em>olothreutes; </em>this is a proper noun in the Greek). Who was the Destroyer? If Scripture interprets Scripture, it was the &lsquo;Destroyer&rsquo; Angel of Passover night. In similar vein Heb. 11:28 speaks of &ldquo;He (the Angel) that destroyed (Gk. <em>olothreuo</em>) the firstborn&rdquo;.&nbsp;</p><p>Paul's warning in 1 Cor. 10:10 not to &quot;murmur as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer&quot; (i. e. the destroying Angel) implies that the unworthy among the &quot;Israel of God&quot; will also be destroyed by Angelic means if we make the same mistakes Israel of old made.&nbsp; The same Angel that destroyed the Egyptians would destroy God's Israel; they would be &quot;condemned with the world&quot; (1 Cor. 11:32). The fact that the Angels will personally minister the condemnation of the unworthy (Mt. 13:49 &quot;the Angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire&quot;) when in their lives those Angels gave their charges every chance to repent and to grow spiritually, preserving them from physical danger, is surely a heart rending thought; and a motivation to respond acceptably to the trials God brings into our lives through His Angels.</p>