The revolutionary overthrow of the imperial powers

The plague of the first-born comes as the end of the 10 plagues as a last resort. If we read the killing of the Egyptian first-born as the elimination of Egypt's ruling class, then that plague is tantamount to a revolutionary remedy to the problem of imperial Egypt. 

The meaning of the 10 plagues is that Israel's independence cannot be established without a fundamental change in the incumbent Israelite political culture coupled to the revolutionary overthrow of the prevailing Egyptian imperial powers who ruled the region.