The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, discovers a hidden connection between two events separated by centuries — the plague of the firstborn in Egypt and Abraham's nighttime battle against the four kings in (Genesis 14:15). Rabbi Eliezer notices that both passages use language of "dividing" the night.
In Exodus, the Torah states: "And it was in the middle of the night" — the moment when God struck down every firstborn in Egypt (Exodus 12:29). In Genesis, when Abraham pursued the kings who had captured his nephew Lot, the verse reads: "And they divided against them at night" (Genesis 14:15). Abraham split his small band of servants and attacked from multiple directions under cover of darkness.
Rabbi Eliezer draws a precise parallel. Just as the plague of the firstborn did not begin until the middle of the night — at the exact midpoint — so too Abraham's attack occurred at midnight. The word "divided" in both contexts signals the same moment: the night split in half.
The implication is that God has a pattern. When He acts to save His people through the darkness, He waits for the precise center of the night. Abraham's midnight rescue of Lot foreshadowed the midnight liberation of Israel. The Mekhilta teaches that these are not coincidences. They are echoes of a single Divine method — salvation that arrives when darkness reaches its deepest point.