I. MAKING DEATil AN INSTRUMENT OF VENGEANOE1 NOT ON THOSE WHO DIE, BUT 01'1' 'l'IIOBE WHO SURVIVE. PhMe.oh is punished, and the Egyptians generally are 1mnished, by the sudden death of the first-born. They had deserved this retribution by thcil' cruelty to the Hebrews, and especially by the drowning of the Hebrew male children (eh, i. 22). It afflicted all, however, alike, whether they had taken part in the above- mentioned cruelties or not. This was because it was a national chastisement ; and tho case had been the same with almost all the other plagues, II. STRIKING TERROR Th'TO A '\','BOLE COMMUJ\'ITY BY VISITING WITH DEATH A CERTAIN 1'""Uld!IER. Death is the main foor of worldly men. Anything else may be endured, made up for, made the best of. But for death there is no help, no remedy. The awful phantom is, e.s far as possible, kept out of sight, unthought of, unprepared for, thrust into the background. Men live as if they had a freehold of life, not a leasehold. When the gaunt spectre draws near; when, in the shape of cholera or fever, he makes his entrance upon the scene and challenges attention, the result is, for the most part, a panic. So it was in Egypt. The Egyptians wrote much of death, reminded each other of death (Herod. ii. 78), prepared tombs for themselves with great care speculated largely upon the condition of souls in another world; but it would seem that they shrank, as much as ordinary men, from near cont.a.et with the grisly phantom. It was now about to be suddenly brought home to them how thin a barrier separates between the two worlds. In the presence of death they would wake up to the realities of life. They would be conquered, submissive, ready to do whatever was C..od's will. Some such results are traceable whenever a.nd wherever imminent death threatens a large number, and are to be watched far by the minister, who will find his opportunity at such seasons, and should take advantage of it. ill. SaoWING HIS FAVOUR TO HIS OWN PEOPLE BY EXEMPTINGTREIII WBOLLYFROIIITBE VISITATION. Against the Israelites not even a dog would move his tongue (ver. 7). With mortality a.ll a.round the: • with a corpse in each Egyptian house, with animals lying dead on all sides, in the open country as well as in the wwns and houses, they would be completely free from the visitation; a special providence would save and protect them. Such an ex.emption was, of course, miraculous, and is well -nigh unparalleled. But still there have been cases where God's people have suffered marvellously little in a time of pestilence, when it has seeme<l to strike almost none but reckless and vicious lives, when an arm has appeared to be ex.tended over the righteous. At such times what praise and gratitude are not due to God for "putting a difference between the Egyptians and Israel! " He spares when we deserve punishment, and in his wrath thinks upon mercy. He gives a token of his approval to men of regular lives and temperate habits, by "passing them over" when he walks through the land dealing out destruction. Ver. 8.-B.ighteous anger. It seems to be supposed by some that the true Christian oucrht never to be angry. St. Paul certainly says in one place, "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour be put away from yon" (Eph. iv. 31); and in another, "Put ye. off all these, anger, wrath, malice" (Col. iii 8). But he guards himself from bein" misunderstood by giving a command in one of these very chapters (Eph. iv. 26), "B~ ye angry, and sin not." ~e was himself an~!. when he said ~ ~he lligh Priest, "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall" (Acts x.:x.111. 3), and to the Jailer at Philippi, "They have beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; aud now do they thrust us out privily? Nay, verily : but let them come themselves and fetch us out" (ib. xvi. 37). There is such a thing as" righteous anger;'' and it was righteollll anger which Moses folt at this time. He was illcli,,anant- 1. BECAUSE Goo w Ad SPURNED ..U.'l) ilI8 COIIIIIIAJ\'l)MENTB IIIADE OF NO ACCOUNT, Pharaoh, after temporising, and professing contrition, and suggestin~ a v_ariety ot compromises, had declared himself finally against God-cast his words behind his back- and resolved on following out his own will, and defying the Almighty. Bold, unblush- incr wickedness may well make the minister of God angry. It is an insult to God's ~jesty. It is a contradiction of man's moral nature. It is an open enlisting in the i;en ice of Satan. II. B.i,;cAUBE HlS COi.'NTBYIIIEN WERE WRONGED, BY BEIN(l DlBAPPOINTED OF TBEm en. xr. 4-10.J 'rHE BOOK OF EXODUS. 251
JUST norF.B, Pharaoh's professions, his promises, his attempts at compromi,c Ji~d given the Isrnelites II right to expect that he would yield in the end. His swlden stiffness was an injury to them, with which Moses did well to sympathise. How should he not be indignant, when the just rights of his nation were wholly ianored their patience despised, and their legitimate expectations baulked? His anger~ so fa; as it arose out of sympathy for them, was justified-(a) by the bitterness of their feelings; (b) by the heartiness in which he had thrown himself into their cause; (c) by the appo.rent hopelessness of their case, if the king now dfllw back. III. BECAUSE HE IIAD DEEN HIMSELF INSULTED AND ILL-USED. The anger which springs from a sense of wrong done to oneself is less noble than that which arises from a sense of wrong done to our fellows, and still less noble than that which has its origin in zeal for the honour of God; but still it is not illegitimate. Wrong done to oneself is nevertheless wrong, and, as wrong, properly stirs uy anger within us. Moses had been ill-used by Pharaoh from first to last, derided (eh. v. 4), trifled with (eh. viii. 26-32; x. 16-20), driven from his presence (eh. x. 11); and now at last had been deprived of his right to make personal representations to the monarch, and even threatened with death (io. ver. 28). And why? What evil had he done? He had simply delivered God's messages to Pharaoh, and inflicted the plagues at God's com- mand. Of his own mere notion he had done nothing but shorten the duration of the plagues by entreating God from time to time at Pharaoh's request. Even, therefore, if his "heat of anger" had been caused solely by the wrong done to himself, it would have been justified.