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To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn;... and brought out Israel from among them. Much misapprehension of the Divine dealings follows from fixing attention too exclusively on one side of the Divine judgments. We readily see what they are to those who suffer under them, but we do not sufficiently see what they are to those who are delivered through them. God smote Egypt, but the smiting was a delivering of his people; and if we would understand his doing we must see it on both its sides. Suppose that God designs to discipline a particular race for a great world-mission which he purposes to entrust to it, then the presence of Israel in Egypt is explained. And when the time has come for that race to go forth and accomplish its mission, the ordinary difficulties of getting a great part of a nation's population safely away had to be dealt with, and the special complications arising had to be mastered. So deliverance had to take the form of judgment. There are two possible explanations of Divine judgments.

I. THE EASIER EXPLANATION: THEY VINDICATE THE DIVINE RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE PUNISHMENT OF WRONGDOERS. This is familiar truth. Some time or other the cup of a man's, or a family's, or a city's, or a nation's iniquity becomes full, and then the Divine judgments must descend. The world before the Flood, the cities of the plain, the Egyptians, the Israelites, Nineveh, and Babylon illustrate this. Egypt was smitten for its national sins. We see one special feature of that sin; it was Pharaoh Menephthah's treatment of God's people, in spite of all warnings that were given him. "Is God righteous who taketh vengeance?" Certainly he is. He would be no righteous God if he did not.

II. THE PEEPER EXPLANATION: THE LAW OF VICARIOUS SUFFERING APPLIES EVEN IN THE CASE OF DIVINE JUDGMENTS. We have yet to apprehend that all moral and spiritual laws are as absolute, universal, and unchangeable as all natural laws. Vicarious suffering is absolutely universal. Nobody ever gets any good without somebody suffering loss. Egypt must suffer if Israel is to be delivered. An adequate impression of the Divine power must be made on Israel as a basis of its belief in God, and Egypt must suffer that God's power may be shown. It is a thrillingly interesting view of one of the supreme mysteries of human life, that on one side of them God's judgments should be apprehended as vicarious sufferings for the sake of others. - R.T.

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KJV: To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever:

WEB: To him who struck down the Egyptian firstborn; for his loving kindness endures forever;