At first sight you
would fancy that it spoke of God in quite a different tone from the
second lesson.
In the second lesson, the words of Jesus the Son of God are all
gentleness, patience, tenderness. A quiet sadness hangs over them
all. They are the words of one who is come (as he said himself),
not to destroy men's lives, but to save them; not to punish sins,
but to wash them away by his own most precious blood.
But in the first lesson how differently he seems to speak. His
words there are the words of a stern and awful judge, who can, and
who will destroy whatsoever interferes with his will and his
purpose.
'I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and on
thy servants, and all thy people, that thou mayest know that there
is none like me in all the earth.' The cattle and sheep shall be
destroyed with murrain; man and beast shall be tormented with boils
and blains; the crops shall be smitten with hail; the locusts shall
eat up every green thing in the land; and at last all the first-born
of Egypt shall die in one night, and the land be filled with
mourning, horror, and desolation, before the anger of this terrible
God, who will destroy and destroy till he makes himself obeyed.
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