Psalm 78:50

Psalm 78:50

He prepared a path for His anger

The first thing that this verse tells us is that God’s judgement is not random, nor is it unconsidered and it is most certainly not a knee-jerk reaction to His opponents! God “prepared a path for His anger.” In other words, just as the Lord Almighty plans meticulously to bless and be gracious to His people, He also plans fastidiously for retribution and the judgement of their oppressors. And even when the opposition took the form of a pagan nation like Egypt, he gave them 9 chances to repent before delivering the killer blow! It is worth pointing out that the decisions that were made by the Egyptians were not democratically reached, the blessing or cursing of the nation was in the hands of Pharaoh and his small company of advisors. It is a terrible responsibility to be the leader of a nation and to be culpable for its fortunes!

In the end, the Lord God despaired of ever being able to negotiate a safe deliverance of the Hebrew slaves from the clutches of the Egyptians, and so terminal and drastic action had to be taken – the killing of the firstborn.  It could be argued that this cruel and fatal judgement was as much the consequence of Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness as it was God’s wrath against the people. And that is the point! Nothing befalls us as nations or as individuals that we do not deserve, God’s judgement is particular, is carefully considered, and appropriate to the crime. There is only one occasion when He appeared to break His own rules and that is when a substitute was unfairly put to death for the sins of other people! 

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