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Question: I recently saw "The Prince of Egypt," and found that I have no satisfactory way of understanding God's killing of uninvolved people ("all firstborn"), including children. This seems so unjust to me. How can the killing done or ordered by God, in the Exodus and in many other Old Testament stories, be seen as a moral example to us? I need an answer that is satisfactory to me and understandable to my young niece who saw the movie with me. How can killing children be accepted? I am sincerely shaken by this, and appreciate your time to respond.

Answer: This is a very understandable question with a quite simple answer. However, it is impossible for us to fully grasp the depth and magnitude of God's absolute sovereign control over the lives and deaths of mankind. It can be more easily understood as an adult and less understood by a child. On the other hand, it will probably be more readily accepted by a child, while the acceptance of an adult can in no way be determined outside of one's own self.

Allow me to clarify these statements: Christ spoke of a child's faith as being necessary for salvation (Luke 18:17; Mark 10:15; 1 Peter 1:14). A child is more quick to believe and accept things than we are as adults. So, a child will quite readily take what is told them and believe and accept it, where an adult requires an explanation to satisfy their minds and personal interests.

Let us look first at the fact that death happens alike to everyone. It does not choose its victims according to any degree of good or evil. War, famine, disease and other tragedies sweep away both good and bad equally. We accept the fact that life and death are solely in the Hand of God to be dealt as He sees fit. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without the knowledge of the Father (Matthew 10:29). He can bring to life, and He can equally strike with death whomsoever He pleases.

In the event of the death of the firstborn of Egypt, God used this act not as an act of vengeance against those who died, but on those who survived. This plague, just as it had been with the other nine, was directed at the nation of Egypt. It was a national chastisement for their disobedience against the God of all the earth. God intended to execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt with this mighty plague (Ex. 12:12). Please note that this plague would have very easily affected the children of Israel as well had they not acted according to the command of God to slay a perfect lamb and paint its blood upon the door of their houses (Exodus 12:13,23).

(Please allow me to interject here that the slaying of this innocent lamb is also according to the direct command of God. It should be clearly understood that God ordained it to be so, that the innocent die for the guilty. In this instance, the innocent lamb died in the place of the firstborn in the homes of the obedient ones, just as His only begotten Son died in our place so that we could be saved. This is where Jesus gets the title of "Lamb of God.")

Consider the fact that Pharoah is punished, and the Egyptians in general are punished by the sudden death of their firstborn. The nation of Egypt, quite frankly, deserved this retribution by their cruelty to the Hebrews, and more specifically by the drowning of the Israelite male children (Exodus 1:22). It affected all alike whether they had personally taken part in the cruelties against the Israelites or not. Again, this was a national chastisement just as the other plagues had been. Proverbs 14:34 says, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people."

Where did death come from to begin with? We clearly understand that death did not exist until man sinned in the Garden of Eden. Death itself is a direct result of sin. The "national" punishment law comes from the very beginning. We were not in the Garden of Eden to sin that first sin. We did not make a conscious choice to disobey God and eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

However, we suffer the curse of sin because Adam sinned. Just as the Egptians all suffered because of the cruelties and hardness of Pharoah, all of mankind suffers from the effects of Adam's initial sin in the Garden. When we examine the judgments of the nations in the Old Testament in this light, we are better equipped to understand the whole subject at hand.

God condemned the entire human race because the sin of Adam corrupted us all. God judged entire nations because of their national sins. God judged the entire nation of Israel because of their wickedness, immorality and idolatry. And yet there has always been a faithful remnant.

We must assume that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (the latter better known as the three Hebrew children: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) came from godly families who suffered greatly at the overthrow of Jerusalem in the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar at the start of the Babylonian empire. And we know that this overthrow was according to the divine will of God for punishment against the sins of the nation as a whole.

Consider the fact that great men of old confessed the sins of the nation as if it had been their personal sins (Moses, Daniel, Nehemiah, Paul). America has a lot of godly people who serve God, and yet as a nation we have turned God out of our schools and government. We must admit that we suffer the reproach as a nation while we are innocent of these sins individually.

Pharoah, having been set up as god in the eyes of the Egyptians, felt himself as having the power to give or take life. Thus in smiting the firstborn of all of Egypt, God smashes the god of the Egyptians and proves Himself as being greater. He later told the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 20:3), "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." He takes second place to no one or no-thing!

Death is one of the greatest fears of mankind. Anything else may be endured, made up for, or made the best of, but there is no remedy or help for death. When their god was shown as helpless and vulnerable like all the others, having been brought on an equal plane with the common Egyptian, they were conquered, submissive, and ready to follow the will of the true Lord God.

The Judge of all the earth will do right! Thank God that even though we deserve punishment, in His wrath He offers mercy. See Romans 5:8.

I cannot in this forum offer an exhaustive treatise on this subject. However, I certainly hope that it has helped you to more clearly understand the actions of God and to appreciate and respect His sovereign power.

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