Okay thanks. I had given up on an answer, but someone bumped the thread, so that's good.
I won't have all the answers to questions that you have Zound.
I think that is probably a good thing, and I think why I did not feel compelled to rewrite the answer I originally lost, after I lost it.
Because instead of giving up on an answer... instead of looking to me for an answer... you could/should look to Christ. He is the Truth. Not me, not Paul, not Peter, not the Pope, not the GB. Just Christ. He is the One with all truth; all the answers. You may not hear an answer on the spot; you may not be able to hear THE answer. But a little faith will have you knowing that He WILL answer, according to His time, and not necessarily the time you want.
Plus, we are not always able to hear those answers... sometimes we have to have building blocks so that we can understand the answer. (sometimes we have to tear down the blocks that others have built... so that we can see the simple truth... through all the complication that man has covered the simple truth up with) So sometimes we have to learn other things in order to be able to hear an understand the answer to the question that we asked.
Just like in math... you have to learn simple arithmetic before you can start to learn algebra. (okay, calculaters make learning simple arithmatic not as neccesary, lol, but you get my meaning, I hope)
If death was to blame - then the firstborn would have lived a long life and simply died of old age. But their lives were cut short - death came early. Who caused death to come early to these people?
God allowed death to 'come early'. Pharoah caused it by his treatment of the Israelites. His actions showed that he did not care about his people OR the firstborn OF his people (since he had how many examples before this last 'plague' to show him that everything God said would happen, would happen) Remember that Pharoah would have been 'god' to his people. Yet Pharoah has no authority over death, nor could he save his people from death; nor were Pharoah and the gods of Egypt more powerful than the God of Isreal, and none of their gods could protect those who worship them from death or plagues or anything; God, however, (and the lamb... Christ... represented for us as the blood of the lamb on the doorsteps) COULD and DID protect His people from death, AND, all those plagues.
That authority has been granted now TO Christ.
(Those who were taken by death on that night still have a resurrection... some to life; some to judgment. Same as anyone not in Christ.)
Are you saying death has a mind of it's own?
I don't know. A will though, yes, I would say that I understand that.
Kind of sounds like a personification... An entity who can be owed something and who can "pass over" Egypt killing kids? (I'm happy to be corrected if you'll clarify?)
Yes, it is kind of like a personification... an entity with a will... but I do not understand anything beyond that, at least not at this time. I can only sort of grasp that.
(firstborn does not mean kids... though probably some were? Firstborn are those who are born first of their house/family/etc.)
You two ever see the movie, the Neverending story? Remember the great Nothing (I think that is what it was called) and its agent, that wolf thing. (been a while, sorry)
Death is like the great nothing; and the Adversary (the devil, Satan) is like the agent of the great Nothing (the wolf thing).
Hope that helps you to be able to at least get a sense of this, and as always, look to Christ for the Truth. Not me.
Peace to you both.
Your servant and a slave of Christ,
tammy
