68
The Truth About Angels
shattering trees, and smiting man and beast. Hitherto none of the
lives of the Egyptians had been taken, but now death and desolation
followed in the track of the destroying angel. The land of Goshen
alone was spared.—
The Signs of the Times, March 18, 1880
.
The Lord through Moses gave direction to the children of Israel
concerning their departure from Egypt, and especially for their preser-
vation from the coming judgment. Each family, alone or in connection
with others, was to slay a lamb or a kid “without blemish,” and with a
bunch of hyssop sprinkle its blood on “the two sideposts and on the
upper doorpost” of the house, that the destroying angel, coming at
midnight, might not enter that dwelling....
The Lord declared: “I will pass through the land of Egypt this
night, and will smite all the first-born in the land.... And the blood
shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I
see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you.”—
Patriarchs and Prophets, 274
.
The children of Israel had followed the directions given them of
God; and while the angel of death was passing from house to house
among the Egyptians, they were all ready for their journey.—
The Spirit
of Prophecy 1:204
.
About midnight every Egyptian household was aroused from their
sleep by the cry of pain. They feared they were all to die. They
remembered when the cry of distress and mourning was heard from
[95]
the Hebrews because of the inhuman decree of a cruel king to slay
all their male infants as soon as they were born. The Egyptians could
not see the avenging angel, who entered every house and dealt the
death blow, but they knew that it was the Hebrews’ God who was
causing them to suffer the same distress they had made the Israelites
to suffer.—
The Youth’s Instructor, May 1, 1873
.
Christ, Israel’s Invisible Leader
In Egypt the report was spread that the children of Israel ... were
pressing on toward the Red Sea.... Pharaoh collected his forces ...
[and] attended by the great men of his realm, headed the attacking
army.
The Hebrews were encamped beside the sea.... Suddenly they be-
held in the distance the flashing armor and moving chariots betokening