Quote:You can't defend the Egyptians by saying that their only offense was thoughtrime because they had, in a very real and material sense, kept the Israelites from crossing Egypt's borders. During those ten plagues, the Israelites were still forced to bake bricks from mud under their Egyptian slavers.
Blame the individuals responsible for this.
Also, slavery wasn't a crime in the eyes of God (who not only told Moses he was allowed slaves but also gave him pointers on acquiring them). If God is punishing Egypt for the crime of slavery, then it is inconsistent and unjust when he does not prevent his own people from practicing the same institution.
Quote:And yes, an Egyptian judge in 2000 B.C. would kill my kid if I killed someone else's. This would be the punishment I would expect, and I would have absolutely no reason to even think that it was arbitrary in any way. Why should God use laws that just so happen to come from 21st century Europe? It would seem great to you, but terribly unjust to the Egyptian people.
God should be using laws infinitely more fair and just than anything we can come up with in the 21st century. If it took us only a few thousand years to do better than God...
