Wisdom 19:13 "The punishments did not come upon the sinners without prior signs in the violence of thunder, for they justly suffered because of their wicked acts; for they practiced a more bitter hatred of strangers."

The sinners Solomon is talking about are the Egyptians who were punished so severely for the way they treated God's people. In their pride and their "bitter hatred of strangers" they looked upon the Israelites as lesser human beings; as slaves, objects to be used and mistreated at their whim. Each of the plagues of Egypt was a sign, a plea from God for Egypt to turn from this mistreatment and let His people go. God wasn't asking for Egypt to make the Jews equal citizens in Egypt, He did not want them to remain there at all, just to get them out, but Pharaoh would not relent.

The plagues of Egypt are so symbolic of our relationship with sin. We are all sinners, and God's punishments do not come upon us without prior signs. Every moment of our lives is a message from God. He is calling to us in everything we see, hear, feel, in all of nature, and in every interaction we have. God used Moses' interaction and relationship with Pharaoh to get through to him; He used nature in the locusts, the darkness, the frogs; He even used death when all else failed.

Sin blinds us to God's messages. We can see the most obvious warning signs and tell ourselves that they are mere coincidences, as Pharaoh did, while we stubbornly cling to our sin. God does not use neon signs or notarized letters to get our attention (although in rare circumstances, to people who are receptive, He might send an angel, or even speak Himself, but we should not wait for that!), He uses His creation. Recognizing that we are all sinners, when people, events, and nature seem to be warning us to wake up and let go of our sin (as they are now!), it will go much easier on us if we do so sooner rather than later. We certainly should do so before it gets to the point of death, as it unfortunately did for the Egyptians.