Our Gemara on amud aleph speaks of situations where an object faces inevitable doom, such as a lion is about to consume a sheep.  Even if this is in front of the owners and they protest that they are not giving up, since the consensus reality is that the objects are doomed, it is a de facto giving up (see Shulchan Aruch CM 259:7).  The rescuer may take full possession of the object.

 

Yismach Moshe (Shemos 30) uses this legality as a way to explain how the Jews were freed from slavery earlier than the original prophecy.  

 

(Bereishis 15:13):

 

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר לְאַבְרָ֗ם יָדֹ֨עַ תֵּדַ֜ע כִּי־גֵ֣ר ׀ יִהְיֶ֣ה זַרְעֲךָ֗ בְּאֶ֙רֶץ֙ לֹ֣א לָהֶ֔ם וַעֲבָד֖וּם וְעִנּ֣וּ אֹתָ֑ם אַרְבַּ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָֽה׃

 

And [God] said to Abram, “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years;

 

But the Haggadah tells us that Hashem shortened the period of slavery.  God does not go back on His promises. What gave God the right to repossess the Jews from their servitude to Pharaoh, which had been granted by God? Yismach Moshe quotes a number of Midrashim that speak of how the Jews also were very close to being destroyed for their idolatrous practices, be it during the plague of the first born, or at the Red Sea.  In both situations, there were heavenly accusations that once the destructive forces were unleashed, the Jews should be punished as well.  Since God saved them from inevitable doom, by saving them, in essence He acquired the Jews from Pharaoh, like the sheep in our Gemara.  

 

My question on this is, God caused the plagues and God also willed the Jews to be free. Why is the latter legal, but the former considered dishonest?  I believe the answer has to do with the philosophy of punishment which is considered more of a natural law of the universe, as opposed to the one-time miracles of the splitting of the Red Sea and other unusual miracles.  Otherwise, anytime someone’s slave were to die due to their sins, the owner should have a complaint against God, “You stole my servant! True, he disobeyed you and deserved punishment, but he is MY slave.”  Obviously, this cannot be so. The answer is that punishment is built into the fabric of the universe, and so no master can have a gripe against God if his slaves are immoral and are punished. The Jews were also immoral and were doomed, if not for God specifically saving them. This extra miracle with more direct divine intent would then indeed be unfairly taking the Jews from Pharaoh. However, since the Jews would have been doomed no matter what, and Pharaoh had already lost them, it was like finding a lost object and God was able to take full possession.

 

While justice in the world is through the hands of God, there is still an idea that there are different levels of providence. It actually alluded to in an explicit verse (Shemos 33:5), where Hashem tells Moshe:

 

אַתֶּ֣ם עַם־קְשֵׁה־עֹ֔רֶף רֶ֧גַע אֶחָ֛ד אֶֽעֱלֶ֥ה בְקִרְבְּךָ֖ וְכִלִּיתִ֑יךָ וְעַתָּ֗ה הוֹרֵ֤ד עֶדְיְךָ֙ מֵֽעָלֶ֔יךָ וְאֵדְעָ֖ה מָ֥ה אֶֽעֱשֶׂה־לָּֽךְ׃

 

You are a stiffnecked people. If I were to go in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you. Now, then, leave off your finery, and I will consider what to do to you.’”

 

That is to say, if God was directly in the Jewish people’s midst, there would be zero tolerance for sin.  (In the end God relents and teaches Moshe a special tradition on how to obtain forgiveness nonetheless.)  However, what is the intended scenario?  People would sin and NOT be punished? Obviously not. So this must mean that here would be more tolerance of sin. Presumably, the regular channels of fate and punishment occur, when they do as they do. See Bereishis Rabbah (85:2) where a similar idea is expressed. When a person is already deserving punishment, a bad turn of events will bring upon him many other punishments from past misdeeds:

 

When the Shevatim were implicated regarding the goblet that Binyamin was accused of stealing, they said: “God has found [matza] the iniquity of your servants” (Genesis 44:16). Rabbi Yitzḥak said: The creditor has found the opportunity to collect on his promissory note.

 

The Rambam, in his commentary on Avos (2:6) states:

 

And it is something that is apparent to the eye, at every moment and every time and every place. Anyone who does evil and creates types of violence and vice, is himself injured by those same evils that he created - since he taught the craft that would cause damage to him and to others. And so [too regarding] anyone who teaches a virtue [in] that he creates a good action from the good, a benefit of that action will reach him - since he taught a thing that will do good to him and to others. And the words about this in the verse are very good - he stated (Job 34:11), "For He pays a man his action."

 

Therefore, we see that there are levels to how quickly or directly God manifests His punishment.  Regardless, we also see that God can forgive and save the Jewish people at any time, despite what they may deserve, as He did in regard to their sin and slavery.