PLAGUES AND STUFF

Exodus 5-11

Reminder: My primary purpose in these notes is to add additional information besides what is written in the quarterly. In fact I often ignore that material, because I assume you have read that too. This week especially, I plan to make general comments about the 10 plagues the Lord threw on Egypt, rather than go systematically through them one at a time.

Reminder, Moses and Aaron came into the Egyptian palace a generation after Moses had been raised there. He was on familiar ground, and may even have known the present Pharaoh as a contemporary. He would certainly have been able to speak the language and know his way around the court.

Consider Pharaoh's problem. We always consider him a bad guy, an enemy of the Lord. Well, he was, and certainly he was cruel to the Hebrews. Still, he was a politician and an administrator. In our day, we can usually figure the final price of any building can be roughly divided between materials and labor, each being about half. So if through slavery he could build at half price, that's quite an economic advantage. When Moses asked Pharaoh to let the people go, the king sees money flying out the window. He also thinks how this will play before his Egyptian advisers. Perhaps there's a rival who will take such an opportunity to rebel or attempt a coup.

In ancient thought, wars on earth were also being fought in heaven between the various armies of the gods. The god who was victorious above was also the winner on earth. The plagues make this pretty clear. You probably have seen pictures of Egyptian gods, there were many of them. Some were worn as amulets. Each of the plagues attacked an Egyptian god and showed the LORD (YAHWEH) was superior.

Two or three examples should suffice to illustrate. The first plague was turning the Nile into blood. The whole land of Egypt has been called “The Gift of the Nile.” If you take a look at an aerial or satellite photo of Egypt, you will see a lot of brown sand with a lush green strip down the center. Clearly, the land watered by the river produces vegetation, including crops that enable civilization to prosper. Thus, the Nile itself was considered a god, yet the Nile preserved the baby Moses's life, and the Lord demonstrated His power by showing His control over the river.

One of the later plagues was complete darkness. Egytians worshiped the sun. in fact, one Pharaoh, Ikhnaton, made the sun's disk his chief god – aton being the name for the sun. When the Lord shut down the sun's light, He demonstrated clearly His superior power.

Note for half of the plagues, Exodus tell us “there was no plague in Goshen” (where God's people the Hebrews lived). Note we don't interpret this as meaning that Christians will escape the troubles of the world. Perhaps that's why not every plague is recorded as missing in Goshen. “God sends His rain on the just and the unjust.”

What's this bit about God hardening Pharaoh's heart? I'll indulge in a personal experience here. I mentioned in the intro that I wrote a student guide to Exodus for the beginning year of this series we still study from. The editors had previously designated the main teaching of one lesson that “God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and Pharaoh hardened his own heart.” At the writers' conference where we meet with the editors and other product writers, I argued intensely for changing this, because this seems to be a difficult concept for many people who are new to Bible study. It blew my mind that no one seemed to grasp what I was talking about. Yes, it's a Biblical concept, but it's not a simple one. Personally, I think the Hebrew mind has much greater tolerance for paradox than we do today. I waas only arguing the contradiction should not be the main truth of the Sunday School lesson. Much more important would be God's power over Egyptian gods and His care of His people in fulfilling the covenant.

My eventual solution that I thought would make the paradox clearer to the average church member went something like this. God said, “I know ole Pharaoh, and I'm gonna throw that ole boy into such a bind, it's gonna drive him through the roof. He's gonna see Me winning and fight Me every step of the way.”

Try reading chapters 5-11 in the Message. I recommend it.