Exodus 7-10

[Josh]

3/24/06:

Judgment on the gods of Egypt

An aspect of the plague account that shouldn't be overlooked is the way these plagues would have been perceived by the Egyptians themselves. All of these plagues make a mockery of deified forces of nature that the Egyptians worshipped.

For instance, from K A Kitchen:

"A massively unruly and destructive Nile flood, red in hue, bringing death, was the opposite of Hapi (desity of that flood), who was normally a bringer of new life by his waters. It also embodied the revived Osiris (green) [the normal color of the river at this time] -- whereas virulent red was the color that denoted his enemy and murderer, [the god ]Seth!

Frogs were the symbol of abundance (hence, of prosperity; personified as Heqat), but here again they brought death. The rest [of the plagues](again) threatened or negated the prosperity that Egypt's gods were deemed to give, while the deep darkness eclipsed the supreme sun god, Re or Amen-Re. Pharaoh was traditionally entitled "Son of Re" and his patron was made invisible, as if in an eclipse of sun or moon (treated as hostile events also). Death of so man throughout the land (here, of firstborn) would probably seem to Egyptians to have negated the power of the gods completely, and the king's personal and official key role of ensuring their favor."

To be fair to Kitchen, he then says that to speculate on further 'theological critiques' in the plague accounts probably leads into the 'realm of unjustified subjectivity'.

I find this fascinating! God takes the created things that Egypt has come to worship rather than the Creator, and uses them to completely render that false religious system impotent.

You will be as God to the Pharaoh

Some see the statement in 7:1 as a clear indication of how Moses is a type of Christ: God the Father would make Moses like God; God's Son would eventually represent God in the fullest sense in his incarnation.


Egyptian Magicians

A common point of speculation is whether the Egyptian magicians did actually duplicate Moses' miracle of the snake (and some of the others), or if they just resorted to trickery. It seems like the text leans toward the former interpretation, but Egyptologist K A Kitchen states that we do have records of snake charmers in ancient Egypt who learned a skill involving making snakes go rigid (cataleptic) like a staff when pressure is applied to a certain part of the snake. This is still done in that part of the world, in fact.


BTW, Jewish tradition has assigned names to the two Egyptian magicians, who are used as an example in the writings of Paul (when the traditional names began, I don't know):

2 Timothy 3:8 (New International Version)

"Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth: men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected."

Moses' Miraculous Signs

I kinda wonder why we were told that God gave Moses' three miraculous signs to use before Pharaoh, and he only ends up using one of them.

[rose]

4/3/06:

Wow, that is really interesting...I never knew the correlation between the plagues and the Egyptian gods. So God basically squashed their ideas and belief system with His signs and wonders - and yet, Pharaoh wouldn't have any part of it. Does God do that to us today - to make His point?

[michelle]

4/4/06:

A couple weeks ago we were trying to decide if Moses was older than Aaron or vice versa. I think I also recall there being a question of the age difference. This should help to clarify things.

Exodus 7:7 - Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

[Josh]

3/30/06:

Anyone notice how for the first several plagues it is only Pharaoh hardening his own heart, and then at some point (I think the 6th plague), God is said to now be hardening it more frequently.

Could this be an illustration of the interplay of predestination and free will, or part of the answer to how a soul gets to a place where it has killed all hope of turning back?

Perhaps this sheds a little light on that thorny passage in Hebrews. Read it with Pharaoh in mind and it's quite stark:

Hebrews 10:

"26If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?"

Interesting how Pharaoh in his way, trampled the sons of God underfoot, treated the blood of the Passover with contempt, and insulted the spirit of grace by refusing to accept the grace of God and Moses, which many times offered him peace. Enough of this, and Scriptures seems to say that our hearts become so hardened that we will not return to God (see also that even thornier passage, Hebrews 6:4-8)

[rose]

4/3/06:

But...God did say in the very beginning, prior to the signs and wonders, and plagues, that He would harden Pharaoh's heart (Exodus 4:21). So before the process even begins, He claims He is going to harden Pharaoh's heart. It doesn't say that Pharaoh will harden his own heart, and then God will harden it some more.
Romans 9:18 states,"Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden."

Did Pharaoh have a snowballs chance in he**?

[brian]

4/7/06:

Similarly, Brian submitted a question about Exodus 9:16:

But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

He asked if this verse points to Predestination.

Note, interestingly, that 'raised you up' can also be translated 'spared you'.

I want to point you guys to a great article articulating the paradox of the simultaneous truths of Predestination and Free Will by Peter Kreeft:

Free Will AND Predestination

www.peterkreeft.com/topics-more/freewill-predestination.htm

[Josh]

4/10/06:

I was just reading in my Early Church Fathers commentary and was surprised to note that Augustine came down pretty strongly against understanding the phrase "God hardened his (Pharaoh's) heart" as God in any way limiting Pharaoh's free will.

Rather, St. Augustine (and Origen and other Early Church fathers) seem to insist something like this logic: that by either bringing judgment on Pharaoh or by showing mercy, God's actions revealed Pharaoh's heart for what it was- what Pharaoh alone had made it.

[Josh]

3/24/06:

Many scholars (G. Hort, K A Kitchen, Russell Humphreys to name just a few) and interpretors see a natural course of events flowing through the plague accounts.

All of the plagues (with the exception of the death of the firstborn) reflect extreme examples of common natural misfortunes suffered by the Egyptians in their climate and special ecosystem- misfortunes with which the historical annals of Egypt are often concerned.

Egyptian records indicate other times when the river was said to 'turn to blood' (source coming)-- the leading thoughts on this are that it is a reference to toxic algae blooms, something akin to 'red tide'. These algae blooms would in turn kill the animals in the Nile, turning the river that brought life to the Eygptians into a river of death. Or an extremely high Nile flood (which looked red because of a particular kind of dirt-Roterde) could have encouraged the growth of masses flagellates, accomplishing the same type of death in the river.

This catastrophe would give rise (as a chain reaction) to the next several plagues:

frogs are forced up onto the dry land in great numbers (no fish to eat their eggs and no food for them in the toxic water), they die--

midges and flies from the decaying caracasses of the frogs and in the river then infest the land, --

bringing plagues to the livestock, (midges trasmit blue tongue disease for the cattle, and african horse sickness for the horses)--

which are passed on to the people in the form of boils (stable flies bring skin diseases).

The next three: hail, locusts, and darkness (sandstorms bringing darkness in the middle of the day-- notice the phrase in Ex. 10:21: "Darkness that can be felt") are also somewhat common complaints in Egyptian history.

And, these scholars point out that the order of the first 9 plagues also fits chronologically with what possible plagues could happen during the various months/ seasons of the year (e.g., red tide could happen late in the year, locusts plagues and sandstorms early)

What all this points to is a year for the Egyptians in which everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong, and went wrong royally (that's a pun). A tremendous miracle of timing, from this perspective, not to mention that it is intensely miraculous that Moses is said to hear from God and predict what plague will come next and when it will begin.

For a detailed explication of this (with scientific names of flies and diseases, etc..), I can point you to some resources.

As to the last plague, more on that later...

[Josh]

3/27/06:

Here's the 'cincher' for me that the text is speaking metaphorically when it says the Nile turned into blood--

A Egyptian document written about 500 years before the Biblical Plagues wrote: "See, the River (Nile) is blood, one shrinks from (other) people, and thirsts for water".

Here is great precedent for describing woeful natural conditions on the Nile in this way.

[stacy]

4/11/06

Stacy submitted the following observation:

"Interesting that Moses continued to ask God to lift the plagues BEFORE the Israelites had left Egypt."

She further explained her comment by noting that if they just would have waited until they got out before lifting the plagues, it seems like there could have been a much easier outcome. As it is, it seems that Pharaoh had too much time on his hands to change his mind.

[michelle]

In re-reading Exodus, part of me wonders if God telling Moses he is going to harden Pharaoh's heart is...what did you call that, Josh...ex eventu (prophecy interjected into the writing after the fact). The reason I think this might be the case is that when Moses is put in difficult situations or when God asks him to do things that he doesn't think he can, there is always dialogue that he has with God. In the case of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, we only see Moses doing what he is asked by God to do.

In Exodus 3, we read about Moses engaging in conversation with God about being asked to go talk to the Pharaoh. 7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." 11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" 12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain." 13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" 14 God said to Moses, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' Moses does not shy away from expressing real concern and feelings to God.

While this happened after the plagues on Egypt, in Exodus 32 Moses intervenes on the behalf of the Isrealites. 7 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.' 9 "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." 11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. "O LORD," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.' " 14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

It seems against the character of Moses to not have some kind of communication with God regarding Pharaoh's heart. I would expect something to come from Moses asking why God would ask him to perform tasks that would have no affect. Or I'd expect that Moses would try to persaude God into not hardening Pharaoh's heart. I just find it strange that we have no reaction from Moses other than just doing what God says.

[Josh]

Refresh my memory- what exactly is the response of Moses to God saying He will harden Pharaoh's heart, so I can see why you think it's unusual for Moses.

[michelle]

The thing that seems a little un-Moses like is that there is no response. When God asks Moses to complete the "impossible" task of talking to the Israelites, Moses says he has never been good at speaking. I guess I've always seen Moses as the type that will talk to God about things that especially if he sees it as incredibly difficult. I guess it just struck me as a little odd.

Exodus 4:21 The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.' " 24 At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met {Moses} and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched {Moses'} feet with it. [c] "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. 26 So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.) 27 The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform.


Exodus 7:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2 You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, 4 he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. 5 And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it." 6 Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.