Plague
is such a dark, scary word, isn’t it?
It’s a word, if given a choice, I’d rather not dwell on, let alone write
a blog about. Yet, in reading through
this section of the Bible, I found myself looking at the details and getting
caught up in the narrative. I was so
caught up in the conflict between Pharaoh and the Lord that I had to keep
reading past this week’s chapters like a novel that I couldn’t put down. I was longing for a resolution. The question that kept coming to my mind was
“Why doesn’t Pharaoh get it?” Why did he
endure such suffering of his own people?
Why did it take the death of his own son and all the first born sons of
Egypt to let the Israelites go? I hope
to answer that question as well as make a concise fly bye of the first nine
Plagues in this week’s blog.
Dictionary.com defines
plague as any widespread affliction,
calamity, or evil, especially one regarded
as a direct punishment by God. Again, this is pretty harsh. But as we look at the Egyptian culture, I’m
left with the conclusion that the Plagues were as much God’s wake up call to
change the Egyptian’s way of thinking and living as it was a tool to set the
Israelites free.
Let us briefly look at the plagues
one at a time. The first plague sees
Aaron taking his staff and striking the Nile in the presence of Pharaoh and all
of the water turns to blood. All of the
fish died. The Nile itself was
considered a deity worshipped by the Egyptians.
By God showing his power over it was step one to revealing himself as
the true God to Egypt. Then came the
frogs (ribbit). The Egyptians associated
frogs with their Goddess Heka, possibly a frog headed deity (ancient Egyptian
monuments suggest this) who was believed to assist in childbirth. Imagine the frustration of Pharaoh, having
whatever he wants at the snap of his fingers, being unable to rid his own bed
of frogs (ribbit). Here we see Pharaoh
soften ever so slightly saying to Aaron and Moses, I will let your people go if
you pray to your God to rid us of these frogs.
This begins a series of repetitious moments where God acquiesces and causes
all the frogs to croak (pun intended) but Pharaoh reneges on his promise and
does not allow the Israelites to go. The
third plague is the gnats, or in some translations, the lice. I don’t know about you, but I hear the word
lice and it causes me to feel tingly on my scalp and scratch my head. Here lies one of the details that struck
me. In the latter part of Exodus 8:16
the Lord says “Tell Aaron,’ Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the
ground’ and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.” Just picture the dust turning into little
tiny bugs flying everywhere. Powerful,
yet frightening! After the first two
plagues, Pharaoh’s magicians were able to replicate the first two plagues of
the Lord, but we see them unable to replicate the gnats. Thus they say to Pharaoh in Exodus 8:19 “This
is the finger of God.” We should give
the magicians credit for recognizing the supernatural at work here but as H.L
Ellison points out, this is not an acknowledgement of our God, Yahweh, but
simply the supernatural at work here, whatever form the magicians presumed it
to be. (The Communicators Commentary, Exodus p. 115)
Then
came the flies. It is possible the flies
represented God being greater than the Egyptian God, Beelzebub. According to Maxie Dunnam, “Beelzebub was the
fly god- reverenced as the protector of Egypt from visitation by the swarms of
flies which commonly infested the land.”
(The Communicators Commentary, Exodus p. 117) Here we see that unlike
the first three plagues, Goshen remains unaffected by the flies. Goshen remains untroubled by the rest of the
plagues as well. We see God revealing
step by step to Pharaoh that this is no magic trick, no coincidence, nor one of
the Egyptian Gods at work, but the God of Moses and Aaron. We see Pharaoh pleading again but wanting to
argue over how far they can go to worship, but it does not matter as again we
see Moses pray, God acquiesce and Pharaoh renege. Next the livestock are plagued and die,
specifically cattle and what appear to be the load bearing, working animals. God is striking more deeply at the mere
existence of the Egyptians. Then the
people and their remaining animals are struck with boils. Again we see the imagery of Moses throwing
ashes into the air and them landing on the Egyptians forming these unsightly
boils. The boils have made the Egyptians
so unsightly the magicians give up even trying to appear before Pharaoh.
Next,
the hail comes and destroys some of the crops and any living thing not
protected by shelter. Perhaps this time
Pharaoh has reached his limit. He
summons Moses and Aaron once again. He
even admits he has sinned (Exodus 9:27).
Maybe, just maybe he gets it.
He’s going to let the Israelites go for real this time. But in a powerful moment, Moses promises to
pray for God to stop the hail which God does, but does so knowing full well
Pharaoh and his officials “still do not fear the Lord God” (Exodus 9:30) and of
course Pharaoh reneges once again. Then Moses
and Aaron give Pharaoh word that the locusts will come to not only wipe out
whatever crops are left but to “cover the face of the ground so that it cannot
be seen.” (Exodus 10:5) Now we see Pharaoh’s officials giving in. “We’re ruined Pharaoh! Let them Go!” they say. Still Pharaoh wants to bargain with God. He tells them “OK, the men can go, but just
the men.” But Moses makes it clear that
they all will go. Pharaoh can’t accept
that and thus with every step the Egyptians take, they experience the crunch of
locusts between their toes. Yet once
again Pharaoh begs Moses to pray, he does, God acquiesces and you guessed it,
Pharaoh reneges.
Then we come to the penultimate
plague, darkness. It’s good to look at
the first nine plagues separately from the last plague as it appears God is
sending a message of his power over the Egyptian gods and their culture with
the first nine. For God began by showing
his power over a key object of Egyptian worship, the Nile. And God ends in the same manner by showing
His power over what the Egyptians held in highest worship, the Sun. God is letting Pharaoh know that these things
that he worships, the Nile and the Sun, God controls them, He made them. Most importantly God is revealing to Pharaoh
that God made him. He is no God. He is just a man, powerless in the sight of
God. This is why Pharaoh reneged to let
the people go time after time. If
Pharaoh let the Israelites go, it would reveal the falsehood that he was just a
man and not a God to be worshipped. How
could Pharaoh let another God have dominion over him. He would be exposed to his people as
weak. He could not face that. This kingdom Pharaoh built with Him as God
would crumble if he allowed that. It
crumbled anyway.
In culminating his commentary on the
plagues Maxie Dunnam said this. “God is God.
When we refuse to recognize that, sooner or later some plague will do us
in.” (The Communicators Commentary,
Exodus p. 128) Parents, grandparents, friends, young people, beware of the
kingdoms of men. They do not last when
God is not at the heart of them. We can’t
trust in the kingdoms of possessions and comforts, the kingdoms of businesses
and employment, the kingdoms of athletics, the kingdoms of education, the
kingdoms of health and wellness, the kingdoms of politics, the kingdoms of
societal mores and political correctness.
This is not to say these things aren’t good, but they can become to us,
what the Nile and the Sun became to the Egyptians, objects of misguided
worship. The only kingdom we can trust
in is the Kingdom of God.
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