MONDAY
Remember, at this point in the narrative Moses has tried and failed to deliver Israel in his own power. Pharaoh has done his worst by refusing to let Israel, his slave force, go. In response to Moses’ demand from Yahweh that Pharaoh let Israel go, Pharaoh says, “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know Yahweh and I will not let Israel go.” (Ex. 4:2) Well, Pharaoh is about learn about Yahweh and he isn’t going to like it. What follows is what we have come to call the ten plagues.* The text refers to them as plagues a few times (9:3, 15; 9:14; 11:1) and as “strikes” at other times (3:20; 7:17; 8:16; 12:12, 13, 23). Regardless, these are calamities that God is bringing upon the Egyptians. (The 10 Calamities or 10 Strikes just doesn’t sound right 🤷🏼♂️)
The narrative of the plagues goes from 7:1 to 12:42 in the text, and we are going to cover this topic in one week. That being the case, we won’t be able to walk straight through it. Instead we are going to approach it thematically. Today, we are going to do an overview and talk about the expressed purposes for the plagues.
The plague narrative begins with a small introduction. This introduction is the scene where Moses and Aaron appear to Pharaoh and God turns Aaron’s staff into a snake. The Egyptian magicians (that’s fun to say 😊) do the same through their dark arts but Aaron’s staff-serpent consumes theirs. One would think this would be fair warning to Pharaoh, who is often depicted with the head of a serpent. Watching Aaron’s serpent eat your magician’s serpents would be a little startling.
Then the narrative moves to the ten plagues. The plagues are as follows:
- The Nile is turned to blood
- Frogs
- Gnats (small bugs)
- Flies (larger flying insects)
- Plague on Livestock
- Boils
- Hail
- Locusts
- Darkness
- Death of the Firstborn Egyptians
Scholars have often noted that there is a definable structure to the plagues. They are grouped into three groups of three with the tenth standing alone (1-3 | 4-6 | 7-9 | 10).
- First Plagues: (1, 4, 7) Moses appears to Pharaoh early in the morning at the Nile in the 1st and 4th and presumably at the Nile in the 7th. He tells Pharaoh to let the people go and what will happen if he doesn’t.
- Second Plagues: (2, 5, 8) Moses appears to Pharaoh indoors and at an indeterminate time. Again, Moses warns Pharaoh of the plague that is coming if he refuses.
- Third Plagues: (3, 6, 9) These plagues happen with no prior warning. Moses doesn’t appear to Pharaoh and he doesn’t tell him they are coming.
There are a few stated purposes for the plagues in the text.
- God’s self-revelation
- Judgment on Egypt and its false gods
- Deliverance of God’ people
We will explore each of these in turn as we move through the week.
In keeping with our theme for this campaign, after experiencing the powerful presence of God in the plagues, Moses is never the same. How could he be after seeing God do this!
*We tend to think of a plague only in the sense of a disease. But here it is used in the first definition in the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary to refer to 1. a disastrous evil or affliction: calamity or 2. a destructively numerous influx (a plague of locusts〉(Inc Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003).)
Additional Content
Read or listen to the account of the 10 Plagues in Exodus 7:1 to 12:42.