This is going to be a long post, I hope you are sitting comfortably - take a deep breath and here we go -
Exodus chapter 6
God tells Moses that he will now start working wonders,
reminds Moses that he has been the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and has not
forgotten his promise to give Israel the land of Canaan.
Moses tells this to his people but they are too despondent
to listen.
We then get a family tree of Moses, which is of vital importance to somebody - but it really is not me!
Exodus Chapter 7
Moses and Aaron have a showdown with Pharaoh and we get the 10
plagues of Egypt.
One thing I did note is the age of Moses and Aaron, they are
80 and 83 years old! God has obviously taken lessons from the Government about retirement age!
The chapter starts quite weird – Moses is to be like God to
Pharaoh with Aaron as his prophet.
Moses and Aaron start off quite low key – They throw Aaron's
staff on the ground and it turns into a snake.
However the Egyptian magicians do the same trick – only
Aaron's staff eats theirs!
Pharaoh is unimpressed.
Next comes plague number 1 – God tells Moses to confront
Pharaoh on the banks of the river Nile.
Moses strikes the Nile with his staff and all the water
turns, according to the bible, to blood.
The Egyptian magicians do the same thing – which seems a bit
odd to me and would not improve matters much!
I saw a TV documentary about the plagues of Egypt that
suggests that the plagues may have been a sequence of natural events, perhaps a
miracle can be described as something happening at just the right moment?
In the documentary the blood plague is attributed to a
particular algal bloom, which has been noted elsewhere – this particular bloom
is very red and kills most of the life in the river.
Exodus Chapter 8
Moses and Aaron go back to Pharaoh and demand that he let
Israel go free to worship. Pharaoh does not let them go, and as promised the land was overrun by frogs
Again the Egyptian magicians do the same thing – again it
does not seem to improve matters!
Pharaoh says that he will let Israel go if Moses will get
rid of the frogs.
Moses agrees, the frogs all die, apart from the frogs in the river, and have to be cleared out of
houses and even ovens and food preparation areas.
However once the crisis is over Pharaoh has a change of
heart.
The TV documentary suggested that the population explosion
of frogs was connected to the lack of predators caused by the Algae coupled
with rapid transformation of frogs from tadpoles to evade the poisonous water.
Next we get gnats –the Egyptian magicians try and replicate
this one too, but they fail and tell pharaoh that the plague is divinely
inflicted by the finger of God
The documentary suggested that the death of the frogs would
have led to an explosion of gnats and flies that are the frog’s normal food.
The Plague of flies – this plague is the first to
differentiate Egypt proper from the area of Goshen (where the Israelites lived),
Egypt is totally overrun by flies and nothing can keep them out of houses and
the bible says the land is ruined.
Pharaoh seems to relent a bit and tells the Israelites that
they can sacrifice to God but they cannot leave the country, but is refused as
the Egyptians would not approve of the Israelite sacrifices.
Pharaoh agrees, the flies are removed and Pharaoh again has
a change of mind.
Exodus Chapter 9
Next a plague afflicts the livestock of Egypt and they all
die, but not one animal belonging to Israel died when Pharaoh investigated.
This may have been due to a disease carried by the insects
of the last 2 plagues
Now Moses takes some soot from a furnace and throws it into
the air and boils break out on the Egyptians – it is so bad that the Egyptian
magicians cannot even put in an appearance.
This may too have been caused by infection from insects? Or
possibly from contamination from meat.
Plague of Hail
Hail affects the land of Egypt and is so severe that anybody
and any animal that is not under cover is killed. The hail destroys the flax
and barley crops.
Again Pharaoh has a change of heart once the crisis is over.
Scientists postulate that this plague, as well as locusts
and darkness could have been caused by a massive volcanic eruption on an island
north of Crete which exploded.
The volcanic ash and energy combined with storms and created
massive hailstorms.
Exodus Chapter10
The plague of locusts
Moses and Aaron demand again that Israel be allowed to
leave. This time Pharaoh’s officials urge pharaoh that the country is in a mess
and he should consider granting the request before worse things happen.
Pharaoh demands that only the men can go and the women and
children must stay behind. Moses and Aaron are driven out of the palace –
things are getting serious now.
The locusts destroy any remaining crops and fruit trees and
“every green thing” .
Pharaoh climbs down and summons Moses and Aaron to request
that the locust plague be ended. Then, guess what, once the crisis is past he
changes his mind.
Scientists think the locusts we driven to swarm like this as
a result of weather anomalies caused by volcanic ash fallout.
The Plague of darkness
Moses spreads out his hands and darkness falls over Egypt
for 3 days.
Pharaoh offers the Israelites a chance to go and worship but
their flocks and livestock must stay behind.
Moses and Aaron say this is not acceptable as they would
have nothing to offer to God.
Pharaoh, rather impolitely, declines this demand and tells
Moses and Aaron that if he sees them again he will kill them.
Moses tells Pharaoh that he has seen the last of him.
Darkness may have been caused by the ash cloud from the
volcano.
Exodus Chapter 11
The plague of the firstborn
God tells Moses of just one more plague – after which
Pharaoh would not only let Israel go but drive them out.
The Israelites then are encouraged to ask their Egyptian
neighbours to give them a leaving gift
Moses tells Pharaoh that about midnight death will strike
down the firstborn son in every household whether it is Pharaoh in the palace
to the most wretched slave. A loud wailing will be heard in Egypt. But in
Goshen (where the Israelites lived) there would not even be a dog barking at an
animal.
Moses leaves Pharaoh having given this devastating message
“hot with anger”
The theory is that due to the hail and locusts there is
little in Egypt left to eat.
There is a mould that grows on badly stored foodstuff that
is toxic, and the eldest son would be the one who got the first share of any
food and so would have been more likely to get poisoned.
Did natural events to create these plagues? – there is a possible natural
explanation for the plagues if it makes you happy. However the Bible maintains that God was behind the plagues, and used them to ram home his message.
Whether God used natural events or not, the timing and impact of these plagues echoes through
the ages.
Every year Jewish people celebrate the Passover where they
remember these events.
More of that tomorrow folks.
No comments:
Post a Comment