Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 10-12.

I have been struggling with how to write the thoughts I am having about today’s passage.  When Moses threatened Pharaoh with the plague of locusts, his advisors begged him to let the Israelites go to worship God.  However, Pharaoh insisted on knowing who would go.  When Moses replied that all of the people and all of their livestock would god, Pharaoh was unwilling to let them go.  When this resulted in the plague of locusts descending on Egypt, Pharaoh admitted that he had sinned by refusing to let them go, and implied that if Moses lifted the plague he would let the Israelites go.  When darkness then settled on the Egyptians, Pharaoh agreed to the women and children going, but insisted that they leave their livestock behind.  When Moses insisted that they needed to take their livestock with them, Pharaoh refused to let them go and told Moses that he, Moses, would die if he ever saw Pharaoh’s face again.  Pharaoh insisted on putting conditions on doing as God commanded.  Even after the suffering his people had endured before today’s passage, Pharaoh was only willing to obey God on his terms.  As I mentioned yesterday, the experience of Pharaoh and the Egyptians only shows us the downside of disobeying God’s commands, not the upside of obeying them.  Obeying God on “our terms” is not obeying God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 10-12.

There are two aspects to the way in which we generally understand the Exodus from Egypt which are not exactly supported by the passages.  The first one I want to point out is rather minor.  We generally read the account about the plagues as Moses leaving Pharaoh’s presence after Pharaoh refused to let the people go, then returning to warn Pharaoh of the next plague.  However, after the Plague of Darkness, Pharaoh warns Moses that if he ever sees him again, he will kill Moses (or have him killed) and Moses agrees that he will never appear before Pharaoh again.  As I read the passage today, I realized that after telling Pharaoh that he would never appear before him again, Moses told him about the Plague on the Firstborn before leaving.  It occurred to me that you would structure the account this way if you were telling each plague as a night time story to children that would be continued the following night.

Now the other mistake we make when thinking about Exodus is a major mistake.  It partly results from movie adaptations.  We think that Moses came to Pharaoh and demanded that he free the Israelites, but that is not what Moses did.  Moses came to Pharaoh and requested that he allow the Israelites to go into the wilderness for three days to make an offering to God and then return to their slavery.  After the death of the Egyptian firstborn, Pharaoh told Moses to take all of the Israelites and their flocks to worship God “as you have requested”.  This suggests that Pharaoh intended for the Israelites to go into the wilderness to worship and then return to their slavery.  However, other parts of the passage suggest that the rest of the Egyptians wished for the Israelites to never return.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 10-12.

I started out today’s blog by writing a paragraph about the Plagues discussed in today’s passage, but when I got to the end of it I realized that it had not actually gone anywhere: nothing I had written in that paragraph said anything interesting.  So, I deleted that paragraph and decided to write just on my thoughts about what this passage says about the Passover.  My first thought on reading the instructions which Moses gave concerning the Passover is that some of them seem to be things he would have told them after they left Egypt.  I suspect that the instructions about celebrating Passover every year going forward was probably something Moses told the people while they were on their way, not something he told them when they were preparing for that first Passover.  I also want to write about where the passage mentions that many other people joined the Israelites when they left Egypt.  I wonder, did any of those non-Israelites who left Egypt with the Israelites follow Moses’ instructions regarding the Passover?  How many of these non-Israelites were choosing to join themselves with Israel to worship God vs how many were just taking advantage of this situation to escape bondage of one sort or another in Egypt?  Were any of those who joined with the Israelites Egyptians who wished to worship God who had performed these wondrous signs?  Personally, I think that there were some from all three groups among those who joined the Israelites when they departed Egypt and that some of them had prepared their houses according to Moses’ Passover instructions.  When Moses followed God’s commands in order to free the Israelites he inspired others to worship God as well.  In the same way, when we do God’s will today we may lead those who observe us to come to know the Lord.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 10-12.

Every time I read this passage it feels like someone, perhaps the original writer, added some of the later descriptions of the instructions for the Feast of Unleavened Bread on to the instructions which Moses gave the Children of Israel before the first Passover.  I am not saying Moses did not give these instructions at that time, just that it feels like the instructions would have been more bare-boned, with the explanatory parts about celebrating in memory of this event left out.  It feels that way because the description of when they actually left indicates that it was sudden and urgent.  The meal they would have eaten needed to be one which could be prepared and eaten quickly and easily without using anything they would want to take with them.  My real point here is that we can easily miss the fear and urgency which the Israelites must have felt as they prepared to leave Egypt.  Something momentous was about to happen and they did not truly understand what was going on.   Moses had assured them that if they followed his instructions all would be well, but how could they be sure.  There will be times in our lives where we feel a little bit of what they were feeling that night.  I pray that you never feel more than a little of that feeling.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.  

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 10-12.

I want to highlight Moses anger when he left Pharaoh’s presence for the last time.  Throughout the Bible we are warned against giving in to our anger.  However, sometimes that anger is justified.  In this case Moses’ anger was justified and appropriate.  Pharaoh had repeatedly agreed to let the people of Israel go, only to renege on that agreement when the crisis passed.  As a result, the people of Egypt, who had had no say in any of this, were about to pay a steep price.  Pharaoh had backed himself into a corner.  Pharaoh’s power was based on the idea that he was the embodiment of the gods of Egypt.  If he had let the people go after the frogs or the gnats, he could have passed it off as Moses had demonstrated that he was the representative of a god other than the gods of Egypt and he let them go to avoid a war among the gods.  However, after refusing to let them go then, he made it so that when he did let them go he was conceding that God was more powerful than the gods of Egypt.  Moses anger resulted from knowing that many innocent people were going to pay the price for Pharaoh’s stubbornness.  All too many leaders make the same mistake as Pharaoh out of stubbornness and pride, and those they should be serving end up paying the price.