Exodus wk 8 - Notes
Outline 2
Plagues
1 - Nile
2 - Frogs -
#3 - Lice
#4 - Flies
In other words, rather than doing a polite political dance with Pharaoh, Moses is saying: “Don’t even try it, Pharaoh. You know as well as I that if we even tried to sacrifice to our God on Egyptian soil, which you believe is home to your gods, the Egyptians will stone us to death. We’re a little more clever than that! You think you can give the appearance of letting us have our way, but the end result plays right into your hands! Forget it! No deal! We’re leaving just as we said we were. It’s all or nothing.”
32 But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.
There is, perhaps, a hint of exasperation in the Hebrew: “Pharaoh hardened his heart even [gam] this time” (v. 32).
#5 - Livestock
#6 Boils
Rather, 9:12 is a striking reminder of what God has been trying to teach Moses and Israel since the beginning of the Exodus episode: He is in complete control. However Pharaoh might have reacted given the chance is not brought into the discussion. He is not even given that chance. Yahweh hardens his heart. It is best to allow the tension of the text to remain.
#7 Hail
Outline:
The point of the plagues for today is not so much in what we do with it, but in having our hearts and minds opened to what God has done and thereby understanding him better.
This story was not taken for granted by the generations of Israelites living after the Exodus. It was rather intended to be a gripping reminder of who God is. In the final analysis, the story of the plagues is not about what God does to save you, or perhaps even so much a story of how he saved Israel. It is about God, period; for when all is said and done, we all need to be reminded of him now and then. The question, then, to ask of our passage is not, “What does this have to do with me?” We must at least first ask, “What does this tell me about who God is?”
Perhaps the application is, in a word, doxological.
Perhaps the application is, in a word, doxological. We praise, that is, worship God for his fearful might and great love, both of which he has employed for the sake of his beloved children. Praising God is not a lesser form of application. Rather, it is what so much of the Bible is driving us toward. It is the goal of redemption itself—not to feel self-important by being part of God’s club, but to turn ourselves away from our sinful inclination toward self-centeredness and toward God. This, I suggest, is how the ancient Israelites properly “applied” the plagues (e.g., see the Song at the Sea in Ex. 15 and Ps. 105). They saw what God had done for them, and they fell back in awe—and they remembered.
This is why a moralistic reading of the story falls far short of the mark. The Israelites came to know God better by what he had done, and it is this knowledge that formed the basis for their morality. When our hearts and minds are imbued with a personal knowledge of our Creator, proper morality will follow. Our actions flow from who we are at our very core. And who we are is determined by whom we worship—whether God, the world, or ourselves. The plague narrative—indeed, the book of Exodus and the entire Bible—is a call to worship the true God, and it calls us to that goal by telling us who he is.
Who is this all-loving, merciful God who, rather than fanning Pharaoh’s nascent obedience into a flame, seems to direct him in a completely opposite direction? Who is this God who chooses a people for himself, through no merit of their own, and then determines to mold them into his own image despite their repeated shortcomings and rebellions? A proper reaction to reading this story is simply to sit back and shake our heads in disbelief. God is beyond our understanding.
God is in our midst, yet he is beyond us. We should be humble in our knowledge, for we are dealing with a God of boundless depth, who has creation at his fingertips. But we must also be bold in our limited understanding, for the same God has gone to great lengths to make himself known to us.
Main Points
Illustration
Motif’s
There is more at work here than simply liberating a band of oppressed slaves from Egypt. Pharaoh is, unfortunately for him, involved in something far bigger than he understands or has planned for.
Hail is often associated with an act of judgment on God’s part
In other words, the plague of hail is an intensification of judgment on Egypt, an intensification that will continue for the rest of the plagues
#8 Locusts
The final three plagues take the judgment cycle to a higher and irreversible level.
The outcome of this and the following two encounters is never in doubt. Pharaoh is a rag doll in God’s hands, and he is about to witness the irrevocable finale. The process is proceeding as Israel’s God has designed it, and Pharaoh is helpless to do anything about it.
#9 DARKNESS
. (2) A plague of darkness is almost certainly intended to be understood as a polemic against an Egyptian solar deity, possibly Re, a common sun god throughout Egypt’s history
Darkness is a “chaos” word. It was the first thing God brought under control by introducing light in Genesis 1:3. A reintroduction of darkness brings creation back to its chaotic beginnings, which is a signal to the Egyptians of what awaits them at the sea.
But this creation reversal does not affect the Israelites (v. 23). Once again, creation does not work against the Israelites but for them. The phrase “there was light” (lit.) at the end of verse 23 is an almost unmistakable echo of Genesis 1:3, “Let there be light.”
Motif’s
As the Lord had said...
In 9:35 we encounter for the last time (in these chapters) the phrase “as Yahweh had said.” It has occurred six times since the predictions in 4:21 (“I will harden his heart and he will not send the people away”) and in 7:3f (“I will harden the heart of Pharaoh … and he will not listen to you”). The repeated reference back to these predictions has shown that the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was understood by the narrator to be God’s work from the beginning. Thus behind the passive voice in 9:35 stands Yahweh. But since the hardening of 9:35 is parallel to the self-hardening in 9:34 we are shown again (pp 162f) that for the ancient writer these three events (self-hardening, being hardened, and God’s hardening) are not three, but one.
Words
Send “slh”
This word is used in Exodus to refer to the release from Egypt (e.g., 8:20, “Let my people go”). In 7:16, Moses announces, “The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent [šlḥ] me to say to you: Let my people go [šlḥ].” The wordplay in 8:21 takes on a more threatening tone: “If you do not let my people go [šlḥ], I will send [šlḥ] swarms of flies on you.” It is as if Moses is telling Pharaoh, “Listen. One of us is going to ‘šlḥ.’ Why don’t you make it easy on yourself and šlḥ the people so that I don’t have to šlḥ the flies on you.”
The point of the pun here is that Moses is nudging Pharaoh along to get him to šlḥ something! If not the Israelites, then perhaps he will “send” his own livestock to safety.