Welcome back to Reading with Ben! Today April 29, 2022, and Episode #05!
I'll continue the lecture on the book of Exodus with chapters 9 & 10.
Plagues 5, 6, and 7: Fire, Brimstone, and Disease
- Plague #5 comes sweeping in. All Egyptian-owned livestock—donkeys, cows, sheep, camels, and horses—are hit with a nasty thing called pestilence, a disease that wipes them out. All Israelite livestock are spared. Natch.
- Pharaoh again refuses to let the Israelites go. He's really not getting the picture.
- Plague #6 is a nasty one. Moses takes some kiln soot (dust gathering at the bottom of a pottery oven), throws it in Pharaoh's face, and nasty boils pop up all over all the Egyptians' bodies. Ew.
- Pharaoh's magicians not only can't fix this plague, but they actually fall before Moses.
- God again makes Pharaoh stubborn, and so Pharaoh plays his part and refuses to let the Israelites go.
- God explains to Moses why he continues to "harden Pharaoh's heart," saying, "I have let you [Pharaoh] live to show you my power and to make my name resound through all the earth" (9:16). So this is all for self-exaltation?
- God unleashes Plague #7. This is it, folks. The original fire and brimstone passage. The seventh plague is a huge amount of hail, accompanied by fire raining from the sky. And guess what? None of it hits the Israelites.
- Pharaoh finally relents and tells Moses to call off the fire. Moses does so, but then Pharaoh decides—surprise!—to keep the Israelites in slavery.
Chapter 10
Plagues 8 and 9: Locusts and Darkness
- Team Israelite threatens to unleash locusts on Egypt if Pharaoh continues to be a meanie. Pharaoh's advisers tell him to release the Israelites, and so Pharaoh asks Moses how many Israelites Moses and Aaron intend to take into the wilderness.
- Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh that they're taking everyone.
- Pharaoh laughs out loud, and tells Moses to get lost.
- Bad movie, Pharaoh.
- Locusts devour every green thing in Egypt: "Nothing green was left, no tree, no plant in the field, in all the land of Egypt" (10:15).
- Pharaoh says he'll let everyone go if the locusts go, so Moses and God lift the plague. God again hardens Pharaoh's heart, and he reneges on his promise again.
- Next up, God unleashes Plague #9, a darkness that covers all of Egypt. This isn't normal darkness. God describes it as "a darkness that can be felt" (10:21). Yikes.
- Pharaoh again tells the people to go, but asks Moses to leave the Israelite livestock. After all, the Egyptians' animals are all dead. Moses tells Pharaoh that that isn't cool, and Pharaoh gets super annoyed. He tells Moses that if he, Pharaoh, ever sees Moses again, he'll kill him.
