Reading: Exodus 7-9, Psalm 19

The narrative of the plagues makes a really good movie. Cecil B. DeMille’s epic The Ten Commandments makes the plagues the centerpiece of the movie (in both cases. Think Hollywood remakes are a new idea? This guy remade his own epic film.) More recently, the Dreamworks animated film The Prince of Egypt seemed to owe as much to DeMille’s movies as to the Biblical story. Still, these are all a good watch. It’s dramatic. The good guys win. There is a real sense of competition between Moses and Pharaoh, tinged with the emotional difficulties of having been raised in the same household.

Unfortunately, the dramatic re-telling of the story has lost something of the spirit of the story. In our movie versions, the drama is arranged around Moses and Pharaoh. But in the Biblical story, if one is paying attention, it becomes clear that the drama being played out is a confrontation between the God of Israel and the gods of Egypt, championed and personified by Pharaoh.

In the Bible, human gods are a symptom of the human problem intersecting with reality. Humanity has declared independence from God, but the world refuses to be obedient to humanity. It rebels at all our efforts to dominate it. One might think it was a curse. Humanity has for all of history sought to understand the forces that oppose them and control the world. In Egypt, that attempt to understand led to the belief in a pantheon of gods, most of them centered on the Nile.

There was Hapi, god of the river. Osiris, whose blood was the Nile water. Khnum, the god of water. The God of Israel skewers the power base of all three false gods when he turns the Nile to blood.

There was Heket, the goddess of fertility who appeared as a frog. The God of Israel causes frogs to multiply throughout Egypt, showing dominance of the fertility of the frog goddess herself.

In the first two plagues, God has Moses tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go or suffer the consequences. After the frogs, there is a change in the narrative. God gives no warning before the third plague, which could be translated gnats, fleas, or lice. I favor the lice interpretation because that just sounds more plague-like than the other two. Also, this is the first plague the gods of Egypt cannot duplicate. The God of Israel hasn’t just usurped the power of Egypt’s gods, he has demonstrated that he is beyond them.

Before the fourth plague Moses again goes to Pharaoh and repeats his demand, then makes another change: from now on, the plagues will not strike the places that the people of Israel live. There will be a clear distinction between God’s people and Pharaoh’s people so there is no doubt why these plagues are happening. Many interpreters rather reduce the impact of the fourth plague by the translation “flies” which sounds annoying but not horrifying. The Hebrew word has a looser meaning, something like “a harmful mixture of vermin.” Jewish translations may do a better job with this, calling the plague of scorpions and snakes. This may explain Pharaoh’s negotiation- go ahead and worship your God, but do it here in Egypt. Moses pleads his case by telling Pharaoh their worship would be offensive to the Egyptians, which has an edge of humor to it. More offensive than being plagued? In what will become a pattern, Pharaoh agrees, but reneges as soon as the plague is gone.

The fifth and sixth plagues follow the pattern of the second and third. Moses warns Pharaoh of what will happen in the fifth, but there is no warning for the sixth. Again there is a distinction made between the people of Israel and the people of Egypt.

Before the seventh plague, God has Moses change his message to Pharaoh. He makes it clear that Pharaoh is being made an example. God has Moses tell Pharaoh that he has his position thanks to the God of Israel, and that because he continues to exalt himself against the people of Israel, these plagues will continue. God is telling Pharaoh you are not who you think you are. Then he brings the seventh plague, a thunderstorm and hail. Pharaoh repeats his pattern of agreeing to let Israel go as long as the plague lasts, but when it relents, he again goes back on his word.

Tomorrow the narrative of plagues wraps up, and we will see that God has the same message for the people of Israel that he had for Pharaoh. The people of Israel are different, and God is starting them off on the next step of his grand plan to undo the human problem.