Reading: Exodus 10-12, Psalm 20
Humans have been keeping time by calendars for about as long as there have been humans. The cycles of the sun and moon let us measure the year from prehistory, and it certainly appears that the transition from one year to the next, despite it being a rather arbitrary celebration of the passage of time, has been a big deal culturally pretty much always.
Two of the last three plagues hold to the same pattern we have seen so far: the eighth plague comes with a warning, the ninth does not. The plague of darkness again makes a clear distinction between Israel and Egypt. There is light in the land of Goshen, but no where else in Egypt. Pharaoh again goes back on his word to let Israel go into the wilderness to worship God. The eighth plague causes even Pharaoh’s advisers to suggest letting the Israelites go. During the plague of darkness, a little drama unfolds where Pharaoh tells Moses to take the people but leave their animals, then when Moses demurs, tells Moses that his suggestion is in fact what Moses was asking for. Moses’ refusal leads Pharaoh to threaten Moses’ life. Got gives Moses a message on the spot about the last plague and a prediction that this will be the last time Moses speaks to Pharaoh.
The death of all the firstborn of Egypt, including the animals, is among the harshest events recounted in the Biblical story. It is framed in a story of deliverance from oppression and slavery, but remains a difficult event coming from the God of Israel who claims to be good and loving. This will come up numerous times in the story, so this is a good place to introduce an idea that has been second nature for humans for most of our history but grates on us today: God is not subject to moral judgments. The God of Israel is presented in the Bible as the creator of everything and prime mover of events. God is the author of the story. To put God under a moral rubric we have devised is more than incorrect, it is nonsensical. It makes no more sense than a character in a novel judging the writer who made them up for things that happen to them in the story.
That aside, this is a story of deliverance from bondage and new beginnings. Following his last audience with Pharaoh, Moses receives directions from God. First, he is told that it is new year’s. God resets the calendar, another sign that this is a new beginning. Second, he is given directions for what is celebrated to this day by the people of Israel as the Passover. There are a number of interesting details for this, but the key point for the story today is blood, signifying death. The people paint the doors of their houses with the blood of the Passover lamb, which they then eat in the prescribed fashion, along with bread that hasn’t had time to rise. God continues to take seriously the consequences of the human problem, but he works it into his own story which is headed towards undoing it. God tells the people of Israel to observe the Passover meal every year to remember where they came from. God has set an alarm for the people of Israel. Each year the alarm is to sound, waking them up from the influence of living with the human problem and reminding them that they are not who they think they are. Israel is given a perpetual reminder that they are different, and that God intends to use them to bless all the families of the Earth.
The story for today wraps up with the tenth plague, which Pharaoh responds to by ejecting the people of Israel from Egypt. Note that the request to Pharaoh never went beyond being allowed to journey into the wilderness to worship God, but now they are being pushed out of the country altogether, and they aren’t going quietly. The Egyptians want them gone, and have become willing to give them whatever they want on the way out. Israel leaves Egypt laden with the plunder of the country, and with the freedom to follow God wherever he leads them.