Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and turn Aaron’s staff into a snake again, but the Egyptians can do that trick too so they’re not very impressed. God tells Moses what to say and do and we finally start to see some real Charlton Heston plagues. First, Moses turns the water of the Nile into blood and then fills the land with frogs, which I guess isn’t really harmful to anything, but just gross.
Pharaoh is suitably impressed and agrees to let the Israelites go out into the desert to worship God. It is mentioned repeatedly that God is going to harden Pharaoh’s heart and make him refuse Moses’s demands, so now we’re now starting to see God being in charge of every part of the universe. In stead of merely influencing livestock and occasionally coming to Earth to talk to someone or destroy a city, God is reaching right into Pharaoh’s head and pulling his strings on camera. It seems clear that God could have just made Pharaoh wake up one day and think “I should let the Israelites go.” But, not only does God make Moses do the leg work, He doesn’t even have Moses tell Pharaoh the truth about what’s happening. Moses is still peddling this story about going out to worship in the desert for a couple days and then coming back.
It seems to me like God really wanted to make a point of disrespecting Pharaoh and Egypt. I wonder if this ire is related to the policy in Ancient Egypt of treating the Pharaoh like a God on Earth. “Fine, you say you’re a God like Me? Let’s see you come roll with the big dogs when you can’t get any water and you’ve got frogs in your pockets, bitch.”
Anyway, Pharaoh agrees to let the Jews go so Moses un-plagues the land, but then Pharaoh has his heart hardened again and tells them he changed his mind. They have to stay.
Two more plagues come, gnats and then flies. Pharaoh agrees to let them go again and again revokes their permission to leave once the plagues are gone.
Now things get real. The next plague kills all the livestock, then everyone is stricken with boils so bad they can’t even stand up straight to talk to Moses in the palace (some God, all covered in gross sores) then a nasty hail storm sweeps through and kills all the flax and barley. People are starving and in pain and Pharaoh has no choice but to let the Israelites go.
But, then God hardens his heart and, well, you see where this is goin
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