Friday, April 24, 2020

The Exodus. Day 26, The Plague Of Frogs, Part One

Pharaoh was unmoved when the waters of the Nile and the streams and ponds of Egypt changed into blood. He turned his back to Moses and walked back into the palace and refused to even entertain the idea of allowing the Hebrew people to leave. The plague of blood lasted seven days and now that this period of time is up Moses again requests that Pharaoh let the people go. The king will refuse and another plague will fall upon the nation.

"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the Lord says: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.'" (Exodus 8:1) The Lord keeps repeating His command in a specific way, telling the king to let the people go "so that they may worship Me." The Bible never tells us about any religious oppression the Hebrews may have faced in Egypt, but I tend to think they were not allowed to practice their religion openly in any way. I can easily picture Pharaoh not allowing them to pray anywhere but inside their own homes and passing a decree that no one within the borders of Egypt is allowed to perform any acts of worship unless those acts are directed toward Pharaoh and the gods he recognizes.

Pharaoh's gods haven't been any help to him so far. They weren't able to lift the plague of blood the Lord poured out upon the waters. Pharaoh's magicians couldn't do a thing about that either, but they were able to turn some fresh water, dug from the ground, into blood. Whether they changed the water supernaturally through demonic powers (as is most commonly believed) or whether they somehow dyed the collected water by sleight of hand, it was enough to make Pharaoh believe things were not spiraling out of his control. It was enough to help him convince himself that the gods of Egypt were still going to protect the land. He's in denial that the god of the Nile wasn't able to protect the Nile. Next he'll be in denial that a frog-headed goddess named Heqt is not actually a "giver of the breath of life", as the Egyptians believed. This goddess was believed to give breath to newborn children and she was represented as having the body of a human and the head of a frog. Therefore, frogs were considered sacred in ancient Egypt. But soon they will cover the land and enter all the homes of the Egyptians---including the palace of Pharaoh. A creature he once celebrated as the symbol of a goddess will suddenly become unwelcome and loathsome in his sight. But still he will not relent.

Moses is to say to the king on behalf of the Lord, "If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials." (Exodus 8:2-4) Some experts on Egyptian mythology believe that it was illegal to kill a frog in ancient Egypt. If that's the case, imagine what a predicament the people find themselves in when frogs take over their homes! Nobody will be able to go about their normal tasks, not even sleeping, and there won't be a thing they can do about it but wait for the plague to end. They won't be allowed to lift a finger against even a single frog due to their religious beliefs, and in my mind I picture them sitting dejectedly and bleary-eyed at their kitchen tables while frogs try to crawl up the material of their robes and while frogs hop merrily all over everything in the house. It's worth noting that frogs are not potty trained, so in addition to the unwelcome presence of the frogs themselves, the people will have to deal with the frogs' bodily wastes and the resulting stench.

In yesterday's passage Moses didn't tell us what Pharaoh said in response to the threat of having the Nile turn to blood. Today Moses doesn't tell us what Pharaoh says in response to the threat of having frogs invade the land. I think this may be because Pharaoh says nothing at all. I think he's giving Moses the silent treatment, sitting stony-faced upon his throne, refusing to open his mouth.

This begs the question: Why does Pharaoh keep allowing Moses into his presence at all? I tried and failed to find any information on this subject. I googled it in every way I could think of and came up with nothing. My best guess is it was for one of two reasons or a combination of the two. First, Moses is an Egyptian citizen by virtue of his adoption by an Egyptian princess. We don't know all the legal rights granted to citizens of ancient Egypt but it's safe to assume that a citizen was allowed to have his grievances, requests, and legal cases heard by the king. Since Moses brings his case to Pharaoh several times, it appears that a person whose initial request was denied had the right to appeal the king's decision more than once. Second, Moses and Pharaoh may very well be step-brothers. Earlier in our study of Exodus we discussed the most popular theory of who Moses' adoptive mother may have been and who the Pharaoh of the exodus may have been. If Moses' adoptive mother was Hatchepsut, then the king on the throne during the exodus could be Tutmoses III, the son of her husband by a secondary wife. Though Pharaoh doesn't seem to feel any brotherly affection toward Moses, he seems reluctant to put Moses permanently out of his presence. He doesn't ban Moses from the palace or order him out of the country or have him arrested on any charges, and he could have manufactured charges and evidence against Moses if he'd wanted to. Is there any compelling reason for the king of Egypt to allow a shepherd from Midian to keep coming into his presence to make bold requests on behalf of the Hebrews and to make threats against the nation and its security? No, not if that shepherd isn't a citizen of Egypt with legal rights in the land of Egypt, and perhaps also because that shepherd is a relative of the king.

Join us tomorrow as Pharaoh continues to maintain his hard heart and the Lord brings the plague of frogs upon the land.










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