“An interweaving”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday, April 9, 2022
Exodus 10:21-11:8 (Forward, p. 70) CEV p. 65
In today’s passage, we read of the final two plagues—the final two plagues of the ten plagues of Egypt that beset that nation. All I can say about all of these plagues is how wonderfully ‘convenient’ they were. Scientists, and skeptics in general, have long tried to explain away these plagues, attributing them to the aftereffects of the volcanic eruption and explosion at the Greek island of Santorini or to certain atmospheric changes. But, even if this be true, and why not—for cannot God use natural processes for His own purposes—how wonderfully ‘convenient’ it was that these took place exactly when Moses and Aaron were demanding the release of God’s people from their slavery in Egypt. And how ‘interesting’ that even the Egyptians, even Pharaoh—who was considered a god in his own right—saw these as coming from the hand of God!
And, concerning the two plagues of today’s account, how wonderfully selective they were. The three day stretch of darkness impacted only the parts of Egypt away from where the Hebrew people lived. They experienced the darkness, but the Hebrews had light. A pretty incredible solar eclipse or piece of weather, I must say!
Then there is the question of Moses: was he a straight shooter, or wily and conniving, disguising his real intentions at first?
-he mentions God’s order to Israel that they go out into the desert to offer sacrifices to God (Exodus 5:1-3; 10:24-25) but was this just a ploy, an excuse, to get he, his people and their animals out of the country?
-but then, on other occasions, he was quite plain, quite straight forward in detailing God’s plan and intention. In fact, this plain talk surely explains why Pharaoh was so very set against obeying God. After all, he would lose all this free labour!
Pharaoh’s stubbornness and hardness of heart:
-on first encounter (Exodus 5:1-5) there was no indication of this, only a total dismissal of Israel’s God and His demands.
-it is only later (Exodus 7:3-4) that God explains that he will harden Pharaoh’s heart—so that he and all the Egyptians would know that the Lord is God and let God’s people, the Hebrews, go free
And likewise, this stubbornness most surely explains how Pharaoh was only willing to cave into some of their demands but not ‘go the full mile.’ He would allow the people themselves to go into the desert to sacrifice, but they had to leave their animals behind. So, it was a partial obedience only. This sounds so much like the stubbornness and hardness of heart that plagues us, you and me, from time to time. We don’t refuse outright, we don’t refuse in simply everything, but we don’t go ‘all the way.’
What I find in this account is an incredible ‘interweaving’ of the human and the divine. God acts sovereignly, of His own volition, but how this impacts people, how people ‘read’ these occurrences, is totally up to them. Israel saw them as being from God and put their trust in Him. The Egyptians, or at least ‘some’ of them, sensed that God was at work, but still didn’t trust or obey. And their leader, Pharaoh, the one they worshipped as god was adamant in his stubbornness and refusal to obey God and let His people go. But, in the end, even he, ‘saw the light’ as it were, even if very, very reluctantly.
I pray that we, you and I, will the signs of God’s hand at work, in our lives and in our world, and trust Him and obey Him, not partially and reluctantly, but willingly and completely, as befitting disciples and friends of God through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Forward notes: ”So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was dense darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. People could not see one another, and for three days they could not move from where they were; but all the Israelites had light where they lived” (verses 22-23).
Commemoration: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Today, we commemorate Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor whose opposition to the Nazis led to his arrest and imprisonment. He was killed by hanging in 1945. During his ministry and later his imprisonment, Bonhoeffer reflected about what it means to follow Christ, writing, ‘We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.’
“In Exodus, the Israelites are living in light. But their light is only so bright when juxtaposed with the dense darkness experienced by the Egyptians, most of whom share little of the blame for the Israelites’ plight. As much as I am grateful for the regular and consistent redemption of the people of God, I am often drawn to shed more light on and learn about those who suffer in the darker parts of our stories and history.”
MOVING FORWARD: “Research Bonhoeffer and his teachings about discipleship.”