Old Testament Bible Study
The Plagues against Egypt
Prayer. O Lord enlighten the eyes of our minds…
Context. Moses is living in Midean; the Israelites are captive in Egypt. The Lord has heard their crying. He has revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush and commanded him to go and liberate His people.
Chapter Four. Moses equivocates. God gives him powers (rod, hand, and water). Moses equivocates. God gives him his brother, Aaron. Then God goes to kill Moses?! Let’s look at this closer.
Exodus 4: 24-26. Why is God looking to kill Moses? Why did circumcision appease Him?First, Moses knew what kind of circumcision was required by God (the complete removal of the foreskin; in Egypt it was only split; later, this necessitated the completion of the circumcision on the Israelite men that had grown up in Egypt as had Moses; see Joshua 5:2-9). Moses had been negligent in fulfilling God’s law. Zipporah saved Moses first by circumcising their son and then (according to Heiser; I have not seen this elsewhere) by “symbolically” completing Moses’ circumcision by placing their son’s foreskin at his “feet” (feet can be a euphemism for privates). Thanks to her effort, salvation history was able to continue (despite Moses). Patristic explanations range from this (minus the symbolic circumcision) to blaming Zipporah that the son wasn’t circumcised (St. Ephrem the Syrian). All point to the main lesson: follow God’s commands even when they are inconvenient. (See Heiser “I Dare You…” for more on this).
After this, Moses and Aaron re-evangelize Israel using God’s words and signs.
Exodus 5. Moses and Aaron petition the Pharaoh. He disrespects Yahweh and tries to undermine Moses and Aaron (and Yahweh). The people grumble. Moses questions God (who then answers with His plan).
Exodus 6. God reminds Moses of His covenant and tells him His plan. Then He tells Moses to tell the Israelites His plan. The people are not impressed. Moses is still worried that neither the Pharaoh nor the Israelites will listen to him.
Exodus 7. God appoints Moses as “god” to Pharaoh and Aaron as his prophet. They do magical battle with the Egyptian sorcerers (who have real magic; see St. Augustine) and win. God “hardens Pharaoh’s heart”. Then Aaron uses his rod to bring about the first plague: the blooding of the river Nile.
St. Augustine on the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart (from Questions on Exodus); God makes good use of bad hearts for what he wishes to show to those who are good or those he is going to make good. And the quality of evil in each heart (that is, what sort of heart is disposed to evil) came about through its own evildoing, which grew from the choice of the will… For example: when money is offered for the commission of homicide, a greedy man is moved in one way, but one who disdains money is moved in another way. The former is moved to commit the crime, the latter to being cautious. Yet the offer of the money itself was not under the control of either of them. Thus motives come to evil men that indeed are not under their control, but they act from these motives as they find them already established from their own past willing. We should consider whether the phrase can be understood in this way: “I shall harden,” as if he were saying, “I shall show how hard his heart is.”
Exodus 8. Frogs (2). Lice/Gnats (3) (the magicians failed to replicate this). Flies (4). Note that God makes the division between Egypt and Israel explicit. Pharaoh allows Moses and the Israelites go out and sacrifice; what does it mean that they will sacrifice the abomination of the Israelites?
St. Ambrose (Letter 4(27):1-3): You wrote to me that you were disturbed by what you read: “Let us sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians to God.” But you had the means to explain it: that in Genesis it is written, “The Egyptians abominated the shepherd of flocks.” (46:34) This was certainly not because of the man, but because of the sheep. For the Egyptians cultivated the earth with the plow; Abraham and Jacob, however, and later Moses and David, were shepherds and bestowed a certain royal discipline upon this occupation.
Thus the Egyptians hated pure sacrifices, that is, zeal complete and perfect for virtue and discipline. For what wicked men hate is pure and pious among good men. The indulgent man hates the labor of virtue; the glutton shrinks back from it. And so the Egyptian body, because it loves allurements, turns away from the virtues of the soul. It hates authority, and shrinks from the discipline of the virtues and all labors of this sort.
The Egyptian, then flees these things; he is an Egyptian and not a man. You have knowledge of human nature; you will understand this. But reject what they follow and choose, since these two—prudence and folly—cannot be in accord with one another. And so, just as the virtues of prudence and continence exclude whatever belongs in any way to imprudence and intemperance, so every foolish man and every incontinent man has no part in what good men have or in the inheritance of the wise and continent man.
St. Paterius (Exposition of the Old and New Testament; Exodus): The Egyptians disdained the eating of sheep. But what the Egyptians abhor, the Israelites offer to God. The unjust despise a clean conscience as weak and abject, but the just turn it into a sacrifice to God of virtue. The righteous, as they worship God, offer their purity and gentleness to him. The reprobate despise these virtues and consider them foolishness.
Exodus 9. Pestilence (5). Again, Egypt and Israel are kept separate. Boils made from ashes (6). Moses brings down fire and hail (7). But not on Goshen. Pharaoh pretends to repent (27-28; 34).
Exodus 10. Locusts (8). Pharaoh again pretends to repent (16-17; 20). Darkness for Egyptians (9). Last false repentance of Pharaoh (24-29).
Exodus 11. God explains what He will do next: the slaughter of the first born (10). He also says that Moses was “very great in Egypt” (11:3).
Origen: When Moses had come to the place which God shows him, he is not permitted to ascend, but first God says to him, “Loose the tie of the shoes from your feet.” None of these things are said to Abraham and Isaac, but they ascend and do not put aside their shoes. The reason for this is perhaps that although Moses was “great,” he was nevertheless coming from Egypt, and some fetters of mortality were bound to his feet.
On the Death of the Firstborn; St. Isidore of Seville. Finally the firstborn of the Egyptians are destroyed. They are the principalities and powers and the rulers of this world of darkness. Or they are the originators and inventors of the false religions that existed in this world. The truth of Christ put an end to these religions and wiped them out, along with their inventors.
When we resume on 1/25: The Plagues as Cosmic Warfare (and the establishment of the Passover).
Note: Patristic quotes from Lienhard, J. T., & Rombs, R. J. (Eds.). (2001). Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy (p. 55). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
