Tag: Digging in Deeper

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 11:4-8

Leave a comment

“So Moses said, ‘This is what the Lord says: About midnight I will go throughout Egypt, and every firstborn male in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the servant girl who is at the grindstones, as well as every firstborn of the livestock. Then there will be a great cry of anguish through all the land of Egypt such as never was before or ever will be again. But against all the Israelites, whether people or animals, not even a dog will snarl, so that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All these officials of yours will come down to me and bow before me, saying: Get out, you and all the people who follow you. After that, I will get out.’ And he went out from Pharaoh’s presence fiercely angry.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In the animated film from DreamWorks Studios about the Exodus, Prince of Egypt, the real climax of the film is when the Angel of Death moves through the city inflicting the final plague on the people of Egypt – the death of the firstborns. Even for an animated offering for kids, the scene is disturbing. The animation is scary enough, but the concept is what is really horrifying. We read this dryly and move on to the next part of the story in part because we don’t want to think about what is happening here. Indeed, when Moses writes about the actual event in the next chapter, he doesn’t describe it in any more detail than we see right here. Today, though, let’s wrestle a bit with what is going on here and what to make of this final plague.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 11:1-3

2 Comments

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you out of here. Now announce to the people that both men and women should ask their neighbors for silver and gold items.’ The Lord gave the people favor with the Egyptians. In addition, Moses himself was very highly regarded in the land of Egypt by Pharaoh’s officials and the people.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

If you are a parent, have you ever finally gotten so frustrated with your child’s refusal to do something you wanted them to do that you finally lost it and shouted something silly like, “You’re going to do it, and you’re going to like it too!”? Pharaoh didn’t want to let Israel go. The very idea of his doing that was ludicrous to him. He had subjugated them, not the other way around. Why on earth would he accede to their God’s demands to release them? He was clearly the more powerful god or else he wouldn’t have been able to do that. As God prepares to give Moses the instructions for the final plague to share with Pharaoh, He basically says, “Pharaoh is going to let you go, and he’s going to like it.” Let’s talk about what’s going on here.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 10:27-29

Leave a comment

“But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was unwilling to let them go. Pharaoh said to him, ‘Leave me! Make sure you never see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you will die.’ ‘As you have said,’ Moses replied, ‘I will never see your face again.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We’ve danced around this idea several times now over the course of our talking through the various plagues God unleashed on the Egyptians because of Pharaoh’s refusal to let the Israelites go worship in the wilderness. (Have you noticed that a three-day trip to the wilderness to worship God is still all Moses has been asking for and not total emancipation?) Today, it’s time to tackle it head on. This is a deeply uncomfortable idea, but it has been repeated now several times. What does it mean that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart? Did Pharaoh harden his own heart? What is going on here? Let’s see what kind of sense we can make of out this.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 10:21-24

Leave a comment

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be felt.’ So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days. One person could not see another, and for three days they did not move from where they were. Yet all the Israelites had light where they lived. Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, ‘Go, worship the Lord. Even your families may go with you; only your flocks and herds must stay behind.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The summer after we moved to where we live now, there was a total solar eclipse that was almost fully visible from here. You had to go a bit further west to experience the moment of actual darkness, but it was pretty cool to look at through the special lenses we had. And the dimming of the light of the sun was wild. It was an interesting reminder of just how powerful the sun is. A great majority of it was blocked out and yet it was still mostly light. The penultimate plague God brought to the people of Egypt was darkness. It has always seemed to me to be a bit out of place as compared with the others, especially the ones that came just before it. Let’s talk about what is going on in this second-to-last plague, and why it was almost effective enough by itself to accomplish God’s purpose.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 2 Timothy 3:13

Leave a comment

“Evil people and imposters will become worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What if the people around you weren’t who you thought they were? Maybe you’ve had that experience. You thought you knew someone really well, and then seemingly out of nowhere they did something so profoundly out of character as far as you had understood it that you were struck with a powerful sense that maybe you didn’t actually know them at all. Depending on how close you are to the person with whom you had this experience, this could be a pretty painful discovery. I know of a woman who discovered after more than two decades of marriage that her husband had a completely separate family including a woman he called his wife and kids. Learning people aren’t who we thought they were can be intensely disorienting for us. But what if we learned they weren’t simply not who we thought they were, but were in fact aliens who could assume the identity of anyone around them. Then we’d be living in a comic book world. It is this very comic book world that was the focus of Marvel’s latest streaming release, Secret Invasion. Let’s talk about what worked, what didn’t, and the Gospel implications of a series with enormous potential, but which couldn’t quite stick the landing. By the way, if you haven’t watched the series yet, proceed at your own risk. This is going to be full of spoilers.

Read the rest…