Women of the Word

In Women of the Word this week, we explored Exodus chapters 7-10, the beginning of the story of Pharaoh, Moses and the Plagues of Egypt.  Missing the point entirely, contemporary critiques of the story claim that these plagues were not miracles, but natural phenomenon.  The Israelites viewed these as signs and wonders of God's mighty power.  Nature is not separate from God, but subject to Him and a tool used by Him for His glory.

The first miracle, Aaron's staff turned into a snake, initiates the "fight" between the God of the Israelites and the gods of Egypt.  Pharaoh's magicians were able to reproduce the first three miracles (staff turned to snake, Nile turned to blood, and plague of frogs), but the magicians were unable to recreate the other plagues, beginning with the plague of gnats, the fourth of God's signs and wonders.  By the seventh miracle, the plague of boils, the magicians themselves were afflicted.  The God of the Israelites had won the fight.  The plagues persisted, however, as God continued to harden Pharaoh's heart.  The writers of Exodus do not reconcile the issue of human freedom vs. God's intervention, but instead highlight God's power.  God is the hero in Exodus.

The plague of flies, the fifth of the miracles, was the beginning of the distinction created between the Israelites and the Egyptians.  The land of Goshen, the home of the Israelites, was untouched when the flies, diseased livestock, boils, hail and locusts overtook Egypt.  As God commanded, the Israelites were to remain separate from other nations, not to mingle with or adapt to other cultures.