6. gunfight at the ok corral, part 2

8/12/2019 6. Gunfight at the OK Corral, Part 2

1/29

Lesson #6Gunfight at the OK Corral, Plagues 6-10

(Exodus 9: 812: 36)


2/29

In Lesson #5 God unleashed the first five of ten plagues on Egypt.

With each plague Pharaoh became ever-more stubborn andrecalcitrant. The first plague, turning the waters of the Nile into

blood, devastated Egypt, and it was a direct frontal attack on the

Egyptian god, Osiris, one of the primary gods in the Egyptian

pantheon.

In plagues two, three and fourthe frogs, gnats and fliesGod

seemingly toyed with the Egyptians and their gods, subjecting them

to maddening afflictions and discomfort: a sort of divine gloating

before dropping the hammer.

With plague five God got serious, killing all the livestock in Egypt witha virulent pestilence, perhaps anthrax or murrain, setting an ominous

tone for a series of five ever-more lethal plagues, culminating in the

slaughter of all the firstborn children in Egypt.


3/29

In Lesson #6 the plagues intensify, finally crippling Egypt and

bringing Pharaoh to his knees. Hearing the cries and moans of his

people as the angel of death stalks the night, while holding the cold,

lifeless body of his own first-born son, Pharaoh commands Moses:

Leave my people at once, you and the Israelites! (Exodus 12: 32).

Convinced that if they dont get out of Dodge fast the Egyptianswould slaughter them all, the Israelites plunder and loot their

Egyptian neighbors, pull up stakes and leave en masse.


4/29

Prologue (7: 8-13)1stPlague, Water Turned to Blood (7: 14-24)

2ndPlague, Frogs (7: 258: 11)

3rdPlague, Gnats (8: 12-15)

4thPlague, Flies (8: 16-28)

5thPlague, Pestilence (9: 1-7)

6thPlague, Boils (9: 8-12)

7thPlague, Hail & Fire (9: 13-35)

8thPlague, Locusts (10: 1-20)

9thPlague, Darkness (10: 21-29)

10thPlague, Death of the Firstborn (11: 1-10)


5/29

Golden Haggadah (MS 27210), c. 1320. British Library, London.

One of the finest surviving Haggadahs of medieval Spain containing sumptuous illuminations

against gold-tooled backgrounds. Produced near Barcelona in French Gothic style.


6/29


7/29

An Egyptian priest performs the Opening of the Mouth

ceremony, part of the burial rites for a dead Pharaoh.

An Egyptian priest with an

infectious skin disease could

not serve the gods; he mustbe pure.

Because of the boils the

magicians could not stand in

Moses presence, for there

were boils on the magiciansas well as on the rest of the

Egyptians (9: 11).

Plague #6 deprives all the

Egyptian gods of service from

their priests.


8/29

In addition, the solar goddess

Sekhmet, daughter of Ra and

the warrior-protector of

Pharaoh, was believed to

have the power of both

creating epidemics and

ending them. Sekhmet is

unable to protect Pharaoh asthe plague rages on, affecting

even her own group of

priests called the Sunu.

Relief of the warrior-goddess Sekhmet,

Kom Ombo Temple, Egypt.


9/29












10/29


11/29

The plague of hail and fire outpaces all

the other plagues combined. In a

thunderous, pyrotechnic display ofGods power, the hail and fire devastate

what remains of the Egyptian economy,

splintering the crops and setting the

fields ablaze as lightning races across

the ground.

Instead of disaster welling up from the

Nile or mysteriously permeating the air,

in the hail and fire God launches a

violent assault from above.

Nut, goddess of the sky, and her husband Geb,

god of the earth.

Nut, the goddess of the sky (and mother of Osiris) who brings the blessing of

the the sun and the crops, is powerless. One can only imagine the anguishand desperation as thousands of people lift their voices in prayer to Nut, and

the prayers go unanswered.


12/29

Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go to

serve me, for this time I will unleash all my blows upon you and your

servants and your people, so that you may know that there is nonelike me anywhere on earth . . . this is why I have let you survive: to

show you my power and to make my name resound throughout the

earth! (9: 13-14; 16).

I am going to rain down such fierce hail as there has never been in Egypt

from the day it was founded up to the present(9: 18)

. . . the hail was so fierce that nothing like it had been seen in Egypt since it

became a nation(9: 24)

[Locusts] will cover the surface of the earth, so that the earth will not be

visible . . . something your parents and your grandparents have not seen

from the day they appeared on this soil until today (10: 5-6).

This rhetorical drum roll makes the unambiguous statement . . .


13/29


14/29












15/29

KobergersBible. Plague of Locusts (hand-colored woodcut), 1483.

Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.


16/29

Listen to this, you elders! Pay

attention, all who live in the

land. Has anything like this ever

happened in your lifetime or in

the lifetime of your ancestors?Report it to your children, and

their children to the next

generation. What the cutter left,

the swarming locust has

devoured; what the swarming

locust left, the hopper has

devoured; what the hopper has

left, the consuming locust has

devoured.

(Joel 1:2-4)

Locusts were the scourge of the ancient world. Long after the

Exodus the prophet Joel says:

Recently, a swarm of 1 million locusts crossed

from Egypt into Israel (Reported in theJewishDaily Forward, March 5, 2013).


17/29

The devastation brought by locusts is hard to imagine.

One square mile of a swarm contains from 100,000,000

to 200,000,000 locusts, and swarms typically cover as

much as 400 square miles. Each locust eats its own body

weight daily, and they strip a country bare, leaving

millions of people in famine for years.

The cumulative force of the plagues has had a

devastating effect on Egypt, its people and its economy:

the land lies buried beneath a putrid mass of decaying

fish and frogs; the livestock have been felled by anthrax;

the crops have been destroyed by hail and fire; diseaseand infections have ravaged the peopleand now Egypt

faces an onslaught of locusts.


18/29

Could it possibly get any worse?


19/29












20/29

Darkness so thick it can be felt . . .


21/29

Then the Lord said to Moses: Stretch out your hand

toward the sky, that over the land of Egypt there may be

such darkness that one can feel it(10: 21).

The contrast between light in the land of Goshen and absolute

darkness in the rest of Egypt sets the stage for the contrast between

life for the Hebrews and death for the Egyptians in the climatic

tenth plague.

The plague of darkness is a direct frontal attack on the primary god

of the Egyptian pantheon, Ra the sun god.


22/29

This is the final

squaring off between

God and Pharaoh.Negotiations are over.

The stage is set for

unleashing the terrible

last plaguetheslaughter of the first-

born children of Egypt.

Pharaoh said to Moses, Leave me, and see to it that

you do not see my face again! For the day you see my

face you will die! Moses replied, You are right! I will

never see your face again!(10: 28-29).


23/29












24/29

Charles Sprague Pearce. Lamentations over the Death of the First-

Born of Egypt (oil on canvas), 1877.

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.


25/29

Francisco de Zurbarn. Angus Dei (oil on canvas), c. 1635.

Prado Museum, Madrid.


26/29

As every firstborn person or

animal is dedicated to God, so

every firstborn person or

animal had been dedicated to

the Egyptian gods. By killing

the firstborn children and

animals of the Egyptians, God

deprives every god in the

Egyptian pantheon of what

rightfully belongs to them.

As the Israelites plunder theEgyptians, so does God plunder

the Egyptian gods.

The Lord spoke to Moses and said: Consecrate to me every

firstborn; whatever opens the womb among the Israelities,

whether human being or beast, belongs to me (Exodus 13: 1).

Arthur Hacker. And There Was a Great Cry in

Egypt (oil on canvas), 1897. Private collection,

anonymous (sold at auction at Christies,

London, June 27, 1988, Lot 703).


27/29

David Roberts. The Israelites Leaving Egypt (oil on canvas), c. 1830.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, England.


28/29

1. What is the primary purpose of the plague of boils?

2. The plague of hail and fire begins a sequence of plagues thatculminates in the death of the firstborn. How does each plaguebuild, one upon the other?

3. In Exodus 10: 7 Pharaohs servants say: Do you not yet realizethat Egypt is being destroyed? Of course, Pharaoh knowssowhy does he continue the deadly game?

4. After the plague of locusts comes darkness. If you were anEgyptian having experienced the first eight plagues, whatwould you think as you sit in the dark? What would you feel?

5. How can one morally justify God slaughtering all the firstbornchildren and animals of Egypt?


29/29

Copyright 2014 by William C. Creasy

All rights reserved. No part of this courseaudio, video,

photography, maps, timelines or other mediamay be

reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic

or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any

information storage or retrieval devices without permission in

writing or a licensing agreement from the copyright holder.

6. gunfight at the ok corral, part 2

Documents