I had planned to take a break from my reading today (and I would have had I been working) but I got quite intrigued by my close reading of the plague narrative, and the various details that I have glibly overlooked over the decades.  Perhaps I could set the blame at the feet of my 'O' level RE teacher who was concerned only that we could recite the list in the correct order (one of various things we were expected to know by heart from a HUGE chunk of OT and one an a bit gospels!!).

Chapters nine and ten take us through a sequence of five further plagues: death of livestock, boils, hail & thunderstorm, locusts and darkness.  As each successive plague arises, there is, if we have eyes to see it, a steady change in the responses of those in Pharaoh's court and in Pharaoh's verbal responses.  And the notes that come alongside the descriptions of the plagues are interesting in thier own right.

All the Livestock?

The plague affecting the Egyptians livestock apparently wipes it out in its entirety... at least for a few verses!  Such statements arise in varous parts of the Old Testament as a kind of hyperpole, notably perhaps in the book of Job, whose animals seem to die several times over...  Exageration for dramatic effect is a familiar technique - as one of my old bosses used to say to me sometimes, "I've told you a million times, don't exagerate!"

I guess the thing here is not to get hung up over the problems a literal reading would give us, and accept that this was, within the narrative, loss of livestock of catastrophic proportions.  As later plagues will show us, the livestock was restored or replenished only to suffer further catastrophe.

The Magicians

After their inability to conjure up gnats/midges, and their suggestion to Pharaoh that this really was the work of God, they disappear from the story until the plague of boils.  Afflicted by boils, the magicians can no longer stand before Moses.  I'm not entirely sure why we are told this detail, but if these are the wise men of Egypt, the philosophers and thinkers, the ones who perhaps would be expected to understand health matters, it is possible that their seeming inability to defy the plague or to heal themselves has some significance.  I don't know, and I don't have a commentary to check.

What it does mean, presumably, is that Pharaoh loses one 'layer' of support.

The Officials

With the 'promise' of the plague of hail and thunderstorm comes a warning and an opportunity to take action.  Moses advises the court officials to shelter their livestock (see, it's back!) their families and slaves because this severe storm will prove fatal.  They are divided, some believe Moses, some don't.  And when the storm comes, those who have taken precautions are safe whilst those who didn't are lost.

After this plague, the officials implore Pharaoh to let the people go - life is becoming increasingly unbearable and their society faces ruin.

The magicians are out of the picture; the officials, having become first divided and now reunited, no longer support Pharaoh's position... his power is starting to crumble, his authority is being questioned.  The "gentleman may not be for turning" but his days are surely numbered.

Pharaoh

We continue to see Pharaoh asking Moses to pray for him, and whilst Moses continues to do so, he also starts to speak out.  After the plague of hail, Moses tells Pharaoh that he does not believe that he fears God.

What we also see is a wearing down of Pharaoh's resistance.  Having lost the unquestioning support of his officials, Pharaoh offers Moses permission for the men alone to go to worship God.  Perhaps he hopes this will appease at least one side.  Moses is having none of it, and next comes the plague of locusts to polish off such plants as the hail could not (in the account we have an explanation of which crops the hail destroyed and which had yet to grow... ancient rationalisation perhaps?)

Once again Pharaoh asks for prayer, once again the plague abates, once again his heart hardens.

Now comes a three day period of darkness [aside - are there resonances here with (a) the darkness at the time of the crucifixion and (b) the three days Jesus was in the tomb?] at the end of which Pharaoh declares his willingness to allow all the people to go ionto the wilderness to worship, but they must leave behind all their livestock.  Of course, this is not acceptable to Moses.

It is intriguing reading these accounts and pondering the attitude and action of Pharaoh, especially at a time when the daily news is full of accounts of powerful men (and posisbly also women) behaving in ways that express some similar traits.  I suppose what it make me wonder is who are the equivalents of the magicians and the officials?  Who are the advisers and researchers who can point out that this path is doomed to disaster?  Who are the cabinet members, permanent under-secretaries, civil servants, colleagues and so forth who can say, "enough".

Perhaps we do well to remind ourselves of the call to pray for all in authority, and especially to pray for those who feel led to challenge the voices and policies of the powerful.

Cliffhanger

Chapter ten ends with a scary stand-off between Pharaoh and Moses:

Then Pharaoh said to him, ‘Get away from me! Take care that you do not see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.’ Moses said, ‘Just as you say! I will never see your face again.’

If this was East Enders it would be time for the "duff duff", as it has become known.  If it was a thriller, there would be teasers and spoilers for the next episode.  But it's the Bible, we know what comes next, we know that one final plague has yet to come and we even known what it is.

When we look at the world around us, when we are fearful of the seemingly inevitable outcomes of the workings of powerful leaders, at home or overseas, we don't know what comes next.  Our own cliffhangers are not obvious, there are no spoilers or teasers, it is down to us to write the next chapter.

Whether it is Jeremy Hunt and his plans for NHS England (and even with devolved powers there can only be ripples elsewhere, surely)...  Whether it is Donald Trump (and the even more scary, so I understand, alternatives)...  Whether it is Syrian refugee crisis... Whether it is the choices we make in our small spheres of influence and power...

Who are the voices we listen to?  What the prayers we pray?  What small difference can we, will we, make?

OK, it's confession time: this morning I put on my dog-collar and went to visit one of our elderly folk who is very ill.

I know this was bad of me, dangerous in so far as I risked getting overtired, or physically over-stretching and hurting myself.  When I set out it was cold and grey, so I had a scarf and gloves, by the time I arrived drizzle had turned to rain had turned to sleet had turned to snow... When I left an hour later I did so in a taxi, warmed up with a hot drink, had some lunch and settled down to do a lot of nothing.

Sometimes it is so hard doing the 'right' thing and maybe sometimes breaking the rules is the 'right thing' anyway.  Sometimes it seems as if 'crises' choose to occur when I am on holiday or away on business trips or, in this case, on sick leave.  And it's hard - you can take the minister out of the church, but you can't take the ministry out of the girl.

After the scene-setting of the first six chapters, we now move into what is probably the most familiar aspect of the Exodus story - the plagues of Egypt and the repeated mind-changes of Pharaoh.  Such stories, with strong supernatural elements seem to divide opinion, and not always very graciously!  There are those who are adamant that such accounts are purely mythical, having no basis in fact, calling on external sources, such as they are, and their silence, to support the view that this never happened.  There are others who are equally adamant that such accounts are absolute historical truth, and who ignore or refute any external, scientific or alternative interpretation.  And there are some, like me, for whom such arguments are exercises in missing the point - whatever the historicity, and I am sure there is at least some factual basis for the stories, these stories have been retold and recorded because there is something to be deduced from reading them, something to learn about ourselves, about our faith, about God.  We might not like it very much, it might disturb our ease and make us long to exclude these texts from the canon, but we have to accept they were included by people who thought and prayed hard about siuch things.  The least we can do, in my view, is try to do some thinking and praying ourselves.

Overview

First, an overview of these two chapters, noting some of the details that are easily missed...

At the start of this section, Moses acts as the 'mouth of God' and instructs Aaron to perform the first signs.  Clearly, within the ancient worldview such things were not unheard of... When Aaron drops his staff and it turns into a snake, the court magicians are able to do the same thing, providing a tasty snack for the snake from Aaron's staff.  When Aaron stretches his staff over the Nile and turns it and all its tributaries to blood, the court magicians can do this too.  Whatever our view of these seeming conjuring tricks, pharaoh isn't impressed - this Hebrew God and his prophet don't seem to have any special powers over and above those of the Egyptian court magicians/magi.

A week passes - or a short period of time anyway.

Moses and Aaron bring forth a plague of frogs from the Nile... and the magicians too are able to conjure up frogs.  Even so, something changes, and Pharaoh asks Moses and Aaron to pray to God for the frogs to go away.  Humorously, Moses asks when this should be and Pharaoh says 'tomorrow'.  But after the frogs had all died and been cleared, Pharaoh's apparent softening of heart vanishes.

After the frogs, the gnats - or midges - nasty small bitey creatures!  Here is something the court magicians can't do, and they tell Pharaoh that this is surely "the finger of God"... this is now beyond their experience and their skills.  Pharaoh is not interested, his mind is made up, his heart is heard.  Even as he scratches another bite he refuses to budge.

After the gnats, the flies, and here for the first time an apparent distinction, an area where the flies are not found - Goshen, where the Hebrews reside.  And here, too, a change in Pharaoh's response... he makes an offer to the Hebrews that they can make their sacrifice, but only within the confines of Egypt.  Perhaps something is stirring in Pharaoh's heart/mind, perhaps a chink in armour of stubborness.  But this offer is rejected - the sacrifices the Hebrews would offer would be offensive to the Egyptians and could lead to reprisal, even stoning of those involved.  Pharaoh seems to relent a little further - they can go to the wilderness so long as they don't go too far - and again asks Moses to pray for him.  And in a now familiar pattern, as the prayer is answered, Pharaoh again hardens his heart.

Signs, Wonders and Rationalisation

For all I've said that I am not too fussed whether or not this account is historically accurate, I do recall very vividly a documentary that set out to explore whether there could be a factual basis for the plague stories.  And it deduced, quite convincingly, that there could.  Not that God smote anyone, but that the sequence of events was plausible, if improbable.  The Nile can appear to turn to blood, becoming undrinkable and poisonous due to sudden influxes of impurities.  With the water uninhabitable and the fish dying, the frogs will escape to dry land, potentially in huge numbers.  As the frogs, possibly poisoned, and certainly at risk of dehydration die off and start to rot, the arrival of gnats/midges and flies is pretty much inevitable.  If, by some quirk, the area of Goshen has managed to avoid becoming a frog graveyard, then the flies won't be very interested...

If you are curious to explore this further, then maybe look here or here .  These are not proofs, but they are interesting in their own right.  And they also prompt us to ponder how natural, albeit extremely rare, events, came to take on such religious significance for the Hebrews and not the Egyptians.

Miracles, Magicians and Mysteries...

Moses and Aaron are attributed with invoking signs by supernatural means.  The court magicians are able to emulate at least some of these by their own 'arts'.  If nothing else, this part of the account forces us to question our use of language of 'miracle' which, all too often is equated with 'something for which we have no scientific explanation', a so-called 'God of the gaps' approach.   But we must do say carefully, not dismissing as infantile or erroneous the firmly held beliefs of others.

Maybe it is a cop-out, but I continue to find the langauge of mystery helpful, holding a tension between extremes that risk dividing and/or polarising opinion.

Pharaoh's Attitude

It is easy either to dismiss Pharaoh as a terrible tyrant or to see him as a puppet in the hands of a cruel, manipulative deity.  But actually, I can't help wondering if there isn't a bit of pharaoh in a lot of us, certainly in me...

Pharaoh is a man of strong opinions, powerful and holding authority, what he says goes.  But he is also a man, capable of fear, possibly with his own insecurities and uncertainities.  There is something hugely poignant in his requests that Moses prays for him, and equally sad that, once the prayers have been answered, he again hardens his heart.  How easily we can fall into a similar trap - crying out to God when we want or need help, anything from a genuine personal tragedy to a bus/taxi/parking space, and then forgetting all about God once the crisis has passed... or I certainly can, anyway.  How easy it can be to try to bargain with God, if this, then that... when actually we really don't want to be held to 'that'...

Reading the start of the plague narrative slowly, and closely, I have discovered new insights into the actions of pharaoh, of how at times he seems to have wanted to find a middle course, for whatever reason - to save face, to lull the Hebrews into a false sense of security - and yet in the end he cannot follow through.  He has become some kind of monster, incapable of change.  This makes me wonder about the 'monsters' that we create or allow to be created in positions of authority, and how difficult it must be for them to extricate themsleves from seemingly intractable situations.  That doesn't mean it doesn't matter, that we simply let come to pass whatever it is they will, but it does remind me to remember that, behind it all, these are people for whom Christ died, and that it is God's will that none be lost. 

If God plays with pharaoh like a puppet, then God also draws all of that malice and cruelty into God's very self on the cross... I'm not saying that makes the former OK, because I don't think it does, but it does say something about redemption even with the heart of Godself... and that blows my mind!

Today was a very special and precious experience, as some folk from church came to share in a Home Communion with me.  This is something I love sharing in with others but had never before had the privilege to receive, and it was very much a time of blessing.

Gathered in my living room, we shared delicious homemade soup poured from a flask, tasty cheeses with crisp, crunchy crackers, succulent grapes... and good conversation.  Then, with two people sat on the floor, and two of us on the settee, we gathered round my coffee table and shared in a gentle liturgy specially prepared.

This was the Priesthood of All Believers lovingly expressed... the person who presided had been so concerned to get it right, even though they knew they couldn't get it wrong... and it was such a precious moment for me, so used to giving to receive.

This was the Communion of Saints, the uniting of these few people with all believers in all times and places... defying and barriers of time or space or creed or culture.

It was a real blessing and I am grateful to M, I and J who gave of their time and of themselves to come and share.  I've always valued Home Communion, always seen and appreciated the way it has blessed others - now I understand more fully how and why that is.

And it gives me an idea I need to lodge in my brain - to try to encourage church folk to share informal 'breaking of bread' in the context of hospitality and meals with friends.  I love the idea that, from time to time, in homes across the city, love and laughter, food and friendship, remembrance and celebration express something of our unity in diversity, of the Priesthood of all Believers, of the Communon of Saints.

These two chapters are, I suspect, often overlooked when we read the Exodus story, but a close reading of them is worthwhile, revealing stuff that is, to me anyway, worth a bit of reflection.

"Thus says the Lord..."

This section begins with Moses and Aaron boldy marching up to Pharaoh and, in the manner of the later major prophets declaring, "Thus says the Lord..."

Pharaoh is not intimidated by this apparent divine mandate, in fact Pharaoh is far from stupid here: quite possibly detecting a covert escape plan, he refuses.  Pharaoh is also an angry man who responds by making life harder for the Hebrews, now they must not only produce their daily quota of bricks, they must source the straw themselves... an impossible requirement, and so life gets even more unbearable.

"Thus says the Lord..." One of the phrases that is pretty much guaranteed to make a minister squirm, and/or be suspicious, is when a member of the congregation comes along and says "God has told me..." ?And usually what God has 'told' them is something we really don't like to hear!  But within the faith community, we can't simply disregard such claims as nonsense, as a minimum we must listen to what is said carefully, recognising that for the speaker, this is (usually) an honest belief... God has told me to leave this church, that you should should preach on such and such a book, that this church should undertake that work... Maybe they are right, but even so, we don't just capitulate, we test it first.

And of course there are, not in my church but in many others I have known, those who in the course of a church meeting will state a view, usually in such cases a strong opinion they hold contrary to the majority, and finish up by saying, "but of course we must seek the Lord in this..."  And there is no counter argument: of course we want to seek the Lord but this voice infers, perhaps rather strongly, that we are not so-doing.

I am always wary of bold assertions of divine manadate, far for open to 'I think that God might be saying...' or 'I wonder if...'

So much for the insider situations.  Here, Moses and Aaron are speaking, effectively to the secular powers... Can I imagine marching up to David Cameron or Nicola Sturgeon and announcing "God says you must do such-and-such..."?  No, of course I can't, it would be absurd.  I'm not pretending that twentyfirst century polictical leaders are similar to Pharaoh, even if sometimes their decisions may seem every bit as harsh or capricious, but I am recognising that there is a discontinuity of language, a different set of motivators and values, and that it is all too easy for religious people to sound like nutters!

I am very grateful for such organisations as the Joint Public Issues Team who speak for churches in the public arena, confident in their faith convictions, and informed in the ways of politics.  Perhaps Moses, having grown up in Pharaoh's court ought to have been better equipped to handle this mismatch than seems to have been the case?

You're making things worse...

When the Elders go to see Pharaoh and discover that he views them as 'lazy' their reaction is to be angry with Moses and Aaron - it was alright before you started stirring things up, now it's much worse.

Two things then happen.  Firstly, Moses takes his frustration to God... essentially, "you told me to do this and see what's happened already..."  In return, God reminds Moses of the Abramic Covenant which, it seems give Moses enough reassurance to speak again to the people.  However the people wouldn't listen "because of their broken spirit and their  cruel slavery".

The reminder of the Covenant, whether spoken by God or recalled by Moses, is an important principle, I feel.  One of the things that has stayed with me since my sense of call to ordained ministry is the advice of a friend along the lines of "when you aren't sure which way to go, go back to the last signpost".  Or, in other words, when it gets tough, remind yourself of the moments you were confident and/or remind yourself of the promises of God.  If nothing else strikes us from these two chapters, this is one worth holding onto - no matter what, God's Covenant promises remain true, this is something to cling to when all else seems uncertain.

The second thing is around the context... here is Moses who is newly arrived full of vim and vigour and wanting to change the world.  What he has managed to do is, it seems, make things worse.  And no matter how much he speaks of hope the people do not, perhaps cannot, hear him, because they are utterly dispirited.  Sometimes we find ourselves wondering why people don't stand up for themselves, don't take action, don't leave abusive relationships, don't do whatever it is... in these few words we are reminded that it is possible for the human spirit to be so brutally crushed that it is impossible to hear another voice.  This is salutory stuff, a reminder, were one needed, that we can't just boldly walk in and fix things - first we must gain the trust of those we would seek to liberate.

Genealogy...

It's oh so tempting to skip over these lists of names and ages and 'begats', but if we do, then we end up missing tiny nuggets of interest.

Here were have a partial genealogy of the descendents of Jacob, stopping when it reaches Moses and Aaron, and specifically locating them within the Levitical clan.

It's a curious list.  Firstly is Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob, whose four sons are named.  Then is Simeon and his five sons, with the note that the fifth was the son of a Canaanite woman - why, I wonder is this significant to include? 

Then begins a far more detailed genealogy of Levi who has three sons and lives to be 137... why we need to know this age, I have no idea.  The sons of these sons are now listed with a comment that the second son, Kohath, lived to be 133.  Amram, the first son of Kohath and who lived to be 137 married his aunt, named Jochabed and had two sons Moses and Aaron.  Aaron has a son called Eleazar who married the daughter of Putiel and they had a son called Phineas.

Then as abruptly as it began, the genealogy stops - the other nine tribes are not listed.   So why this partial genealogy?  Why these seemingly randon details about marriages and ages?

Two things I suspect, one is that the genealogy is an insertion - it doesn't neatly fit the flow of the text - and the other is that it establishes the credentials of Aaron and Moses within the priestly caste, which will later be important. (Though in fact for Moses this has already been done in the story of his birth, without naming his parents)

What it made me wonder is, when we tell the stories of our own faith communities, and when we listed the 'great and the good' who is it we include and exclude, and  why?  What is our purpose in naming Mrs Suchabody and not Mr Thingamajig?

Clumsy Connection or Reminder?

Immediately either side of the genealogy, we find almost identical paragraphs, which may well be a clue to some slightly clumsy editting of the text over time, or of the combining of two different strands (for those interested in the J E D P theories).

Immediately before it we have

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, ‘Go and tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his land.’ But Moses spoke to the Lord, ‘The Israelites have not listened to me; how then shall Pharaoh listen to me, poor speaker that I am?’ Thus the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, and gave them orders regarding the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt, charging them to free the Israelites from the land of Egypt.

And immediately afterwards

It was this same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, ‘Bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, company by company.’ It was they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, the same Moses and Aaron.

 On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, he said to him, ‘I am the Lord; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I am speaking to you.’ But Moses said in the Lord’s presence, ‘Since I am a poor speaker, why would Pharaoh listen to me?’

What midly amuses me here is that we are twice reminded by Moses that he is a poor speaker... whatever the origin of these verses, whichever oral traditions they arose within, it appears that Moses' lack of confidence in his speaking ability was well known.

Sometimes it does us good to be reminded that even thse 'Biblical greats' had their limitations, even those we admire were often conscious of their own short-comings.  God didn't miraculously transform Moses' speaking ability, but God never gave up on Moses because of it either.  To be reminded that the God who fully knows us (as per Jeremiah the other week) will call and employ us just as we are is, for me at least, greatly encouraging.