This is a hard chunk of scripture to get through. Not that it's not a good read - if it were a Neil Gaiman novel, there'd be no problem, and it'd be captivating stuff. The problem is that God's still at His "I've made sure he'll say no, now go to the Pharaoh and tell him if he says 'no' you'll do _____" thing, which bugs me - not that that matters particularly, I know...
There are other things that I find somewhat interesting about the interaction between God and Pharaoh (through Moses and Aaron), but this thing with God seemingly forcing Pharaoh to keep Israel in Egypt...
Although now that I think about it, hardening Pharaoh's heart isn't precisely the same as forcing him to say no. It does make it more likely that he will, though. Or, at least, it makes it less likely that he'll feel compassion for the Israelites' plight and have that be the reason for their release.
However, there are loads of other reasons why Pharaoh could have (and probably should have) relented far, far earlier than he did. Even his servants thought so, and eventually actually summon the nerve (or just overflow with exasperation) enough to flat out tell him to let Israel go because this whole thing is destroying Egypt. They're right, of course, but Pharaoh will have none of it, so it comes down to one of the most painful-to-read passages in the Bible, best summed up in a single, horrifying line:
30 Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead.
So, 430 years after Joseph welcomes the other sons of Israel to Egypt, they leave in the wake of horror, death and incredible destruction.
No comments:
Post a Comment