S4E6: Divine Intervention or Natural Events? What the Plagues Meant

Were the plagues that struck Egypt in Exodus Divine intervention or natural events? This is a question that is raised by those who present natural explanation for these plagues. But, things that follow laws of nature are God speaking, just as things that do not seem to. The real question is: what distinguishes these events in Exodus from just any other things that happen? Because the difference will not be found in whether they are natural or not.

And there is a difference in what it meant for God to speak and unfold these plagues, both in what they communicated, and how God was communicating them. For the first nine plagues were primarily about communication, rather than punishment. How these plagues unfolded would have meant something very clear and specific for the ancient Egyptians who experienced them. And God was speaking not only to human beings, but to things in Nature, to unfold these events. For though everything is God speaking, God also speaks to everything.

Join me this episode to explore what I mean.

Also, thank you for waiting during this long, unplanned hiatus! Your continued support and encouragement really does keep this series going! 

[Note Jul 1, 2024 : The first section, discussing the Pharaoh's motivation was removed to shorten the episode, since it was largely review of the previous episode. It seems this change isn't being updated though on most apps though, for some reason--the episode should be just 40 minutes long otherwise. ]  

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Chapters

• 0:00 Why I don’t like the phrase, “God intervenes”
• 4:29 Natural explanations of the plagues in Exodus
• 11:52 Everything is God speaking, but God also speaks to everything
• 18:31 God can speak to Creation to "fill in" the content in a specific way
• 25:00 Plagues were firstly about communication
• 30:36 What the plagues would've meant to the Egyptians
• 37:04 How everything was speaking what God was speaking

Transcript

I don’t really like the phrase, “God intervenes.” Specifically, I don’t like how it is used interchangeably with the idea that “God interferes.” What I mean is this idea common today regarding God that there is this normal, natural course of events, and when God does anything, God is somehow interfering with it. The flip side of that, of course, is that nothing that ever happens has anything to do with God unless it somehow “interferes” with what normally happens—by say, breaking some law of nature. 

But, those of you who have followed this series so far would know that, that is not the idea of God. God is not some powerful, hypothetical entity that can “interfere” with how reality works; God is Reality. God doing something does not require suspending the laws of nature; all laws of nature is the Logos, God speaking. It isn’t only the strange, impossible things that God unfolds; everything that is even now continuing to unfold all around us is “Yahweh,” God who spoke to Moses. Today, this phrase, “God intervenes in our world” has misled people into thinking of God as some alien force, periodically interfering with our world and our lives. This has led us, for example, into thinking that, in the Exodus story, God interfered with the Pharaoh’s mind, mind-controlling him to harden his heart, whereas what this account really describes is how the Pharaoh’s own mind worked, or failed to work; and that “how” is part of reality. And God is reality.

There is a reason though, why the Jews, the Christians, and others who believe in God, say that God “intervenes” in our world. And it’s not about when God is doing something; it’s more about us; it’s about when God is doing something for us. Because everything is God speaking, yes, but not everything is about us; For Christians, an undiscovered dark matter planet in some distant galaxy would be God speaking, but presumably not to us, since we can’t, well, know about it. In fact, the Bible has several examples like this in its very first chapter, in Genesis, when God speaks to things long before human beings existed. But, there are times when something that happens is God speaking to us; and this sets that thing apart from the normal course of events in that it is about us. All of reality is God speaking, but at times, God speaks a specific thing that reality will unfold for us. And it is in that sense, that God “intervenes”.

But then, here’s the question: what makes something that happens, God doing this? And how do we tell? More importantly, what does that thing actually mean for us? Is it a punishment? Or a reward for someone else? Or a message? And if it’s a message, just what is God speaking to us? So, say that a river turns to blood—or something like blood. What makes that, God doing something specific for us? And what does it mean? These would’ve been the questions that were confronting the people in the story of Exodus. And the answer involves not just people, but Nature, and all of Creation. 

For just as everything is God speaking, God speaks to everything. And really, this is what we should’ve been saying instead of saying that God intervenes in our world. 

[ music / ] So… welcome to "What do you mean, God speaks?" where we explore important ideas, insights, and stories in Christianity, for the skeptics who want to understand religion, Christians who have questions about their own beliefs, and everyone in between. I am Paul Seungoh Chung, and this is our sixth episode of the fourth season, “What do you mean, God “intervenes”? The plagues and what God was speaking to Egypt, and everything else.”  

[ / music ]

The plagues of Egypt, also called the ten plagues, as described in the Exodus account, were the following. First, the Nile River became like blood; second, frogs came out of the water en masse to overrun the land; then third, dust of the earth turned to gnats or mites that came upon people. The swarms of flies followed them as the fourth plague, followed by the fifth, which was a disease that struck the livestock, then sixth was boils that broke out on people’s skin. The seventh was a catastrophic hailstorm, followed by the eighth, a strong wind that brought a horde of locusts that covered the land, and then the ninth was a dense shroud of darkness that covered the sky and choked off all light. The tenth was the death of every firstborn male, both human and domesticated animals. We’re going to explore the tenth plague in the next episode, because this final plague seems to be different from the others in a fundamental way. Anyway, before each plague, Moses and Aaron declared before Pharaoh and his court what specific plague “Yahweh” will unfold next, in response to their refusal to let the Hebrew slaves go and meet their God.   

Now, there have been a number of efforts in the past two centuries or so to explain the ten plagues scientifically.[1] Most of these offer a variation of this following explanation. First, there is a rare, but well-documented phenomena called red-algae bloom. Caused by various environmental and climate factors, such as drought, toxic algae can multiply in a slow-moving river, turning the water red, killing the fish and releasing toxic fumes. This starts a domino-effect, as the frogs will leave the contaminated water en masse, only to die on land; then without fish or frogs, insect population, such as flies would explode; there is one gnat-like species that would multiply by feeding on decomposing fish and frogs, and they are known to transmit potentially fatal disease to cattle, horses, and sheep; the flies, as well as infected livestock, are known to often result in bacterial infection that causes boils on humans. Also, roughly around the time that Exodus story is supposed to have taken place, there was a massive volcanic eruption, relatively near Egypt, which blew apart an entire island. Such volcanic eruption can cause massive hail to fall; it can also result in strong wind that will carry a swarm of locusts; such swarms of locusts, in turn, tend to form during droughts—the kind that can cause the red algae bloom; and of course, the volcanic eruption would send a dense cloud of pumice and ash into the air that would’ve covered the sky in darkness. 

But, this explanation raised this question: are the ten plagues something that God is doing, or just natural events? [2] One response by mainstream biblical scholars is to dismiss these speculations about the possible natural causes of the plagues, because the Exodus account clearly describes them as supernatural events; they point to the timing of the plagues, or how Moses had declared the coming plague beforehand. [3] 

However, I’d say that the entire question about whether the plagues were natural or supernatural is a fruitless one. Generally speaking, a “supernatural” event is when something happens, which is beyond what is possible with laws of nature. But, on the one hand, we can never know with perfect certainty whether something is “natural” or “supernatural” in this way. Now, does God do things in the Bible that are impossible, according to our scientific understanding of the world? Yes. But, that’s according to what we know so far. And we don’t know for sure what really are the laws that govern and order our world; science gives us our best answer to what they may be, but it’s never a perfect knowledge. Then, on the other hand, for monotheistic religions, like Christianity, any event that we can explain scientifically, is still God speaking, the same as any event that we cannot; all laws of nature is the Logos—which is God speaking— so anything in Nature that follows such laws, is still something that God unfolds. Now, does God unfold things that do not follow such laws? Maybe. But, since those laws are God speaking, this would mean that God is speaking forth exceptions to what God is speaking, which is an odd thing to think about. Still, maybe. But again, we cannot know. So, to sum up, we can’t answer whether something that happens is natural or not, and either way, both are God speaking anyway. 

So, the real question is: how are the plagues that struck Egypt in the Exodus account different from, well, just any other natural disaster that happens periodically all over the world? And there are a number of examples of such natural disasters in Bible. Think about the story of Joseph in Genesis. God said to Pharaoh and Joseph that a terrible famine will strike, and God will surely bring it about, but the reason why this happened seems to have nothing to do with humans. Instead, God spoke to Pharaoh through his dreams, and enabled Joseph to interpret them, so that Egypt could prepare for this disaster, by storing up food to save not only its own people, but even those outside its borders. Here, the plague that struck Egypt seems to be a part of some natural course of events that God is always speaking, and what God spoke to human beings, was how they are to deal with it. And in a way, this is the story of how humanity has overcome various challenges that Nature has thrown at us, whether by cooperation, or wisdom, or recently, scientific inquiry. For discovering “truth” is the same as hearing God speak. 

So, what’s the difference between this sort of disasters and the disasters that happen in Exodus? Both kinds of disasters are something God unfolds, and both may be natural events in terms of how they unfolded, following the laws of nature that God is speaking. But, the difference is that the disasters in Exodus are about us. And that means there is a difference, both in how God speaks them forth, and how they are experienced by us.   

[ Pendulum ]

Everything is God speaking; but, it could also be said, God is speaking to everything. 

Now, remember: whatever we say of God is an analogy; we’re characterizing reality as a whole, with words and images available to us. So, reality is like a speech, unfolding like a story; and in that sense, everything is God speaking. But, there’s another analogy in the Bible, which is actually older. And this is the analogy of God as the King—King whose speech commands and rules all things. This analogy is a carry-over from ancient religious beliefs about many gods and their king; for example, a Hebrew name for God, “El,” was based on the Canaanite deity of the same name, who was the creator of the cosmos, and the king over all the other gods. But, then we need to ask why the authors of the Bible still retained this analogy of God as the “King” of all creation even though they rejected so many other ideas from that belief-system. And the answer is that this analogy does describe some key aspects of our reality, in ways that others can’t. 

Reality is like a kind of speech, but it is also like a kind of society, where everything is ruled by some greater power. This was true for the ancient times, when we thought that everything was under a hierarchy of powerful and personal entities, which we called gods, who in turn, seemed to be ruled by some greater god or principle; but, this is true, even for our current scientific age, since we still say that everything in the universe is “governed” by the laws of nature. Now, you may say that that’s just a poetic phrasing or whatever, but again remember: these are all analogies, and we use analogies because there’s no better way to characterize what’s all around us. So, we use the word, “laws” of nature, because it’s difficult to come up with a better wording. 

But, there is something more to this analogy of the King than just that. Whereas the analogy of reality as a “speech” or a “story” is, well, rather philosophical in nature, the analogy of God as the “King” is based much more on personal experience. That is, it isn’t just that our world seems to be ordered or governed by something, but some of us have experienced that this speech-like reality can speak to us. And this voice always speaks the truth regarding how reality will unfold in response to what we do; it calls us to life of peace, justice, and truth. So, this voice held the kind of authority we place on our kings—the good ones, at least. And there is one key difference between authors speaking a story, and kings ruling their subjects; characters in a story can only do what the author says, but subjects of a king can rebel.   

Every analogy has its limits. Reality is like a speech because its principles and patterns can be described by our speech; reality unfolds like a story because every time we describe how reality has unfolded so far, we always find ourselves telling some kind of story. But, in the stories that we author, everything is fixed; things and people in it don’t truly have a life of their own, so to speak. Now, authors of really good stories often report that even they don’t fully know how their stories will unfold, because they don’t fully control what their characters do. So, in our best stories, things do seem alive, but we also know that they only seem to; at least, they’re not “alive,” or more precisely, autonomous to the extent that we are. The limit of one analogy invites another to supplement it. All of reality is God speaking, unfolding like a story. But, the story of God truly is alive in a way that our best stories can only imitate. For God’s story is populated by us, who can hear what is being spoken; and sometimes, we hear God speaking personally to us like a good King. But, we can ignore that, or even rebel against it.     

This is what people like Moses have experienced; they heard God speaking to them, and they found that they can follow what God speaks, or ignore it, or even go against it. But then, they thought; what if that is how it’s like with all of Creation? Not quite in the sense that other created things, like say, the Sun, can go against what God is speaking, and not rise in the morning or something, but in the sense that God speaks not just to us, but to all things? And these other things are following what God is speaking to them, like we’re doing—well, in our case, sometimes we are. Perhaps, they may not be free in ways that we are, but they too have some level of autonomy: a freedom. Now, just how much freedom they have is a question that is still being debated; for example, a more recent school of thought in Christianity, called “Process Theology,” holds that Nature can actually go against what God is speaking to it, like we humans can, at least to some extent. And that’s because God grants this freedom to all created things, and is always choosing to persuade Creation to follow what He speaks, rather than compelling them to do so. For most Christians though, this position seems too extreme; but, still the debate is about the degree: not whether things in Nature have some freedom, but about how much. And all of this isn’t just some idle speculations of theologians with nothing better to do; it is this paradoxical idea of God, in which the entire universe is the speech of God—the Logos—yet at the same time, is also autonomous from God, so that it hears and follows that speech—this dual idea of God—historically led to the emergence of modern science in the West.[4] But, we’ll have to leave that topic for another time. 

[ Short Pendulum ]

For this episode, we are interested in what this idea actually means for how… those of us who believe in God understand what is happening around us. And we already explored the answer from a different angle in Season 3, in a supplemental episode, 17.17. On the one hand, everything we’re doing is part of reality—which is to say, a part of God speaking; yet on the other hand, things we do are our own actions and decisions. So, things you do, like say, taking in an abandoned puppy by the roadside, is God speaking, but also what you did. A dry-season that brings drought one year is God speaking, but also what the climate of our planet brings about. And putting both together means that in a sense, we—that’s both humans and Nature—take part in what God speaks; it is God speaking, but we fill in the content, you can say. We can perhaps think of it this way: what God speaks compose the range of things that we can do, a range of possibilities—the word I used before was “parameters”. We may call these parameters—or this range—laws of nature, or fate, something else. But, whatever it is, somethings in our reality is fixed; it is what it is, or rather, since this is something God is speaking, as “Yahweh,”: “I am that I am”, and “I cause to be what I cause to be.” But still we’re free to do whatever that is within this fixed, larger range that God is speaking; and what we do fills in the specific content of what God then speaks and unfolds. 

However, people in the Bible have found that God does not just leave us alone to do this—to fill in the content however we want; God spoke to them personally through various ways, regarding what content will make their lives flourish together, and what will make them perish together. God spoke to them, like a parent, a teacher, or a good and just King. And people like Abraham, or Moses, followed what God spoke, and the content of what unfolded in their lives were what God said they will be. Everything that unfolds is God speaking; but, the specific content of what unfolded in their lives were borne from their interaction with God who spoke to them, like a good King. Follow me?

And according to this idea of God, God likewise speaks to Nature like a good King. Everything in Nature, the entire universe—or multiverse, if that exist—is God speaking; but God also speaks a set of principles, or parameters, within which it exists, and also within which it can be free. That is what it means for there to be happenstances and randomness in Nature btw—they are expressions of Nature’s freedom. This sense of freedom is mentioned in various parts of the Christian Bible—a freedom within a range of parameters that God speaks. For example, in the book of Job, God is said to have spoken to the waters of the sea—which again, means more than just H2O, but something like the physical substance of chaos, or infinite possibilities—and God set just how far it can move, and where it must stop. There is also the Genesis Creation account, where God speaks to living things, and commands them to flourish and fill the world, yet seemingly leaving the specifics of how to do that up to them. And what they do, in turn, fills in the content of what God speaks and unfolds, as “Yahweh”. This would be what Evolution is. 

However, there are times when God speaks to things in Nature as their King, calling them to do specific things—to fill in the content of what God will speak in a specific way. But, unlike we humans, everything else in Creation will readily hear and follow what God speaks. And that is what was happening when God was bringing forth the plagues upon Egypt. God was speaking to Nature; and it obeyed, like loyal knights obeying their King. Having said that though, it’s actually rather difficult to pinpoint just which part of Nature, or whatever else that God would’ve spoken to, to unfold these plagues. Here’s one example: the eighth plague that struck Egypt was a vast swarm of locusts. So, did God speak to the locusts? Well, according to the Exodus account, what brought these locusts was a strong wind, which “Yahweh” caused to blow for an entire day and night, and likewise, what took them away was another wind. So, if you want to be exact, it seems that in this case, God spoke specifically to the wind, or whatever it is that made this wind blow, to unfold this disaster, while to the locusts, God did not speak anything further beyond what they normally do anyways—which is to devour every plant. 

However, the real problem for us is that while all this may sound interesting on paper, there is no practical way for us to tell the difference. That is, these events in themselves do not tell us whether they’re something that God specifically spoke to Nature to unfold, or whether they’re things that God is speaking forth just as one of the many things that Nature can unfold at any time. There is a difference on God’s end, but we don’t know. Unless that is, there is something more; something that tells us what God is doing. That something is always a person: a person who speaks with God. A person, like Moses. 

[ Pendulum ]

Too often, we tend to unthinkingly assume the answer of why God does some specific thing in the Bible. For example, why did God strike Egypt with plagues? And most of us assume that these plagues were simply God punishing Pharaoh, for keeping the people of Israel enslaved. But, according to Exodus, that is not quite what is going on. 

Remember what I said back in Season 3, that miracles are first and foremost, forms of communication? Miracles, both the good and the bad, unfold to authenticate what God is personally speaking to people. In fact, this is what God quite straight-forwardly says to Pharaoh in the Exodus account, before the Nile River became like blood, saying that “by this [plague], you will know that I am Yahweh.” That is, the plagues will show that the voice that spoke to Moses and is now speaking to Pharaoh and his court, really is speaking forth everything that happens around them, which is again part of the meaning of the name, “Yahweh”. So, these plagues authenticate what Moses is speaking to them as something that God is speaking. Sometime later, God speaks to Pharaoh and his court again, saying that the next series of plagues—starting with the swarm of flies, then a sickness that will spread among livestock—will strike Egypt, while specifically avoiding the region where the Hebrew slaves live. Then, God declares that things will unfold in this specific manner, “so that you may know that Yahweh is in this land, and that I am making a distinction between my people and yours.” All of that is to say, the way these plagues strike will confirm that what is going on really is about the Hebrew slaves and not something else—that reality is specifically unfolding these disasters because Egypt is keeping them enslaved, and refusing to let them go to meet their God. 

Then, before the seventh plague, the storm of thunder and hail, God outright says that Egypt is actually being spared from a plague that could have very well killed every living person in Egypt. God was keeping them alive, “so that you may know that there is no one like me, to show you my power and make my name resound throughout the world.” And when I first read this, I thought this was about God, showing off how powerful He is to the rest of the world. But then, I was struck with this question. Why would making the plagues less severe, and sparing Egypt, show off God’s power? Wouldn’t doing the opposite be better? I mean, ok, if you want to be sadistic, you may make them suffer for a while, but at the end, you’d still finish them off for good, so that everyone else would know not to mess with you. So, what God seems to mean by “showing His power,” do not seem to mean what many of us think it means; it’s not simply about the magnitude of power—after all, the power of all of reality would be, well, infinite. It again seems to be about communication; the voice that spoke to Moses can unfold whatever that is needed to unfold, for Egypt and its rulers to listen to Him. The show of power is about how this God cannot be ignored—well, any more than any of us can ignore Reality. 

But, the thing is, we do exactly that; we often ignore reality, ignore the truth of what is going on, until disasters strike. The entire thing today about environmental catastrophes, such as climate change, is exactly that same story, with the same inevitable conclusion, which is: we can ignore reality, but only to a point. The same can be said of many poor decisions we make in life, whether it’s about addiction, toxic relationships, or whatever else. Because things will unfold with greater and greater magnitude—they’ll become worse and worse—until we can no longer ignore what’s going on, that is, no longer ignore reality, which is God speaking. And that is the story of the plagues in Exodus. Because Pharaoh and his court have been ignoring what God is speaking to them, God speaks louder—and “louder” means greater and greater disaster. 

So, in the Exodus account, plagues arrive with greater and greater intensity as time goes on. The first plague, the Nile River becoming like blood was a disaster, but people could dig wells for drinking water; frogs and gnats that followed were more of a painful nuisance than actual threats to life. Then, something more severe struck, like sickness and even some deaths among livestock, and then painful boils on people’s skins. The hailstorm and hordes of locusts that followed were actual catastrophes. The increasing magnitude of the later plagues is the increasing loudness of what God is speaking. Yet, still this is not about destruction, but communication. It is about how God that truly unfolds all things, without limit, has been speaking to Egypt. And God cannot speak to Egypt, if everyone there is killed. The “show of power” is the power to be heard.  

[ Short Pendulum ]

Think about what it means for us human beings to communicate something. Say you want to communicate that “this liquid in this container is poisonous.” Perhaps you will write the word, “poison,” on the bottle, or have a drawing of a skull. Now, neither the letters, “p-o-i-s-o-n” nor the picture of a skull is poison itself; they point to something else. Likewise, for the ancient readers of the Bible, what we now call natural events can point to something else, like letters of a word, or pictures can; they mean more than just the thing that happened. So, a flood is, of course, a literal flood of water, but it also means an overflow of chaos, an unraveling of our ordered world. And so, each specific plague that struck Egypt would’ve had specific meaning for those who experienced it—for the Egyptians and their culture. 

First, the Nile River was the primary source of their wealth and power. The longest river in the world continued to flow even during the worst droughts, so that Egypt always had water to drink, even when others did not. The river also served as formidable natural defense, as well as means of transportation, securing the nation against both military and economic dangers. And the flooding of its banks that occurred every year made the land very fertile so that Egypt would always have food, even when others did not. This is why when there were famines in the time of Abraham, and then Isaac, they went to Egypt; this is why God spoke to Pharaoh and Joseph before a seven-year famine, so that it was able to store up enough food, not just for itself, but other nations as well. And that river turned to blood. With the very first plague, reality unfolded something that overturned the very foundation of their life, turning it into a symbol of death. And the abundant food that this river ensured were later struck down by hail and devoured by horde of locusts. The river turning to blood, or the hailstorm, or the horde of locusts, are God speaking, as is everything that happens; but what they meant for Egyptians who experienced them were something very specific. They were saying: your source of life can just as well become a symbol of death; power and wealth you thought were secure can be taken away from you at any time. Reality can unfold these very things, so stop hardening your heart and listen to that which unfolds all things—the voice that spoke to Moses and now is speaking to you. 

The other plagues meant something even more specific. If you ever saw murals and statues from Egypt, you may have noticed that most of their gods had heads of animals. The frogs and livestock were associated with various Egyptian gods, just as say, the Eagle is the symbol of the United States of America. Now, imagine what it’d mean for the U.S. if a sudden plague killed most of these Eagles overnight. And it was worse for Egypt, as the frogs fled from the Nile—Egypt’s source of life and power—to die on land, and livestock became deathly ill. The ninth plague was especially devastating in this way. The greatest god of Egypt at this time was the Sun-god; they believed that the Sun was the first being to exist, who ordered the cosmos and ruled over all creation. Egyptians believed that this sun-god rose from the sky every day to bring his light and warmth upon the world, and every night, descended into darkness to fight off the great monster and serpent of Chaos, Apep, or Apophis. Yet, God that spoke to Moses spoke forth this darkness, which covered the sky—in the Egyptian eyes, the darkness that their god fought and defeated every night, had now devoured him.

Biblical scholars say that the authors of Exodus were writing polemics against the gods of Egypt, and this is quite true. But, this is not simply about arguing that “my god” is stronger than “your gods,” like how comic book enthusiasts argue over which superhero or supervillain is stronger. Btw, I believe many comic books, especially series that are particularly influential, draw heavily upon motifs and ideas of ancient mythology—and its gods. But, for the ancients, their gods were obviously far more than something like comic book figures, and their religious ceremonies more than comic book conventions; if anything, it’d be for today, comic book conventions, yes, but also religious mass, art exhibits, and science symposiums, all put together. And the gods—their gods—were entities that connected them to reality, to different aspects of reality, to forces of Nature, to sky, earth, and waters, to principles like order, justice, and truth. And they were either being overpowered, or were turning their back on Egypt and its Pharaoh. 

Remember the idea of Ma’at we’ve examined in the previous episode? It’s the Egyptian concept of truth, order, and justice; they believed that their gods ordered and ruled the cosmos by this principle of Ma’at, and human beings, including the Pharaoh, must also live by it. If they fail to do so, the world would unravel into chaos, and the gods would lose their power to protect Egypt. And the plagues that unfolded in Exodus would’ve shown that this was what was going on. For the Egyptians and their worldview, what was happening would’ve conveyed, as clear as written words, or drawn paintings, that their nation’s relation to the Divine—to even their own gods—had become profoundly tainted. And as Moses and Aaron continued to speak to Pharaoh, it would’ve become clear that this was because of their refusal to listen to this God, “Yahweh,” that was calling their Hebrew slaves into the desert. 

[ Music ] 

The plagues were first and foremost communication. They were how God was speaking to Egypt and its rulers, who have been refusing to listen otherwise.  

Yet, if we were to remember that the plagues that struck Egypt differed from other natural events that God unfolds, in that God was specifically speaking to things in Nature, to unfold those things, just as God can specifically speak to us, human beings, a very interesting idea emerges. It means that God spoke to Moses to go and speak to Pharaoh; and then, God spoke to Nature to go and speak to Pharaoh. God was sending not only Moses and Aaron, but all of creation, to relay to Pharaoh and Egypt what God was speaking to him. That is what the plagues of Exodus were.

That is, except the final plague, the tenth, the most terrible of them all. 

For not every plague was about communication; the tenth was judgment. The death of every firstborn, meant for the ancients, the death of their future. The first nine plagues were first and foremost communication, but what it was communicating was a dire warning: they were the tremors before the earthquake, symptoms of an impending fatal heart-attack. That was why they grew in intensity; God was speaking louder and louder because if they did not heed what God was speaking to them, what will fall upon them would be the judgment that had been in waiting all this time—the real plague. And this judgment was over not just the Pharaoh, not just Egyptians, but all living things dwelling in that land, including it turns out, the enslaved people of Israel, and even Moses himself! For what would save you from the tenth plague, was not your power, ethnicity, or even whether you were oppressors or the oppressed; it was an unlikely thing, one you can only know, if you have been hearing God speak to you.

[ Music ] 

So join me next episode to explore the dreaded tenth plague, and what saved you from it. A lamb—the lamb—of God. 

Thank you so much for listening, and waiting during the past, unplanned hiatus. Your continued support and encouragement keeps me going. So, please follow, subscribe, and share this series with others, and rate it on your Apple, Spotify, and other platforms. You can also support this series at buymeacoffee.com—which you can go to by clicking on the line, “Support the show” in the episode description.

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[1] Following articles offer a good, concise summary: https://www.history.com/news/10-plagues-egypt-causes  or https://www.livescience.com/58638-science-of-the-10-plagues.html https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/ten-plagues-environmental-disasters-or-religious-interference

Notice also that the articles offer explanations that differ in exact details, but follow that general outline. 

[2] This actually the title of the McGill article above.

[3] This is partly mentioned in the debate about historical roots of the Exodus account in Moore, Megan Bishop; Kelle, Brad E. Biblical History and Israel's Past. Eerdmans. 2011.  

[4] An example of short work that covers this tie between early Christian beliefs like the autonomy of Nature, the Logos, and the development of modern science is found in “Early Christian Belief in Creation and the Beliefs Sustaining the Modern Scientific Endeavor,” by Christopher B. Kaiser, in The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity, 1st Edition, edited by J. B. Stump and Alan G. Padgett, Blackwell Publishing, 2012.