August 9, 2010 – Exodus 9

Hathor the goddess of love is also known as the cow goddess and was one of the most popular goddesses in Ancient Egypt. 

Im-Hotep the god of medicane and healing was the focus of the boils.

Nut the goddess of the sky, the focus of the hail from heaven.

I always pictured hail from heaven like they do in the movies with what can best be described as fireballs raining down.  But that doesn’t appear to be what happened.  In the movies, this always causes all the houses to burn (explode actually) but here the Lord says that if you sought shelter you would be safe.  It appears that it was not the size of the hail, but its quantity and the lightning as well that destroyed those who did not take the Lord’s warning.  And another thing, here we see God’s warning taken on a personal level.  If someone chose to head it, they were saved, whether Egyptian or Hebrew.  That seems to be unique to this plague, at least so far.  How many have we done so far.  Blood, Frogs, Gnats, Flies, Pestilence, Boils, Hail.  7 down 3 to go.  

By the way Pestilence is defined as an epidemic of a disease, so we really don’t know exactly what the livestock died from, just that it they died from it.  And here is something to think about.  The readings talk about days of Moses coming back to talk to Pharaoh, but how long was this back and forth happening.  The reason I bring it up is because the Pestilence says that it killed all the livestock, yet the Egyptians were allowed to bring in livestock from the hail storm to save them.  What if what the Hebrews were asking to pray for was only a once a year celebration, so every year at that time, Moses would come to Pharaoh and ask for this and be told no, then a plague, then permission, then Pharaoh’s renege.  What if this scene of the Plagues took a lot longer than we often think and it actually took place over several years or longer.  What does that alter in your view of the story.  Are the plagues more awh inspiring or less.  Does the Pharaoh’s stubbornness make more or less sense.  Does the final release mean more or less.  Just something that popped in my head while I was reviewing the plagues.