Date written: November 26, 2001
Class: ENG 205 / Bible: Old Testament/Apocrypha
University of Michigan-Flint
Professor: Dr. Judith Kollmann

If you try to plagiarize this essay in any way, I shall slaughter. Plagiarism is bad.
 

In Exodus 9:13-14, Yahweh instructed Moses to tell the Pharaoh of Egypt, “‘Yahweh, God of the Hebrews, says this: Let my people go and worship me. For this time I am going to inflict all my plagues on you, on your officials and your subjects, so that you will know there is no one like me in the whole world.’” These plagues, numbering ten in all, made Yahweh evident among the Israelites and, eventually, to the stubborn Pharaoh and his Egyptian subjects. They deepened the relationship between Yahweh and Israel because Yahweh was conveying His nature to Israel. They also demonstrated Yahweh’s power and how much He wanted to be worshipped.

 The plagues were important to the members of the community of Israel because they demonstrated Yahweh’s power and longing for worship to them. Yahweh spared the Hebrews, and anyone else that believed in Him, in bringing the plagues down upon the nation of Egypt. The stubborn Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrews go until the tenth plague occurred, because, at first, the Pharaoh’s own magicians could perform the same kinds of acts that Yahweh performed on the Egyptian people, and simply because “Yahweh made Pharaoh stubborn.” (Ex 9:12) Further into the series of plagues, Yahweh’s powers exceeded those of Pharaoh’s magicians, providing “compelling evidence that it is Yahweh, and not the magicians or their magic, who is responsible for the awesome plagues.” (Benjamin, 20) However, the tenth plague—the death of every firstborn Egyptian—finally made the Pharaoh believe in Yahweh and understand that he had sinned against Him, and he then released the Hebrews from Egypt. “Pharaoh and the world will want to forget what they learn of Yahweh here, but Israel will not, and they can proclaim the name and power of the Yahweh of the plagues to the nations.” (Gatiss, 4) The Israelites would apply what they had learned about Yahweh—to fear and worship Him—to their new lives in their new land.

 Although the themes of worship and service to Yahweh are important throughout Exodus, they are especially prevalent in the event of the plagues. The theme “takes its rise in the mighty-acts sequence, with the repeated demand, ‘Let my people go, so they may worship me.’” (Gatiss, 4) Yahweh demonstrates that He will do whatever it takes to earn the worship and service of the Hebrews, including removing them from the land where they are enslaved to a land where they will be free to worship Him. Some studies also “suggest that at least on some level, the plagues of Yahweh were intended to demonstrate His superiority over Egyptian gods.” (Hope College, Table 3.D) This makes it adamant that no other gods will be put before Yahweh, and that he takes action against those who do put other gods before Him. He makes it apparent that he takes action against those who prevent His people from worshipping Him. No other forces will be put before Yahweh either, as “Pharaoh’s oppressive measures against Israel are viewed as fundamentally antilife and anticreation.” (Fretheim, 385) Yahweh shows that He is commanding, powerful and worthy of worship by the Hebrew people.

 Yahweh serves as a charismatic leader to the Israelites—the Israelites cannot see or hear Yahweh, but they believe that He exists, and they follow His commands through the words of Moses and Aaron. Yahweh establishes a relationship with Israel through Moses, and Moses’ “critical role in the God-Israel relationship is definitively established and attested during the plagues.” (Gatiss, 4) Moses plays an important part in establishing a relationship between Yahweh and the Israelites because Yahweh speaks through him. Each time that Moses told the Pharaoh what Yahweh told him to say, in regards to the plagues, Yahweh demonstrated his position as a charismatic leader to the Israelites to the Pharaoh by bringing a new plague upon the Egyptians—but warning the Pharaoh first through Moses and Aaron. Each time that Yahweh brought a plague upon the Egyptian people, as a result of the Pharaoh’s refusal to release the Israelites, He showed His power to the Israelites so that they would fear and respect Him as their leader. Through the plagues, Yahweh conveyed “knowledge of the special relationship between Yahweh and the Hebrew people and of its motivation of the course of events.” (Benjamin, 18) He conveyed this knowledge first to the Israelites, the Egyptian peoples, and then towards the Pharaoh himself. This deepened the charismatic relationship between Himself and the Israelites, and establishes one—of fear and possibly humiliation—with the Pharaoh and his people. The plagues “are significant… in that they highlight and develop God’s relationship with Israel.” (Gatiss, 4) At this point in the Old Testament, Yahweh’s people were fairly free and able to care for themselves and make their own decisions, but they still looked to Yahweh for guidance throughout their lives.

 Knowledge of Yahweh is transmitted through the plagues to the Israelites, so that they can learn more about Him and how He wishes to be worshipped and respected. “The awesome nature of each plague as it is described in the text provides sufficient empirical evidence for inducing a knowledge of Yahweh’s existence, might and motivation.” (Benjamin, 19) The plagues have been interpreted “as having, first and foremost, a didactic purpose: coming to instill a knowledge of God in those who had been unwilling to acknowledge Him.” (Benjamin, 17) Benjamin’s article suggests three types of knowledge that Yahweh means to transmit through the plagues: the knowledge of “Yahweh’s existence and identity”; “an understanding of Yahweh’s nature” and of His “uniqueness, immanence, might and dominion”; and the knowledge of Yahweh’s motivation, as mentioned before. Yahweh transmits the knowledge of his existence and identity through Moses in telling him, “And the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh when I stretch out my hand against the Egyptians and lead the Israelites out of their country.” (Ex 7:5) Yahweh then makes his nature known through each of the plagues by sparing the Hebrews from each of the plagues and targeting only the Egyptian people. Yahweh makes it known that the earth, and the Hebrew people on it, belong to Him, and that “Yahweh discriminates between Egypt and Israel.” (Ex 11:7) Although the plagues seem like they are only acts of judgment against Pharaoh and the Egyptians, they are concerned with much more: they have a “peculiar ability to point beyond themselves and instruct.” (Gatiss, 2) In this sense, Yahweh uses Pharaoh and the Egyptians as a sort of “teaching tool” for the Hebrew people.

 Along with the transmission of Yahweh’s knowledge comes the demonstration of Yahweh’s power. Even before the plagues began, Yahweh attempted to demonstrate His power to the Pharaoh and his officials by making Aaron’s staff turn into a snake when it was thrown down in front of the Pharaoh. However, each of the magicians that the Pharaoh summoned showed that they could do the very same thing. Even though “Aaron’s staff swallowed up theirs” (Ex 7:12), the Pharaoh “remained obstinate and, as Yahweh had foretold, refused to listen to Moses and Aaron.” (Ex 7:13) After this, Yahweh began bringing the plagues down upon the Egyptians, to demonstrate more of His power and to convince the Pharaoh to let the Hebrews leave Egypt. Pharaoh’s magicians were able to reproduce the first two plagues—those of the water turning to blood and the frogs—but they could not reproduce the plague of the mosquitoes. By then, the magicians were convinced that Yahweh was more powerful than they were, but it took seven more demonstrations of Yahweh’s power to move the stubborn Pharaoh to release the Hebrews. Pharaoh’s stubbornness was “variously attributed to his hardening of his own heart and to God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. Thus Exodus both lays responsibility on Pharaoh and indicates that his stubbornness was part of a higher purpose.” (Hope College, 1) Pharaoh was stubborn himself, but Yahweh also made him stubborn so that He would have the chance to demonstrate more of His power to the Israelites. Even Pharaoh’s own officials began to get nervous by the time the eighth plague occurred; they told the Pharaoh, “‘How much longer are we to be tricked by this fellow? Let the people go and worship Yahweh their God. Do you not finally realise that Egypt is on the brink of ruin?’” (Ex 10:7) The Hebrews already understood Yahweh’s power from the start, but learned and understood more of it through the plagues; Pharaoh’s magicians followed suit, and the officials as well. It was not until every firstborn man and beast in Egypt was killed by Yahweh that the Pharaoh finally understood what Yahweh’s power really meant, and permitted the Israelites to leave Egypt.

 Through the plagues that ravaged the Egyptian countryside, Yahweh demonstrated His power, transmitted His knowledge, deepened the relationship between Himself and His people, and made Himself evident among the Israelites and the Egyptians. He demanded that His people be allowed to worship Him, and brought the punishment of the plagues to those that refused to allow the Hebrews to worship Yahweh their God. In doing so, Yahweh also demonstrated His power to His own people so that they would know how to worship Him and live their lives in His service. Through the demonstration of His power, Yahweh became the charismatic leader of the Israelites, and developed a lasting relationship with them that would help them on their journey out of Egypt.
 

Works Cited

The New Jerusalem Bible, Reader’s Edition. Doubleday, 1990.

“The significance of the plagues in the narrative of Exodus.” The Theologian. Lee Gatiss, 2001. Internet journal: http://www.geocities.com/the_theologian/content/bible/plagues.htm

“The plagues as ecological signs of historical disaster.” Journal of Biblical Literature, v. 110, p. 385-96. Terence E. Fretheim, 1991.

“Reading the Old Testament: Plagues.” Hope College Internet web site: http://www.hope.edu/academic/religion/bandstra/RTOT/CH3/CH3_1C.HTM

“The ten plagues and statistical science as a way of knowing.” Judaism, v. 48 no. 1, p. 17-34. Tammi Benjamin, 1999.

Works Consulted

God at Sinai: Covenant and Theophany in the Bible and Ancient Near East. Jeffrey J. Niehaus. Zondervan Publishing House, 1995.

“The plague of plagues.” Bible Review, vol. 15 no. 3, p. 18-19. Author anonymous, 1999.

“Reading Exodus into history.” New Literary History, vol. 23 p. 523-54. Jonathan Boyarin, 1992.