1 Samuel 6

As a reaction to the destruction visited upon the Philistines in the previous chapter, they decide to return the Ark of the Covenant to Israel. Along with it they send golden rats and tumors, as a guilt offering to represent the things that had been terrorizing their people. Rats and tumors, rats and tumors... why does that sound familiar? Could it have been an instance of the Bubonic Plague?

They also devise an interesting way of testing to see if these troubles had indeed been sent by the Israelite God - and of course they are proven right (verses 7-12). When the Ark arrives at a nearby Israelite town, the inhabitants celebrate and offer sacrifices to God. Unfortunately it seems that some of them get a bit too close and personal with the Ark. Note to self: if the Ark is ever found again here on Earth, by all means *do not look inside*!

Numbers 25

Today's reading was quite short, but further reinforces two of the commandments God had given the Israelites: do not commit adultery, and do not have any gods before Yahweh. This is a theme we will see recur throughout the history of the nation of Israel - they will be tempted away by other peoples around them (whether sexually or otherwise) and then that leads to worship of foreign gods, which incurs God's wrath. On this occasion that resulted in over 24,000 deaths by plague; I suspect in the future the punishment may be even more severe.

Numbers 11

Wow, an interesting chapter today! I suppose one could take this as a warning against gluttony, as well as against complaining about what God has provided. Often in our lives God may provide what we need, but we still desire other things in our sinful nature - and perhaps we should look to the example of the Israelites here as a lesson not to. Not only did God choose to give them what they wanted in excess quantities, but He also struck many of them down with a plague. While God doesn't seem to act in quite such direct methods today He is certainly active in our lives, so we should be careful what we wish for :)

That is something I should work on: wishing and praying for God's will to be manifest in my life, rather than the things I selfishly want. I'm sure I'd be happier and healthier if I pursued that goal instead of my own.

Exodus 11

The final plague is approaching, and this chapter foretelling it is very short. Two things stand out to me, though:

- It seems that everyone but Pharaoh thinks highly of Moses and the Israelites at this point - perhaps because of fear from the things that have passed. God tells them to use this opportunity to ask for valuable goods from the Egyptians, but at the same time is about to kill all the firstborn in the land. That seems rather harsh :/

- Moses spoke to Pharaoh to warn/threaten him about this final plague, but in the last chapter Pharaoh had effectively said he would kill Moses if he saw him again. Pharaoh's words don't hold much power at this point, but Moses himself seemed to agree (not that he would die when he saw Pharaoh, but that he would not see him again). Maybe that was just posturing on Moses' behalf, or maybe there is something in the way it is translated that doesn't come through right, but it struck me as odd.

Exodus 10

I suspect we are nearing the end, as the plagues upon Egypt can't get much worse. This is very reminiscent of some of the plagues in the end times, talked about in Revelation. When I get there in a couple of years I will try to remember to refer back here and compare them.

The darkness that falls on Egypt in the later parts of this chapter is especially creepy, and really hard to imagine. Sometimes when I read things like this in the Bible I think it would make for a pretty amazing TV show - and that would be a pretty cool outreach tool, if done well.

Exodus 9

Today the plagues on Egypt go from bad to worse. The ones recounted in the last two chapters were quite annoying, I'm sure - but not overly destructive or deadly; the ones in this passage are quite the opposite.

The Israelite slaves must have really been a key component of the Egyptian economic structure for Pharaoh to have stood up to all of this in order to keep them. I would say that I wonder what it will take to get him to budge, but we will see soon enough.

On an interesting side note, the last plague (hail) seems strange to me. Obviously hail can be quite damaging by itself, if in a large quantity and good-size chunks, but the storms God used must have been something really special. In addition to the hail itself, there was rain and thunder - which are quite reasonable - and fire (Ex 9:24). The mere fact that fire rained down is remarkable enough, but the fact that it accompanied hail and rain seems quite miraculous. Of course God can do that, but I wonder if it might actually be a reference to something like lightning. If they didn't have a word for such phenomenon at the time (perhaps it was not common in their climate?) it would seem feasible to call that fire.

Exodus 8

Frogs, gnats, and flies - oh my! More plagues for the land of Egypt, because Pharaoh does not learn his lesson. What I find interesting here is that the magicians of Pharaoh's court manage to mimic the first plague (as they had with previous miracles that Moses and Aaron had done), but not the second. On the third, we don't even get told that they tried; perhaps they finally realized how out-classed they were :) After all, they did admit to Pharaoh that "this is the finger of God." (Ex 8:18b, NIV)