Thursday, September 22, 2011
Exodus 5-9
1. Note that the Pharoah's magicians can do some of the same wonderful things that God has enabled Moses to do, such as create snakes from staffs, and blood from water. Comment.
2. God sends plagues on the Egyptians. There might have been other ways, but he sends plagues. Comment.
3. Pharoah says that he will let the Israelites go if Moses removes certain plagues, but once Moses has taken away the frogs or the flies, Pharoah doesn't let the Hebrew people go after all. Comment.
4. For the story to get its point across, there might have been fewer plagues. Instead, there are ten (we have read about seven so far). Comment.
Or feel free to comment on some other aspect of the reading.
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4) For Moses' point to get across to Pharaoh, there could have been fewer plagues. Instead, there were ten. These include water turned to blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock diseased, boils, and thunder with hail. I think the reason why God sent so many plagues to Egypt and the Pharaoh was to show jus how great and mighty he was. True, some of the magicians could also turn water into blood and create snakes from staffs, however, they could not do everything that God could. This depicts just how strong and powerful God can be.
ReplyDelete3) The Pharaoh lies and says that he will let the Israelites go if plagues are removed. He does this because he wants to have everything his way, and he does not fear God. He does not believe that God can or will kill him, his officials, or his family. To him, it is more worth loosing some slaves, livestock, and having to work harder to get water than to let the Israelites go. What aggravated me severely was the fact that God could have just freed the Israelites, because he must have that power, and he would have spared the lives of slaves, cattle, and innocent egyptians. When Pharaoh first said he would free the Israelites if the plagues were lifted, Moses and God could have said that they would lift the plague AFTER they were freed, which would ensure Pharaoh's compliance. The only reason God doesn't just free the Israelites is because he wants to demonstrate his power. He wants to show off.
ReplyDelete1. It seems to be that the Pharaoh's magicians can do the some of the same things that God has enabled Moses to do. It seems a little funny that they can recreate some of these amazing tricks that Moses was told to do by God, but it could be possible. They could have pretended or used Moses' examples as their own. But, I think that the plagues also needed to be added to the story because the magicians could do all these tricks. I think it seems a little suspicious that they could turn water into blood and create snakes from staffs. I don't know how they did it, but since it is the bible, everything is possible.
ReplyDelete2) God does indeed send plagues instead of other things. God sends plagues that could easily kill the Egyptians if they do not go away. I believe this is because he wants to spread the word that he is the almighty powerful one and that he can kill and save whoever he wants. For instance, if the plague of the hail were to never have ended the hail would eventually penetrate through homes and the skulls killing people. If people start to die the pharaoh will recognize that he is wrong and that he should let the Israelites go and sacrifice to their god. This leads to, in the fault of Moses, Moses stopping the plagues to soon for it to actually cause some serious damage against the Pharaoh and the Egyptians leading to the Pharaoh responding "Its not that bad. Im still alive." This behavior represents a slight sense of selfishness in the Pharaoh. If he is in fact selfish than he will never agree to let the Israelites go and sacrifice to their god without something happening directly to him. If this is true then by the end of the tenth plague i believe that something will happen concerning the Pharaoh directly. In conclusion i believe that God sends the plagues to make the statement "i am the almighty one and i can kill and save whoever i want".
ReplyDelete2) I think that the only reason that god is acting so harshly with these plagues, is because he realizes that he has overlooked the israelites in the past and he knows that he must now help them. The seven plagues are all very harsh, and God knows to fix his guilt he must help the israelites escape as fast as possible. God is also trying to demonstrate his strength to one the pharaoh, i think that because god wants to show the pharaoh that he isn't the most powerful person in the world. Sure the pharaoh can torture a group of israelites, but go can end an entire civilization at the flick of a finger.
ReplyDelete3. Pharaoh says that he will let the Israelites go if Moses removes certain plagues, but once Moses has taken away the frogs or the flies, Pharoah doesn't let the Hebrew people go after all. Comment.
ReplyDelete"When needed, it's grateful, but once its not needed, it's useless and abandoned." I'm not sure where this quote comes from, and I don't know if it really fits into what I'm trying to explain but I think its somewhat related at least. So basically, I think that when Pharaoh was in the situation where he really needed to give up the Hebrews because of the plague, he said that he'll give them up. But as soon as the plague went away, he changed his mind. He was just talking about letting the Hebrews go just because he was in a bad situation, but after the bad situation ended he thought there was no longer a reason to do so.
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ReplyDeleteIn Exodus 5-9, God sends many plagues upon Egypt in order to convince the Pharoah that Moses is indeed a God. This is very interesting, for God could have just killed the Pharoah, therefore setting the Hebrews free. However, he chose to send the plagues instead. I believe that this shows the sense of right verses wrong once again, for God could have spent much less time trying to convince the Pharoah that Moses was a god, and allow more time for the Hebrews to firgure where they would like to go, and finding a new ruler for Egypt. This would have been more selfish for God, for it would have been more work, and that is why the fact that God did not just kill the Pharoah right away shows his kindness, and his understanding of right verses wrong. Thus concludes my thoughts and ideas about why God sent plagues rather than killing the Pharoah.
By: Rachel Friedman
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ReplyDelete2) God sent many plagues to Egyptian, such as the river changes into the blood or the frogs from the other place and covers the whole Egypt. When I was reading Exodus 5-9, generally I thought that God gave the Pharaoh alot of opportunities to stop what he was doing(giving Hebrews more work and seperating Moses and Hebrews, not let them go) but the Pharaoh ignores it. So the God was mad and sent many plagues. At first He sent them a plague the whole river changes to the blood so the Egyptians couldn't drink and eat. But the Pharaoh ignored it. And so God sent little bit stronger plagues, but again, Pharaoh ignored it. And this pattern cycled few times more and later the thier livestocks died and also many of people died(I read little bit more). So my answer is, God gave the plagues because He wanted to give the Pharaoh many opportunities to follow and obey Him.
ReplyDelete