This is belated, I know. I could again blame it on a sick baby, the fact that I have to share the internet, and that I myself fell asleep on the couch last night at 8:00. It would all be true; I just wish there had been ten more, no two more minutes, yesterday so I could get on and accomplish this. I'm finding more and more that it is important for me to get on here and at least acknowledge that I did my reading. It's not that I want to check it off my list, but that I truly want to accomplish this.
Yesterday we had Moses first confrontation with Pharaoh. Anyone else think Pharaoh sounded scared? Arrogant, definitely, but maybe under that imperious bravada, maybe he was running a little scared. The Bible says in earlier chapters that the Israelites had become numerous; they were enslaved because they were seen as a threat. Now, Pharaoh has building projects riding on the backs of the slaves (or "servants"), as well as who knows what else they might have used Israelites in service for. What if this great and mighty nation left to worship their God... and never came back. Maybe he was more savvy than we give him credit for. But he immediately grinds them down and makes excuses for doing it, claiming they are lazy, that they are idle, they have too much time. Why else would they want to worship their god, right? Does this not really compute with anyone else? I'm not so convinced that it was because Pharaoh was foolish, than that he was scared. Or that his stubbornness before God was so much that he was a dumb fool as he was a scorning and mocking fool (Proverbs, yes, it rocks). Those kinds of fools aren't stupid; it's something else entirely.
Regardless, there was a bit of a warning in Moses and Aaron's words to Pharaoh: let us go, lest God rain down pestilence and curses upon "us". And by "us", we mean this land. Ah, poor Pharaoh, if he thinks they were talking about the Israelites. And that's exactly what follows, isn't it? Pestilence and plagues and things that would have destroyed the Presidency of Egypt had been a democracy.
Today's Reading: Exodus 6:13-7:24
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