Exodus 9:8-10:20

I gotta give it straight: it's late.  I've been doing a LOT today (stripping wallpaper, going to family gatherings, trying to keep my daughter happy, and uploading pictures, just to name a few.  I didn't mention the laundry...).  I have lots of thoughts tumbling in my head about today's reading, but I don't know if I can make them make sense.  So, here's a couple in no special order:

• Note that the boils only hit the Egyptians and the magicians.  The Israelites were spared.
• Notice that those among Pharaoh's people who feared the Lord marked what Moses said and took their servants and their animals inside to protect them from the hail.  Already by this time Egyptians were beginning to fear the Lord and acknowledged His power.  But how many acknowledged His Sovereignty and His dominion?  That's different than acknowledging power.
•  That hail must have been some kind of awful to produce such destruction!  We here in Kansas know the power of hail, but still, while it might damage a crop, it hasn't always completely destroyed it.  
• The hail has damaged the flax and the barley.  It has also struck down what little remaining livestock there were after the plague on the livestock themselves.  Now, locusts are coming to eat what is left in the fields!  This would have been incredibly devastating ecologically, agriculturalist, and financially for Egypt!  First, a drought likely came becuase the Nile was turned to blood.  Secondly, the livestock are struck so they are limiting the amount of work that can be done because of their absence.  Hail is the first plague to directly strike crops, but then locusts come to eat them up.  Would there have been anything left by the final plagues?
• Pharaoh did a fakey: he actually acknowledged that he had sinned and was in the wrong, but was only willing to do so while the hail lasted.  Once the problem was over, he went back to his original stance with a hard heart and a hard head.  He did it again with the locusts.  As long as things were bad, Pharaoh was willing to admit he needed God.  When things were fine again, he changed his tune.  Know anyone like that?  Are you like that?

That's about as far as I can go.  My eyes are crossing and I can barely spell (though Spellcheck seems to have it even worse, as it couldn't recognize "directly" with the "i" and "r" interposed).

Tomorrow's Reading: Exodus 10:21-12:30