Day 32: Cattle, Boils, and Hail

 Today's readings: Exodus 9, Leviticus 7, and Psalm 49.

I. The next Fifth Plague strikes Egypt: "all the cattle of the Egyptians died," but not those of the Israelites (9:1-7). You'd think that Pharaoh would have been moved by this, but what must have seemed like an attack on his false god of Apis, made sure that he wasn't, and "he did not let the people go."

With the Sixth Plague, "boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt," this did nothing to shake the pigheadedness of Pharaoh (9:8-12). I suppose he was too enthralled with the false goddess Sekhmet.

Moses then went to Pharaoh and gave him God's message that He could have wiped out all Egyptians through pestilence, but He did not; Pharaoh was still "exalting yourself against my people and would not let them go" (9:13-17). He was warned that a great hailstorm "shall come down upon every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home, and they shall die" (9:18-19). No hail fell upon where the Israelites lived, of course, and Pharaoh was moved briefly to sue for peace with Moses (9:20-33).

So all was good then, and everyone lived happily ever after, right?

No.

Spoiler alert: Pharaoh reneged yet again. You'd think that after the last couple of times, he would have learned his lesson. Nope. Not at all, and "the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the sons of Israel go" (9:34-35). You could say the false goddess Nut smiled at his persistent stubbornness.

The BIY Companion, Vol 1, has some good commentary on this:

When the Bible says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, this does not mean that God removed Pharaoh's free will or caused his heart to harden. God is like the sun. In the heat of the sun, wax melts but clay hardens. If our hearts are like wax, they will soften in God's presence, but if they are like clay, they will harden. (p. 72)

II. In Leviticus chapter 7, more specific laws are given for the guilt and peace offerings. Most significantly, for Jewish dietary restrictions, animal fat and blood are strictly prohibited (7:22-27).

III. Psalm 49 is a wisdom psalm. As the Ignatius Bible notes:

It is a call to attention for all people (49:1-2) to gain wise instruction about life and the laws that govern it (49:3). At issue is whether God or wealth is the most secure basis for our trust. Since death robs men of riches (49:16-17), and God alone can ransom from death (49:15), fear of the wealthy is rejected (49:16) and trust in worldly belongings is exposed as "foolish confidence" (49:13). Death comes to all, wise and foolish, rich and poor (49:10). (p. 871)

All this on wisdom reminds me of some of Job and Proverbs that I've been recently reading.

 That's it for today!