Exodus 10-13

It begins with God explaining why God hardened the hearts of Pharaoh and his ministers. The reason - so Moses may tell his children and grandchildren about how God dealt harshly with the Egyptians, performed wonders, and that they may that God is the Lord.

It still seems like it might be unfair. The Egyptian people are innocent, yet had to live with the plagues - including physical pain, hail from the sky, and soon, the loss of their firstborn. Are they not pawns in this chess match between Moses/God v. Pharaoh. That's a difficult question, but it is not too entirely different from what happens 40 years later in Canaan. Compared to that, the Egyptians a getting off easy. Also, the Egyptian populace are not entirely innocent, as they enslaved the Hebrews, including killing the male babies. Lastly, on a spiritual level which I have not fully discussed yet, this same Egyptian population worships Pharaoh. They have a chance to turn to the God of the Hebrews in all this, or even take refuge in Goshen but for as well can tell, they're sticking with their god, Pharaoh.

Another thought, if Pharaoh lost his complete free will at plague 7, after 6 times voluntarily hardening his heart, then it would seem God's decision to do plagues 7-10 would have already been made. At some point during plagues 1-6, God decided Pharaoh had enough chances and the punishment would be 10 total. Further, in between 7-8, God says the Israelites are to remember it. This seems that God already had in mind Passover and unleavened bread despite it being several plagues away. Finally, plagues 7-10 really leave Egypt crippled, so maybe they should be seen as one long plague to cripple the country after 6 lighter plagues where Pharaoh had voluntary chances avoid the nation getting completely hosed.

Moses and Pharaoh discuss the terms of avoiding the next plague.

Pharaoh: "You can take the men for the three day festival, but not the women or the children."

Moses: "No, it's all or nothing -all the people plus their animals."

Pharaoh: "you have bad intentions. This conversation is over."

It is not stated as such, but we reasonably believe that Pharaoh thinks that the three day festival is a rouse to just leave. It seems hat Pharaoh is softening up. Too bad the next few plagues are some of the worst.

The next plague - swarms of locusts come. They devour everything that the hail storm left standing. This would leave Egypt looking a lot like the desert regions on either side of the Nile. This would have completely destroyed Egypt economically, is all vegetation and hence, their food supply is gone. It might also put a complete work stoppage on the Hebrew construction projects as those required hay, which we can presume was affected by the locusts (it said that anything green was eaten, hay is not green, but comes from green things).

Pharaoh softens, but the Lord hardens his heart and we jump to plague nine - darkness. For three days, the land is pitch black. We don't hear much detriment this had other than people could not move around.

Pharaoh and Moses discuss the terms of leaving. Pharaoh has really softened up as he allows the entire Hebrew population to leave, but they cannot take their animals. This would make economic sense, for if the Egyptian grain supply has been decimated by locusts, the Israelite animals would make a secondary food supply until grain production resumes.

Moses' reply - no, the animals are needed for sacrifices. Pharaoh is now really mad and threatens to kill Moses should they see each other again. Surprisingly, Pharaoh waited until 9 plagues to do this.

The tenth and final is about to happen, but before it does, God lays out a lot of instructions for Moses which he must relay to the Hebrew. Everyone must take a goat or sheep, cook it entirely with its head and paws, partner up with neighbors if your household is too small. Then, put. its blood on the doorposts.

A few other details:

1. ask your Egyptian neighbors for gold and sliver. Remarkably, the Egyptians agreed to this as the Israelites were favorably disposed to the Egyptians.

2. For the carbs, we're eating unleavened bread.

3. Eat the meal fully dressed and wearing your walking sandals.

4. We will reenact this every year in remembrance of our flight from Egypt. The Passover lamb and unleavened bread stuck around, but the asking the neighbors for money, Passover goat, and blood on the doorposts aspects of this event did not.

After laying out all the details of what to do and how to remember it, God takes action. At midnight, God smites the firstborn male of people and animal alike in the land, unless there was blood on the doorposts. Those households were sparred.

There is massive crying. Pharaoh summons Moses and directs him to take their people and leave. They do. We can presume they left in haste in the middle of the night as they ate the meal with their shoes on and unleavened bread (bland, but hastily made).

Their initial trip: Ramses to Sukkoth, then from Sukkoth to Etham, a desert border region. God specifically chose course to avoid the Philistines because they might turn around if they faced war. So, God is taking them to the Red Sea for a crossing. This shows that Aquaman's parting of the Red Sea was God's plan, regardless of the Egyptian army's action.

Meanwhile, we also get a few more details about how to remember Passover and finally a timestamp - the Israelites were in Egypt for 430 years.

The are also bringing Joseph's bones for burial in Canaan. Therefore, Joseph's body has deteriorated. So, this means one of two things:

1. Joseph was not mummified, but simply buried.

2. Joseph was mummified, but his grave had been desecrated.