https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=Z4Jf4QmMlg0
It’s interesting to notice that when the magicians are doing the plagues, it’s funny that they just reproduce the plague which is causing them harm. Instead of healing the plague, right, they’re not stopping the plague, they’re just showing that they can do the same. And so they’re actually increasing the plague through their magic rather than stopping it. Because you’ll see, right, in the story of Exodus, you’ll see places where the Israelites have issues, and God solves their issues, like he helps them. It’s not like the, you know, I don’t know, the snakes in the desert biting the Israelites, and it’s like, oh, this is a sign from God, so Moses shows how he can make snakes also bite the Israelites. No, it’s like God is healing them. But here the magicians just repeat the same magic, and ultimately harming their own land at the same time. So it’s very interesting to see that. This is Jonathan Pageot, welcome to the Symbolic World. Hello everyone. As you can see, I am not in my usual place. I am actually right now with Jordan Peterson and The Daily Wire recording the second part of the Exodus series. As you know, The Exodus series has been, Daily Wire has been putting it out for the past few months, I guess, coming out episode by episode. And they told me, to my surprise, that it is their most popular special, and it has been watched by at least two-thirds, maybe more of their, I think, I think that’s about two-thirds, maybe even three-fourths of their subscribers, which is pretty astounding. And so I’m pretty excited to be doing the second part of this. And in the meantime, we are going to do our own look at The Exodus. We are at chapter five. I’m going to start with the return of Moses and Aaron to the Pharaoh, meeting with him, the Pharaoh’s resistance, ultimately leading to the Ten Plagues. I know the Ten Plagues are very mysterious for people, and so hopefully this will be helpful for people to realize, to see what’s going on. So before we start, a few things people need to know that it might be hard for you to know if you’re not following me very carefully. The Q&A that I used to do every month was difficult to manage and kind of chaotic, and we didn’t know how to do it. And so at least for now, we’ve decided to do it for Patreon only, just to make it more intimate and so that people can engage more. I really would like to be able to engage with the people, but when it was time to do it, I was really excited to do it. So for now, we’re doing it for a subscriber only. As you might have noticed, I have a new website. We’re working on a new brand, but the website is broken, and we’re working like mad, like crazy to fix it for you guys. And by the end of January, we hope by the end of January, we will have everything together. Subscribers will be able to subscribe and get all their material. Everything will be back to normal. But for now, if you want to get started, subscribe to the channel, and I’ll see you in the next video. If you want to access Patreon subscriber only video, sadly, the only way to do it properly is to support me on Patreon, rather than through the website. On Patreon, everything is there, all the videos, everything is available. And hopefully by the end of the month, this will be true as well on the website. Another great thing that’s happening is that God’s Dog is out for people to buy. Sadly, those in Europe that supported me on Indiegogo still have not gotten their books. Don’t worry, we are working like mad again to get this to happen. We had serious legal problems. For some reason, the UK refused our VAT application, and so we were scrambling to find new solutions. But don’t worry, you’ll get your books. And for all the others, if you haven’t gotten it, it’s now time to go to godsdog.com and order it. All right, so now let’s dive into the Exodus. So chapter 5. After Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, This is what the Lord the God of Israel says, Let my people go, so they may hold a festival to be in the wilderness. Now this is really important, and I might have mentioned this before, is that it’s not just that the Israelites are supposed to go, you know. And this is something which will be seen all through the books of Exodus. It’s not just about freedom, which some people sometimes want to weaponize Exodus to talk about freedom. It is about freedom, but it’s not just freedom. It’s freedom from the tyrant. In order to serve a higher purpose. And so it’s free, you know, leaving the Pharaoh, going to the wilderness to worship God. That is what they’re asking the Pharaoh. And in some ways, that is why it is so dangerous for the Pharaoh. Because the Pharaoh wants the Israelites to just be, you know, a tool of his power. He wants the Israelites to be reduced to potential for his means. And if they now go out and worship the God of the Hebrews, at least the way it’s presented in this case, it is dangerous for him. Because it will consolidate them as a people. And it will become something like a challenge to his authority over them. And the Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go. Then they said, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword. But the King of Egypt said, Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work. And Pharaoh said, look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working. The same day Pharaoh gave his order, this order to the slave drivers and overseers, in charge of the people. You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks. Let them go and gather their own straw, but require them to make the same number of bricks as before. Don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy. That is why they are crying out, let us go and sacrifice to our God. Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies. And so here we can see again what the Pharaoh is trying to do. He’s just trying to crush them and to make them cogs in his machine, make them work for him and not have them pay attention to what he says are lies, but not pay attention to what Moses is calling them to do, not pay attention to worshiping God and transforming their allegiance in that way. And it’s interesting because he says, I do not know God. I do not know the Lord. I’m not connected to your God. I don’t care about that. I just want, I will be your God. He doesn’t say that, but it’s like, I am your God. You do what I say. I don’t want you to worship something else beside me. And so what’s interesting, and so then he basically says that he will, that he will remove the straw from the bricks and now they will have to get their own straw to make the bricks. Interestingly enough, Saint Gregory of Nyssa has a very, very powerful image of what it is that’s going on in this. And I think that he captures half of the symbolism of what is happening. So Saint Gregory of Nyssa says that the Israelites, you know, kind of bending over and gathering clay in order to make bricks has something to do with death. Or, you know, we are made out of clay, out of earth and water. That is like the stuff that makes us up. And so the idea that the Israelites kind of go down and gather the clay is for him an image of, you know, going back down into the lower things, into the desires, into the passions, into the things that, you know, he imagines the mold of the bricks where you take the clay, you put it into the bricks and then it empties and you do it again and it’s like this cyclical thing where you’re constantly making bricks, but you’re never finished. And so this idea of being a slave of desire and the desires kind of turning around and around is the image that he finds in that. And even more fascinatingly enough, at the end of his interpretation, he says that the straw is the chaff. The chaff that will be burned at the end in the fire. And so he sees these two things that are brought together to make the bricks as clay in the sense of this kind of wet, unformed things that are inside us like our desires, but then also these works that are useless that will be burned away by the fire. And so very fascinating. And it captures, I think, half of the symbolism because the other half has to do with the Tower Babel. The idea of taking clay and straw and making bricks is something which the other place in scripture where this is referenced is in the Tower Babel. And I think that this is to link these bricks and the making of these bricks to the tyranny of the Tower Babel and to the excess of unity that the Tower Babel represented. And the Pharaoh now becomes an image of Nimrod and an image of a tyrant that imposes his order on the people. And so you kind of have these two extremes, which is the extreme of licentiousness and breakdown and chaos and also the extreme of tyranny of the Tower Babel at the same time. If you follow my work, you’ll notice that I often try to show how often these two opposites appear together. These two extremes of civilization and of chaos with ultimately the image of that, of course, being the whore riding the beast in the Revelation. But the idea that these two things are related is important if you want to understand these stories. Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, this is what the Pharaoh says, I will not give you any more straw. Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all. So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble for use for straw. The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, complete the work required for you for each day, just as when you had straw. And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers. They had appointed demanding, why haven’t you met your quota for bricks yesterday or today as before? And so this idea of them gathering stubble, I think is important in understanding also the gathering of clay. In some ways, they really are at the bottom of the world, gathering all this residue, gathering all this stuff that’s unformed. That’s their job. And they’re trying to bring it together in order to become in some ways the support for Pharaoh’s authority and Pharaoh’s kingdom. Then the Israelites went and appealed to Pharaoh, why have you treated your servants this way? Your servants are given no straw, yet we’re told, make bricks. Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people. Pharaoh said, lazy that you are, lazy. That is why you keep saying, let us go sacrifice to the Lord. Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks. The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, you are not to reduce the number of bricks required for you for each day. When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them. And they said, may the Lord look on you and judge you. You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials have put a sword in their hand to kill us. Now another important thing to understand in this text is that it is in some ways also secretly you could say, or in a hidden way referring to the Sabbath, I’m pretty sure. Because there is in some sense an excess of work. And so the Israelites are asking the Pharaoh to let them set aside a time to worship their God and to stop their work. And the Pharaoh is saying, no, you must work and you cannot rest. You cannot rest from your work. And if you want to rest, I’m actually going to increase your work and I’m going to subsume you under work. And so you have to understand that in relationship to the six days of creation, and the number six in general, if you followed a little bit my interpretation of the symbolism of 666 and this idea of perfection of creation or excess of perfection in the world of work and of creation and a refusal to have the Sabbath and the day of rest, which is set aside, which is both rest, but also at the same time set aside for God as a holy thing. So this is also what’s going on. And so this will it’s also pointing to the commandment which are coming, which will highly emphasize the idea of the Sabbath as being important to the normal cycle of things. Moses returned to the Lord and said, why Lord have you brought trouble to this on this people? Is this why you have sent me ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name? He has brought trouble on this people and you have not rescued your people at all. Then the Lord said to Moses, now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh because of my mighty hand, he will let them go because of my mighty hand, he will drive them out of his country. God also said to Moses, I am the Lord, I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord, I did not make myself fully known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan where they resided as foreigners. Wherever I have heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are enslaving and I have remembered my covenant. So it’s interesting because what you’re seeing in some ways is that God in some ways, the hardening of the Pharaoh’s heart and the fact that the Pharaoh is persecuting you is going to play a role in me revealing myself more fully. So he said by my mighty hand he will let them go and then he switches and said, I didn’t reveal my name to the patriarchs and I am revealing my name which is being itself, which is I am, to you at this moment. And so there’s an interesting sense in which through the slavery, although the slavery wasn’t good, through the tyranny, through all of this is forged something which will ultimately as the arc of the story manifests itself will reveal the name of the Lord and the people of God ultimately. Therefore say to the Israelites, I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians and I will bring you to the land I swear with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord. So here we see again the same extension of what I just said which is before they entered into Egypt they were not a people. They were a family. They were you know 12 sons of Jacob but now they have become a people. In the foreign land they have they have multiplied and have become not yet a people. They’ve kind of become the at least they’ve multiplied and now God has to pull them out of the tyranny in order to form them as a people and reveal his name in those in that people. So it’s a gathering of a body right. This body now it tends up to God becomes a people but it also reveals the higher part in in them as well and so all of that goes together and functions together. Moses reported this to the Israelites but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. Then the Lord said to Moses go tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country. When Moses said to the Lord the Israelites will not listen to me why would Pharaoh listen to me since I speak with faltering lips. So the rest of the chapter is actually a genealogy and so I will not read the entire genealogy but what I will note mention to you is just one little part of the genealogy which is a surprising part starting at verse 20. It says Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years. This is important because in the story of Aaron and Moses there is what in the law would be considered incest and so you know it’s very important to see that you know if you listen to what Matthew said interestingly you know with Jordan Peterson you really nailed it in terms of explaining this is that there’s a the question one of the questions in scripture is about who is the stranger that loves you that’s the way I think that Metsir phrased it that is what how far can you engage with otherness or with something else without losing yourself and finding the right the right the right binding you could say and so here you see something like a relationship which is too close but is also at the origin of of a new world you could say and so this is something that you see if you look at the pattern you’ll see that this relationship is there in many places where there is like a new beginning you’ll see what people ask that question about Adam and Eve right they say how does that work like how is it that you know the children of Adam and Eve who were they marrying and the answer is that they’re marrying their sisters you know but you’ll see that at every place where there’s like a major transition of world you know Abraham is married to his sister Lot had children with his daughters and there you see it very clearly because it’s like at the end of the world you know Sodom and Gomorrah is destroyed it feels like everything is done and then the restarting is a relationship that is too close and there are many versions of that and now again in the version of Moses and Aaron they are the result of someone marrying their father’s sister and so it is a kind of confused beginning it’s like a little circular thing which restarts or kind of re-jumps the symbolism and so this is something which for Christians will actually be brought all the way into Christian symbolism in ways that sometimes people don’t notice and it’s in some ways it will be rectified because it won’t be scandalous the way that it’s scandalous in the Bible stories but in the imagery of the mother of God you will find that the mother of God represents in her own symbolism both the mother of Christ but also the bride of Christ now it does not imply in any way an improper relationship between Christ and his mother as they were both virgins but what it does is it takes the symbolism of the relationship of a kind of very close relationship where she’s at the same time as mother and his bride and it elevates it in a way that avoids the scandal but helps you understand the symbolism of a new beginning or something that is both the end and the beginning at the same time so this symbolism is very important and we’ll see later in Exodus how the question of the wife and the wife that’s too close or the wife that’s too far will appear in different places and of course in the rest of the Bible many stories about that whether it’s Solomon who had too many strange wives there are all kinds of versions of this story of how it is the idea of finding the proper the proper the proper potential the proper body with which to engage all right so then the Lord said to Moses see I’ve made you like God to Pharaoh and your brother Aaron will be your prophet you are to say everything I command to you and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to tell the Israelites go out of this country but I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt he will not listen to you then I will lay my hand on Egypt and my with mighty acts of judgments I will bring out my divisions my people the Israelites and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded him Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 when they spoke to Pharaoh that’s crazy that they were so old we often can’t don’t imagine it of that old but yeah pretty wild and so again we see this subsidiarity we see how in some ways God is already setting up this interesting hierarchy you know that it’s like you are be like God to Pharaoh and Aaron will be your prophet it’s similar to when God said to to Moses I will be your God and you know you will be Aaron’s God it’s very similar to this you know it’s like setting up a fractal version of the normal hierarchy of being it’s like a little version of the way in which it works at a higher level so it’s just interesting to see that happening and being repeated over and over and so then I will I will skip part of this last little part of course it’s the story it’s the same story at the beginning now we see it played out the snakes become rods the rods become snakes and the rods of Moses eat the rods of the Egyptians and so it’s interesting because people often think that it’s the snakes that the snakes ate the snakes of the others but it’s the rod that eats the the the staffs eat the snakes of the others and it’s like the structure that you know the vertical that Moses and Aaron is proposing the hierarchy that they’re proposing is shown to be superior than the Egyptian one and that is why it devours their staff it’s like it the other one gets subsumed into it and it’s funny because you could say you know that’s ridiculous right it’s like the idea that Egypt will be subsumed into Israel you know how silly is that and you know God plays the long game my friends and you know when the Egyptians converted to Christianity at the beginning of the Christian era you can imagine what kind of celebration there was in terms of understanding that the prophecy something the prophecy of something like the rod of Moses completely devouring the rod of the Pharaoh is it happened just took a while but it did completely happen in every single way and so it’s important to keep that in mind you know sometimes we biblical scholars will kind of mock these stories and say oh it’s just a bunch it’s a bunch of slaves in Egypt you know these little tribes in Egypt trying to play themselves off as if they’re better than the Egyptians and they’re just kind of bragging and and it’s it’s ridiculous the Egyptians have no record of this blah blah blah blah blah but then ultimately that’s what happens ultimately the Egyptians convert so uh so there you go all right and so we will move on to the plagues then the Lord said to Moses Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding he refuses to let the people go go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river confront him on the bank of the Nile and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake then say to him the Lord the God of the Hebrews has sent me to say to you let my people go so that they may worship me in the wilderness but until now you have not listened this is what the Lord says by this you will know that I am the Lord with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile and it will be changed into blood the fish in the Nile will die and the river will stink the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water the Lord said to Moses tell Aaron take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt over the streams and canals over the ponds and all the reservoirs and they will turn to blood blood will be everywhere in Egypt even in vessels of wood and stone Moses and Aaron did just as God had commanded he raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile and all the water was changed into blood the fish in the Nile died and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water blood was everywhere in Egypt the Egyptian magicians did the same thing by the secret arts Pharaoh’s heart became hard he would not listen to Moses and Aaron just as the Lord had said instead he turned and he went into his palace and did not take even this to heart and all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water because they could not drink the water from the river and so you can say in some ways the symbolism of the first plague seems to be related to the symbolism all the plagues together there’s some interesting Sanephram the Syrian in his commentary on Exodus makes some interesting statements about that and there’s a thing about how the Egyptians killed the Hebrew babies and through the Hebrew babies into the Nile and then the fish ate the Hebrew babies and he sees this as a beginning as almost like a redress of the situation where by changing the water to blood then all the fish in the rivers died all those fish that ate the the babies the Hebrew babies so it’s an interesting image that he brings about but ultimately it has to do with kind of saturation you know moving from water which is something like no identity right or something like you know like purity of identity you could say and then moving I know not purity it’s something like lack of identity and then the other one blood which is something like saturation of identity which is something like you know the fully human liquid you could say maybe that’s the best way to understand it and so you know we drink water we don’t drink blood of course not that’s the that’s the thing you wouldn’t do and so you move from one to the other right from the primordial liquid to let’s say the created the final the most human liquid you could say but and it also has to do with death of course it has to because obviously if blood is outside your body it is related in many ways to death but ultimately I think I mentioned this in the last video it for Christians at least we have to understand that this is pointing us straight to the wedding of Cana straight to Christ changing water into wine and it can actually help us understand the wedding of Cana because at the wedding of Cana Christ immediately knows when his mother asks him to change to provide wine he understands that by changing water into wine he will lead to the death of the firstborn and that’s why it’s so weird that’s why he says my time has not yet come and so here in the plagues of Egypt that is what is now starting is that you know by changing the river of the Nile to blood the place where the Hebrew babies were thrown we are already hinting at the death of the firstborn which is coming the interesting thing way to understand the the plagues is to really see them structurally so we’re going to go through the plagues and and we’re going to start to see that there’s an actual structure in the way that the plagues are set up and it has something to do with an undoing of the world all right and so seven days passed after the Lord struck the Nile then the Lord said to Moses go to Pharaoh and say to him this is what the Lord says let my people go so that they may worship me if you refuse to let them go I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country the Nile will team with frogs they will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed into your houses on your officials onto your people and into your ovens of kneading throats the frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials and the Lord said to Moses tell Aaron stretch out your hand with your strap over the streams and canals and ponds and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt so Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt the frogs came up and covered the land but the magicians did the same by their secret arts they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt someone pointed out to me recently I think I saw it in a video that it’s interesting to notice that when the magicians are doing the plagues it’s funny that they just reproduce the plague which is causing them harm and that instead of healing the plague right they’re not stopping the plague they’re just showing that they can do the same and so they’re actually increasing the plague through their magic rather than than stopping it because you’ll see right in the story of Exodus you’ll see places where the the the Israelites have issues and God solves their issues like he helps them it’s not like the you know I don’t know the snakes are in the desert are biting the Egyptians they’re biting the Israelites and it’s like oh this is a sign from God so Moses shows that he can make snakes also bite the Israelites no it’s like God is healing them but here the magicians just repeat the same magic in and ultimately harming their own land at the same time so it’s very interesting to see that and so but what’s interesting you can start to see the structure and I’m going to tell you what it is you’re going to start to see it is that it’s an undoing of the world from below moving above and so you know creation manifests itself from heaven down to earth and now what we’re seeing is things you know the the water turning into blood and then out of this water coming frogs now the frogs are hybrids they’re amphibians they are monsters ultimately because they live both on earth and in water and this is how Saint Gregor Mnisa sees it he sees the frogs as these this like half-formed creature this monster that that is in between water and earth and so because of that represents also all these things from below all our passions all these desires that we have that are kind of rising up and taking over all the aspects of Egyptian life and so it’s important because it says the frogs infect every aspect of the world from the private to the public you know from food making to the official to the very hierarchy so you can imagine with the water turning into blood it’s kind of bubbling and then out come the frogs and the frogs start to infect parasitically everything that the entire structure of the Egyptians so Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord Moses said to Pharaoh I leave you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your house may be rid of the frogs except for those that remain in the Nile tomorrow said Pharaoh Moses replied it will be as you say so that you may know that there’s no one like the Lord your God the frogs will leave you and your houses your officials and your people they will remain only in the Nile they will be they will return to the waters and now they will be contained in waters it’s important that the way it’s presented is that they’re coming out of the waters right they’re kind of coming out of the chaos coming out of this lower reality and now moving up and so you know Moses says I’m going to now re put them back in the lower waters they’ll be contained by the Nile after Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh Moses cried out to the Lord and the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh and the Lord did when Moses asked the frogs died in the houses in the courtyards and in the fields they were piled into heaps and the land reeked of them but when Pharaoh saw that there was relief he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron just as the Lord had said and the piling of frogs into heaps is important as well there’s a difference in the Bible between a mountain or a hierarchy and a heap a heap is like a fake it’s like a mound of something but it’s like a chaotic mound it doesn’t have order right it’s not a properly ordered thing so it’s like a mass of chaos which is heaped together so this idea of heaping things dead things heaping dead things is an image which contrasts to the notion of a normal proof you know a normal hierarchy of procession from from a structure of course the Pharaoh does not listen you know the story he will reiterate that at every single plague where he at first says he will do it and then he hardens his heart or his heart is hardened all right and so the Lord said to Moses tell Aaron stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats they did this and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground gnats came on people and animals all the dust through the land of Egypt became gnats but when the magicians tried to produce gnats the secret arts they could not since the gnats were on people and animals everywhere the magician said to Pharaoh this is the finger of God but Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not listen just as the Lord had said and so here interestingly in terms of structure right out of the water came the frogs in the creation narrative what comes out of the water dry gland is pulled out of the water and so now we’re like a little higher and now we have another type of chaos which is the different from the water but which is dust you know like fragmented broken little pieces you know that’s the dust that is gathered to make Adam but now the dust out of the dust comes these parasites these insects which now start to infect everything in in the land I’ll be honest with you I don’t totally understand why it is that the Pharaoh’s magicians can’t reproduce this miracle I mean if you have some insights put them in the comments I will definitely be looking to read to get a sense if you can understand why you think that this particular miracle the Pharaoh’s magicians cannot reproduce and why it is said that this particular one is the finger of God then the Lord said to Moses get up early in the morning and confront the Pharaoh as he goes to the river and say to him this is what the Lord says let my people go so that they may worship me if you do not let my people go I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials on your people and on your houses the houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies even the ground will be covered with them but on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen when my where my people live no swarms of flies will be there so that you will know that I the Lord am in this land I will make a distinction between my people and your people this sign will occur tomorrow the Lord did this dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his officials throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies then Pharaoh summoned Egypt and Aaron and said go sacrifice your God here in the land and Moses said that would not be right sacrifices we offer the Lord our God would be detestable to the Egyptians and if we offer sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes they will they not stone us we must make a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God as he commanded us so what’s important to understand again now as you can see it right it’s like frogs these gnats out of the dust so now these flies they’re they don’t seem to come out of the ground but they you know they are kind of mid mid section they land on things they land on all the the objects and they ruin everything and so it’s just like one step higher you’ll see like the whole thing is kind of like moving up towards the heavens kind of consuming the entirety of creation and of course this is the the first place where it says that the land where the where the Israelites were Goshen is set aside is protected right it’s it’s different from the Egyptians and so it becomes like a a preserved little ark through the through the plagues all right and so as Pharaoh agrees to let the agrees again to let them go and Moses said he’ll pray for them and the flies will go away so we can kind of skip over that a little little fast we get to chapter 9 then the Lord said to Moses go to Pharaoh and say to him this is what the Lord the God of the Hebrews says let my people go so that they may worship me if you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back the hand of the Lord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field on your horses donkeys and camels on your cattle sheeps and goats the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt so now you have again now you have a plague on the animals right so think about it really as kind of moving up from from the water to these ambiguous monsters to the gnats little gnats then to the flies and now the animals you know that are a little always a little higher up start to die in the land and then of course the next plague is maybe i’m not going to read them i’m just going to go through the plagues and then the next plague is the plague of boils and so now finally what we have is something which affects the humans but the way it’s done the way in which we get to the moment when it affects the humans is well i will read it verse 8 then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have moses toss into the air in the presence of Pharaoh it will become fine dust over the land of Egypt and festering boils will break out and animal on people and animals throughout the land and so what is Moses doing he is taking residue right taking something like dust but it’s really like the residue from a fire this black ash and he is now making the transition up into the sky so until now we kind of have stuff coming out from below these parasites these insects then the death of these animals and now Moses takes that which is below throws it up into the sky and now we have something which affects the humans and we have a disease and from then on we’ll see that it’s going to kind of move up because now after the the plague of boils which is this transition up into the heavens now we have the hail and so now it’s a plague that’s coming down from from above and the hail comes down and it’s not just hail it’s like hail and fire and so it is in some ways the two pillars if you we haven’t seen them yet but you’ll see later in in exodus when god brings the Israelites out of out of the out of Egypt he protects them and he guides them with two pillars a pillar of water pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire and those two kind of separate are like the two columns right mercy and rigor the two columns that we find all through all through scripture these two opposites that hold like the two the the two columns of the temple and so this these these are the two pillars but now what happens is because the world is being undone these two pillars are mixed together and so fire and hail are mixed together the the water and fire is mixed together and this is what is bringing about the destruction imagine something like Samson that takes the two columns and then crushes them together and that’s how he destroys his enemy well here it’s very similar to that the two columns of water and fire are being brought together and mixed and that becomes an image of the undoing the undoing of the world so then the pharaoh you know says this time verse 27 says this time i have sinned he said to them the lord is right and i and my people are in the wrong pray to the lord for we have enough thunder and hail i will let you go you don’t have to stay any longer so moses says that he will again stop the the hail and the fire so there are some details i don’t want to get into all the details some of them are also a little bit difficult to understand that i even on myself i i struggle to understand that clearly has meaning still need to think about so of course when pharaoh sees this he hardens his heart he sins again you know this is inevitable and so now we have the plague of locusts and the way it’s represented listen carefully that the lord said to moses go to pharaoh for i’ve hardened his heart and the heart of his officials so that i may perform these signs of mine along among them you may tell your children and grandchildren how i dealt harshly with the egyptians and how i perform my signs among them and i’m going to tell you that you may know that i am the lord so moses and erin went to pharaoh and said this is what the lord the god of the hebrew says how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me let my people go so that they may worship me if you refuse to let them go i will bring locusts into your country tomorrow they will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen they will devour what little you have left after the hail including every tree that is growing in your fields it will fill your houses and all of your and of all your officials and and the egyptians something neither your parents nor your ancestors have ever seen from the day they settled in this land until now pharaoh’s officials said to him how long will this man be a snare to us let the people go so that they may worship the lord their god do you not realize that egypt is ruined so then most and erin were brought back to pharaoh go worship your god and he said but tell me who will be going so moses says we will go with our young and our old and our sons and our daughters and with our flocks and our herds everybody is going now of course pharaoh you know pharaoh’s not completely stupid he also knows that what’s going on you know it’s not like it you have to be able to read the story both ways it’s like the pharaoh knows that if you go everybody their livestock all the people they’re not coming back right and and so he there’s he’s not completely insensible and you know i think that he should let the people go but you know you can kind of put yourself in the place the pharaoh and think like oh you want to bring everybody all your things and all everything that you own uh like no if you do that obviously you’re not coming back and that ultimately in some ways interestingly enough is god’s plan for this he does not want israelite to come back so it’s interesting to think about it that way as well so he doesn’t want so he says no you know have only the men go and worship the lord since that is what you’ve been asking for so moses and erin were driven out of the pharaoh’s presence and so he the lord said to moses stretch out your hand over egypt so that locust swarm over the land devour everything growing in the fields everything left by the hail now then you wonder like why why locusts now it’s like okay so now it’s another insect that is coming we already have the flies already have the gnats like what’s the difference between the locusts but the way it’s described you’ll understand if you see the pattern of how it’s basically moving from the bottom of the world all the way up this is where you’ll see it because the way it’s described listen carefully so moses stretched out his staff over egypt and the lord made an east wind blow across the land that day and all that night and by morning the wind had brought locusts and so this is you have to remember that the the wind is the spirit there in the ancient hebrew thinking these are the same and so the lord made a spirit blow across the land and that spirit that wind brought locusts and so now we’re really in the air now we really are as if it’s the wind itself which is coming bringing these locusts with it from the east even and now will that is what will destroy the land of egypt so it is a heavenly phenomena that is being represented it’s different from the gnats that rose up out of the dust of the world to to do something similar but now it is really coming from above this wind that blows and is undoing creation verse 14 they invaded all egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers never before had there been such a plague of locusts nor will there ever be again they covered the ground until it was black they devoured all that was left after the hail everything growing in the fields and the fruit of the trees nothing green remained on tree or plant in the land of egypt and this is i think is also representing the manner in which heaven also can devour the world there are different versions of that when when things get unloosen when things start to hold together there are images of heaven devouring the earth usually a predatory bird is represented the idea of like a rapture that comes and takes but then also now as these locusts that can come in the spirit and land on the on the earth and just devour everything it’s all the way that it goes away is also to suggest the notion that this is a heavenly phenomena because finally of course pharaoh says i’ve sinned you know and he says take the plague away from me and moses praised to the lord verse 19 and the lord changed the wind to a very strong west wind which caught up the locusts and carried them into the red sea not a locust was left in egypt but the lord hardened pharaoh’s heart and he would not let the israelites go and so now you have like basically the wind carrying them and then dropping them into the the lower waters so then the lord said to moses stretch out your hand verse 21 toward the sky so that darkness spreads over egypt so now we have a really an undoing of the world right we are moving back before the light but now it is a plague of darkness it’s as if you know the the very first day of creation is being undone so stretch your hands over the sky so that darkness spread over egypt’s darkness that can be felt so moses stretched out his hand towards the sky and total darkness covered out egypt for three days three days it’s important to understand that there all of these things will culminate in the death of christ you know a lot of these images are culminating into the the story of christ no one could see anyone else or move about for three days yet all the israelites had light in the places where they lived so pharaoh turned to moses go worship the lord even your women and children may go with you but only leaves your flocks and herds behind and moses like no man he says you must allow us to have sacrifices and burnt offerings to present the lord or god our livestock must go with us not a hoof is to be left behind we have to use some of them in worship of the lord or god until we get there we will not know what we are to use to worship the lord but the lord hardened pharaoh’s heart and he was not willing to let them go pharaoh said to moses get out of my sight make sure do not appear before me again the day you will see my face you will die just as you say moses replied i will never appear before you again so now we get to the final plague now the lord said to moses i will bring one more plague on pharaoh and on egypt after that he will let you go from here and when he does he will drive you out completely tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold the lord made the egyptians favorably disposed towards the people and moses himself was highly regarded in egypt by pharaoh’s officials and by the people so moses said this is what the lord says and this is this this is idea plundering the egyptians which is important in the theological tradition which is uh in the theological tradition there’s this idea in the saint gregory of nyssa that egypt represents you know everything that is exterior so on the one hand it represents let’s say our passions it represents outer authority it represents but also represents something like science and knowledge and education and civilization itself you could say and so this is all the things that egypt represents what i kind of bound up into the symbolism of the garments of skin and so there’s a sense in which the church fathers say that we should plunder the egyptians that means that we should take from the sciences from wisdom from philosophy even from all the things pagan that which we can use in service of god and that so that we should leave behind into the waters you could say of the dead sea of not of the dead sea of the red sea we can leave behind in the in the waters of the red sea all of that of the pagan world and of the secular world and of civilization which is dangerous to us but with we can also gather into us and carry with us that which is good and so this is of course represented as the egyptian sister the egyptian mother the so ethiopian wife the the midianite wife all of these images of joining with the stranger and now the notion of plundering the egyptians has to do with this as well take what is good from the secular so a little we’ll get to it later but a little side note here to understand this is that the goal that they take from the egyptians and the stuff they take from the egyptians you have to understand that this gold and stuff is what will be used to make the tabernacle so it will be set you know in service of god but it’s also that which will be used to make the golden calf so you can see the two images of that which is taken from the stranger from civilization from this outer shell can be useful and in the service of god but then also can become the an idol if it is not dealt with properly and of course this is the the same with erin himself you know i presented in the last lecture about how erin is something like the helper uh this and he’s like an extension of moses you know moses is god to him and then he’s like the prophet to the people and then that extension has both sides you know erin ends up being the priest in the tabernacle he is like an ritualized and embodied expression of that which is invisible and so it’s necessary and good that he does that but then most erin is also the one who makes the golden calf and so the extension itself can be dangerous if it is not directed in the right if it’s not pointed in the right direction okay so this is what plundering the egyptian is related to at least in many of the church fathers so moses says this is what the lord says about midnight i will go throughout egypt every firstborn in egypt will die for the firstborn of pharaoh who sits on the throne to the firstborn son of the female slave who is at her hand mill and all the firstborn of the cattle as well there will be loud wailing throughout egypt worse than there has ever been or will ever be again but among the israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal then you will know that the lord makes a distinction between egypt and israel all these officials of yours will come to me bowing down before me saying go you and all the people who follow you after me that i will leave after that i will leave then moses hot with anger left pharaoh so what i think is i think we’re going to stop here because we’ve already been going for a while and the plague of the firstborn i think is crucial i think the plague of the firstborn and understanding the death of the firstborn and how it is embedded into the structure of the Passover sacrifice itself and how it is embedded into the structure of sacrifice just straight uh it’s going to be important to analyze and to understand and it will help us also understand you know the death of christ and what it is that why why is this the whole idea of the sacrifice of the firstborn like why is this so important what does it mean and how can it help us understand the way that reality lays itself out and so i hope that this has been useful everybody i hope you that you are enjoying this series on exodus i know i am it’s it is definitely one of my favorite books uh you know not the least because of saint gregor vanices life of moses being one of my favorite books and so i uh looking forward to continuing it and i and i hope that you have a chance to also check out the exodus series on daily wire so everybody talk to you very soon