This itsy-bitsy chapter is the darkest and most haunting of any yet. The Egyptians have endured invasions of frogs and gross bugs; they’ve see their water turn to blood; their crops and livestock have been all but annihilated; and they’ve just experienced the spookiest, eeriest, creepiest three days of darkness unlike any craziness they’ve witnessed before. The Lord makes one last promise to pharaoh: now you will lose your first-born sons. We haven’t even seen it yet, but we know it’s coming. God spells it out plain and clearly. In the pitch-black dead of night at straight-up midnight, the Egyptians are going to get the fright of their lives when a great horrifying wail wakes them from their sleep. Not long after they are awakened – and probably scurrying to find their children and loved ones – they will discover that every single one of their first-born sons is dead. After that blow, as God calls it in verse 1, they will wander out to their pastures, or perhaps their servants will run to them with the report, and learn that they have lost even more of the precious remnants of livestock they’d managed to salvage from the rest of the plagues. All this the Egyptians had to endure because pharaoh would not relent.
Writing prompt: editorial
If you were a citizen of Egypt during this time, what would you think of the pharaoh? Verse 3 says that God caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the Israelites and that Moses, despite his past reputation and background, was well respected among Egyptian officials. Write an editorial (opinion piece based on fact) about pharaoh. Remember all editorials state a problem, are backed by fact and contain a proposed resolution (or at least the beginnings of one).
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