A slave to slavery

 Welcome to the Daily Bible Chapter. My name is James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as we discover new insights and new perspectives from a very old book.

EXODUS 9

I'm reading Young's Literal Translation (YLT) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Pharaoh's "this would have happened anyway" position starts to waver in this chapter, but ultimately prevails.

There are oddities to these interactions between Pharaoh and the two brothers, Moses and Aaron. The brothers aren't imprisoned, let alone executed. Instead, they have seemingly easy access to Pharaoh. It could be that Moses, having once been part of the court of a previous Pharaoh, had special rights and privileges. Perhaps Pharaoh didn't have arbitrary, dictatorial power to do or detain and kill whomever he wanted.

(But, because Pharaoh, like previous Pharaohs mentioned in the Bible so far, isn't identified by name, I think it's safe to assume we're not reading history here.) 

Imagine an alcoholic hearing an inner voice, "the LORD," saying "free yourself so that you may live long and prosper" but the ego, Pharaoh, denies the request. The inner voice says, "You'll lose your job and income." Then, "you'll lose your spouse." Then, "you'll lose your children." Then, "you'll get pulled over for DUI and lose your license." 

After each catastrophe, however, there is just enough of a safe landing spot where you can point the finger at someone else and refuse to see the alcohol for the problem that it is.  

In this story, Pharaoh is addicted to slavery; you could say he's a slave to slavery. The anaology isn't perfect, because there isn't a direct cause-and-effect relationship of Hebrew slavery and the plagues as there is, for example, alcohol and the breakup of a family. But Pharaoh knows he's in the wrong and won't let go.

James Leroy Wilson writes Daily Miracles, The Daily Bible Chapter, JL Cells, and The MVP Chase. Thanks for your subscriptions and support!