A Meaningful Story

Meaningful Image

For my meaningful image, I chose the plague on the firstborn from Exodus 11-12.

Exodus 11-12 describes the plague on the firstborn which the lord casts upon the people of Egypt. It depicts the celebration of the Passover and the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. However, the means to this end are also depicted, those means being the death of every firstborn in Egypt “…from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill…” It is a religious image that portrays both the grace and the wrath of god.

This is a religious image not just because it is in the Bible, but because it represents the nature of God.

Exodus 11:5-7:

And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.

And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.

But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.

These 3 verses exemplify the will and nature of the lord towards the Egyptians and the Israelites. He cast the plague among the Egyptians, but does not do the same unto the Israelites. This is a good example of the Christian teaching of “God is just” in this case being that god promised Moses freedom and delivered. However, one could also argue that since he only killed the firstborn of the Egyptians, that this violates that same teaching. The argument being that since god favoured the Israelites over the Egyptians, his actions are not justified.

The reason that this plague changed the pharaoh’s judgment more than any of the previous plagues is that the previous plagues didn’t affect the pharaoh much. The pharaoh wouldn’t have cared much about hail or locusts because he would be safe inside his palace with shelter and warehouses of full food. It would’ve been the peasants that bore most of the brunt from the other plagues. When the last plague came, it affected him personally and created a harsher reality for him to live with. An example of this was in WW2 when America was only supplying weapons to the British as opposed to fighting. Then when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, it created a bigger response then the Invasion of Poland, Hungary and France because, it affected them directly. You could say that the ignorance of the pharaoh allowed his enemies to plan and exploit his weak points.

Of course, all of this analysis could be completely irrational and that the only reason that this story is in the Bible is that it would explain how the Israelites came from Egypt to Cannon. The scribes that wrote the Bible may have thought that a pharaoh simply freeing the Jews wouldn’t be a very compelling story about god. One must remember that during that time many people were illiterate so the Bible would have been told verbally, and like most