The Structure of the Pentateuch

Notes for Wednesday night Bible Study October 21, 2009

The Book of Exodus and the meeting of God and Israel at Mount Sinai are significant events because they mark the beginning of the history of Israel as a people of faith. Before the call to journey into the wilderness was issued the focus of God’s relationship with persons centered on speaking to individual clans and persons.  At Mount Sinai this all changed. Now the reference is Israel as a nation that finds its unity in faith in Yahweh who forms them by a special call and a special way of life. The foundation is a single God and a single people. This unity made by God is indissoluble and forms the basis for a covenant of love.  This is all laid out by Yahweh to Moses at the burning bush (Ex. 3). Yahweh reveals His Name and His plan to save His people. The revelation of the sacred Name was new to Moses. The revelation of the sacred Name displays how God seeks to reach out to people, that is in a personal way. This revelation makes a new moment of grace in time.

Background of the plagues
The narration of the ten plagues developed over a period of some time within the oral tradition of the Hebrews. This time frame can be seen using the source theory of J,E,P,D. The J and E authors are responsible for eight plagues and the P source added two additional one (plagues 3 and 6 which are the gnats and the boils). In the J and E account Moses petitions Pharaoh over and over to let the people go and Pharaoh continues to refuse to listen and instead hardens his heart to God’s request. The plagues are a response to Pharaoh hardening his heart to God's will.

Plagues 3 and 6 are unique and added by the P source (priestly source) to stress the role of Aaron as priest and the nature of each plague as a sign of God's amazing transcending power. The first nine plagues are natural phenomena and can still occur in the area today.

The sign that is discovered is not found in the plagues themselves but in the control that God exercised over the whole series to bring about His plan.  The tenth and final plague stands apart. Here we see how death will be used by God to bring about man’s liberation and a new life. This is a foreshadowing of our Lord's life, death and resurrection.

The first nine plagues are arranged in three cycles.

The First Cycle
1. First Plague: Blood. Ex. 7:14-24. The first two plagues were shrugged off by Pharaoh as nothing more than his own court magicians could do.  The Nile River turned to blood. But it wasn't just the river; it was all the water in Egypt. Egyptians would take a drink from what they thought was clean water, and it would be blood. However, when an Israelite took water from the same source, it would remain water. The plague of blood was particularly distressing to the Egyptians because they worshiped the Nile.
2. Second Plague: Frogs. Ex. 8:1-15. The land of Egypt was overrun by frogs. There were frogs in the beds, frogs in the cupboards, frogs in the pots, even frogs in the oven. And whenever the Egyptians would hit a frog in order to kill it, the Midrash explains that the frog would split into two, producing even more frogs.
3. Third Plague: Gnats or Lice. Ex. 8:16-19. This plague started to get the attention of the court magicians. They said that “this is caused by the finger of God.” To initiate the third plague Yahweh commanded Aaron through Moses to hit the ground with his staff. The dust on the ground turned to lice and spread throughout Egypt.

The Second Cycle
4. Fourth Plague: Flies. Ex. 8:20-32. The flies cover all of Egypt, including the ground, except Goshen, where the Hebrews lived. 
5. Fifth Plague: Cattle. Ex. 9:1-7. This would have been a real desecration in the eyes of the Egyptians because cattle were the very animals Egyptians worshiped as gods. The plague on the cattle also affects the livelihood of the people.

The first five plagues taught the Egyptians that their material wealth and possessions along with their Dynasty is all but lost and subject to Yahweh.

6. Sixth Plague: Boils. Ex. 9:8-12. Things continue to become worse. Both the people and the livestock are affected with painful boils. Even the magicians are affected and cannot get rid of them. The plagues now turn directly to the people and begins to show the foolishness and bitterness and stubbornness of Pharaoh.

The Third Cycle
7. Seventh Plague: Hailstorm. Ex. 9:13-35. This hailstorm knows no limits, but affects the entire land of Egypt: the plants, animals and people.
8. Eighth Plague: Locusts. Ex. 10:1-20. This is a plague of real lasting devastation.  Not much was left of Egypt by the time the plague of locust arrived. The cattle were dead, the buildings destroyed, and then the locusts arrived to complete devastation and destruction and break the morale of the Egyptian people. An enormous swarm darkened the sky and devoured anything that remained.
9. Ninth Plague: Darkness. Ex. 10:21-28. For three days, total darkness descended on Egypt. It was a darknness "to be felt."  This darkness was so intense that the Egyptians were unable to move, they could not "see one another." Jewish mystics sat that not even a fire was possible. The Jews, however, could see where they were going and were unaffected by the darkness.  The Book of Wisdom (11:15,16 and 17:1-18:4) interprets sin and darkness as a terrible abandonment of man by God. Dialogue with Pharaoh is broken down.

The Tenth Plague
10. The Tenth Plague: the death of Pharaoh’s first born son. Ex. 11:1-10. By the time Pharaoh was threatened with the final plague, his people were begging him to release the Israelites. But Pharaoh was obstinate, and would not let them go. The night that the first born Egyptians died is the first night of Passover. This was the only plague for which the Jews needed to prepare themselves so that they would not be harmed. In order to be "passed-over," Moses instructed the Israelites to mark their doorposts with lamb's blood. And in the darkness of the midnight hour all of the first born in the land of Egypt died.