Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Let's start today by rereading a portion of last week's plague, the Nile River turning to blood.
Starting in Exodus 7:19:
(19) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"Say to Aaron,
Take your staff,
and stretch out your hand upon the waters of Egypt--
upon their rivers, upon their canals, and upon their pools, and upon all their reservoirs of water--
that they will become blood,
and blood will be in all the land of Egypt-- both in wood [vessels] and in stone [vessels],"
(20) and Moses and Aaron did thus,
just as Yahweh had commanded,
and he lifted up the staff,
and he struck the waters that [were] in the Nile before the eyes of Pharaoh and before the eyes of servants,
and they turned-- all the waters that were in the Nile-- to blood,
(21) while the fish that were in the Nile died,
and the Nile stank,
and the Egyptians weren't able to drink the waters from the Nile,
and it became blood in all the land of Egypt,
(22) and the magicians of Egypt did thus/likewise with their sorceries,
and the resolve of Pharaoh was strong,
and he didn't listen to them,
just as Yahweh had said,
(23) and Pharaoh turned,
and he went to his house,
and he didn't set/place his resolve to this either,[1]
(24) and all the Egyptians dug around the Nile, water to drink,
because they weren't able to drink from the water of the Nile,
Notice, at the end of this, how stubborn Pharaoh is.
Moses just trashed the drinking water for the entire nation, and what does Pharaoh do?
He goes back to the White House, ignores the press, and ignores his people.
He doesn't care.
He refuses to listen to Moses.
He refuses to even see the problem.
Just close your door, and pretend there's no problem.
That's impressive.
My own flesh and blood has called me "quietly stubborn"-- which I'm not sure is a compliment (I tell myself he's calling me Ezekiel, not Pharaoh).
And maybe you are, as well.
But I'm not sure that any of us could match Pharaoh here.
Pharaoh shows remarkable stubbornness.
The magicians may not be able to match Moses.
But Pharaoh is a worthy adversary.
[FWIW, apparently Hebrew numbering is different; I’m following that numbering instead of English Bibles, sorry].
This brings us to new stuff.
Verses 25-29:
(25) and seven days were completed after Yahweh struck[2]the Nile,
(26) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"Go to Pharaoh,
and say to him,
"Thus has said Yahweh:
Release my people, that they may serve me,
(27) and if, refusing, you [are] to release, LOOK!
I am striking[3]all your territory with frogs!,
(28) and the Nile will swarm[4]with frogs,
and they will come up,
and they will enter into your house and into the inner room of your bedroom, and upon your bed and in the house of your servants and among your people and in your ovens and in your kneading bowls,
(29) and against[5]you and against your people and against all your servants they will come up-- frogs!",
Yahweh here encourages Pharaoh to use his imagination.
Picture frogs everywhere.
First, they'll "swarm," completely filling the Nile, in the same way the Israelites have "swarmed," filling the land of Egypt (Exodus 1:7).
Then, then they will rise up.
They'll enter your house, and your bedroom.
They'll jump onto your bed, with its nice Egyptian cotton sheets.
They'll be everywhere-- in your house, in your servants' houses, and in your people's houses.
When you bake anything, you'll notice a weird smell about halfway through.
And you'll open the oven door, to see a dead frog.
When you're making bread dough, you'll have to fish a dead frog out of the bowl before you start.
Everything will tainted.
Nothing will ever feel clean.
Nothing will taste right.
Nowhere is safe.
When my wife and I were looking for our first apartment together, for after we got married, we found this really cute brick apartment with a phone number out front.
We called it, and the guy said, "I have a place just opening up, but we haven't had a chance to clean it yet."
He drove over, and led us through the apartment.
We got to the bathroom, and there was this thing in the bathtub.
Kind of hairy.
Pretty big.
Looked closer, and it was a dead bat.
Looked up, and there was a foot-long crack where the wall met the ceiling.
I tried to tell Heidi that we could use bleach to clean out the tub, and it'd still be a really nice apartment.
She wasn't buying what I was selling.
No.
Now, frogs maybe aren't quite as gross or scary as bats.
But thousands of frogs, everywhere?
Honestly?
It's horrifying.
Especially because these frogs are like a smart, invading army, rising up against you.
They will be everywhere, in everything.
In some ways, it's like the greatest prank of all time.
But it's the kind of story that's only truly funny, when it's not happening to you.
Now, how does Pharaoh respond to this threat?
What's interesting here, is that Exodus leaves a gap in our story.
We aren't told.
Part of being a good storyteller is that you cut out unnecessary details.
That helps keep people interested.
And whatever Pharaoh said here, is far less interesting, and far less important, than what he will say later [and maybe saving his words for later gives them more of a punch?].
So instead, in Exodus 8:1, we find Yahweh giving the command to Moses to get this frog plague started:
(8:1) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"Say to Aaron,
'Stretch out your hand with your staff upon the rivers, upon the branches of the Nile, and upon the pools, and bring up the frogs upon the land of Egypt,"
(2) and Aaron stretched out his hand upon the waters of Egypt,
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