My name is Christian Ashley, a seminary student and servant of God. And you were listening to the Let Nothing Move You podcast, a proud Amazon ministries podcast. Welcome back everyone to the Let Nothing Move You podcast. I'm your host Christian Ashley and joined once again by one of the best guests I could have ever asked for, someone who helped bring this around to other people that normally wouldn't be able to listen. Very happy you guys are tuning in. I saw the numbers, you guys are the best, so thank you. But of course, you guys are the best. But really the best is Nick, Paul, how's it going, Nick? Mmm, you know, for me, I'm good, man. Like I said, just, just good. And I'm glad that some people that normally don't listen, got to listen and they'll get to listen to us more. Yeah. Yeah, feel free to check out in the back. I mean, as much as I know you love Nick, maybe show me a little love, too. But at the end of the day, I mean, if you just hear for Nick, I'm not going to complain. I mean, I'm here for Nick. I mean, I'm here for Christian. So the same, the same, this is Christian's podcast. So you better come here and show Christian some love. All right, man. How have you been this past week? I mean, good. I went to this past weekend. I went to a memorial service for my Nana. And so, you know, for those situations are sad, but ultimately I got to see lots of family that I normally haven't been able to see in a long time, friends in my hometown. So ultimately a positive celebration of my Nana's life. So now I'm home decompressing and recording a podcast. Yeah. Yeah, I was home for a little bit. I had to do a dentist appointment. And then Saturday, I actually got to hang out with Joshua at his house. Oh, yeah. Two podcasts there, played some Super Smash Brothers, now watch some Dr. Who just got to the geek out and just enjoy the day. Which Smash Bros. Ultimate. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then I came back yesterday. So I'm still a little tired from the trip, but I'm ready to podcast. I'm ready to do this bad boy. You ready? Oh, so ready. OK. Yeah. On the last episode of Exodus Ball Z, we had Moses and Aaron going up against Pharaoh, bringing out the plagues under God's orders. Pharaoh, continuing to not listen, to not learn anything from his experiences. And can you imagine that we're going to see more the same in these two chapters? We're going to be in Exodus nine and 10. I would start us off in verses one through seven. For those of you following along, I use the ESV, not because I think it's the greatest translation of the world, but because most of my classes use it. So it's just a lot easier for me to get into it most of the time. So verses one through seven. Then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and say to him, this says the Lord to God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, behold, the hand of the Lord will follow with the very severe plague upon your livestock there in the field. The horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds and the flocks. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die. And the Lord set a time saying tomorrow, the Lord will do this thing in the land. And the next day, the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died and Pharaoh sent and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people go. So real quick, Nick, I forgot to say this earlier. I'm also using a new microphone set up. So if I don't sound as normal, that's because I'm still figuring things out. So yeah, take it from here, Nick, what do you think? You know, it, this is one where it's not as in depth as far as like the back and forth between Pharaoh. It's really just kind of like, hey, go ahead and say this. We get it implied that Pharaoh doesn't do it, you know, let the people go. And then Moses goes and, you know, makes the livestock dead. Yeah, this is one of those because it starts off with, no, before God unleashes the plague, you just, he offers another chance to Pharaoh to change his ways and submit to his authority. Despite him, you know, knowing the outcome already. But this once more gives Pharaoh no excuse for what happens next. Does that implied meeting that they have where once again, oh, I imagine that nothing changed. But once again, he gives Pharaoh that no excuse for what happens next. So that he, because he was the one with the, who had the ability to be humble and repent. And yet once again, refuse. And as a result, we have Egypt suffering from yet another plague that could have been avoided. And I think from here on out, we're going to see like a clear divide between the plague affecting Egyptians exclusively and not the Israelites. Like I think from here on out, it's completely divided where Israelites are not experiencing the same collateral damage of the plagues. Yeah, like we were kind of discussing last time, you know, maybe the first couple of plagues, God was kind of like maybe in his own way, gently reminding them, hey, you weren't listening to me this whole time. So I'm going to let you suffer for a little bit. But the rest of this time, notice the Egyptian people who've got to go through this. You are separated from it. Right. That's supernatural kind of protective field or what have you. Yeah. And anything else? And now this point, I'm just, it's like I said, we're in the spirit bomb episodes, man. We're getting closer and closer to that spirit bomb. Yep. Yeah. He was just Moses is holding his hands up. Just, uh, just feel me with your power. Give me your life energy and not working too well for the Egyptians. But I mean, there is, there is an episode in the Bible where Moses is having to lift up his hands. So, you know, not that far of a jump. I mean, of course, you know, Dragon will see is canon to the scriptures. Amen. Hallelujah. In Kami's name, we say the So before we keep going, sacrilegious, I do have something else I want to add here. Yeah, in that, yeah, losing all this livestock would have been apocalyptic. Right. Right. Through the Egyptian people. I mean, like, just think of the food, like clothing and the money that could have made from selling them off were just lost in an instant. Because of Pharaoh's hubris, like, uh, we don't really get a play-by-play of what happens to Egypt after this in scripture, but you can only imagine, like, it would take decades to recover from this huge economic hit and, uh, from people not having the food that they need. And this is hundreds of years after God had already provided them plenty of food when Joseph is in charge is be like, it's not like God has something, you know, especially out for the Egyptian people, like he's proved himself loving them in the past. But yeah, it's at the same time, like we mentioned early, the livestock, but the Jews is unharmed just showing us further divide between the two people. Yeah. No, I'm glad you I have kind of forgotten when I read this. I was just thinking about the agricultural significance of the following plagues in this chapter or in the next two chapters and how, especially back then, like the major production from labor was agriculture. Because agriculture, like you without it, you're dead. I mean, we had that's, that's the same now, but there's just such an advanced system of production that we have that it's food right exactly. And so, but with the impact, like there is no quick importing of food from other nations, you know, that sort of thing. You're just, yeah, yeah. So for this part of the hypothetical God versus Egyptian gods, this would be a plague that came as a result of an insult to Hathor, Hathor, primarily in your Egyptian iconography. She'd be shown as like a cow or just with a cow head. And she was a goddess over the livestock and fertility within Egypt. So this is a huge blow to her sphere of influence. If she was indeed something that existed and she was unable to prevent this, and unless so as well, this could also be seen as further action against Hopi, who was the son of Hathor Hathor and depicted as a bull. And likewise was a goddess fertility. So there's some debate between scholars, like who was being affected by this under this hypothetical, you know, battle war. Well, I mean, fast forward, you know, when God produces manna, just another indicator of who's the true giver of life, not the two gods, the fertility gods that you had talked about, but God almighty or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, that else should die though. The self-sufficient God is able to perform an act like that. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So anything else when we move on to eight to 12, take us eight to 12. May they? Let's do it. All right. Versus eight through 12, and the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, take handfuls of soot from the kiln and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt and become boils breaking out and sores on man and bees throughout all the land of Egypt. So they took soot from the kiln instead before Pharaoh and Moses threw it in the air and it became boils breaking out and sores on man and beasts. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, but the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he did not listen to them as the Lord had spoken to Moses. What do you see Nick? Kind of the same implied thing there. We don't need another conversation because we know it's pretty much went the same way or we can assume that. I really, you know, with the boils coming back to this, I don't, I did not remember that he used ashes to like, yeah, as like this symbol of, you know, manifesting this plague of boils or before we had dust for the gnats. Yes. And now we have ash for these boils. Um, and I don't know if you know, just cause you're, you're more closely connected to like your studies and things like that. But it was like the, I know that the, um, Israelites when they were morning, they would put ashes on themselves. Um, yeah, I don't know. Was there, I don't know, based on, I mean, with your reflections and then that specific question related to ash has like a symbol for the Israelites or is like a negative symbol for the Egyptians. Is there, is there anything there that you know? I know it's kind of all across the ancient world was the idea of like when you're in that immense sorrow and grief, you just put on those ashes, just to let people know I am unclean. I am not happy with what's going on. And you can see the outward sign of what is physically, excuse me, what is spiritually and mentally going on inside me. So I can see the argument for, and I kind of like the argument for it is that this is kind of like a precursor to the ashes, the Egyptians are going to have for later on, when the firstborn son is lost. Right. And this is kind of like a prediction of what they're going to be doing anyways. So yeah, I see that. And also this whole boil things like, man, I don't like pain. I think most people out there are going to say they don't like pain. And if they do, there's probably something wrong with them. But the idea of like all over your body, just being infected with these boils and not being able to do anything about them, picking out on makes it worse or anything like that. Like I do that, you know, I, I scratched my fingers the other day and it's like, Oh, don't touch the scab. Oh, it hurts. Please just stop the misery and agony. Just take me out behind the barn and shoot me God. It's like, but to go through all that process, I can imagine the pain you must feel. Yeah. I'm also have low pain tolerance, but like I'm just in it. I like, even when I get a bad zit, you know, it's just, it's terrible. Touching it is uncomfortable, popping it when it's not ready, it hurts. And just adding that to boils. Like you said, not just two, three, four, even five, but literally covering your body. Yeah. Like imagine the scars that these people are probably going to have to as a result. Oh, gosh, that'd be awful. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like it's, it's got to be a large portion that experience scarring, you know? Yeah. Yeah, I couldn't imagine like you, because you know that logically, I'm not supposed to be scratching these. I'm not supposed to be touching these. And yet maybe it'll give me relief this time around. Right. You're just making it worse for yourself. Yeah, I can't imagine the Egyptian people looking to stellar after the end of this. Yeah. I'm not going to be going down the runway modeling for anyone at this point in time. I know. If it was like Cleopatra, you know what I mean? I just, I couldn't even imagine what happened if Cleopatra was ruined. It's over. Oh, she wouldn't be married, marrying Mark Antoneer, whoever it was. Him and Julius Caesar. Yeah. That's his 2000 years removed. Well, no, well, actually 1500 years removed from this. Yeah, that's weird. So yeah, but you kind of mentioned it earlier. It's like they didn't talk to Pharaoh this time. And it's kind of almost like this grandiose theatrical production. Like didn't even say anything, just walk in front of him, throw the foot up in the air and then let Pharaoh see what actually happens as a result. It's kind of like that, that wordless burn. Yeah, like you didn't even need to say anything. And now, well, you know who's responsible for this. I don't have to say it out loud. Right. Exactly. Also, I said Mark Antony. I met Marcus Aurelius. Mark Antony is a Latino singer who was married to J. Low. So I just wanted to make that clear. Right. No, no, Mark Antony is also was fighting for dominance. OK, so Mark Antony was. Yeah. Oh, you're thinking Mark, Mark Anthony is the singer songwriter. OK, cool. I was right the first time I was like, wait a second. Did I get these next up? So anyway, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mark Antony was also piling up with Cleopatra around the same time as Julius Caesar. OK, cool. So my history is right. But my my knowledge of famous Latino singers is not. You're not getting the what is it? The pink wedge for entertainment for you today. Yeah, seriously, no pink wedge for me. Dang. Oh, we're already off the rails and I love it. So I never thought J. Low would be mentioned in this episode. Sorry, listeners. Spoiler warning, I should give a content warning. J. Low is mentioned. Gosh. So here for the first time that I can recall is the phrase where God specifically is the one hardening Pharaoh's heart. Now, as we've seen earlier, it's fair or hard in his heart. God promising that he would harden Pharaoh's heart. But it starts with Pharaoh hardening his own heart. So we've seen him have every opportunity. We are six plagues in. And every single time until now, it's been Pharaoh hard in his heart. So this to me, like we discussed last time, is kind of God confirming Pharaoh's own choices and choosing this as the means to showcase his power and authority over Pharaoh, kind of being like, OK, that I'm going to give you exactly what you said, what you wanted. You're going to harden your heart while I'm going to work alongside with you. So that my power and glory are displayed because of your stubbornness, right. And you don't remind me you're on take on the free will versus predestination debate. Yeah. So I think so I'm a free will person. And largely, I think that the areas in Scripture that I think are more important or deserve more emphasis for interpretation are those that promote free will. But in this case, I think that, like I said, last episode, that I think the Bible has room for predestination as well as free will. And I think that we get elements of predestination or some sort of determinism in here, whatever you want to call it, providence, et cetera. So I think that we've got evidence of at least God having direct action and making events happen or you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. OK. Now in the God versus Egyptian gods side of things, this plague in itself is challenging the authority of both Segment and Isis in their roles as goddesses of healing for their magicians, where the magicians and priests in general, there's some speculation, some commentaries kind of say, no, it's just magicians, some say magicians and priests, some say no priests at all. So I kind of combine the two, but I'm not going to take a bullet for that idea that the general sense of you would have priests of these different gods and goddesses when they're not able to do it alongside the magicians. Well, it really kind of showcases just how pathetic the religion is compared to God compared to God way here. So for them to be unable to heal this ailment, just kind of uplifts that is like, OK, we can't do anything about this. We can't even show up in the same room with you because we just feel that bad. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's really interesting to that, like. Israel does not have like a religious institution set up yet. And Aaron, of course, is going to be like the house of where the priests come and just how connected it is to the Exodus event and how Aaron's power that's given by God is like the root of like the whole priestly order, which is, you know, I hadn't even thought about that comparing to like the religious priests and the magicians comparing to like Aaron himself and Moses to before there's any sort of like religious order or anything like that for the Israelites. Were you ready to move on? Oh, yeah. OK, next up, we'll be going through 13 through 21. Then the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, "Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself and on your servants and your people so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you in your people with pestilence and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose, I have raised you up to show you my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go. Behold, about this time tomorrow, I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as has never been seen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now therefore sin, get your livestock and all that you have in the field and to save shelter for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them. Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and all his livestock in the field." Which jumps out at you, buddy. Well, sorry for editing. Can you hear this phone that was ringing? I heard the noise, but that's Joshua problem, not a Christian problem. Okay, sorry, Joshua. Okay, so what stood out to me in those verses though was that this is just another agriculturally aimed plague, which is really interesting that hail is the means by which this happens, or that God chooses to inflict upon Egypt's crops. I don't know, I'm just trying to imagine hail during that time in that Egypt. In that country of all places? Right, so weird, I should have looked it up beforehand, but when was the last documented case of hail in Egypt? If there is any, because if it was a common occurrence, because there's documented cases of hail in Florida, which is insane, but that's just more, I was like, it's really interesting that hail is the means by which God uses to negatively effect the people of Egypt and the livestock and crops. Yeah, I hadn't thought about that until you just mentioned this, out of all the meteorological things he could have done, hail is the thing, he's like, yeah, I don't think of hail when I think of Egypt, I barely think of rainfall when I think of Egypt, right. And for that to be what causes this devastation, well, of course, they're not prepared for it. Right. Because surely, even if it does happen, it doesn't happen like all that often. Yeah. And even if it did, I know if I was in Florida and where is where I'm from originally, and they're like, oh, there's going to be hail, I'd be like, how bad could it be? You know what I mean? And so someone was like, even if the weather channel was like, hey, hail, be careful, everybody. Unless they said it was like the size of vans or something, I'd probably be like, whatever, you know, and I'd probably be one of the Egyptians who died. I mean, yeah, because let me share the other plagues happen, but this hail thing, I don't know. I'd be real skeptical. Yeah. This kind of reminds me of like an RPG or something, God, he's in that cold damage in the heat, you know, he's proficient in all of them. So yeah, you can do it whatever he wants. True. True. Yeah. It's like that one time the superhero who just has all these powers and he doesn't use that one, but every now and then he just to remind you, they're like, yeah, I can also do this too. Ooh. Little God wheeled in the power of one for all, you know, I don't know. Oh, yeah, it grows stronger through the generations. Ooh. Ooh. Yeah. So that was my hero for anyone who didn't know what we were talking about. We're making serious connections to Exodus and anime right now. Oh, yeah. Also, canon to Dragon Ball Z and Exodus. Yeah, exactly. Can we put my hero academia in the apocrypha? Yeah. We can put it in the apocrypha. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. The Roman Catholics, they love my hero academia, you know, yeah, they're big Deku nerds over there. Huge. Holy see. So, you know, besides, you know, cool anime references and hail, like what's stuck out to you in this, this portion of the reading. I like how God starts off talking to Pharaoh, talking down to him and like pointing out just logical arguments against his position and be like, look, if I wanted to at any point in this conversation, I could have just killed you, your entire court, and I could have just taken them out. Also, I'm the one, by the way, who brought you to the position of power that you have right now. So you still haven't shown me any respect in that sense. And then finally, since you're their appointed leader, you could have stopped this from happening at any point in time by just recognizing my authority. And Pharaoh has nothing to say against that because I think even if you would never say it out loud at this moment in time, he kind of knows it's true. Yeah. But God raises up every single leader that has ever been around the world using it for different purposes. Like he allowed Nero to rise to power and persecute Christianity. No, he allowed Genghis Khan to rise up and create immense death and devastation across the world. That's the same point. He's also brought people like Cincinnati's to be leaders for a time. People like George Washington, you know, for all their flaws, all the good that they do, all the bad that they do, God's the one who brought them there. And Pharaoh doesn't want to say that out loud because then he's not the God King. He's not the one with his own power in this conversation. He would have to say like the magicians did back in the last chapter, this is the power of God. Yeah. I think and even that point that you brought up is like, I mean, the Bible and even texts that predate the biblical narrative, like we, the problem of corrupt leaders is not new. And so you've got Pharaoh who has the chance to not only help himself, but even if he doesn't want to lose his slaves, he could at least save his people from the tragedies that are coming for him. It's not like a big sacrifice, it's stop treating humans terribly, stop treating my children terribly. And he's like, no, and I'm willing to sacrifice my citizens to make it happen. Yeah. And not to be fair, but to put things in perspective, Pharaoh, God is asking for 600,000-ish people at this point in time, I think if my numbers are right, some people even say more than that, to leave Egypt behind under an economic system where they've been exploited for hundreds of years. So that's not an easy ask. I mean, it is from a moral standpoint, but I'm not expecting him to be looking through his Bible that he doesn't have for pointing towards what's right and wrong. So yeah, Pharaoh, this is him giving up a lot. And yet all he has to do is say, okay, yeah, I can't do it, go away, and remember at this point in time, it's still not to leave permanently. It's just to let them go out in the desert and worship God. Yeah. Yeah. And he can't even allow that. Right. That's what's astounding to me. It's like, you could have kept your system. God knew you wouldn't do it. That's why he kept setting things up this way. But if you had just said yes, something else would have had to happen to get the Hebrew people out of Egypt under different means, but he can't because they need have to admit he's wrong. You have to admit his powerless next to God, man, I had not, I kind of had, I had read it, but I hadn't put two and two together that like at this point, he Moses has specifically asked him to go out and worship in the wilderness. Not that that's it, you know, not to completely take them away from that and their work at this point anyway. Yeah. And then even to the economic structure, because I think what we miss in like childhood Sunday school, because I feel like Exodus is very much like a children's church thing. And then there's really not a lot of talk about it beyond that, at least from the pulpit in that way. And there really is like a cultural weight to it in a cost, you know, that even like because even when I was like, oh, it was pretty easy, all Pharaoh had to do was say no. And like you said, not really 600,000 people working and keeping the economy of Egypt going to a certain extent, like if you lose all that, I mean, huge. Yeah. I mean, we could argue all day, you know, it's the right thing to do, but they don't have our modern sensibilities. Number one. Right. Let's not forget that only the 150, 170 some years ago, we were having this exact same problem in this country, right, where these exact same issues were being brought up. And it took an act of God through the Civil War for this to actually get changed because people weren't doing what they were supposed to. Well, I know it would be one of the people who would say that. Go ahead. Yeah, no, I agree. And they're, you know, they're both religiously informed too. Yes. Like I said, people, and you grow up that way. And that's the standard of how things have been going for years, decades, centuries, you know, I mean, it's pretty hard to, like I said, even if you're not changing your mind, to at least break off from that is near impossible. Yeah. And I'm not going to say there was no profit of the Lord, you know, in the years of the 1800s. So it's saying that if you don't let the slaves go free, God's going to bring this devastation upon you. But I see the parallels. Yeah. And knowing how God works in this world, I think he was behind that happening because humanity was not doing the right thing. Americans were not doing the right thing. Therefore, because of their stubbornness, he said, okay, it's going to happen. But a greater cost than if you had just done it the first time around. Hmm. Yeah. This, you know, and this is where, and I want to hear too long here, just because I'm sure listeners will want us to tackle the rest of this. But I mean, I think I'm more aligned with like Thomas Ward's view of freedom and God not intervening, which I know you know that. But you know, just the listeners who won't know that. Yeah, it's true. That's true. And for listeners, that's just me saying that God has, I believe God has less of a hand in moving events, like putting Egypt in power or certain presidents in power and good leaders in power too. And I put that more on the depravity of humans for the most part in an isolated way. And then God motivates people to do stuff. So anyway, that's just, that's just where I am in that. Yeah. Yeah. That's one thing, you know, we'll never agree on that one in particular, but just so the people knew like just on the one using my mouth to talk the most here, but you also have different views on that subject. So yeah, a way to stand up for yourself, Nick. Well, thanks. Thanks. And thanks to a conservative bully. Why would you do this to me, dude? You have your podcast and then you just slap me around. Now, stick sticking here before we move on, there is a seeming contradiction in this passage, because if you'll recall with the fifth plague, it has stated all of Egypt's livestock was killed. Right. So suddenly in the seventh plague, there are more livestock to, you know, die off in this section. So how can there be more here for lose if they were all annihilated? There's a couple of ways we can work with this. But I know this one doesn't matter as much to you because you're not as literalist as I am. So you don't have to wrestle with this as much, not to say, Oh, good for you. You don't have to worry about this, but, but for my side of things, there's some ways other people others, scholars and commentary caters have answered this. The first could have been that maybe they were stolen or bought or somehow other obtained from their Hebrew slaves, because you'll remember they made it out. Maybe there was some deals made there. And then even after fact, especially if they were stolen, well, now they're gone again. So that could be a way to answer this. There's another way to say that we see here there are people in Pharaoh's court who we hear fear of the word of the Lord. So perhaps they had hidden their livestock earlier. And as a result of hearing these, you know, warnings and maybe they had survived the net circumstance or maybe had been given or sold some from their fellows, excuse me, let me reword that, or maybe since they had saved theirs, they were able to then sell some to their fellows so that they had some that would die in this period of time too. That's a possibility. A third one would be that when we look at the listing in Exodus 9, three of the animals goats aren't specifically mentioned by name. This is one of the weakest ones I think I saw because it also mentions the herds and the flocks, you know, goats or flocks or herd or something like that. So I kind of put it there, but they're not specifically mentioned by name. So I'll give them that. Then a fourth answer could be, I think just five total I have, that the all in the original Hebrew is the word coal, K-O-L for your transliteration people like me who need to see that. And that means all every or the whole, most of the time, it could be used in metaphorical, like a metaphorical or spiritual all in that sense, but not every time is the word used in its absolute form, and I say all these people would say this or all of that. So an example of this from Genesis would be Genesis 6, 13, where God speaks of ending all flesh on the earth, which we know isn't absolutely true because he saves Noah and his family. So that would be a way it could be used as a metaphorical. I hesitate to use this argument. I don't think it's a wrong argument to make, but it's not going to be the one I use as my primary answer. And then the final one, I think there's more, but I just neared it down to five, is that there could be some unknown amount of time in between the events of the beginning of chapter 9 and this part of chapter 9. So maybe they had some time to trade and bring more livestock in. I find this a little iffy to argue on because there doesn't seem to be like, you know, it took, there is an unknown amount of time. I'll give them that. But it just seems like these sequences happen back to back to back. Yeah, I don't know if there's enough time for that. You know, it's not really something I have to really worry about reconciling, but out of the answers that you gave, I really, I think I favor the second one. Just because even in this current, like in this play, they talk about the livestock being some people leaving livestock in doors or bringing their slaves and doors, you know. So I think it would make sense that that would have happened previous because they even talk about late, which we'll get there, but they talk about certain Egyptians actually fearing the Lord and then some nice, you know. So I think the second one makes the most sense. I don't know. Do you have one out of all those five that you're like, yeah, this is, this is it right here. I got a one or five, a one or two. Okay. And like either like stole them or maybe even bought them if I'm being charitable from the Israelites who had their still alive or the people who actually feared God and Pharaoh's court were listening to the plagues and maybe I'm been told by Moses and Aaron, hey, if they put them here, they're not going to be affected or something like that. I see either one or two. All right. Anything else to glean from this bad? No, I should say, I think I'm, I think I'm kind of with you on one and two there. That's it for that, for that thing. Yeah. Then we'll finish off this chapter and go on to 10 after this and verses 22 through 35. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven so that there may be hail and all the land of Egypt on man and beast in every plant of the field in the land of Egypt. Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire rain down on the earth, ran down on the to the earth and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail such as it had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field and all the land of Egypt, both man and beast and a hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field only in the land of Goshen where the people of Israel were was there no hail. Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, this time I have sinned. The Lord is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong plead with the Lord for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail, I will let you go and you shall stay no longer. Moses said to him, as soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord, the thunder will cease and there will be no more hail so you may know that the earth is the Lord's, but as few in your servants I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God. The flax and the barley was struck down for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in the bud, but the wheat and the inmer were not struck down for they are late in coming up. So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord and the thunder and the hail ceased and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. So when Pharaoh sawed at the rain in the hail and the thunder had ceased he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people of Israel go just as the Lord had spoken through Moses. How about it Nick man, I just, I just, it is just crazy to see this amount of destruction to the point where like, yeah, you've got this economic system that you've been relying on, but like you've got nothing to work with at this point. So your economy is already headed in shambles anyway, you know, you're running into a different type of crisis rather than a labor crisis for this. And you know, I've seen in some translations too that the fire intermingled as lightning and you know, as far as with the hail and some even say that the the lightning also came down and struck their ground and the earth to in the livestock. So was that does that mean that like if those translations are right or even this with the fire amidst the hail, if it was literal, just kind of fires like the pillar of fires that you see like the spirit of God using or you know, I don't know, but like is hail and fire destroying the livestock and you know, the agriculture, other agriculture, you know, that's pretty another interesting detail there, which would I think things dying from lightning kind of assisting the hail maybe makes a little more sense than like hail alone destroying everything. Does that find that those details just very fascinating. And then of course, Pharaoh, like actually kind of coming to this place of like maybe genuine repentance, I don't know question mark, we'll get there. And then he, of course, totally backs off and he's like, mmm, sorry. Yeah, because we brought up just a hill earlier, but there's so much more than that happening here. Right. You know, it's terrifying enough. These hard bits of ice are just pummeling things like a bunch of stones, but then you mix that with fire and a fire is not bad enough, you have to add lightning like, what's supposed to survive in that environment? Well, turns out nothing, anything, anything that's outside just gets obliterated. That's not in ocean. It's astounding to see all this and look at the devastation and like, I consider myself a very stubborn person by nature that is a very bad at learning lessons. But I think we've spoken earlier. I think I was done after the gnats. You know, and to get to this point, I can't imagine just how hard, hard at your heart must be even under the influence of God in the circumstance and just go, ah, no, I got rid of what I wanted to get rid of next time. He's definitely going to be done and I just get what I want. I've endured the tests. Yeah. There had to have been some sort of murmuring going on, you know, probably there was Egyptians that were probably murmuring about like Moses and Aaron, they're like, can you believe these enemies of Egypt coming in and doing all this stuff? But I'm sure there were probably other people too that were like this pharaoh, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, yeah. What is it? Why? Like we have no livestock. People are dying. You know, I have no cows left because of this guy, you know, it would be pretty interesting to hear how regular everyday citizens were talking about these events as well. Yeah, we're going to see in the next chapter, some people inside a pharaoh's court, you know, the people closest to them actually kind of talk out, but yeah, you can't imagine a man on the street like I've lost everything like I lost everything when the Nile turned to blood. I couldn't. I can't fish anymore. The guys like all my crops are dead and the animals that would have eaten the crops are dead too. Like, when is this going to end? What do I have to do to stop this? Oh, it's not on me. It's on pharaoh. Right. So how do you how do you stop a rebellion after that point? Yeah, because you know that these day and age, like our modern discourse allows us to complain about any political thing that goes on, but there are freedom of speech that we have at least in the United States and political moves that we can make to make some sort of changes, but I don't think that a modern democracy was, you know, was at least systematized in Egypt at that point. Yeah, even the Greek version is like 1000 years away at this point in time. Yeah. So like you mentioned earlier about pharaoh, he starts off by qualifying his statement and said that this specific time I have sinned, which is an admission of guilt, but not one born out of true repentance, I would heavily argue. Yeah. And I think that's why Moses acts the way he does and he recognizes that he relents anyways because they have to keep moving forward. This isn't the only plague that's going to happen. There needs to be some relief in between. So knowing that pharaoh's heart was not humbled in this moment, he still does it. So I kind of point, I think the specific phrase in the Hebrew, which I forgot to write down is used multiple times over in scripture or in different alternate forms. So I'm going to look at these to just show other people who've used the same similar language and yet we're not repentant. I'm going to go for these. Oh, Nick, what I do when I'm quoting other scripture for the most part, I try and use other translations so that ESV isn't the only thing people hear. So he goes all over the place, party to instance, this, yeah, this will be the KJV. We're going to old school for numbers 2,234. And in the context, we see Balaam is a prophet who has been told, Hey, don't do this thing. Don't prophesy against Israel. And yet got almost killed some donkey speaks for the first time, tell them, Hey, I've been trying not to let you know that angel is about the murderous. So here's what Balaam has to say about that. I know I just do a lot of proper nouns and words out there. You go on, what? We'll get the numbers eventually. I swear. So numbers 2,234 and Balaam said unto the angel of the Lord, I have sinned for I knew that thou stood it in the way against me. And now therefore, if it displeased, I will get back, get me back again. So Balaam recognizes he sinned. But if you look at the rest of the story with him, he does not stay that way. And after he realizes the prophecies he's making are coming directly from God, not from him. He still finds ways to bring sin into the midst of the Israeli camp. So this is not born out of repentance. This is, Oh, please don't kill me. I'll say whatever I have to say. Next up I have in the CSB for first Samuel 1524, this is King Saul after he has been told to wipe out the Amalekites and has not done what he's supposed to do. Samuel rebukes him and he says, Saul answered Samuel. I have sinned, I have transgressed the Lord's command and your words because I was afraid of the people I obeyed them. So in that context, Saul being like, I've done wrong, but I only did it because a peer pressured me into it. I'm not in charge of anything, you know, I'm not the one who has to final say no, no, no, I was afraid of them. So I did sinful things and our last one I have is in the NLT, as Judas says in Matthew 27 verse four, following his betrayal of Jesus, I have sinned, he declared to the Pharisees for I have betrayed an innocent man. What do we care? They retorted. That's your problem. Classic Pharisees. So you see, like, that's an Greek opposed to Hebrew, but the similar thing is brought up like, hey, I have sinned, I have done wrong and yet there's no repentance. Next verse I think is when he goes and, you know, commits suicide. If I remember correctly, because of what he did to Jesus, he couldn't handle it. So if a Pharaoh here is the same thing, what's your thought on that matter, Nick? Yeah, I think from those examples, I think that you're right that this is really just like a, please make this stop. And I will say whatever I need to say to make it stop until it doesn't affect me anymore. So I mean, everything you said, I think I'm with you a hundred percent there. Okay. Over a hundred percent or I'll take it. Yeah. I mean, it's hard being right all the time, you know, or being really, really ridiculously good looking. Oh, so true. We just can't help it. Don't make me hit you with the blue steel in the middle of the spot. Yeah. So in some version of the description, you'll see like 31 through 32 or in parentheticals. They're kind of an aside talking about the different crops that were destroyed or not able to be destroyed. This is kind of showcasing as like, I would argue a bit of history because why else would you focus on something like this? And that Pharaoh was kind of hoping there would still be a harvest because some of the crops had been slow to raise up from the ground. So that means, yeah, those crops that were above ground were devastated by the hail and fire and lightning, but we still got stuff growing. So I've got like this hidden backup plan, God doesn't know about it. Forgetting the fact that more than likely God allowed them not to grow up sooner than they would have. So they would be spared from this would be how I would kind of look at it. And then thus when these relates do leave, there would be some source of food for them, you know, to utilize. I can't prove that point, but it's kind of what I see in that kind of area there, but it also kind of becomes a moot point because after the next plague, right, which is something that Pharaoh never could have prepared for. You know, I think that goes to just like the, the maybe leftover planning from Joseph's influence, you know, of just like those backup plans, you know, of like having a certain agricultural cycle storage or whatever, you know, and yeah, like you said, Pharaoh being like, you know, I'm making those, those, I don't know, the big brain, big brain moves. And obviously God's going to be like, yeah, not, not big enough. Yeah. About that, buddy. So as you remember, who's taken all the ills here, it hadn't been me, right? Now, that's the final part of chapter nine, continuing the hypothetical God versus Egyptian God scenario. This plague would be intended as an insult against a newt that is in UT, not nut. Like I thought it was before I looked at my pronunciation earlier, Newt would be an Egyptian sky goddess, also as well set the God of storms and to Osiris, who served as both a God of fertility and of agriculture. So for this to happen, the way it does, all three of those would have had to fail to protect the things that they were in charge of, by the way, from a singular God's wrath. Right. Yeah. I'm just imagining some cool epic sky battle. You know what I mean? Like, pretty, I mean, it would be pretty cool. Like that's, that'd be a cool boss, right? You know, it's like that, uh, that one segment of Daniel, where Michael and the angel are fighting that demon of Persia, just to get the message to Daniel kind of scenario. Yeah. I'd like that. Uh, Daniel, of course, also being an historical book, Joshua, and not literary. I think it's one of my favorite running gags I have with him is that every time we mentioned a book of Daniel, we have to say the other one's wrong. I love that so much. All right, but you didn't hear to come here to hear about the book of Daniel. We have another chapter to get through will be in chapter 10, verses one through 11. Then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants that I may show these signs of mine among them and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them that you may know that I am the Lord. So Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and said to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go that they may serve me for if you refuse, so that my people go. Behold tomorrow, I shall bring locus into your country and they shall cover the face of the land so that no one can see the land and they shall eat what is left to you after the hail and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field and they should fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen from the day they came on earth to this day. Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh's servants said to him, how long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined? So Moses and Aaron went or brought back to Pharaoh and he said to them, go serve the Lord your God, but which ones are to go? Moses said, we will go with our young and our old, we will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord. But he said to them, the Lord be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go. Look you have some evil purpose in mind, no go them in among you and serve the Lord for that is what you are asking and they would driven out from Pharaoh's presence. It's really interesting we had talked about his officials are even like, dude, they just want to go and worship their God. Can you at least let them do that? Whether it's like, hey, can you stop the production or what for a brief second, just so we're not being pummeled like we have been in Pharaoh, at least listens to him in the sense of like under what he thinks he can negotiate on his own terms. And so says like, hey, you know, who's going with you though, right to Aaron and Moses after he gives them permission to go worship God. And they're like everyone, including livestock and he's like, mmm, Pharaoh is like, nah, you can take the men because at this point, I'm sure Pharaoh is probably thinking like, oh, you're, you're going to take everybody out of here. This isn't just a plan to worship. This is a plan to lead everyone out of Egypt or whatever, probably at least that's what I would think. And he's like, well, you can take the men because of that point, then Pharaoh can have the women and children so that they can, he can repopulate his workforce if he, if Moses, if the risk of, you know, Moses and Aaron taking people to run away from Egypt comes a fruition. Yeah, I think even to a little more nefarious is that he's kind of using them as hostages. Oh, so true. You're going to come back. I'm going to let you go. But if you don't come back, I mean, who knows what's going to happen. We may use that for that, that breeding program or it's just slavery in general continuing for them. It's like, I don't know, you probably come back after you go worship your God. Right. I didn't even thought about the hostage aspect of that. Yeah. Just be like, yeah, I mean, I'll let you go. But once again, I'm going to add a caveat to it. That's not the original plan. I'm going to pretend like that power that authority that I have proven time and time and again, I don't have like it's still there. And this gets rejected yet again by Moses and God because it's not what they ask, the simple thing they ask from the, from the multitude of what's happened, this is very simple request. Yeah. We talked about earlier, you know, the economic dependency they had on them and the production work, but like for just a couple of days, maybe even a week, let them go. They're coming back under this initial plan. Right. And literally like the worst boss of all time, like no, no weekend, no PTO, you know, what the heck is this? Yeah. Pharaoh's not going to pass current standards by any stretch of the imagination. Oh, the HR department has probably just got awful, you know, I'll probably even tell you the will of God you're supposed to be doing this. Right. Right. Exactly. Yeesh. Yeah, going back to the beginning of this, like we see God directly say why he's doing some of this, my name being given power and all this, but also that the people would be forced to remember how they were freed from Egypt. Hmm. It wasn't from their own effort. It wasn't because Moses was that good of a negotiator because we've seen that's very much not the truth. It's not from any sense of they have the economic and military power. They can force themselves to be free. It's because God himself worked on their behalf. There's nothing they could do to have caused that to be outside of those who are faithful to him. And we're actually asking and praying for him to come deliver him them from this tragedy from the midst of this enslavement. And we'll see later on multiple times in just a Pentateuch, the people are told to remember the things that God has done for them. And way later on, the prophets are going to say the same things like, have you people forgotten what God did for us in Egypt that you were worshiping other gods, that you were living in this sinful lifestyle? Are you doing the things that are not of him? Like that's one of the things they were told, recite these things to your children. Tell them the stories so that they will not depart from him. And yet time and time through Israel's history, it seems like maybe if some did, most didn't. Yeah. I mean, it's just the history of Israel really is just, this is the foundation of the history of Israel right here. And it kind of becomes the callback to not just throughout the Old Testament with the prophets and going onward, but even in the ministry of Jesus as well, you know, it's just, yeah, that all I could say is just, this is such an important book to focus on. And it's not just like a children's story, you know, or an epic story. It's just, it really is just a linchpin in the biblical narrative. Yeah, you brought that up before and I kind of want to talk on that for a little bit. It's like the idea of Sunday school ministry is super important because, I mean, we're told to, you know, guide them in their ways, you know, from birth, throughout their lives, show them what is right, what is wrong. And that's a good way of doing it is introducing in a more simplified fashion, for sure. These stories, but then you got to grow up. Then you've got to stop drinking that milk that you were when you were a baby and get to the spiritual milk of the entirety of Scripture and go, okay, this is how I saw it when I was four years old. And now we were marching around Sunday school saying we're going to the promised land. Right. It's like, you know, that's fun and all for a four year old and maybe we should get some adults to do that too. Maybe stop some of them from being so stiff, right, but you got to explore this beyond this. Like how many times have you read this book, not even the entire Bible, just this book, this one specific book or the gospels, oh, well, something like you just listening to it on Sundays that it moving on with your life. Do you have a quiet time? Do you ask questions about this? Do you just, well, I'll show up on Sunday and listen and I may even flip through the pages and read a verse or two while Pastor Stalkin, but that's it. Where's the adult? Where's the child that once walked around proudly, you know, looking for that, that mannae and quail in the midst of the Sunday school room versus the adult that just doesn't believe the same way? Yeah. Like you said, I'm so thankful for the foundation I received in my own, like the Sunday school for children's church, you know, because I think the details, especially when it comes to the Old Testament, I was lucky to be at a church where, because I feel like the Old Testament is very abstract and most people who are unfamiliar with the Bible that are in church are less familiar with the Old Testament than the New Testament. And so I've got those details, but like you said, there's got to be this transition to help people take those details and see what God was doing and how that applies to our own life, you know, instead of just, "Oh, I have to believe this," or "I read the story," and it has some sort of nostalgic effect on me and therefore I like it or something. Just like I said, I think I'm being overly critical there, but I think it's so important and I don't know, that's it, I guess, from what I said. No, I agree. I'm grateful for this tangent because it's something that is super important to the church. It's like, yeah, you're supposed to believe, you know, especially even for people who never grew up in church and they came to faith a little later and be like, "Yeah, you need the spiritual milk, you're starting off on things, we need you to understand the important parts first and then you need to do more work, you need to explore on your own." And then when you don't understand what you're reading, you ask questions to people who you can trust and oftentimes you really just don't see people doing that, sometimes out of fear or like or doubt or something like that. I want people to think I'm stupid and I don't understand this book because they all understand it, right? They don't have questions or anything. They get it. It's like, that's not how this works. Right. It's just, I think it's intellectually difficult to think through this and it's not just read the Bible and see what sticks out to you, which is an important part of reading the Bible for sure, but you do have to put in that. If you really want to take the Bible seriously, you do have to ask questions. You got to read it with the community. You got to look at the historical backgrounds. You got to look at the original languages and it's a lot of work. And like I said, we got anime to watch, you know? Yeah, I agree with the play of these sub. You got anything else you want to have for this section before we move on? I don't think so. Okay. Then we'll go into verses 12 through 20, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locust so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land all that the hail has left.' So Moses stretched out his staff to over the land of Egypt and the Lord brought up an east land upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt. Such a dense swarm of locusts, as had never been seen before, nor ever will be again. They covered the face of the whole land so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained neither the tree nor plant of the field through all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, 'I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now therefore forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me.' So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the Lord, and the Lord turned the wind into a very strong West wind which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not let the people of Israel go. This goes back to what you were talking about with Pharaoh, or approves the point of Pharaoh not being genuine in his last admitting and middle to sin, because this one he says, 'Mmm, you can forgive me but just this one time for this specific thing.' And that's it. Anything else I've been wrong about, I have not been wrong about it. It's just this one thing that I'll ask for forgiveness for. And this goes back to what you were saying too, which we didn't spoil it, but the local locusts have come and taken out what the rest of the hail couldn't, you know, in the fire. Yeah, those are the biggest things to the point where there were so many locusts that the ground was black, it's just crazy. That locusts are terrifying. They bite, like their wings and their legs have like are very sharp, I don't know if you've ever touched a locust before. Never a locusts. Grasshoppers, yes, I think they're part of the same family, but yeah, never a locusts. They're huge, dude. They're massive. They are like so in Florida, there's some locusts that are around, especially Central Florida. And so you would see them when we would go to like Disney World and stuff. And of course, you'd think, 'Oh, they're like grasshoppers.' And they would let you know that they were not grasshoppers, because they would bite you, dude. They're nasty. That spawns a Satan. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, like Nick was bringing up locusts, especially in that day and age, and even now to some extent, are an ecological disaster in insect form. Like, they would just ravish everything in their path and continue to do so in smaller periods compared to this, which one of the things we haven't kind of mentioned is like, hey, the things that are happening here, it has never happened in Egypt before, and never will it happen again in the same way. That's just how bad things are. Like, and as we said earlier, like the crops that Pharaoh had places trust in, and maybe even if he had the storehouses left behind by Joseph, where they probably got in there and had their way with the grain or whatever else was in there. So they're left with nothing. And it's going to get to the point where Egypt is going to starve without help. Right. I don't know. There's a current documentary because just the series of locusts, there's, I don't know if it's in India or Africa, but there's a giant swarm that is like continuing to grow and it's become an ecological and economic issue in the country, but there's, you know, because they're making their way throughout the entire country and like they just destroy everything. And it's one of the things, yeah, that's how they survive is how they do stuff like that. Right. But when there's smaller in number, I mean, you can make do, but when they swarm the hundreds of thousands, millions, what have you, nothing's going to make it out of there that they feed on. And even if you're left behind because you're not on their menu, well, what do you have to eat after that fact? Right. I guess, I mean, having did the bubblegump over here of, you know, just serving shrimp, but locust. Oh, time. Yeah. Locust gumbo. Locust. Yeah. Yeah. And I can't imagine it tastes that great. I mean, I haven't really been an insectivore in my life. I don't plan on it either. But yeah, not exactly my fine dining that I expect out of any meal I go to. Yeah. I'll take the only insects I eat as from the sea, please. And go what you said about earlier for Pharaoh, like, yeah, once again, he comes in what in any other situation we'd go, it finally happened. He's coming to repentance. He's admitted fault until you listen to what he actually has to say. It's like this one time, just forgive me that. Don't worry about me keeping this institution up that was working on us basis of enslaving an entire group of people. Don't forget about the fact that my daddy engaged in a program where we were slaughtering the boys and just trying to keep the girls. That didn't work for some reason. I don't know why. I know because I'm God, but obviously I'm not going to tell you and say, don't forget all that just this one specific thing, just forgive me that, Moses. Tell your God that not even going directly to God himself. He just goes through Moses as an intermediary because he can't even dane to speak to this God that is calls on this devastation because it's beneath him to do that. And yeah, it sounds good if you just hear that first part. But then his actions prove anything but and his follow through just kind of sucks in general. Right. Yeah, 100 percent. Yep. So for this plague, the eighth plague, these would be considered to be an assault by God on the Egyptian deities of Isis, Newt and set once again because if they were at their power that they're supposed to have, you know, in the stories, they could have easily protected the skies from the locus or the crops had they any real power over this Yahweh guy. But once again, they fail and they're always going to fail because because they're fighting against the guy who said these things are going to happen, who actually has that power and authority. Psych. Anything else before we finish up today, I don't think so. All right. Finish up a chapter 10 and verses 21 through 29, then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt. So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. It did not see one another nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they live. Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, "Go serve the Lord. Your little ones also may go with you. Only let your flocks and your herds remain behind." But Moses said, "You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our livestock also must go with us, not a hoof shall be left behind, but we must take of them to serve the Lord our God and we do not know with what we must serve the Lord, just what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not let them go. Then Pharaoh said to him, "Get away from me, take care never to see my face again. For on a day you see my face, you shall die." Moses said, "As you say, I will not see your face again." What a gangster, what a gangster aligned, dude. Like, Mike dropped. He said, he said, "You do not see my face again." He says, "I will never see your face again." Boom. It's like, "Okay, once again, we've been giving you everything you've asked for this entire time." It's literally like the guy who like you've just, I mean, Moses with God's power has just been just slapping him around. Pharaoh has just been taking it and it's like the dude who's like getting destroyed and is like, "Yeah, well, why don't you go ahead who's still talking a big game?" And Moses is just like, "All right, keep talking a big game." It's like, you know, seeing little kids play a basketball game and it's suddenly, you know, you invite Shaquille O'Neal to just one on five of them and just see them absolutely destroyed. It's not even a game, it's a slaughter. Right. Just destroyed, dude, I thought, you know, I think, oh, go ahead. It's like the same kids after that fact saying, "Well, you got us this time, but we'll get you Shaq." Shaq, I'm trying to imagine kids legitimately thinking that they're going to figure out a way to take down Shaq. Go ahead with what you had to say. No, I was just going to go too to like, also, I hadn't thought about this in my first reading. But then even too about potentially how much livestock God might call them to sacrifice. And I know that like burn offerings and sacrifices was pretty common among religions in the ancient world there. But I think Israel had a very specific system in place that, you know, which kind of gives to like that informs the concept of tithing today, right? Like, if you even bring up like giving any sort of money back to God in any sort of way, like people who aren't Christians are in that world or even Christians who do go to church are like, "Whoa, you're asking me to give how much of my income? Like I can't do that," right? And I think probably there's something similar here where Pharaoh's like, "Okay, also, all the livestock is dead, all our food is gone. And you want to go and take what's left over?" Which Pharaoh sees as his, you know, kind of in kind of intense there. I even tell you, you got to know this that those gheus turning in his head is like, "Well, you can all go, keep the livestock here." And when they're not here, when you come back, don't worry about that. Don't bother asking where we got ours. It's just the childishness of this position always just kills me. It's like, you just won't give up, you think you're giving up inches, but really you haven't even moved. Right. It's astounding to, there are people out there, you can do the Pharisees in Jesus. It's like, how can you see someone raise someone from the dead or remove a demon possessing someone and say, "Well, peace is filled with the power of Satan." Right. It's like, I'm so glad that veil has been torn away from my head, that I would never dare to say something like that, but I still feel immense pity for people in that state. It's like, how could you let it come to this point? I think it's just, well, there's probably a large multitude of contributing factors, but I think there's this self-centered interest that corrupts people where this power, that even Pharaoh, I don't feel like his power is, he doesn't invoke the pantheon of Egypt. He evokes his own authority, his own power. I think we see that throughout a lot of the Old Testament villains and even the New Testament villain or the gospel villains, the Pharisees and the Romans and in a lot of cases. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a sounds thing. At the very beginning of this, it's another one of those, God doesn't even bother having Moses show up before Pharaoh. He's like, "Hey, just do it again. We know the drill at this point in time. Just send darkness over the whole land of Egypt, but not to the Israelites." It's a darkness that is just so invasive, depending on your translation, they may just say outright, "You could feel it," which if that is true is no doubt immensely disconcerting. And without light, nothing's going to get done, so pretty much everyone just stays in place while they're starving. What are you supposed to do? How do you go to work that day? You don't because you don't know where you are. You stay inside the house. This palpable darkness is just like, "I'm not five years old anymore. I'm not afraid of the dark like I was back then. I have a respect now." I'll be like, "I don't know what's out there, but I do live in this magical place where I can turn the lights on at any time. I suspect there's something in the house or the dorm room, as I should say here." I can't imagine that light not even working, no candlelight, no nothing, I can't see. Right. Well, and to the point where they can't even see the hands in front of their faces, and I read this passage and I was, "Darkness is the absence of light, but if this is isolated to this area of Egypt, is this an ontological darkness? Does this darkness have its own properties? Is it a material darkness as opposed to just an absence of light? I don't know if that's an answerable question, but that's something I thought of because a lot of people talk about the metaphysics of evil. We're going to fancy there, but just talking about that basically evil doesn't have being. It's just the absence of proper being in the Augustinian sense. But does this story in the Bible point to that maybe there is some darkness that has sort of being? Is there an evil in the world that has true being? I don't know. That's the things that I thought about when I read this passage about the darkness. It's one of those things. We associate darkness with evil because of reasons like this. Even though from the very beginning we see darkness and light being separated, it's not because the darkness is inherently evil in that sense. It's just a different part of creation that has its own role. But for this specific circumstance, yeah, I'll look at what may be the personification of evils in some sense in that darkness. An entire country has been swallowed by it. Yeah, there's still trade with other nations going on right now. Are they allowed inside or did they just see this giant sphere of darkness encompassing to place where we're supposed to be landing on the riverbed today? But I think we're going to turn back and go to Greece or the Hittite Empire or wherever the heck we're going because nope, not coming in this day. What does that even look like from an outsider's perspective? Right. It's like the dome. I don't know. It's like the dome, but you can't program cool happy things. It's just pitch black blob. I don't know, man. Gosh. Yeah. And I couldn't imagine being in that scenario. We are very immensely blessed, as much as I hate light pollution at the end of the day. We can turn on the light switch and see in the dark. We don't need to grab a candle and hopefully not burn the house down. It's a lot simpler. We live in a very cool time. The time I'm very glad I was born in, the one with air conditioning. Amen. Modern amenities. And yet for that to be taken away, how would I react? Well, if whenever I've lost power in the past, poorly is going to be the answer. Right. Because I'm really bad at not going, okay, well, this is a time to do something else. You know, I need my creature comforts and I need the air conditioning. I need the TV to be on so I can watch Netflix or play a video game or just surf something on the web. And this is me in the modern age saying that back then. Hmm. Well, and even think about how much it was going to prevent, like they already don't have agriculture. It's completely destroyed, but now there's three days of no working, no, any field of time. Right. You probably, I mean, you could probably, people probably were familiar with their own living space, but like, how did people eat? How did people drink, especially at this point with the, with the shortages, you know? Yeah. It's astounding. And I had that guy. It was only three days. I mean, it was just mean the sun was completely blocked off as a cold the entire time. I didn't even thought about that. It doesn't look like it from the text, but I mean, I could throw that out as a possibility. Right. Yeah. So do you have anything else? I do not. Two more things. But going a little bit about what you had said earlier about Pharaoh once again, qualifying his statements, like even at this point, he cannot see anything in front of him. He knows Moses is in the room because Moses is talking and Moses can see what's going on. Unless this is a really good ventriloquist out there is like, ha, ha, I fooled you into thinking Moses was here. Not only think the Egyptians were too much into that, like it's still at the point where you can go, but not your livestock. I've got to have some hold on you to get you to come back here and he just can't give it up and he denies God once more and says he never wants his Moses to see his face again, which as we stated earlier, Moses easily agrees to and not spoil what happens later on, but their next meeting is happening at night so they can't see again. And Pharaoh is going to be too much in the midst of despair over to what happens with the final plague to even look Moses face to face. Right. So once again, God is giving him exactly what he asked for man, man, I didn't man the irony is it's serious. Yeah. And after this ninth plague, this would be kind of like, I really take that. They've all been take that. If you're following this hypothesis, this is one of them, my favorite of them all. That's awesome. I was going to say this is my favorite too. Because this is a slap in the face to the God, raw God of the sun, who is the one most Egyptian pharaohs claim the scent from and claim to work alongside of. So for raw to fail, the other gods and goddesses, you know, maybe I'm going to have a crisis of faith, but like, you know, Ross, still out there, I still see the sun, but it's gone. And that that God, I say my power comes from that gives me the right to say I'm a God King in this world failed and Pharaoh is just as broken. Yeah. Makes sense. Why his reaction would be so much stronger in the sense where he's like, the next time you if you ever see me again, I'm going to kill you. Yeah. Like that makes sense. Just like this has all been challenges to his authority, but there's always been like the little things he kept in reserve. And now the thing he kept in reserve, there's nothing left. It's empty. Nothing left. Yeah. All right, Nick, thank you again for coming this week, man. We got two more chapters to go and plenty of time to spend on others things besides Exodus. What anime are we going to mention next time? Who knows? That's the fun. Find out on the next episode of Exodus Ball Z, say it again, brother. Yeah. So I forgot to say this earlier. Would you mind plugging yourself again for the good people? Thanks. You can find me on sub stack. My sub stack is called Tolkien Pop. I've run some online classes that are free online. You just Google Tolkien heads that was done with trip from homebrew Christianity. And I'm also the production editor for a journal for the Tolkien Society. So if you're into Tolkien and you want to go deeper, become a member of the Tolkien Society. Excellent. Yeah. Guys, check out Nick wherever he goes like, I mean, if it's not obvious by now, like kind of love the man, you know, getting more Nick in your life. Like you just need him, you know, I'm going to get a slice of Nick in about a month or two. I can't wait. I can't. If you didn't see me listeners, because this is audio, but I was blowing kisses to Christian because that's how that's how deeply I can't wait for him to get here. Oh, yeah. I'm waiting for that tight hug. If you like first time we meet face to face. Yes. Yes. So thank you all for listening today. Thank you everyone who's a guest coming here for the first time because you saw Nick post on wherever he was posting and thank you again for doing that, Nick. We'd love to have you stick around. If not, once again, just hang out with Nick. I'm fine with that. The bump to the numbers. I'll take it either way. And if you get a chance to leave a five star of you and your podcasting platform with choice, it helps out with the ratings there, get more people involved. I'd love more people to hear what we have to say here. Nick is not going to be the only guest I have on as well. I'm going to have Pastor Will Rose in a little bit. We're going to be doing the 10 commandments together. In Exodus 20, Joshua Knowles going to be with Exodus 19. I've got my friend Cori Rowe of foreign saints. We're going to be for Exodus 21 and 22. Maybe more along the road. We shall see. If you're interested in my own fiction writer, you can find my work to starforwritersgill.com or on Amazon by searching the name MC Ashley. If you're all interested in some further solid studies into the Bible and its teachings, then check out the other members of the Anazale Ministries Podcasting Network. You can contact me at Let Nothing Movie podcast at gmail.com. I'd like to spend a special thank you to Joshua Knowles for the editing that he does and for the music he has to the podcast. And with all that in mind, God bless you all in accordance to his will and not mine and allow me one more time to remind you, Let Nothing Move You. Hey guys, are you interested in podcasting, but don't know where to go? Well check out Synccaster.com and go ahead and make an account there and use special promo code Let Nothing Move You, all caps. That way you can get 30% off of your next deal to go ahead and set things up so you can figure out how to edit stuff using Synccaster.com to host your stuff to get things done there. So check out Synccaster.com, use special promo code Let Nothing Move You. All right, see ya.
