Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

the earth so that it could not be seen,-when the servants of Pharaoh heard this, they remonstrated with the king, and intreated him to let the Hebrews go. Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and he said that the people might go, but that they should leave their children behind: to this Moses would not consent. At first he had asked for leave to go and sacrifice to the LORD in the wilderness, but that was refused: he now demanded leave to go, with the young and the old, their sons and their daughters, their flocks and their herds, to hold a feast unto the LORD. This Pharaoh rejected with anger, and Moses and Aaron were driven from his presence.

"Then Moses stretched his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts." And "they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left."

"Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste. And he said, I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Now, therefore, forgive I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the Lord your God, that he may take away from me this death only."

And Moses intreated the Lord: and the locusts were driven away by a strong west wind, so that of all the myriads there remained not one. Still Pharaoh refused to let Israel go.

And now came the ninth plague, more awful and terrific than all those which had preceded it. The Egyptians worshipped the Sun (Osiris) as the greatest and most glorious of their divinities: the Nile had been struck first; the Sun was darkened in the last plague before the passover, yet would not the Egyptians and their impious king learn that these false divinities were nothing in themselves, and that Jehovah who formed them, and made them useful and beautiful to his creatures, or smote them at his pleasure, is alone the God and Creator of the World. Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness: "a darkness which might be felt."

This darkness so awful, so terrible, lasted three days, The Egyptians saw not one another, neither rose any from his place: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

your

Then Pharaoh called for Moses, and said, "Go ye, serve the Lord, only let flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you."

But neither to this would Moses consent. "Not a hoof," he said, "should be left behind." Pharaoh again refused, and commanded Moses to quit his presence, and never appear before him again. And Moses said, "Thou hast spoken well I will see thy face again no more:" but before he left the king, he proclaimed the dreadful judgment which was yet to fall upon him,"the death of the first-born in every family in

Egypt." And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maid servant that is behind the mill: and all the first-born 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.” "And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me (Moses) saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out." When Moses had thus spoken, he quitted the presence of the king, who by his obstinate perseverance in wickedness, had already caused the destruction of the property of his subjects, and was about to sacrifice their lives.

CHAPTER VI.

THE TEN PLAGUES CONCLUded.

THE PASSOVER.

WE now come to the last and greatest of the plagues, and to the institution of the Passover. This was the most important and most sacred of the Feasts, or Holy Festivals of the Jews, and commemorated the signal deliverance of the Israelites, when the Angel of Death passed over their doors, sprinkled with the blood of the Paschal Lamb, and slew the first-born in all the houses of the Egyptians.

The Egyptians had already suffered under nine different judgments of God, each one of which had been foretold to them, each one of which happened exactly at the time, and in the manner which Moses declared from God that it should happen, and each one of which Pharaoh and his people might have averted, by submitting to the LORD, and obeying his holy, wise, and just command. They were only required to allow a people to leave their country, over whom they could pretend to exercise no just right. They had, it is true, enslaved them, and forced them to labour in their public works: but even in that early age, when the rights of

their fellow-creatures were but little regarded by the powerful, the Egyptians must have known that their conduct to the Israelites was oppressive, and unjust in the extreme. The conduct of the Egyptians was wrong, in oppressing the Israelites in the first instance; but they committed another and far greater crime in refusing to obey a direct command from God. As Moses spoke in His name, and as he worked a miracle which no human being could do of himself, to prove that he did not falsely assume to himself the authority of a messenger from Jehovah, Pharaoh ought to have believed and obeyed him. Then, when the plagues came, and came expressly, because Pharaoh did not obey Moses, the Egyptians could not but know that those terrific judgments came from no human hand. We may safely assert that they did know it, and yet they dared to resist. For this they were punished; and so will all be punished, here or in the world to come, who know God's holy will, and do not seek to obey it.

During the three days of darkness the terrified Egyptians never rose from their place; they staid within their dwellings, and the Israelites had thus three days rest from their tasks: a needful and merciful preparation for the long and toilsome journey they were about to take; and, as light was in their dwellings, they could make ready for their departure, and prepare the Paschal Lamb. On the tenth day of the month of Abib, which nearly corresponds to the month

« ÎnapoiContinuă »