Two gods, two peoples are about to battle to the death.  The main event is Yahweh vs. Pharaoh.  I am cataloging all of the imperatives in scripture.  Last time we saw how Exodus paints this picture of an Israelite God who issues commands but provides the means of obeying.  Pharaoh on the other hand gives harsh commands, “More bricks,” but he makes it impossible to fulfill them.  In chapters 7-12 one commander will emerge victorious.

Exo 7:1 “See!  I have made you [like a] God to Pharaoh.”  The command addresses Moses’ vision like in 4:21.  English translations add the “like a” so we don’t think God is a polytheist.  This verse is tied to 4:16 because there Moses and Aaron are established as a god-prophet duo.

Exo 7:9 “Give a miracle… take your staff… cast it down.”  God is scripting the conversation, “Pharaoh will command this, then you will command this.”  Interestingly, God knows what both sides should say.  Also, many translations have “Do a miracle” or “prove yourselves”.  The verb more literally means “give.”  Pharaoh is commanding that Moses give him something as tribute.  This is no open hearted or curious inquiry.  “You say you are from some other god, then give me a miracle.”

Exo 7:15, 16, 19 “Go to Pharaoh… Let my people go… Say to Aaron… Take your staff… stretch out your hand.”  Once again God writes the script.  Pharaoh is not giving commands any more.  Notice in v22 he doesn’t even command the magicians to copy the miracle.  They just do it to cheer Pharaoh up.  He instead sulks into his palace.

Exo 8:1, 5 “Go to Pharaoh… Let my people go… Say to Aaron… Stretch out your hand.”  God’s commands for Pharaoh are the same as the first plague.  The script for Aaron has changed.  The commands for Aaron in 7:19 include imperatives targeting the staff and Aaron’s hands.  However, v5 has “hand with your staff.”  The staff has been downgraded some how.  Can’t have Aaron do the same motions for the same effect.

Exo 8:8-9 “Entreat with Yahweh… Have the honor of [naming] the time.”  Moses is killing Pharaoh with kindness.  Pharaoh is viscerally begging Moses to act and Moses is essentially saying, “Have some dignity (if you are a god), order me a time to call the plague off.”

On v7, there are no commands here, but the magicians just really aren’t helping.  “Pharaoh, sorry Moses made frogs ruin the economy.  See we can make more frogs.”  You aren’t helping.

Exo 8:16, 20, 25 “Say to Aaron… Stretch out your staff… strike the dust…  The plague of gnats is a standard staff plague, but this plague trips up the magicians (v18).  God doesn’t issue the “let my people” command before the gnats.  They just are commanded.

Exo 8:20, 25, 28 “Get up early… present yourselves… Let my people go… Go! Sacrifice to your God… Entreat for me.” In terms of hands and staff motions, the flies are a non-standard plague.  God just announces something will happen tomorrow, but “let my people go” returns.  Also, this is the first plague where Israel is treated differently.  Goshen won’t have any flies.  Pharaoh doesn’t let the people go, but he does let them sacrifice.  The entreat/plead is the same idea as v8.  Pharaoh knows when he is beat.  Notice how the pattern is shifting.  Last entreating, Moses had to remind Pharaoh of his “place as king,” but now Moses is manipulating Pharaoh’s commands.  “Letting us worship in the land isn’t your best idea.”

Exo 9:1, 8 “Go to Pharaoh… Let my people go… Take handfuls of soot…”  The plague on livestock is like the plague of flies.  It does not involve any actions on Aaron’s staff or hand or anything physical.  The “let my people” command has returned.  That’s four times so far.  Then, without skipping a beat and no conversation with Pharaoh, Moses starts throwing soot in the air.  Boils come on anything Egyptian.  Pharaoh is just becoming a reactive figure.  He isn’t leading anymore.

Exo 9:13, 19, 22, 28 “Get up early… present yourselves.. Let my people go… Send, bring your livestock… stretch out your hand… Entreat with Yahweh!”  The plague of hail has lots of parallels to the flies.  It ends with Pharaoh begging Moses to beg God, even calling on the name of Yahweh (“Who is this Yahweh” 5:2).

Exo 10:1, 3, 11, 12, 17 “Go to Pharaoh… Let my people go… “Go! The men only.  And serve… Stretch out your hand… Lift up my sins… Entreat Yahweh.”  Pharaoh is catching on to the manipulation.  Moses is changing the deal.  But, Pharaoh’s will is no match for locusts.  Locusts could completely wipe out an empire.  There is a reason Pharaoh refers to them as death.  Pharaoh now implies he has sinned.  Not just “Pray that God would stop it,” but “Pray for my sins, so God will stop it.”

Exo 10: 21, 24, 28 “Stretch out your hand… Go! Serve!… Go from me!  Watch yourself!”  Another hand command brings about three days of darkness.  This is a world of oil lamps.  Pharaoh has progressed from his reaction to locusts, “Take away death!” to promising death.  The language “you shall die” is an echo of Genesis 2:17.

Exo 11:2, 8 “Speak/instruct the people…”  Before the last plague God only commands that his prophet do what a prophet does.  Before the big stuff, the core of Moses’ relationship is to God’s people.

Exo 12:3, 21 “Speak/instruct the people… draw out and take a lamb… slaughter the paschal-lamb.”  The instruction is “Find a lamb, then slaughter the sacrifice.”  The identity of the animal changes once selected.  The common word for lamb occurs in the commands for “draw out” and “take” but the slaughter changes to the Hebrew word that we get paschal from.  God’s greatest plague demands an instruction in sacrifice.  A survey of the history of slave revolts would be interesting.  Is a sacrificial meal normal for a night before the revolution?

Exo 12:31, 32 During the Passover, no one talks.  The first words are “Get up! Go!…” and a broken Pharaoh cries, “Take your flocks… Go!”  Translations make “and bless me also” sound like it is the same as “take” and “go,” but it actually is not an imperative form.  Pharaoh has issued four commands for the slaves to be free, but he doesn’t dare command his blessing.

“And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.” Gen 47:10.  That is what the relationship used to be like.  The story of Exodus is god vs. God, slaves vs. masters, but also friend vs. friend.  God’s promise to Abraham was “all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”  Joseph’s family tried that out.  They came to Egypt, and they got burned.  But, we see that some of the slave-masters understood.  “The LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so they let them have what they asked.  Thus they plundered the Egyptians” (Exo 12:36).  I usually read that verse as 1) Israel is making silent threats or 2) Egypt is too exhausted to care.  But, it seems the everyday Egyptians saw what Pharaoh didn’t.  Their empire came from these people.  Long ago these people blessed them.  This is a strange emancipation.  There is no dark period of reconstruction or lingering prejudice.  “The people are free and we are grateful for their blessing.”

The instructions for future celebrations of Passover in vv43-50 are just that, instructions for the future.  Translations use the word “shall” or “will”.  It would be interesting to do a study on how God orders the future, but that is outside of my scope.