I was listening to the news on the radio the other day and there was a particular segment on opening churches and religious freedom that caught my attention. An enthusiastic proponent of opening churches was being interviewed and in the course of making his point he said something like: the Egyptians were visited by plagues and they didnt succumb, but toughed it out. I did a double take. (Can you do a double take if its a voice on the radio?) Regardless, I said to myself, hes misread the whole story. In fact, I wonder if he really knows the story at all.

Lets go to the Bible. For the sake of brevity, Im going to zip through big parts of the story in order to focus on what I think are the take-away points for us in this instance.

God uses the betrayal of Joseph by his brothers to bring him to Egypt. He has a plan for him. There, through Gods gift, he interprets for Pharaoh the dreams that had been disturbing him. Then Pharaoh entrusts Joseph with managing and preparing for both the seven years of plenty, and the seven years of famine, foretold in his dream.

In gratitude, Pharaoh invites Jacob, Josephs father, Joseph's brothers and their families, and the Israelites to settle in Egypt. They prosper and grow. Over time, the memory of Joseph fades. The Egyptians decide to exploit and then enslave the children of Israel. And so, God sends another deliverer: Moses.

Moses is sent to rescue his people from this slavery, and demands from Pharaoh that he allow them to leave Egypt. Pharaoh refuses, so God decides that he will persuade him, through Moses. His persuasion technique? The plagues.

God visits the plagues on Egypt, on Pharaoh, not to punish, but to alter their behavior, to get them to repent. Yes, they endured each of the plagues, one more terrible than the other, but after a brief repentance, they reverted to their original hard-heartedness. Even after the last terrible plague of the death of the first-born, they reverted and were determined to bring the Israelites back to Egypt, back to slavery. The Egyptians wanted their old life back again. And so, they pursued them even into the Sea turned dry land, and then God allowed the waters to cover them over.

No, the Egyptians did not overcome the plagues. No, they didnt really tough it out. They refused to accept what God was trying to teach them and suffered the consequences. It wasnt punishment, it was the obvious result of their unwillingness to learn. So, if one is going to take up lessons from the Bible, one might first need to read the Scriptures a little more carefully.

What any trial or crisis elicits is the hidden strengths or weaknesses in a person or community or nation. This particular crisis, this pandemic, is such a test, on steroids. We are seeing expressions of what is best in us in the sacrifice of countless people who are putting themselves, and often their loved-ones, at risk to help others. We are also seeing what is weak and even selfish in us by wanting our life back without yet fully appreciating what it was that got us here in the first place; by blaming others while ignoring what we ourselves need to do, in a word, repent. The pandemic is not Gods punishment, but perhaps he is using it to persuade us to change the way we treat one another and his creation.

The Exodus event has much to teach us. I would urge you to pick up your Bible and read it over from the second half of Genesis through the Book of Exodus and see how the children of Israel responded to their new-found freedom. Also, see the lessons God had for them as well. It turns out that the Egyptians are not the only ones afflicted with a prideful hard-heartedness.

I'd urge you to study the lessons in the Exodus. Like much of Scripture, it's replete with examples of human behavior and God's love that we can learn from. Christians see in this great story a precursor, a foreshadowing, of the salvation God would bring humanity in the coming of Jesus Christ. In most languages Christians call Easter: "Passover," (something we lose in English). The first Passover points to the second. In both Feasts we learn that true freedom, true liberation comes when we listen to God and strive to do his will.

The Rev. Nicholas Apostola is parish priest at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Shrewsbury

Link:
Keep the Faith: The pandemic is not Gods punishment - Worcester Mag