A Meaningful Story
For my meaningful image, I chose the plague on the firstborn from Exodus 11-12.
Exodus 11-12 describes the plague on the firstborn which the lord casts upon the people of Egypt. It depicts the celebration of the Passover and the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. However, the means to this end are also depicted, those means being the death of every firstborn in Egypt "
from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill
" It is a religious image that portrays both the grace and the wrath of god.
This is a religious image not just because it is in the Bible, but because it represents the nature of God.
Exodus 11:5-7:
And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn 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.
But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.
These 3 verses exemplify the will and nature of the lord towards the Egyptians and the Israelites. He cast the plague among the Egyptians, but does not do the same unto the Israelites. This is a good example of the Christian teaching of "God is just" in this case being that god promised Moses freedom and delivered. However, one could also argue that since he only killed the firstborn of the Egyptians, that this violates that same teaching. The argument being that since god favoured the Israelites over the Egyptians, his actions are not justified.
The reason that this plague changed the pharaoh's judgment more than any of the previous plagues is that the previous plagues didn't affect the pharaoh much. The pharaoh wouldn't have cared much about hail or locusts because he would be safe inside his palace with shelter and warehouses of full food. It would've been the peasants that bore most of the brunt from the other plagues. When the last plague came, it affected him personally and created a harsher reality for him to live with.
If the king fails in his duties, both societies suffer the same fate of chaos and warfare. However, the Egyptian and Mesopotamian people view the outcome in different ways. While the author never explicitly mentions the consequences in the Wisdom of Merikare, there are some instances where he hints at failure, writing about “a shameful deed [that] occurred in my time,” which he doesn’t specify. It appears that a nome was attacked and destroyed due to his negligence. This is the main fear from the king’s perspective. The citizens of Egypt want to maintain stability in order to preserve their wellbeing. If the Pharaoh cannot preserve order, then they view him as a failure. However, the criticism the Pharaoh would receive for the millennia to
... the Hebrews, having no protection laws for the Hebrews, and overemphasizing the betrayal the Egyptians felt when Moses was discovered to be a Hebrew. The movie emphasized the violence the Hebrew slaves endured from the Egyptians although this was only briefly mentioned in the book of Exodus. Unlike the book of Exodus, the movie also depicted the slaves not having any rights as the Egyptians were remorseless to kill the Hebrews. Lastly, the movie overemphasizes the Egyptians feeling betrayed by Moses being a Hebrew. This leads to the Egyptians to ridicule Moses and strip him from any of his power and legacy in Egypt.
From this portion of scripture, we can see that God will not force His sovereign will on one who is determined to have a hardened heart and refuses to accept His mercy. This is also evident in the case with Pharaoh whereby God forced Pharaoh to do what was already in his heart, therefore, forfeiting his opportunity to be redeemed.
...last plague. He sent the death angel throughout the land of Egypt, who would kill the firstborn male of every family. If there was lamb blood smeared on the doorway, then the angel would Passover that house. This was the plague, which Pharaoh decided to let the Israelites go. The results of all these plagues left the impression upon the people of Israel that God had power, protection, and plans for them. Once the Israelite left, Pharaoh hardened his heart again, and sent people after the Israelites. God opened the Red Sea for the Israelites, but Pharaoh Army tried to follow, but they swallowed up by the red sea.
Egyptians beleived in only one holy god. According to the quote, Egyptians viewed the Pharaoh with much admiration and worshipped the Pharaoh very much. “Mother and Father to all.” This quote means to me that the Pharoah looks out for everyone in the Society no matter how good or how bad the times are in that society. Also, I bleive based on the quote everyone beleived in the Pharoah with great admiration.
At first, Israel's relationship with the Egyptians does not seem to be a blessing; however, The Plagues result in the Egyptians ultimately perceiving Yahweh as God. God, so that the "Egyptians shall know that I am Lord" (Exodus 7:3,5), puts the Egyptians through a gauntlet, comprised of some of the worst conceivable ills that can befall man. When God states that He will bring down a hail storm, Pharaoh's courtiers, "…who feared the Lord's word brought their slaves and livestock indoors to safety" (9:20). This quotation signals a change in faith: previously, Pharoah's courtiers did not pay attention to Moses' premonitions. Gradually though, the courtiers begin to take notice of Yahweh's power. Similarly, God vows to unleash locusts all over the land. Pharaoh's courtiers become increasingly involved with Pharoah's decisions and favor allowing the Israelites to leave: ...
Moses' journey begins in Egypt. This is a land where the Pharaoh has ultimate control and power over the people. Campbell refers to this greedy, egocentric, possessive leader as the tyrant. At this time, Egypt is noticing a huge increase in the number of Hebrew slaves (Exodus 1:9). In order to maintain possession of the land, Pharaoh must stifle the future threat that the increasing population of Israelites represent. To do this he orders the first born son of every Hebrew to be thrown into the Nile. However, baby Moses floats to the Pharaoh's daughter and Moses is raised as an Egyptian prince. He grows up different than any other Hebrew. He learns how to become soldier for his Pharaoh, but something is always troubling him. One day Moses sees an Egyptian striking a Hebrew slave and Moses intervenes and kills the Egyptian (Exodus 2:12). The next day he sees two Hebrews struggling, and tries to intervene, but he discovers that his murder of yesterday is known. This conflict symbolizes what Campbell says is the "call t...
God also had informed them that if they decided to break this sacred rule he would punish them by death. Despite God’s word and instructions the Hebrew people totally disregarded what they were told and became corrupt by creating many other gods to worship other than their one true God. Because of their disobedience their God became angered and wanted to kill them, however, Moses pleaded with God to not kill his people (Exodus 32:7-14). When Moses came back down from the mountain he saw how out of control his people had gotten. He had also become anger and he burnt the calf, grounded it into powder, and scattered it into water and made the people drink it as part of their punishment (Exodus 32:19-20). The next day Moses told the people how great of a sin that they had committed and he said that he would go ask the Lord for omission from their sin (Exodus 32:30). Moses even sacrificed his name in the book of life in order to spare the live of his people. He pleaded to the Lord “But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written (Exodus 32:32)”. However, God replied saying that whoever had sinned against him b worshipping the calf was to be punished. Because of their disobedience God struck the people with a plague (Exodus
Exodus is the second of the five “books of Moses” that tells the story of the Exodus of Israelites from Egypt through the Sinai Desert. When Moses was born, the Israelites were oppressed by the Egyptian Pharaoh and bound to a harsh life of labor taking part in building some of the great public works of Egypt such as the pyramids, fortresses, and installations to regulate the flow of the Nile River. For fear that the Israelite population would continue to increase, the Pharaoh insisted that every male Hebrew child would be killed at birth. Ironically, during this oppressive period, Moses, the “future deliverer of Israel”, was born. To protect his life, his mother sent him down the Nile in a specially woven ark. He was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter who took him in and, to add to the irony, she hired his mother to be his foster nurse. The baby boy grew up and was adopted into the Pharaoh’s household and named Moses. His name is derived from the Egyptian root “mose” meaning “son”, but in the Bible, it is said to hale from the Hebrew root meaning “drawn out of the water.”
There is a lot to prove that Paneloux first sermon contains a lot of bad ideas. Even though God does bring His wrath out on the world a lot in the Bible, the plague is mos...
Also in Exodus 9, the Lord told Moses to tell the people He was sending another plague of the worst hailstorms.
The pharaoh had the most power of all humans in Ancient Egypt. He had many critical responsibilities. It was his duty to make laws and keep order. It was also his responsibility to prevent attacks from Egypt’s enemies and keeping the gods happy. The people believed that he was a god on earth.
Pyramids, gold, the Nile, hieroglyphics, gods and goddesses…no matter how much we know about it, we all see one of these things when we picture Egypt. However, this image is not complete without the Pharaoh. Not much in Egypt was. So to be considered “The Last Great Pharaoh of Egypt” is quite an honor, an honor that Ramesses III carries. A ruler in the time of the New Kingdom, he gave Egypt a few more years of glory before it’s decline.
However, there are few differences in the accounts of his life between the Quran and the Bible. One is the adoption of Moses into the palace. In the biblical account, pharaoh’s daughter adopted Moses but in the Quran, the wife of the pharaoh adopted him. Similarly, the order of plagues and the nature of plagues that afflicted the people of pharaoh in the Quran and the Bible differ. In conclusion, despite these minor differences, the Quran and biblical accounts of the role, life, purpose, and figure of Moses are similar with several lessons, which can help us become better people in our society.
...n 1163 B.C., Egypt entered a period of slow decline (Scarre 1997:116). Pharaohs became less powerful, and their prestige dwindled. Hungry soldiers were terrorizing the community, while tomb robbers were raiding the pyramids for resources that were very much needed. They had buried their pharaohs with food, goods and jewelry, all of which were needed to keep the civilization in tact. They had built too many pyramids, and there were setbacks in Asia which corrupted trade. People did not understand why the pharaohs could not fix the problems that were going on. They viewed them as gods and lost trust and faith. Egypt fell apart as these things culminated with loss of belief in the pharaohs.