NOTES for Exo 7:1-25
Over the next several days we will read one of the best-known and strangest biblical stories: the narrative of the "plagues of Egypt." However, many generations of Israelites, and many of our contemporaries from different peoples, would hardly see anything strange in it. God protects His own and is merciless to outsiders. Only Christian semi-folkloric stories about the torments of sinners in hell can compete with the cruelty of the "plagues": here too, refined cruelty toward the evil serves as a contrast to the blessedness of the righteous.
But what if, in this whole story, we see not this truly horrifying side, but precisely the reverse side? After all, in the consciousness of the ancient authors of Exodus, the punishment of Egypt emphasized precisely God's love for His people.
One person gave this example: imagine that on a playground an older boy is hurting a little child. What can the child set against the offender? "My dad," he says, "is so strong, he loves me so much that he will make mincemeat out of you, he will smear you on the wall..." and so on. What can Israel, still unformed, set against Egypt's huge empire? Only its God; and God will show all His power and fury on the offender, because He loves His child so much.