When the new coronavirus first emerged from China at the end of 2019 and the whole world went into a global pandemic in March 2020, I first thought of the story of the plagues of Egypt. A few of the plagues seem to be related to a possible virus. Although, we may never really know if it's viruses that caused some of the plagues, I do believe in God's Word that these happened by God's will and power.
Many of us may know about the story in the Biblical Book of Exodus regarding the exodus (or fleeing) of the Hebrews from Egypt. (Exodus 7 through 12.) The Hebrews have lived in Egypt for hundreds of years and have become slaves to Pharaoh, the Egyptian king. Moses, the main character of this story, pleaded with Pharaoh to "Let my people go" and he has asked Pharaoh ten different times or else a plague will be cast upon Egypt. The ten plagues are:
- River of Blood (Ex. 7:14-24) - The river turned into blood.
- Frogs (Ex. 7:25-8:15) - Frogs were coming out of everywhere.
- Gnats (Ex. 8:16-19) - Gnats were coming out of everywhere.
- Flies (Ex. 8:20-32) - So did the flies.
- Disease of the Egyptian livestock (Ex. 9:1-7) - Animals were getting sick. Can we say coronavirus?
- Boils (Ex. 9:8-12) - Kind of like really bad chickenpox. Could be smallpox.
- Hail (Ex. 9:13-35) - Pretty self explanatory.
- Locust (Ex. 10:1-20) - Like the frogs, gnats and flies. But locusts can really do major damage to your crops.
- Darkness (Ex. 10:21-29) - It wasn't just an eclipse, the sky was dark for 3 days.
- Death of the firstborn (Ex. 11-12:32)
It was this last plague that interested me and in what the people did. So, I dug in a little deeper to see what the Bible had to say. First, we need to know a little bit about the last plague which is explained in Chapter 11 of Exodus:
(Moses addresses Pharaoh): So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. (Exodus 11:4-6)
Exodus 12 gave details of what the people did next to prepare. But it may not be what you might think. Here were the key things that God wanted the people of Israel to do:
- Regard this as their first month and their first day of their year. (Verse 2)
- On the tenth day of this month, each household is to take a one year old male lamb and take care of it until the 14th day. Then they are to slaughter it. (Verses 3-6)
- They need to take the lamb's blood and put some on the doorframe of their homes. (Verse 7)
- Then that night, they are to roast the lamb and eat it. (Verse 8)
- They are to commemorate and celebrate this as a festival; for seven days, they are to eat unleavened bread (bread without yeast). (Verses 14-15, 17)
Then later, Moses repeated and gave the final instructions, and an explanation what will happened that night:
Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. (Exodus 12:21-23)
I think the key take-away for me this is this: in a time of uncertainty where they could have been in fear and thought, "What if this last plague doesn't work, like the last other plagues?", God instructed the people to celebrate, because God will deliver them from the Egyptians. Moses did indeed tell the people of Israel to stay inside for an evening. But however long they stayed indoors, at least Moses knew that God will deliver them from Egypt.
This very story parallels what Jesus did for us on the cross. The celebration of Passover was not just a celebration of God's spirit passing over them (because of the blood of the slaughtered lamb on the door frame) and the Hebrews' exodus but also to point to the coming sacrifice of Jesus and his blood on the cross, God's protection over us, and Him delivering us from our sins.
"The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it." ~Psalm 24:1. It's crazy to think that the coronavirus is also a part of this earth. Although it is not certain when this pandemic will be over, I think God is instructing us to hang in their, isolate as much as possible but celebrate (safely) because there will be a time when this is passover.
