Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on people and animals throughout the land.” – Exodus 9:8-9

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 14, 2015): Exodus 9

One of my favorite novels is a book written by Science Fiction great Frank Herbert. The book was written in 1982 and set in the very near future. It is called “The White Plague” and it tells the story of a man whose family is killed while on vacation in Britain by a bomb blast that had been set off by a group of terrorists. As a result of losing his entire family, the man, a molecular biologist, decided to devote the rest of his life in the development of a plague that would specifically bring his revenge on the countries that he blames for the murder of his wife and children – specifically Ireland (for supporting the terrorists), England (for giving the terrorists both a cause and a target) and Libya (for training the terrorists). But the reality is that, while the plague was intended for just those three areas, it quickly spreads to the rest of the world as people run from the infected areas bringing the plague with them to all of the corners of the earth. The victim of terrorism had been transformed into a terrorist much worse than the terrorists who had originally set this sequence of events in motion. Near the end of the novel the man walks the hills of Ireland to admire the works of his hands – a land with very few people still alive to enjoy the green Irish hills.

God tells Moses to take the soot from the furnace and toss it in the air in the presence of the Pharaoh. The text does not indicate what furnace, but we have long suspected that God’s intent was that the soot was to be taken from one of the kilns where the people of Israel had worked and given their lives in the creating of bricks for the Egyptians. Now that same soot, which had stained the skin and clothes of Israel, was going to be used to create a plague which would infect not those who had been oppressed by the wealthy of Egypt, but rather Egyptian oppressors of Israel. And like in Herbert’s novel, there would seem to be poetic justice in this. The dust that had been created in the making of bricks would now be used to create boils that would have an effect on all corners of Egyptian society.

It also has been noted that this was the first plague to specifically have caused death in those who had contracted the disease. Experts have wondered if this could have been the first appearance of anthrax or of an anthrax like disease. If it was, it would have seemed like the soot that Israel produced in the making of the bricks would have somehow sunk into the very skin of the Egyptians, leaving them sick and causing both disease and death.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 10