The Bible Slam: Exodus Chapter 11

For those of us who do not believe that the bible is the inerrant word of God, this chapter is disturbing.

God reverses the "hardened" hearts of Pharaoh and the Egyptian people so that the Hebrews had favor in their eyes.   He urges every man to borrow from his neighbor and every woman to borrow "jewels of silver and jewels of gold."   It is unclear what this is about.   But despite the fact that the Hebrews have found favor with the Egyptians, God says he's going to inflict one more plague.

God proclaims that he is going to kill the firstborn of all of the people and animals of Egypt around midnight.   The firstborn of the children of Israel will be spared.   This is "that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel."   This is intended to create tremendous grief and wailing amongst the Egyptians.

The chapter ends with God hardening the Pharaoh's heart again so that he can justify his next installment of killing.

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Discussion Points.

The version that Chelev read in the video specifies that it is the firstborn sons that would be killed; the King James version does not give a sex. Regardless, this seems to be a cruel and unusual punishment by the "loving God" for people who had nothing to do with Pharaoh's actions.

As to killing the firstborn of livestock, all the livestock were killed in the previous plagues. So how can they be killed if they were already dead?

The borrowing from neighbors seems like an odd instruction, unless this means that God is encouraging the Hebrews to "borrow" stuff from the Egyptians and then take it when they leave Egypt in later chapters.   If true, this is like condoning theft.

Apparently, God believes in discrimination and favoritism, since he wants to make sure that everyone knows there is a difference between the Egyptians and the Israelis.   Modern day genetics show that there is almost no significant difference between the DNA makeup of Middle Eastern populations (Arabs, Turks, Egptians) and Jews.

Most modern day people would believe that the indiscriminate killing of innocent children is evil.   Yet, bible believers somehow justify this as an action of a loving God.   Perhaps in reality, there were a series of volcanic eruptions that set off the series of plagues (see the discussion in Chapter 10). These events were then embellished by the ancient people who wrote the biblical stories.

Sphere: Related Content

Related posts:

1. The Bible Slam: Exodus Chapter 12
2. The Bible Slam: Exodus Chapter 09
3. The Bible Slam: Exodus Chapter 14
4. The Bible Slam: Exodus Chapter 13
5. The Bible Slam: Exodus Chapter 10
6. The Bible Slam: Exodus Chapter 01
7. The Bible Slam: Exodus Chapter 22
8. The Bible Slam: Genesis Chapter 43
9. The Bible Slam: Exodus Chapter 08
10. The Bible Slam: Exodus Chapter 05

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