OPEN WINDOW: A Lesson from the 5th Plague

Blogging Exodus 9:1 - 7

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews: “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.

² For if you refuse to let them go, and still hold them,

 ³ behold, the hand of the Lord will be on your cattle in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the oxen, and on the sheep—a very severe pestilence.

 ⁴ And the Lord will make a difference between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt. So nothing shall die of all that belongs to the children of Israel.” ’ ”

 ⁵ Then the Lord appointed a set time, saying, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.”

⁶ So the Lord did this thing on the next day, and all the livestock of Egypt died; but of the livestock of the children of Israel, not one died.

⁷ Then Pharaoh sent, and indeed, not even one of the livestock of the Israelites was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh became hard, and he did not let the people go. 

The 5^th plague was the death of Egyptian livestock in a very severe pestilence.  An aggressive bovarian disease with a 100% fatality rate swept through Egyptian herds, wiping out their cattle and herds within 24 hours.  It was an economic, cultural, religious, and health care disaster.   Usually, having made that observation we move on to the 6^th plague.  The cows died. That’s bad.  Next verse.  

Hold up.  It’s not about the dead cows.  It’s about the window.

Window?

Yeah, window.

When Moses confronted Pharaoh, the prophet did not immediately call down death on the livestock.  He said, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.”  Pharaoh had a 24 hour “window” in which to prevent the death of an entire sector of his nation’s economy.

What did Pharaoh think about in that window of time?  Did he decide that Moses was bluffing?  Not likely.  He’d seen Moses turn the Nile into blood, call up frogs out of the river, produce swarms of lice and flies; and he’d seen Moses turn those disasters off like a spigot. (Yeah, I think they did have spigots in ancient Egypt.)

Maybe Pharaoh wondered if Moses would really escalate the miracles/ plagues this way. Previously all of the death had been collateral damage, side effects of blood, frogs, lice, and flies.  This 5^th plague would be deliberate and direct mass extermination.

Possibly, Pharaoh wondered if Moses would risk his own people’s livelihood.  The previous plague, flies, had skipped the Hebrews in Goshen, but could Moses’ God really be that precise two times in a row?  

More likely, Pharaoh was just mad.  He didn’t even try to negotiate during the 24 hour window.  He just waited.  Even after the herds started dying, Pharaoh didn’t send for Moses to ask for relief.  He only sent for a report to see if Moses had indeed kept the Hebrew livestock safe from the pestilence. (Exodus 9:7)

Pharaoh looked out the 24 hour window and did nothing.  That’s why all the cows died.

Sudden destruction is seldom all that sudden. 

Even the worst people have a chance, a window of opportunity, to make a different choice.  Revelations 20: 21 (King James Version) calls this window of opportunity a space to repent. Sometimes God provides chance after chance for years.  Sometimes, months pass while people and circumstances try to nudge you away from your destructive path.  Sometimes, you get 24 hours to decide if your pride and stubborness are worth all those dead cows.

Like Pharaoh, we are all looking out an open window of opportunity.  You have 24 hours to make the moves that are possible in these next 24 hours.   You know what those moves are.  You know what choices you face, what direction you started along, and --- if you’re honest with yourself --- you have a pretty good idea of what’s gonna happen if you make the wrong choices between today and tomorrow.

I know you don’t want to.

I know you don’t think you should have to.

I know you’d rather do the other thing.

But think of the cows. 

Do the right thing while the window is open.

“Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3: 15)

 --Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

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GIVE THEM SOME SPACE?

At a press conference Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake explained why she held the police back from early and aggressive response to protestors.  She wanted police to “…make sure that the protesters were able to exercise their right to free speech.”

She went on to say “…we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well, and we work very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to de-escalate." (NBC News)

The mediaverse lit up about Baltimore Mayor’s “Space to Destroy.”  The mayor was accused of incompetence, indifference, complicity with the violence, even racism and conspiracy to see poor Baltimore burn.  The mayor and her defenders said her words were mischaracterized, taken out of context, etc. etc.   

I don’t know.  

But I do know that what Mayor Rawlings-Blake said sounded an awful lot like something Jesus said.

In Revelations chapter 2, the Apostle John quotes Jesus from His letter to the church of Thyatira:

^Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. ^And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. (Revelations 2: 20, 21)

The King James Version renders the quote like this: I gave her SPACE TO REPENT. 

Jezebel was the evil wife of King Ahab, queen of northern Israel-Samaria, and nemesis of the prophet Elijah.  She was responsible for the slaughter of hundreds of Jewish prophets, the corruption local and national leaders; and she nearly succeeded in making pagan worship the official and exclusive religion for 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Jezebel was not a good person.

Jesus said that John the Baptist was the Elijah of his day.  In similar manner, this woman in Thyatira was/ would be the new Jezebel.

Not a good person.

But the Lord didn’t/ wouldn’t intervene early to stop Jezebel’s murderous activities.   In 1 Kings 18 & 19, God authorized Elijah  to call down fire from Heaven and order the execution of Jezebel’s favorite prophets, but God didn’t let Elijah take out Jezebel.   The Lord let her live for years more, sending unheeded warning after unheeded warning to her, her husband, and their subjects.   

When the Lord finally fulfilled His prophetic promise to destroy Jezebel and all of her house,  Elijah had gone on to glory in a flaming chariot, and his protégé Elisha had to certify the execution (2 Kings 9).

But why wait?  She was not a good person.  She’s a Jezebel.  Her name is synonymous with being a bad person.  Why stand back and let her do all that damage?

Well, why stand back and let you do all the damage you’ve done?

How many hearts have you broken?

How many lies have you told?

How much pain and suffering has been caused by you, or the friend you love, or the child you adore, or the sibling you still believe in?

And why didn’t God take YOU or THEM out early?

We are all given more “space” than we deserve.

The theological terms for this are: grace, mercy, longsuffering, love.

Gracious, merciful, loving God gave, and will give, Jezebel space to repent.   She used, and will use, it as space to destroy.  Gracious, merciful, and loving God responds to that choice with destruction.

Anderson T. Graves II, circa 1992, was not a good person.  I wasn’t a murderer, but in other areas of my personal life I had some decidedly Jezebelish ways.  God gave me space to repent. In February 1994, I used that space to repent.  God saved my soul and changed my left for better than I had imagined. 

Samaria, Thyatira, Baltimore, Montgomery, or wherever you are---- in those places, we are all given more space than we deserve. 

It can be space to repent or it can be space to destroy.  The choice is in your control.

The consequences of that choice are not. 

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

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