Exodus: Unity of Law and Grace

The Sixth Plague

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Sixth Plague

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Track: 025

Dictation Name: RR171N25

Location/Venue:

Year: Early 70’s

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we come to thy presence again rejoicing in thy mercies of the past week, knowing that thy hand is ever upon us for good. We thank thee that, in a world of sin and evil, thou art at work to undo the work of man and to make all things new. Make us faithful to thy calling, zealous in thy service, and faithful to thine every word. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture is Exodus 9:8-12 and our subject: The Sixth Plague. The Sixth Plague. Exodus 9:8-11. “And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt. And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.”

I was thinking this past week how amazing it is that modern man does not believe in miracles, because we see them performed by the state almost everyday. Did you know that, just recently, Jessie Unrue, who dies months and months ago, was granted $50,000 life insurance policy taken out on his life by the State of California, passed the physical. That’s marvelous. The state can really perform miracles, and it wasn’t that Unrue’s estate was in bad shape, he left $2 million, plus another $1,300,000 in campaign contributions that were not spent, which the state says are his heirs’ property. So, we live in an age of miracles, do we not? And those of the Bible are very, very simple by comparison.

Well, in the sixth plague, we have an ailment, or a variety of ailments described in Leviticus 13:12, 20, and 35, and cited also in Leviticus 13:18 with the same word as in Exodus 9:9. Some serious skin disease is referred to, but we do not know the specifics thereof. It is possible that this particular disease is no longer with us. The generic term used for skin diseases of a variety of kinds, as well as various fungi in the Bible is translated as leprosy. One of our problems is when we are dealing with some animals and many ailments, we don’t know the modern term for some of the ancient language, and so we have no certainty. At any rate, some kind of very serious ailment is referred to.

Now, a new element is introduced into the judgments. The Egyptian sorcerers, or magicians, are themselves a specific target of the plague. They were no longer even remotely challengers, or even observers to what Moses was doing. Their own condition now rendered them unable to stand before Moses in any sense. In the presence of Pharoah, and of Pharoah’s men, Moses and Aaron had taken ashes and sprinkled them into the wind to indicate the coverage of Egypt with the plague. This plague infected both man and beast. Kate, in his analysis, cited two effects of this plague: First, there was the fact of discomfort. A discomfort which effected both the great men of the realm and the peasantry. The sorcerers were no longer in the contest, they were no longer saying, “We can, by some kind of trick, reproduce some of these things.” They were suffering in their own bodies from this plague. The previous plagues had created problems for them. This created problems in them, on their bodies; and second, as I indicated already, the reference to leprosy is real, the same word is used as in Leviticus, and it is as I said a word or a term covering a variety of ailments, including what we call leprosy, or Hansens’ disease. Anyone with a skin disease had to be isolated until the nature of the ailment were ascertained. That is, to determine whether or not it was what we now exclusively call leprosy, or some other very serious disease.

Now, what this meant was that suddenly, the whole nation, all of Egypt, was temporarily unclean. That is, suspected of being ill with a disease which barred them from all religious functions and civil functions. So, suddenly, nothing was operable. The result was a national paralysis of Egypt’s entire system. We have a reference to this ailment also in Deuteronomy 28:35, which reads, “The Lord shall smite thee in the knees and in the legs with a sore botch which cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot to the top of thy head.” Now Moses here cites this as one of the possible penalties with drought, war, famine, and other things, for abandoning God’s law, that is, in the Deuteronomy 28 passage. To have an ailment which affects even the sole of one’s feet, means to be incapacitated. A boil-like ailment on the sole of one’s feet means that a man cannot walk or work. Those who work contrary to God’s law are then reduced to an inability to work at all and finally, to death. This is what is predicted in Deuteronomyu 28. In this particular instance, Youngblood saw this as a skin Anthrax. In recent years, one zoologist in Britain, a distinguished scientist, Graham Twigg, has held that the Black Death was, in reality, an Anthrax epidemic, and since he is the first scientist who has studied the plague seriously, his word carries weight.

It is important to remember that Egypt, at no time, attempted to convert Israel to Egypt’s faith. They never did. Egypt saw itself as an elite people, and an elite state. As a result, it saw it as very fitting for all other peoples to serve them, but never to become one with them. The fact that Egypt made an alliance with Solomon, and gave Solomon Pharoah’s daughter to wife, is virtually unique and testifies to Solomon’s power. As far as we know, scholars tell us, it is the only known incident of Egypt ever giving a princess to a foreign power. They felt all other powers were beneath them. Elitism was very marked among the Egyptians, and has been marked among peoples throughout the centuries. I was amused last night to read in a biography of an Israeli, who was Jewish. That he was very, very strongly against any racial mixture, and for the purity of the Anglo Saxon peoples, and of the Jewish. If his opinions and essays on the subject were quoted now, they would create quite a furor, because he was very clearly a racist in many respects, elitism.

This has been commonplace over the centuries, but in the modern world, forced conversions and absorptions of various minorities is common. Both the Egyptian view and the modern one represent forms of elitism. Elitism refuses to learn from either God or man. It sees itself as the source of wisdom. Pharoah’s hardened heart is thus typical of all such men in history. In Revelation, as the plagues against the anti-Christian world are described, we are told, in Revelation 15:10-11, “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.” This is a judgment against the realm of the beast, which is the realm of the anti-Christian world. And this is a clear reference to the sixth plague.

This judgment comes upon a culture when men, according to Paul, develop a homosexual culture, which is one of deliberate perversity and of hostility to God and to man, and its outcome is death. As Paul says in Romans 1:28-32, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” We fail to have an understanding of the plagues on Egypt if we do not see them as typifying God’s judgment on his enemies in every era. We must recognize what is an obvious fact throughout history, that at the end of every age, plagues, natural disasters, catastrophies, all kinds of destructive things coalesce upon a culture to bring it down.

When we resist the relevance of scripture, we then go astray into all kinds of fanciful readings to satisfy our own positions. The one example of this, one scholar has suggested that the ashes cast into the wind and becoming dust perhaps is an early announcement of the doctrine of transubstantiation. Well, that’s certainly far-fetched.

The use of the word blain, b-l-a-i-n, is interesting. It’s in verse 9 and 10. According to Harford, well into the first half of the twentieth century, at least, Scotts and Yorkshiremen still called a big boil a “blain.” The reference, as a result was not to a trifling complaint. In spite of all this, Pharoah is unrepentent. God, we are told, hardened Pharoah’s heart. God gives up men to the logic of their ways, and thereby brings upon them that judgment which is the conclusion of their ways. God declares to Isaiah in Isaiah 6:9-10, “Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” Judicial blindness is what this is called. It says that when a people persist in their ways, God then hardens their heart, He blinds them to what they are doing, and we are seeing that.

Not too long ago within the past year, there was a case in the courts a husband and wife divided because the husband was a homosexual, and he chose to live with his lover, and he was given visitation rights to the son. The father died of AIDS, which the lover had, and the court awarded the boy to the diseased lover, declaring it was best for his emotional and physical welfare. It would be a better means of maturity if he were under the custody of a man. Now, that’s judicial blindness, willful. 19:43.0]

These words in Isaiah about judicial blindness are cited by our Lord and applied to the people of Judea in a number of instances, and Paul, three times, cites this text. It is also common to the prophets. So, this declaration of judicial blindness is one of the most commonly affirmed statements of scripture, more often quoted than many, many others. Very few quoted more. And it tells us very definitely that we must recognize this fact, and must understand what it means, that when a people become blinded to the consequences of their actions, it’s a time of judgment. God is cleaning house, and a new order is about to emerge. People have an opportunity to try to rebuild society, and we have such a time now. And we see it as we read the papers, if we see decisions like that of this judge, or the fact that Jessie Unrue, after his death, passed a physical for a life insurance policy, and no body protested, no court interceded. No insurance company, certainly, made a peep protesting this. You can be sure that we’ll see more of this sort of thing, although we may not hear about it.

Judicial blindness. Our sentimental age is not happy with it. They want conversions to set in as soon as judgment begins. As soon as God begins to give men the just recompense for their sins, men supposedly should be allowed to repent and avoid the just conclusion of their ways. That the Lord redeems many who are deep in their depravities, is a fact of scripture and of history. At the same time, we must remember that after a certain point known only to God, He gives men up to their depravity and their will to death. For as God declares, “All they that hate me love death.” Judgment then overwhelms that culture and those men, and they go blindly and willfully to their due end. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we give thanks unto thee for thy word. We thank thee that it is a light to guide us upon our way, to tell us of the nature of ourselves, and of the men around us, and of our times, and concerning thy purpose for us. Make us mindful always, that in Christ Jesus we may be more than conquerors. In His name we pray. Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] {?} a parallel between these new diseases that we have, the drugs and so forth, which are hitting everybody except members of the invisible church?

[Rushdoony] I think there’s a very real parallel, yes. There was an interesting thing on television last night. Perhaps some of you saw it on Channel 4, the hour long debate on Should Drugs Be Legalized? It was very interesting. There were some interesting people of the education establishment arguing for it, and a number of people, including former addicts, and especially blacks, telling them, “You don’t know what you are talking about. You don’t know what a tremendous holocaust you want to unleash.” And they went on blithely talking about things in the abstract. Well, one former addict after another got up and denounced them. It was very interesting. The total blindness of those people, what these blacks who were speaking about meant nothing to them because, as the elite, they refuse to hear their arguments, they never bothered to answer them. Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Audience] I’m just, in this verse 12, at the conclusion of this particular plague, is the first of all the previous ones that specifically states that the Lord hardened the heart of Pharoah and all of the conclusion to the previous plagues indicates that he just changed his mind by himself.

[Rushdoony] Yes, very good point. In all the previous instances, Pharoah hardened his heart. Now God says, “You’re past, all turning around, I’m bringing about judicial blindness,” and that’s why at this point I discussed judicial blindness, because God now said, “The very logic on your ways is gone. So, I’m taking the ability to think from you. All they that hate me love death, and I’m going to let you go ahead. I’m going to bind you to the precipace ahead.” Yes, Bob?

[Audience] {?} Excuse me, does that affect us though?

[Rushdoony] How?

[Audience] Well, if you allow them to harden, if He hardens their hearts forever, and He continued to {?} aren’t we affected?

[Rushdoony] Oh, of course. It has an effect upon our times just as it did upon all of Egypt, and upon the Israelites to a degree. But God cleans house, as it were. Clears the stage of history. Before Rome fell, as I pointed out before, it was decimated. Thoroughly decimated by plagues, epidemics of various varieties, by their own will to death, and the Medieval world went down the same way, just as our age is doing right now. Men become suicidal and what happens? It clears the ground for someone to rebuild, so if we are that remnant, God’s remnant, who are going to rebuild and have the vision to rebuilding, we are preserved. We become the instruments whereby God creates a new era, gives us an opportunity reorder all things.

[Audience] I was just thinking that don’t some of us {?}?

[Rushdoony] Sometimes, yes.

[Audience] Because I’ve seen {?} with all the gang wars {?} I’ve seen some children who have died, and some children who have been maimed, that I’m caring for now, that are being affected by the hardening of the hearts of those who will not turn around.

[Rushdoony] Yes, well this order has come about in part because Christians, church people, have been indifferent to what’s happening outside their doors, so everybody’s going to pay a price. Just as God when Jerusalem fell preserved His remnant, but they paid a price. They were the preserved ones but it didn’t mean they came out with any advantage, except the advantage of freedom from the power of evil. The order that had been so alien and hostile to them was now shattered. And today, we’re seeing that shattering. How long do you think people are going to believe that a state can give justice, when it makes out an insurance policy for a man who is dead? Because he’s been a major part of the establishment, or how long do you think people will tolerate courts that give a boy to a diseased lover of his father? That’s what’s happening. It’s becoming so commonplace that a lot of it escapes us, doesn’t even get into the press, but it does tell us something about our time. Now, when an order no longer can provide justice, no one is ready to fight for it.

This is the thing about the fall of Rome that very few people realize. William Carroll Bark, in his marvelous study, The Origins of the Medieval World, pointed out that a few tens of thousands of wandering barbarians took Rome, because nobody was ready to fight for Rome. So, against the millions of Romans, a few ten thousand barbarians, counting women and children, shattered the Empire. It had reached the point where no one felt it was worth fighting and dying for. As a matter of fact, as I pointed out before on other occasions, the Presbyter Salvian said that taxation and tyranny had become so pervasive, that when Romans heard that the barbarians were moving in their direction, they picked up their belongings and moved towards their lines, figuring, “We’ll be robbed once, our womenfolk will be raped once, but then we’ll be rid of all that Rome represents. That’s why Rome fell. And we’ve seen increasingly the temper in the Western world, and now we are told it’s the same temper behind the Iron Curtain, with Soviet and other troops. No one wants to fight for their particular order. Increasingly, there is a reluctance. So it tells us the whole world of our time, no longer is worth much in the eyes of the people. They see certain things they’d like to preserve, but not the governing element of the order. They may love their country passionate. They don’t love the leadership, the authority. Yes?

[Audience] I read recently that a poll was taken among young people in this country and that if the United States were attacked today, that 40% would not fight to defend this country.

[Rushdoony] Yes. That’s a tragic fact but it is true in one country after another, and it’s been a growing factor all over the world. So, this tells us we’re going to see increasingly something emerge that people are ready to stand and fight for. Now, that’s the key. And that’s what’s going to build the future and make it a good one. Any other questions or comments? Well, if not, let us bow our heads in prayer.

Our Lord and our God, we thank thee that thou art at work. That the future is already clear and certain in thy sight and it is thy future. We thank thee that, by thy grace and mercy, thou hast made us, called us to be a part of that future, and given us such great assurances through Jesus Christ. Teach us, oh Lord, so to walk, that our eyes are ever fixed upon thee and upon thy word rather than upon the evils of our time, so that in all these things we may stand and become more than conquerors in Christ. And now, go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape.