Today I read Exodus 10 where the locusts get sent and the 3 days of darkness cover the land of the Egyptians but not the land of the Israelites. It is interesting to me that in this chapter the Pharaoh's servants start to pester him asking him if he is going to drive Egypt into ruins by keeping the Israelites there and Moses and Aaron. As I read that I couldn't help but think if this were modern day America and something like this were to happen, when would our President allow the people to go? At what point would he cave and allow the people to leave? And I'm honestly not sure because I'm pretty sure the President, any President would label Moses and Aaron terrorists and that would make them far less inclined to bargain with Moses and Aaron.
I also couldn't help but wonder what the Egyptians are eating for food at that time. I mean they have had massive hail storms what destroyed most of their crops and now locusts that come and eat all that's left. So they have no grain, no fruits and no vegetables, and all their cattle were killed earlier. So, what exactly are the Egyptians doing for food? It never states what they did for food but I don't think they all starved. I could not imagine the plague of locusts. I mean Moses stated that they were so thick that you could not even see the ground. That means every step you take you are killing tens if not hundreds of locusts. Just all over everything. I know people that freak out when they see just one bug. I could not imagine seeing millions of them all over everything like that. The humor of seeing people freaking out would definitely be dampened by the fact that they were everywhere as far as the eye could see.
And after the locusts, we have a type and shadow of the Savior's death and time between resurrections, three days of complete darkness. I could not imagine three days of darkness like that where you cannot see anything, most likely torches and candles would not burn properly if they burn at all. No work can be done. Children were probably wailing and screaming in terror. For a lot of Egyptian, this may honestly have been the scariest and most terrifying plague thus far. Most people as children are scared of the dark. And despite what we tell ourselves as we get older, we still retain that small part of ourselves that is not fond of total darkness. To spend three days like that, I know I would not be pleased by such a prospect.
When the three days of darkness were done, the Pharaoh casts Moses out from his face saying that if he ever sees Moses again, he will kill him. I have wondered just why the Pharaoh did not do this before now, and only why after nine plagues. I guess the Lord kept him from doing it. But Moses is not shaken in the slightest but agrees with the Pharaoh that he will no longer see his face and leaves. In all this, as I have stated I know that the rest of Egypt on some form were part of what was going on, but I still feel sorry for them. I imagine that many plagues ago they wanted the Israelites gone, just like Pharaoh's servants did, but because of his stubbornness they continued to suffer. Mosiah taught in the Book of Mormon that a wicked ruler causes much grief and suffering for his/her people, and truly he was right. Until tomorrow.
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