Then the Lord said to Moses: stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt — darkness that can be felt. The ninth plague is darkness — but not ordinary darkness. The phrase darkness that can be felt is unique in all of Scripture: a darkness with physical substance, a presence rather than merely an absence. The Egyptian sun god Ra was the supreme deity of the Egyptian pantheon, the source of light and life. The darkness that can be felt is the most direct assault yet on Egypt's central religious claim. Amos 8:9 prophesies a day when the Lord will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. The ninth plague enacts this prophecy in miniature over Egypt. What Egypt worshipped as the source of all power and blessing is here made powerless by the God of a nation of slaves.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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