“And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the Lord: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.”
Then Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He spread out his hands toward the Lord; the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land. Moses keeps his word. He goes out of the city — the prayer requires physical separation from Egypt, a going-outside that prefigures Israel's own going-outside — and stretches his hands toward the Lord. The gesture echoes his raised hands at Rephidim in Exodus 17:11, where Israel prevailed in battle when Moses' hands were raised. The outstretched hands of the intercessor are a physical expression of dependence on God, the body enacting what the prayer declares: everything comes from above. And the thunder stops, the hail stops, the rain stops. Immediately. As Moses' prayer released the frogs at the appointed time, so it releases Egypt from the storm at the moment Moses stretches his hands.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a note on this verse
0/2000
No notes on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!