12 Aug 08 — Why 10 Plagues?

In the epic encounter between God and Moses versus Pharaoh and Egypt, it took 10 plagues for Pharaoh to relent. Why 10? Why for instance were 7 not sufficient? The question was raised in the Bible Discovery discussion of the first 9 plagues last Sunday. Well, since God doesn’t provide us with an answer, any answer we offer is going to be inescapably speculative. But that is theology’s job: to answer such questions.

First, the number. A lot has been made over the years for the “definitions” assigned certain numbers in Hebrew. For instance, 3 stood for completion, 6 for humanity, and 7 for perfection. There would be 10 Commandments, and 10 was the necessary minimum number of the faithful necessary to celebrate either the Passover feast or later, to start a synagogue. So, one could extrapolate an answer from the number 10 and say that 10 were required because it was the minimum number of plagues necessary to test the Israelite’s faith in God, or to disprove Pharaoh’s faith.

Jesus taught us that God always seeks to accomplish the upbuilding of the Reign of God by the most loving means possible. So, love must be involved in our answer somehow. I would suggest from God’s Perspective that the contest must have looked something like this. The Egyptians are oppressing the Hebrews, but what would it be like if the Egyptians would come to their senses and repent of their oppression? I believe in God’s Heart of Heart, that God wanted a both/and solution rather than an either/or outcome. Humanity’s hardness of heart lead to the later outcome, but I seriously doubt that is what God wanted.

The real problem for God, was that as long as mercy and forgiveness was open for the oppressive Egyptians, the Abundant-Life of the Hebrews would be diminished, and in many cases, more than diminished: it would be totally denied by an all too early death. There would be a point at which the pain that leaving that window of opportunity for repentance open would overwhelm the mercy that its being open provided. Out of great compassion and mercy, 9 times God left that window open. But in an imperfect world, there had to be a time for that window to close, and as we know from the story, God chose the tenth time. I have no doubt that if God had calculated the “pain to profit ratio” as requiring 2 more plagues to make it the twelfth or 2 less to make it the eighth, then that is the number of plagues we would learn about in Sunday School. But 10 was the right number in this case.

What is the moral of this story? In an imperfect world, there is a limit to how long God can hold the windows and doors of forgiveness and mercy open without causing too much suffering for others. The constant denial of God’s Holy Spirit reaching out to convince us to repent is that one unforgivable sin that Jesus talked about, and eventually God has to “call the question.”

And as to the children suffering so horribly in the tenth plague because of the sins of their parents? Think of all the glbti/q children of the homophobic. Do they not die a thousand deaths every time their parents rant against them while they suffer in silence? And do not many of them live lives diminished terribly by the damage they endured as they day after day suffered Pharaoh breathing threats down their neck? Yes.