Good Friday

To any thinking Egyptian who had sussed what was going on, it must have seemed a strange thing.  After all, they'd lost their water supply and fish, been overrun by frogs, gnats, flies, had lost all their livestock, been stricken with boils, lost all their livestock again + anyone outdoors during that dreadful hailstorm, and then locusts had come and eaten pretty much everything.  At this point, top officials in the country were saying to their stubborn king - 'Don't you realise Egypt is ruined?'  And that was an understatement.  Eight plagues had done for them.  They'd gone from being the most powerful nation in the history of the world - to a wreck.  What next?

Well, next came the ninth.  And what an anticlimax!  It was just - dark.  OK, so it was very dark; darkness that could be felt.  And it wasn't darkness you could do away with just by lighting a candle.  So, yes, it was a pain in the neck, massively.  But it was just for three days; to be honest, they might even have enjoyed the peace and quiet.

But the ninth plague was the worst plague so far.

The reason is simple: in a way that the previous eight hadn't, the ninth plague declared God's judgement.  He really was turning his face against Egypt.  And what that meant was the tenth plague.  The death of all the firstborn in Egypt; the heirs, the hope of the nation, the pride of their fathers and joy of their mothers.  Gone in a night.  The ninth plague was the sign of doom.


Fast forward a millenium, to the first Good Friday, and once more there was thick darkness over the land.  Because once more, God was about to kill the firstborn, and free his people.

Praise the Lord.