The Exodus and Haiti

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Exodus 10:1-13:16

Précis: God sends the 8th and 9th plagues, locusts and darkness, and warns Moses that the 10th and final plague will follow. God instructs Moses on the institution of the Passover. Then, the final plague, the death of the first born, is wrecked on Egypt, and the Israelites, accompanied by the “mixed multitudes” leave, carrying with them the “spoils of Egypt.”

Exodus 10:3-4 “Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, ‘Thus says Adonai, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go that they may worship Me. For if you refuse to let My people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts on your territory.’”

Pharaoh and the Egyptians lived in a world where Nature was a palpable and powerful force: The Nile was viewed as the source of all life. The measurement of the seasons, the study of astronomy, and the creation of sophisticated mathematics arose in part as an effort to comprehend and predict the various aspects of the Natural world. The plagues turned this natural order on its head, and as such, were incredibly terrifying to the Egyptians. Our narrative informs us that these were not “natural” events at all, but resulted from God’s intervention into the natural world because of Pharaoh’s refusal to abide by His will.

This is a dangerous line of thinking to pursue. In these past weeks, we have witnessed scenes of terrible destruction from a natural event – the earthquake in Haiti. These scenes may give us a clearer insight into the Biblical plagues that does the cinematic depictions with which we are so thoroughly familiar.

In the face of the Haitian calamity, Pat Robertson had the chutzpah to say that this was the fault of the Haitian people, because they had “signed a pact with the Devil” to overthrow French colonialists 200 years ago. (Of course, Robertson previously opined that the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina and the terror attacks of 9/11 resulted from America’s lenient abortion policy.) How can we distinguish Robertson’s ravings from what our text tells us?

If we take the text literally, God disrupts the ordinary course of Nature and causes destruction and death on a Haitian-like scale in ancient Egypt. Robertson believes that God brings death and destruction to sinners on an immense scale. If thousands of innocents die along the way, well, that’s just Divine "collateral damage." However, even if we take the text literally, it does not necessarily follow that every natural disaster must be a sign of God’s retribution. Natural disasters are, well, “natural.” While our ancestors chose to see many such events as signs of God’s displeasure, we may have a different view which suggests that we, as human beings, can’t really understand “why” these events occur. We must continue to struggle with the moral problem of why the innocent suffer.














A more over-arching reading of Exodus is that God delivered the Jews from slavery to set the stage for Revelation at Sinai, and thereby changed human history. Reading the text this way, we can proclaim our vision of Revelation, a central part of which is the imperative to see to the needs of the stranger, the orphan and the widow. We refute the venom of Robertson and affirm our prophetic calling to be a “light to the nations” by seeking to help the people of Haiti, in whatever way we can.