One of the most chilling verses in all the Bible comes from Exodus:

At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon…

It wasn’t as if Pharaoh hadn’t been warned. Through months of plagues the Egyptians endured the wrath of God. Why did they not understand the Lord was as good as his word? But they learned, just as all the world learned, a God existed capable freeing the enslaved from bondage through unimaginable miracles.

Still, a part of me stops and wonders, if the Lord would do such a thing—what else is He capable of?

I misunderstand God. I neglect questioning my assumptions about the Lord. The images from scripture of the God who freed the children of Israel fail to match up with the therapeutic god I hope salves my desires and chuckles at my dalliances.

This verse punches my lazy beliefs in the nose. I’m not sure what I think, except that I need to think more about the God I follow and his ways of working in this world.

Exodus 12 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Paul Zoetemeijer