Introduction
Moses has returned to Egypt, which he fled forty years before, to ask Pharaoh to let the enslaved Israelites leave as a free people. But everything God says and does through Moses serves only to make Pharaoh more determined to refuse.
PHARAOH would be as difficult as God had predicted, but Moses’s first problem was the Israelites. On hearing they were to leave Egypt, they downed tools without permission, so Pharaoh ordered them back to work on his building projects, but this time without straw for their bricks. Yet they did not blame Pharaoh. They blamed Moses for interfering.
Moses began to doubt himself, but God sent him back to Pharaoh. “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart,’ he said, ‘and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.”* And so it proved: Moses threw down his staff and it duly turned into a serpent, but Pharaoh’s magicians did the same, and even though Moses’s snake swallowed up theirs, Pharaoh remained unmoved.
Moses turned the Nile to blood for a week; he brought frogs and lice and flies on Egypt; he brought disease upon their herds; he brought boils and pestilence, hailstones and fire, locusts, and thick darkness. But Pharaoh would not let Israel go.
Note that God did not force Pharaoh to do evil, and then blame him for the evil he had done. St Isaac the Syrian tells us that some hearts are like wax, and some like clay: the sun’s warmth softens wax hearts, and bakes clay hearts hard – yet it is the same impartial, fair, life-giving sunshine that does both. What dried out Pharaoh’s clay-like heart was the sight of the wonders that God did for Israel – the very same sight that melts so many more gentle hearts. Happily, wax hearts are available just for the asking: see Ezekiel 18:31-32 and Psalm 51:10.
Archive
Word Games
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Blame. Harden. He.
2 Difficult. Herd. Up.
3 Blood. Swallow. They.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Opposites Find in Think and Speak
Suggest words or phrases that seem opposite in meaning to each of the words below. We have suggested some possible answers; see if you can find any others.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Variations: 1.instead of opposites, suggest words of similar meaning (synonyms). 2.use a word and its opposite in the same sentence. 3.suggest any 5 opposites formed by adding im-.
Verb and Noun Find in Think and Speak
Many words can serve as noun or verb depending on context: see if you can prove this with the examples below. Nouns go well with words such as the/a, or his/her; verbs go well after I/you/he etc..
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Fly. 2 Fire. 3 Staff. 4 Back. 5 Work. 6 Order. 7 Let. 8 Turn. 9 Sign.
Variations: 1.if possible, use your noun in the plural, e.g. cat → cats. 2.use your verb in a past form, e.g. go → went. 3.use your noun in a sentence with one of these words: any, enough, fewer, less, no, some.
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
cs (7+2)
aces. case. cause. cease. coos. cues. ices.
cos. ecus.
If you like what I’m doing here on Clay Lane, from time to time you could buy me a coffee.
Buy Me a Coffee is a crowdfunding website, used by over a million people. It is designed to help content creators like me make a living from their work. ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ prides itself on its security, and there is no need to register.
