The Warner Bros. upcoming release The Reaping uses the well known ten biblical plagues as its source of thrills and while the movie isn’t a retelling of the stories of ancient Egypt I thought it would be fun to give a little background information on the ten plagues as described in Exodus 7:14-12:36. I should point out that I am putting this together based on several online resources and I don’t claim to be a Bible expert, in fact, I am far from one. On top of that, there are several ways of explaining each plague and how each may have been a result of natural causes as opposed to anything brought on by a higher power.
This feature article has been extremely simplified and edited down to make it a quicker read. I am not here to dispute religious beliefs or disprove anything written in the Bible. Instead, I am simply providing a bit of entertainment and hoping to possibly make The Reaping slightly more entertaining when you see it in theaters. Now, with that out of the way let’s begin…
A little background as to how this all started and why the plagues were brought upon Egypt is important. One thing you will read in the text to come is mention of “Pharaoh”. The true name of this Pharaoh is not known exactly. Wikipedia says it may be Ramesses II, but there isn’t anything concrete to back that up. The site, as do many other sources I read online, goes on to say that since pharaohs rarely documented their defeats or natural disasters it is not at all surprising that there is no specific mention of it in Egyptian history.
The story of the ten biblical plagues also includes Moses and Aaron. Moses ironically was hidden from Pharaoh as he ordered a genocidal decree that all male children must be killed. Moses’ mother knew she could not hide him forever and sent him down the Nile in a small hand-woven basket. The irony occurs when he is found by Pharaoh’s daughter, a scene many will remember from The Ten Commandments if you aren’t religious buffs. Raised by the Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses ultimately is cared for by his own mother when she was brought in to be his nanny, but he remains the grandson of Pharaoh.
Moses may have grown up in the Pharaoh’s household but he never lost recognition of who he was. Unfortunately once Pharaoh learns he is a Jew he must flee for his life. This is when Moses learns of his role in freeing the Israelites from Egypt, as God tells Moses in the form of a burning bush, “Go back and tell Pharaoh to let My people go.”
Along with his brother Aaron, Moses returns to Egypt under God’s command and our story begins…
When approached by Moses and Aaron to let the Israelites go on request by God the Pharaoh is confused and asks, “Who is this God?” The Pharaoh denies the request, not believing in an infinitely all-powerful God. After the refusal Moses and Aaron return, this time Aaron turns his staff to a serpent in an effort to prove their God’s existence. Pharaoh is not impressed and has his magicians do the same with their staffs. Neither is the Pharaoh swayed when Aaron’s serpent swallows the magicians’ snakes.
Moses and Aaron leave, only to return the next day with promises of biblical plagues, the first being the transformation of water to blood… Along the way I have plagued you with a few unfortunate events, click the links to check them out and send your own.
While The Reaping doesn’t follow the Bible’s telling of the biblical plagues it uses them as a means to tell its story and the first plague suffered in the Bible happens when the water of the Nile is turned to blood.
After Pharaoh denied Moses and Aaron the freeing of the Israelites God instructed Moses to have Aaron place his staff over the the Nile river and it would turn to blood. Pharaoh was bathing in the Nile at the time Aaron did this and the result ended in dead fish and an awful stench that spread through Egypt. Pharaoh dismissed this “miracle” once his sorcerors duplicated the act and again refused to free the Israelites.
This plague may be one of the most widely speculated and a quick search on the Internet can find you a myriad of explanations as to why or how this would have happened such as:
The first of the ten plagues is often linked with conditions in the river at the peak of the flood season in August when large numbers of tiny organisms turn the water red and could make it foul and undrinkable. It would also kill off the fish…
This plague is said to have lasted seven days. Can it be proven one way or another? No, but it sure is the start of many more horrible things to come.
Just imagine you walk outside and dead frogs are everywhere. Imagine that final scene in Magnolia as frogs rain from the sky. Now imagine a stinky red Nile, dead fish and a plague of frogs brought on by God’s wrath. Hard to believe everything can be connected isn’t it?
Well, this is where we find our second plague as God instructed Moses to tell Aaron to place his staff over the Nile and tons of frogs lept out and overran Egypt. This time, however, while the Pharaoh’s magicians were able to duplicate the frogs they weren’t able to remove them which forced the Pharaoh’s hand and he promised to let the people go. To prove it was indeed a divine punishment Moses asked when he would like the frogs to leave, Pharaoh said a time and all the frogs died just as the Pharaoh asked. However, you can’t count on this Pharaoh, he rescinded his promise and the people were not set free.
Okay, while dead fish, rivers of blood and hordes of frogs is a bit much this third plague is not at all appealing. God instructed Aaron to strike the ground and the dust would become lice. Lice took over the land as the people and animals were soon covered by the small biting insects. This time the Pharaoh’s magicians were stumped and entirely unable to duplicate the plague to which they advised the Pharaoh that this must be the work of God. The Pharaoh again refused to let the people go.
Stubborn behavior is beginning to wear on God as this time he gets territorial with his plagues. Moses and Aaron pass on the word of God to the Pharaoh telling him that swarms of flies would be unleashed on Egypt the next day. The difference this time is that the plague only affected the Egyptians and steered clear of the Land of Goshen where the Israelites dwelled. Oddly enough this would lead us to believe that the Israelites as well suffered the effects of the third plague of lice…
Once again Pharaoh asks to have the plague removed and he will let the people go and once again he rescinds his promise.
Once again Moses and Aaron make the trip to Pharaoh and ask him to let the people go, this time they come with the threat of diseased livestock including the cattle, horses, camels, oxen and the sheep. Like the previous plague this one was exclusive to the Egyptians. After the Pharaoh refused he woke the next day to see all his livestock dead and learned from a messenger that not one cattle of the Israelites had died. His “heart was hardened” and he again refused the freedom of the Israelites.
Yowsers, this one doesn’t sound good already. Beginning in that usual way, Moses and Aaron went to the Pharaoh again… this time with handfuls of ashes which once thrown in the air reigned down an epidemic of boils on all the people and livestock of Egypt, again leaving the children of Israel untarnished. The Pharaoh’s magicians were equally affected and unable to cure themselves or anyone else. This is where we notice a slight grammatical change in the way things are worded in the online Bible I am using to put this together. Instead of the Pharaoh denying the Israelites to leave due to a hardened heart we read the words “And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh.” This basically is saying Pharaoh really messed up and the hurting time is coming. No choice anymore, you are getting your last four plagues.
Let the world of the supernatural rain down as the seventh plague brought a firey storm of hail upon Egypt. Everything was affected from crops to the people. Once again the Land of Goshen was spared. The Pharaoh again promised to let the people go should they stop the plague’s destruction claiming that he had sinned saying, “the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.” Guess what though… yup, you guessed it, after the storm was stopped the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not allow the people to leave.
A PLAGUE OF THUNDER & HAIL ON YOU!
Hmmm, we have seen some rough ones with the lice and the boils, but swarms of locusts can’t be fun. I am sure these weren’t small ones either, they were probably those big hummers and they would buzz in your ear and land in your mouth… Yuck! However, this plague came about a bit differently.
After seven horrible plagues the Pharaoh’s magicians pleaded with him to let the people go. Pharaoh called upon Moses and Aaron and asked who would be going. Moses and Aaron told him everyone: men, women and children of all ages and their livestock. Fearing he would lose all his slaves he was willing to grant the freedom of all the men, but the women, children and livestock had to stay. We all know that isn’t going to fly and this brought on the locusts…
The swarming insects ate all the Egyptian crops, leaving no tree or plant standing. Same old same old after this though, plague was asked to cease, plague ceased and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not allow the people to leave… Little does he know he only has two more plagues to go and it is about to get real…
The ninth plague might not sound too bad to us now days, but just imagine three days of complete darkness without any kind of electricity to speak of. This darkness was entirely unnatural as none of the Egyptians were able to see yet the Israelites were able to see perfectly. After the three days the Pharaoh was getting more and more stressed and now was willing to free the men, women and children, but all the livestock had to stay. Unfortunately for Pharaoh… no compromises with God. Sorry fella, on to plague 10…
Told you it was about to get real. Doesn’t get more plain or simple or scary when you hear the words “Death of First Born” does it? Well, it isn’t. As a matter of fact this one gets pretty vicious and even in instructing Moses on what would happen God was like this is gonna be the one, get ready, the people will be leaving.
Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him that at midnight all the first born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh; to the first born of the maidservant and all the first born of beasts. No one was spared, except… yup, the children of Israel. You see, that night the Israelites dined on lamb and used the blood to paint their doorposts so as to let God know to “pass over” their house as he went through and smite all the first born in the land of Egypt. The Bible (Exodus: 12:13) reads:
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
This is where the April 5 release date of The Reaping plays a little role as April 2 is the beginning of Passover, which is celebrated every year to commemorate the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, a.k.a. what you have been reading about for the last ten minutes. This exodus ultimately results in the parting of the Red Sea and everything that happened at Sinai, including the reciting by Moses of the Ten Commandments.
The odd thing is that the April 5 release date, which is a Thursday, seems to bear no major role in the celebration of Passover. I can’t imagine Warner Bros. was trying to avoid releasing the film on Good Friday, but it certainly is interesting to have such a religously themed, R-rated movie being released on Easter weekend.
If you would like to learn more about Passover itself the History Channel has a cool little mini-site here with a short video feature on the history of Passover. Also, check out a featurette for the film right here.
As for The Reaping, you can get your fill of that right here including clips, pics and much more.
