>>16992314>the passage with the staves is a case where the Bible expects you to take it for granted that the Pharaoh's sorcerers can do some magic. I don't know why some Christians are so insistent on this anyway, it's well known now that the Hebrews were still henotheists when a lot of this was written, so they would have had no trouble believing that the gods of Egypt had a little bit of power.I think the purpose of it is to allow those who reject God to be taken in with a lie, similar to how people in the future will be deceived by the Antichrist.
>The passage is in very plain language and is clearly meant to be taken literally.Yeah I agree.
>If you were talking about the passage where God ambushes Moses and wrestles with him until Moses' wife throws her son's foreskin at them you might have a point,That's not what happens at all. Here's the full context.
"And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.
And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.
Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.
So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision."
- Exodus 4:22-26
Here, God tells Moses that He is getting ready to kill Pharaoh's first born. Right after that, in verse 24, it says that the Lord met Pharaoh's firstborn son and was getting prepared to kill him, just as He was talking about in 23.
The last two verses are a separate scene, where Moses is holding down his own son while he is circumcized.
If you look dispassionately at the nearest antecedent in each place, it becomes clear. The Lord met Pharaoh's firstborn son and sought to kill him, and in a separate instance Moses let go of his own son.
