The Nightmare Progresses

    Nightmares can affect your waking and sleeping hours.  It can be a horrible dream that can occur once or continue over several nights.  A nightmare can also be an experience or a situation that brings on great anxiety or terror.  When the sleeping nightmare becomes continual it makes it where you dread going to sleep.  After a short time, it affects your waking hours because you are not getting the nightly recovery that your body needs.  

    In Egypt the people were living a nightmare.  The Hebrews endured three plagues, but still watched while the others occurred.  The Egyptians were living them all.  They have had the blood water, frogs, gnats, and flies.  Now came the the plague that killed the animals.  You would think that the poor livestock had had enough, but to hurt people you hurt what they love.  The Egyptians loved their wealth and lifestyle.  Hurting the animals hurt their economy. God does not do anything maliciously or without reason.  He had no desire to hurt his animals, but He used them to get His message across.  The fifth plague was the death of the food and work source.  The Hebrew's livestock were not affected by this mysterious disease that took the Egyptian's animals.  However, I think God was being merciful to them.  What died would not have to endure any more pain.

    The sixth plague was boils.  Have you ever had a sour that got infected?  Well imagine having not one or two, but having them appear all over your body from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head.  When Moses tossed up some fine dust whatever it touched on man or animal, it turned into a boil.  The Egyptians suffered miserably with this one.  On top of the discomfort, it would leave scars on their perfect skin.  This plague destroyed the vanity of the Egyptians.  

    The seventh plague God was ready to really start showing his power.  He produced the worst hail storm in the history of Egypt.  He gave them significant warning to protect the animals, but what ever got hit by a hail would die.  This plague destroyed the very earth that the Egyptians lived on.  Still the Pharaoh's heart would not soften toward the Hebrews.  The Hebrews were not affect because they listened to God.  The Egyptians were because the Pharaoh did not warn them what was coming next.  He heart was too proud to admit defeat.

    Can you imagine seeing all this happen?  I think I would wake everyday with intrigue and dread to see what would happen next.  It was a living nightmare and it was not over yet.  What is worse is when you live a nightmare and it stays with you day and night.  It will invade your sleep.  For some this become ptsd.  It is not a made up thing or something in a person's head.  This kind of nightmare changes your entire mental chemistry.  It takes time to recover, sometimes years.  The Egyptians would probably spend the rest of their lives trying to get over this period in their lives.

Exodus 9