Psalms Of Faith And Doubt In Ancient Times
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
The plague of hail (Exodus 9:13-35) was terrifying, with hailstones and lightning destroying crops and killing animals all over Egypt—except in Goshen (Zoan) where the Israelites were. After this plague, the Pharaoh asked Moses to pray to the Lord (although he did not acknowledge that the Lord was God over all) to bring an end to the destruction. Even after this seventh plague, Pharaoh’s heart was hard.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail,
their livestock to bolts of lightning. (NIV)
There are sometimes variations in what one manuscript of the Bible says compared with another. In an age before photocopiers or even before moveable type, it is actually more remarkable that the hand-copied manuscripts of the Bible are as similar as they are. I have been told that over 98% of all variants in the text of the Bible involve spelling, especially the spelling of proper names (i.e., is it Amon, or Ammon?). The other 2 percent (or less) involve things like word order (Jesus Christ vs. Christ Jesus), and only a few are really of any significance. But after examining hundreds and hundreds of these variants personally, I can attest that although a few of them affect the emphasis of a given passage, not one of them affects the doctrine of the Christian church.
The reason I bring this up is that of the many copies of Psalm 78 that exist, two Hebrew manuscripts have 
le-deber “pestilence” rather than 
la-barad “hail” here in the first half of the verse. It’s a matter of the order of the letters—an easily made slip. Most readers of these devotions could have noticed that I frequently goof when typing, and some of these slip past my eyes and my computer’s spell-check.
The “pestilence” would have been a reference to the fifth plague (Exodus 9:1-7), a plague that brought a disease on livestock. But the Psalmist leaves out three other plagues (the gnats, boils and darkness), so it probably wasn’t his intention to force the “pestilence” or “murrain” into this phrase.
Throughout the plagues on Egypt, God looked after his own chosen people. But more than that, any alien—even an Egyptian—who sought refuge with the Israelites because they began to trust in the God is Israel was also welcomed into God’s family. It is faith (which is trusting in God) which saves us, and it is only unbelief (rejecting God’s forgiveness) that condemns.
Put your trust in your saving God, Jesus Christ. Remember your baptism that brought you into the family of God. And return to the altar of God for the Lord’s Supper as often as you can, to receive the body and blood of Christ, given for us, for the forgiveness of our sins.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
