After warning Pharaoh that a plague of locusts will engulf Egypt if he does not let the children of Israel go, Moses turns and leaves. As soon as Moses departs, Pharaoh’s servants address him: “How long will this be a trap for us? Send out the men that they may serve God, their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is lost?” (Exodus 10:7). Pharaoh’s servants, for the first time, speak out, expressing their incredulity that Pharaoh remains oblivious to the widespread destruction that has crippled Egypt because he will not let the Jews go.
This verse represents an archetypal energy repeated countless times throughout history when emperors, kings, dictators, and despots failed to read the writing on the wall due to their own egocentric view of reality. (Incidentally, the very notion of failing to read the writing on the wall comes from the story of King Belshazzar who could not read the miraculous writing on the wall about his upcoming destruction. Daniel, the Jewish wise man, interpreted it for him! [Daniel 5]) Famously, Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and there are countless cases of rulers holed up in their bunkers or royal palaces while their kingdoms came crashing down around them. This verse once again teaches us that the Torah provides the archetypal script and template for reality.
