Bible Time
2007-07-30: Plague of Blood on the Waters
In the morning after meeting with Pharaoh, and after the Egyptians had to search for straw to make bricks, Moses was to take his staff, the one which had earlier become a serpent, and strike the Nile with it, triggering the plague of blood on the Nile. This was the first of a series of plagues that eventually lead to the Exodus from Egypt.
This story replayed again on July 30, 2007, with a theoretical time around noon on the US east coast. Precise timing and all scriptures are given below.
Fulfillment
On August 1, 2007, around 6:05 PM central time, 23:05 GMT there was a collapse of the I-35W bridge across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This was a major bridge, 8 lanes wide, carrying 100,000 vehicles per day.
Around 50 vehicles were reported in the river, 60 people taken to local hospitals and 4 bodies immediately recovered. An unknown number of victims remained submerged in vehicles in the river.
This collapse was about 50 hours after theoretical, within normal tolerance patterns for prophetic fulfillments. It may indicate future fulfillments on this Exodus series are similarly wide from theoretical time.
On August 2, 2007, the Federal government ordered inspections of over 750 similar bridges across the United States.
This headline follows the aspect of the prophetic story where people scatter across Egypt looking for water in other places. These inspections are of bridges over water.
US President Bush visited the scene on Saturday, August 4, 2007.
Bush is playing the prophetic role of Pharaoh. Pharaoh has now come to visit the river. Note that in Bush’s remarks he discussed how Minneapolis will get through these "painful hours." The last word, "hour," is a prophetic reference, meaning 7 months, to the next plague date in March of 2008.
Secondary Headlines
On July 30, 2007, the new Prime Minister of the UK, Brown, made his first visit to the United States. He visited US President Bush, UN Secretary General Ban, and made a speech at the United Nations.
The most significant headline from this visit was a report that Brown had told Bush that the UK would be publicly announcing pull-out from Iraq in October of 2007.
The UK military in Iraq are located in Basra, just below the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The UK nominally protects the oil exports of Iraq, and this report indicated there would be no UK protection of oil exports and thus no predictable source of Iraqi oil to world markets. Oil markets responded almost immediately, with prices briefly hitting an historic high of over $78 per barrel 2 days later.
Commentary
Media Coverage
This was the first headline since the Virginia Tech Shooting to attract immediate national news coverage. Fulfillment headlines usually do attract this sort of coverage.
Reasons Given for the Collapse
The media almost immediately began listing off 3 possible reasons for the collapse. In previous fulfillments I have been caught in this sort of logic. We always look to a specific cause, that is the way we are trained by our schools and media. The media, as always, began speculating as to the cause:
- The repaving project atop the bridge may have caused the collapse. But, officials repeatedly pointed out the work did not involve the structural members of the bridge.
- The bridge may have collapsed because of age, either rust or cracking in the girders. Inspections a year ago suggested no problem, though the bridge was listed as deficient on a national database.
- Terrorists may have blown the bridge.
An unstated 4th possibility is that God struck the bridge in fulfillment of his purposes. Consider the timing, this part of a long series of prophetic dates. Consider the details, this is striking the American equivalent of Egypt’s Nile. Consider the scope. Major 8 lane bridges simply don’t collapse all that often, while this was a little over 50 hours from a prophetic point where this class of event was expected. Consider also that the material in this bridge was steal beams, also called girders but biblically these could easily be called "staffs" the same material used to strike the Nile in this prophetic passage.
Links to Scripture
The bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Just down stream from the 2 highest locks on the Mississippi River.
The city and state both get their names from Native American place names. In general, God is in control of this process and causes names to be selected that match his view and prophetic purposes for a place. In this case the first syllable, "Minn..." is a very common Hebrew word, MEM-NUN, or MN, meaning "source" or "origin" or "from." "Polis" simply means city, or political entity. Minneapolis thus means the "Source-City." For what? The Mississippi River. Of course Minnesota is the "Source... land" for the same river.
The last 2 words in Exodus 7:18 are this word, MEM-NUN, followed by the word for the river, translated river or sometimes Nile. (Select the WLC in the following box to see the Hebrew.)
2 Exodus 7:18
18And the fish that are in the river will die, and the river will stink; and the Egyptians will loathe to drink of the water of the river.
The I-35W bridge collapse, was at the source of the Nile, within 2 miles of the highest lock on the river and at an important crossing of the river. It was in a place named the source in a Biblical sense.
Time Of Day
The collapse happened at the evening rush hour, 6:05 PM local time, while 2 lanes in each direction were closed. Traffic was bumper to bumper which probably saved lives since the deaths were mostly by falling and drowning without high speeds thrown in.
This was the daily commute and this is an aspect of the prophetic story. This was during Pharaoh’s daily duty. This was during the time of daily driving hour, the rush hour.
This was also when most drivers on I-35W area were waiting because of the construction as they approached the edge of the bridge which was also the edge of the river. Note that this pattern is also part of the prophetic story, Moses was told to go out while Pharaoh was doing his daily duty and he was to wait at the river’s edge.
There is also a sense from this drive-time disaster that it matches the aspect of the story where everyone runs around looking for water... At the highest level the running around of the rush hour is a similar match.
These sorts of mild headline details are common in fulfillment events.
General Venue
This bridge collapse is symbolically at the source of the Mississippi, a match to Egypt’s river.
In general the plagues of Egypt were geographically located in Egypt.
In earlier stories from the Exodus series the geography has varied, but generally stayed in the United States. (The UN, and the war in Lebanon in 2006 are the outliers.)
What wasn’t clear is if the plagues would remain in the United States throughout their fulfillments. This headline suggests strongly that the modern United States is the prophetic, end-times, Egypt. It also suggests that the modern replays of the plagues on Egypt will remain in the United States. Time will tell if this turns out to be universally true or just generally true.
River Pollution
The location of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis was formerly used as a coal-to-gas conversion plant and it had a considerable history as a source of pollution in the Mississippi River. Read the Wikipedia article for details on the site history.
Between 1993 and 1998 there was a $30 million project to clean up the site. This history at this location may fulfill the aspects of the story that discuss pollution in the river in the Biblical account. Perhaps Minneapolis has paid a blood atonement for deaths caused by blood in the river from this location in the past.
Reproducible By Pharaoh’s Magicians
The plagues series includes an interesting note, that for the early plagues, Pharaoh’s magicians could reproduce the plagues. The process is usually described in the English translations as "...by their magic arts."
There are certain events where the public at large generally ascribes the event to God himself. Katrina, for example, was generally ascribed this way, though some ascribed it to weather altering machinery, others to "random chance."
The December, 2004, Asian Tsunami is another example. Most ascribed it to God, or to chance, though some ascribed it to the cubic miles of gas and oil extracted by gas companies from the epicenter.
Small events, like this bridge collapse, are not ascribed to God in any sort of public discourse. The media immediately begins looking for a cause within the political-scientific world.
The media, and those speaking to the media, said this was a construction accident, an age related failure not caught by inspectors or on a long shot it was perhaps a terrorist event. No matter which of these turns out to be the cause, it was something to do with man’s actions that caused it.
This is exactly what is meant by the comment that the early plagues were reproducible by those skilled in the art of Pharaoh. The early plagues are reproducible by Pharoah’s scientists.
Those skilled in the art of bridges, Pharaoh’s magicians, whom we usually call Engineers, will eventually tell what the cause was from the perspective of their "magic" arts. Anyone who really wanted to, could cause another bridge to collapse just like this one did. This failure is to the Engineers a reproducible event.
One of the failures of modern society is that it cannot see God’s hand active in the small events that happen in society. Sure, an individual can see God’s hand in their individual life 1 and sure, we collectively ascribe God’s hand to certain high level events, but we do not collectively ascribe God’s hand to anything at this level.2
This is why this first plague looks like some sort of human/engineering failure, because the plague is designed by God to look that way. It will take a while before the plagues leave this category for most observers, though some will never acknowledge God’s hand in the matter, even when the first-born of a nation are struck by a plague.
Video
There was security camera video of the collapse...
Note how the bridge falls nearly flat, though the failure was likely single-point on the camera’s end of the bridge.
Timing Notes
This plague has a window from theoretical of 15 days. Until those days are over it is possible for additional headlines to follow this same story. The history of the location of this bridge, and the pollution it caused down stream, may have been atoned for here, without need of further fulfillment. Time will tell. I will update as headlines warrant.
8: Plague: Strike the Nile: Blood on waters
Associated Scripture:
2 Exodus 7:15-24
15Go to pharaoh in the morning; look, he goes out to his daily duty; and you stand toward him by the river's brink and wait; and take in your hand the staff which was turned into a serpent.
16And you will say to him, Yahvah, god of the Hebrews, has sent me to you saying, Let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness; and look, until now you have not listened.
17Yahvah says, By this you will know that I am Yahvah: look, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike on the waters of the river, and they will be turned to blood.
18And the fish that are in the river will die, and the river will stink; and the Egyptians will loathe to drink of the water of the river.
19And Yahvah said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Take your staff and lift up your hand on the waters of Egypt, on their rivers, on their ponds, and on all their pools of water, and on the streams, and they will become blood; and there will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, in both vessels of wood and vessels of stone.
20And Moses and Aaron did as Yahvah had commanded them; and Aaron lifted up the staff which was in his hand and struck the waters of the river, in the sight of pharaoh and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood.
21And the fish that were in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
22And the magicians of Egypt did the same by their enchantments; but pharaoh's heart was hardened and he did not listen to them, as Yahvah had said.
23And pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take to heart even this sign.
24And all the Egyptians dug around the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.
Theoretical Time:
- 12998/7/30 1:1:1 AA
- 2007-07-30 18:00:00 TMMT
- 2007-07-30 15:39:06 GMT
- 2007-07-30 11:39:06 EDT
- 4741470 AAN
1 Though many churches teach not to look for God’s hand,
and condemn those who claim God was active in their life.
2 Nor would I have ascribed
anything like this to God except as a miracle of timing. This one, finally, has
opened my eyes to the problem.