God has always had a soft spot for the Israelites—although you might not know it from their centuries of oppression and suffering. According to the Old Testament book of Exodus, the Big Guy took exception to the Pharaoh’s treatment of the Israelites and, feeling a tad ornery, showed the ruler of Egypt who was boss by inflicting a series of plagues upon the people of that land. (Why He chose to exercise his considerable wrath upon all Egyptians versus just giving their arrogant leader the equivalent of a cosmic atomic wedgie remains a bit of a mystery.) Among these plagues—of which there were ten, God apparently preferring round numbers or simply running out of fingers to count upon—were locusts, frogs, lice, and flies. But there was no plague of jellyfish. Until now…
Jellyfish Plague Blamed on Climate Change
A plague of jellyfish along Europe’s beaches has become the latest environmental hazard to be blamed on global warming.
Holidaymakers heading for Mediterranean beaches are being warned to prepare for an unprecedented invasion of the invertebrates whose sting can, in extreme cases, cause heart failure.
Oceana, which campaigns to protect and restore the world’s oceans, attributes the rise in the number of jellyfish to a rise in water temperature because of climate change. It also highlights over-fishing of natural predators that feed on jellyfish, and pollution along the continent’s coasts.
The group sent a research boat around Spain’s coastal waters last month and concluded that many beaches are suffering an “invasion by this species.�
After navigating the waters of the Mar Menor, Ricardo Aguilar, the director of research on Oceana’s catamaran, said: “We have found jellyfish all over the Mediterranean, but in this area we’ve seen concentrations of more than 10 jellyfish per square metre. Wherever we look, there is practically nowhere without jellyfish.â€? [full text]
So God is perhaps displeased about the continuing mistreatment of the Israelites and is dipping into his bag of plagues once again (not that Israel seems to need much help in defending itself). One cannot help but wonder how the Big Guy is going to take to Senator Joe Lieberman’s defeat in the Democratic primary yesterday. Or maybe that result is indicative of a new calamity: the plague of angry voters. How rapturous would that be?
Kmareka.com 
i remember portuguese man o’ war jellyfish scaring us in the 70’s, when coincidentally there was also a hundred degree day that i had not quite recovered from when this heat wave hit, so , nature happens.
still, one indication of global warming will be nature happening more often, and bigger.
as far as the mind of god, i do not presume to have the whole measure of it, unlike my religious friends. however, i notice that in the bible, the religious strike out as often as they hit home runs. but their kingdom is not of this world, so maybe they don’t get extra walks just for being on the big guy’s team.
Nice voice here, the humor, the consistent biblical imagery. Well done. The New England Aquarium has an exhibit that explains how global warming increases jellyfish that is interesting and easy to understand.