Today we’ll look at the ten plagues of Egypt in Exodus 7-11. I’m sure many of you have seen the classic movie the Ten Commandments with Charleston Heston and Yuhl Brenner. Probably you’ve seen it more than once. I know I have. We saw the plagues being acted out but we probably didn’t know the significance of them. They were not random events, but they were targeted mic drop moments for God.
In Exodus chapter 7 that is where Aaron throws down the stick and it becomes a snake and then they catch it up again. Starting in verse 14 is the plague of blood. The Egyptians had over 500 gods according to Torah commentator R Alec Goldstein. They called them by over 2000 names.
The plague of blood was an attack on the god of the Nile. There are several of them. Hapi is the spirit of the Nile, Khnum was the guardian of the river’s source. Oasiris was the god of the underworld and it’s believed that the Nile was his bloodstream. It’s kind of strange. Hapi was the target of this plague. The message is the Lord killed their Nile god and he bled out.
Then there was the plague of frogs. There was a fertility goddess that they worshipped Which was portrayed by a female with a frog head called HeKet. The aim of this plague was kind of amusing. They love frogs? Here you go …here’s a whole bunch of them! God certainly had a sense of humor with this plague.
Then there was in Chapter 18:16-19 that was the plague of lice. Some versions call it gnats. The target for that according to both Jewish and Christian sources was Geb aka Seb or Keb. That’s the earth god and what’s interesting about that was they struck the ground (the god that they worship) and this plague happened.
Next if you drop down to verse 20 in chapter 8 we have the plague of flies. According to the Jewish source, Goldstein, that was attacking the god Khepri which represents the rising or morning sun and it’s portrayed as a man with a beetle head. According to Barnes Bible Charts Christian source the target was Uatchit, the fly god of Egypt and I think that makes more sense. On this plague, God differentiated between the Israelites and the Egyptians. He showed favor to the Israelites and spared them.
Next is the cattle disease in Exodus 9 verses 1 through 7. They worshipped cows and there are several gods for that: Ptah, Hathor, Mnevess and Amon. These were all cow and bull gods for ancient Egypt. The interesting part about this plague was it only happened to Egyptian cows; only the cows being worshipped were affected.
So you may have noticed it’s like a mic drop event for each of these plagues as God takes down the Egyptian gods. One by one Yahweh takes them down!
Go Yahweh!
The next and sixth plague is boils. That’s in Exodus 9:8-12. According to Jewish source Goldstein that is targeting Sekhmet and Isis – the gods of healing. Barnes says it’s Sekhmet-goddess of epidemics and Serapis and imnohep -the gods of healing.
At this point, Pharoah’s magicians can’t even show up in court. Things are getting really bad in Egypt.
Exodus 9:13-35 is the plague of hail. The Jewish source is Seth who manifests in storms and wind or Min- god of vegetation or Isis. But according to Barnes, that would be Nut- Egyptian sky goddess, or Isis and Seth or ShU god of the atmosphere. This was a very unique storm in Egypt and it got Pharaoh to confess his sin, but it wasn’t true repentance.
The next plague is locusts in Ex. 10:1-20. According to the Jewish source it was either Seth, Isis or Min, but Barnes says it was directed at Serapia the deity protector against locusts which makes more sense.
At this time, Pharaoh is starting to crack. He asks Moses to ask his God to take away the plagues. This is not repentance either, it’s more of a concession that it’s a valid God that Moses worships. But it’s just one addition to the hundreds he has.
The ninth plague the darkness, both Jewish and Christian sources agree that this is against Amon Ra the sun god. It was dark in Egypt at midday, but there was still light in Goshen where the Hebrews lived.
The last one in chapter 11 the death of Egypt’s firstborn. The message for the firstborn was a judgement on all of Egypt’s gods including Pharaoh who considered himself a god. In exodus 1 he killed all the sons of Israel and Moses was spared by putting him in a reed basket. He was coincidentally rescued by Pharoah’s sister. This is the plague that convinced the Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. He later changes his mind and loses his army in the Red Sea.
In Chapter 12 the first passover is celebrated killing lambs which was an insult to the Egyptian god Aries which forbid the killing of lambs. The Egyptian gods had no power of the Israelites. I think this was a clear sign from God that He is a jealous God who doesn’t want any competition. He created the heavens and the earth and He sent His Son to die for our sins and redeem us back to him.
These few chapters have an interesting story line but also some deep meaning behind them.
Following Jesus 