Judgment on Egypt

WEDNESDAY

In the ancient world, the gods of a people and the people themselves were linked. The defeat of the people meant the defeat of their god(s). This is why Israel languishing in slavery reflected not only on Israel but on Yahweh, as well. So this is a showdown between Yahweh and the gods of Egypt. In the plagues, Yahweh is revealing himself to be not only one of the gods, but of a completely different nature than the “gods” of the Egyptians. In the ancient world, every culture assumed there were many gods. That was their framework for how the world worked. It’s incredibly difficult for us to get our heads around this in our modern, post-Scientific Revolution worldview. But to understand the biblical narrative, we must do our best to see the world through the eyes of its original audience. So the Egyptians, and perhaps the Hebrews before the Exodus, assumed there were many gods. The text will reflect this by referring to them as the gods of the Egyptians. However, in the progressive revelation of Scripture, the talk of “gods” dies down and instead Paul refers to the participation in sacrifices to pagan gods as offerings to demons (1 Cor. 10:20). So it is likely that these “gods” in the Old Testament cultures are just demons and the ancients called them gods.

One of the more interesting threads of the ten plagues is how each individual plague is a judgment on the gods of Egypt. Although it isn’t one of the 10 plagues, the staff and the serpent were symbols for Pharaoh and he was thought to be the embodiment of the sun god. So the staff turning to a snake and eating the snake-staffs of Pharaoh’s magicians was a direct challenge to Pharaoh himself. Without going through all of them, here is a sample of how these plagues are judgments on the gods of Egypt:

1. The Nile was deified as a goddess and Egypt’s source of life. This, of course, is reasonable as Egypt is surrounded by desert. The Nile is the only sustainable source of water that can produce life. Jon Hirst sent me this image of Egypt’s modern population density. You’ll notice it is only where the Nile flows. The rest of the region is desert. So by turning the Nile to blood, Yahweh is judging the Nile as the perceived source of life and it produces death instead.
2. Frogs were sacred as they could live in two environments (land and water) at once. The Egyptians took them as a symbol of living in this world and the afterlife. Their goddess, Heqet, was depicted as a woman with a frog head. She was the goddess of generation, fertility, birth and new life. She is even depicted in Egyptian art as breathing life into clay human figures. By creating multitudes of frogs, and then destroying them, Yahweh is revealing himself to be the creator and sustainer of life, not Heqet.
3. The Egyptians revered flies because they could seemingly bring life out of death. Their maggots would crawl out of and fly out from rotten flesh. They weren’t necessarily worshipped but they were thought to have divine powers. This plague reveals that Yahweh controls even the flies.
4. Livestock were also celebrated as divine in Egyptian culture. The sun god, Amon Ra, was often depicted with a ram’s head. The Apis bull was sacred and it was believed to be the embodiment of their god Osiris. This could be why the sacrifice of a bull or a lamb would be repulsive to the Egyptians. So, the Israelites would need to be far away from Egypt to sacrifice in worship to God.
5. Vegetation was also deified in Egypt and linked to their gods Osiris, Hapi, and Geb. The plagues of hail and locusts were God’s judgment on these deities and revealed that he is the one with power over vegetation to produce life and death.
6. The sun was thought to be the most powerful and highest of the gods. This makes sense, being in a desert environment where the sun is oppressive. Amon Ra was the sun god who, in Egyptian mythology, was swallowed up every night by a dragon of darkness. Every morning, however, he defeats the dragon and rises again. The sun’s rays are depicted as Amon Ra’s hands giving life to Egypt. In the 9th plague, Yahweh reveals that he is in control of the sun, as darkness covers the land for three days, defeating Amon Ra in the Egyptians’ minds.
7. Finally, in the 10th plague Yahweh simply reveals that he is the author of life. He has the power to give life and to take it away. The Egyptian gods, as you’ve seen, were thought to be the sources essential for life. Life in the current world and in the afterlife was the primary concern of the Egyptians. In the Passover God reveals that he holds life in his hands, not these other gods.

We see that these plagues are judgments on the gods of Egypt as each one directly strikes a god or a divine endowment.

In the 10th plague, God also is judging Egypt for Pharaoh’s order to kill the Hebrew boys by throwing them in the Nile. In Exodus 4:22-23, God refers to Israel as his firstborn son. So, this judgment is a return of Pharaoh’s evil upon his own head and his own people.

It’s also interesting to note that the Egyptian magicians are able to mimic some of the plagues (the blood, the staff-snakes, the frogs). But when the gnats come out of the dust they declare, “This is the finger of God.” (Ex. 8:19) They recognize this long before Pharaoh. They, as conjurors of cheap tricks, know the real thing when they see it. It’s also interesting to note that, even thought they could perform some of the same signs, they could not prevent or undo the plagues that God brought. Satan and his demons can only cause more plague, evil and destruction. They cannot restore goodness into creation. So, Satan and his demons have some power, but it is nothing compared to the power of God.

In the revelation of God’s character, we learn that Yahweh is the one true God. He is of a different sort than the other “gods.” We also learn that Yahweh judges evil.

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Reflection

Where else are you tempted to put your hope in for life? We may not think of the world in the same way the ancients did, as everything necessary for life coming from the gods or being a god. But we put our hope and faith in something else to sustain life and make an idol out of those. They become “gods,” nonetheless, although more sophisticated “gods”, so we think. We put our hope in our economy and worship at the altar of politics and business. We put our hope in our job and worship at the altar of work. We put our hope in medicine and worship at the altar of science. We put our hope in ourselves and worship at the altar of ego and control. Of course, these all have their place and produce lots of good in the world as a function of God’s grace. But we must never ultimately place our hope in anything other than God. If we have, then that has become a god to us and it is little different than the Egyptians worshipping the sun as a god.

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