TUESDAY
The primary reason for the plagues is Yahweh’s self revelation of his name and his power. In Exodus 6:2-3 God tells Moses, “I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name Yahweh I did not make myself fully known to them.” God is about to make himself more fully known to his people, the Egyptians, and the world. Throughout the plagues narrative, we read variations of God saying, “Then you will know that I am Yahweh.”
Exodus 7:5 (NIV) 5 And the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”
Exodus 7:17 (NIV) 17 This is what Yahweh says: By this you will know that I am Yahweh: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.
Exodus 10:1–2 (NIV) 1 Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them 2 that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am Yahweh.”
Exodus 12:12 (NIV) 12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh.
Examples could be multiplied here. Pharaoh has arrogantly declared that he doesn’t know Yahweh and he doesn’t have to obey him. The plagues are God’s way of flexing and saying, “Let me introduce myself.” These events are the greatest revelation of God’s character, his power and his nature in history until Jesus. The people of Israel will look back on these events time and time again as evidence of God’s great power.
Instead of God simply stating who he is, the Exodus generally, and the plagues specifically here, reveal that God is who he says he is. These are real events that took place in history. The vindication of God’s character doesn’t rely on the testimony of one dude who had an experience with God in a cave (Muhammad’s revelation in Islam) or in the forest (Joseph Smith’s revelation in Mormonism). These events are public, for all to see. Yahweh is lord over all creation and he doesn’t leave much doubt of it. These events become the bedrock for the people of Israel for the rest of Scripture. They now know who God is because of what he has said and also because of what he has done in the Exodus.
The plagues reveal that Yahweh is sovereignly in control of life and death. He is the I AM as he has spoken to Moses. The places the Egyptians thought housed the power of life and death prove powerless in the face of Yahweh. The Nile was Egypt’s source of life, so Yahweh turns it to blood and it becomes a source of death. The sun, the god Amon-Ra, in the Egyptian cult was the source of life for the world. Yahweh blocks it out for three days. Frogs were a sign of fertility. Yahweh multiplies the frogs, then kills them. In the third plague, Yahweh instructs Moses to tell Aaron to strike the dust with his staff and the dust throughout Egypt would become gnats. Dust would remind the reader—from Genesis—of mortality.
Genesis 3:19 (NIV) 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
The livestock and the vegetation were essential components for life and the Egyptians honored them greatly and even associated them with their deities. Yet in the plagues, Yahweh destroys them with disease, hail and locusts. Ultimately Yahweh reveals himself to be the source of all life by unleashing the angel of death to kill the firstborn in every Egyptian household. You get the point. All of the plagues reveal that Yahweh holds life and death in his hands.
Again, these events also reveal the true identity of Yahweh. Yahweh’s fame spreads throughout the known world after this. In Joshua 2:8-9, Rehab mentions how the people of Jericho were afraid because they have heard about what Yahweh had done. So these plagues are primarily God’s revelation of his great power and might. They reveal that he holds life and death in his hands. They reveal that he alone is God and the other “gods” have nothing on him.
Reflection
Journal on how you have seen the power of God in your life. How have you found him to be the one who holds life and death in his hands? How have you come to trust that he is Yahweh?