Download 5 Nine Plagues

Nine Plagues
Exodus 7-10
Aaron’s staff transformed into a snake
The serpent was the symbol of Pharaoh’s authority, and thus the staff that became a snake was a
direct attack on his sovereignty.
Many of the Egyptians carried amulets to protect them from Apophis, the serpent-god who
personified evil. Egyptian literature contains various spells and incantations to afford protection
from snakebite. It was this fear of snakes that led Pharaoh to use the serpent as the symbol of his
royal authority. His ceremonial headdress — like the famous death-mask of Tutankhamen —
was crested with a fierce female cobra. The idea was that Pharaoh would terrorize his enemies
the way a cobra strikes fear into her prey.
The serpent-crested crown of Pharaoh symbolized all the power, sovereignty, and magic with
which the gods endued the king.”
By finding his security in the serpent-god, Pharaoh was actually making an alliance with Satan.
The ancient manuscripts are explicit about this. When Pharaoh first ascended the throne of
Egypt, he would take the royal crown and say,
O Great One, O Magician, O Fiery Snake!
Let there be terror of me like the terror of thee.
Let there be fear of me like the fear of thee.
Let there be awe of me like the awe of thee.
Let me rule, a leader of the living.
Let me be powerful, a leader of spirits.
With these words, Pharaoh offered his soul to the devil.
As recently as the 1960s, a tourist reported, “This is still done in Cairo today as a trick of magic.
The Egyptian cobra can be paralyzed by putting pressure on a nerve in its neck. At a distance it is
readily mistaken for a cane. When the magician throws it on the ground, the jolt causes it to
recover, and it crawls away.”
This sign would have been especially impressive to the Egyptians, who believed that swallowing
something was the way to acquire all its powers. By gobbling up their magic wands, Aaron’s
staff was not simply destroying their power and authority but was claiming that all their power
and authority belonged to God. The obvious implication was that the God of Israel was also the
Lord of Egypt. This is the great theme of Exodus: The Lord God is glorious above all other gods.
Water to blood
The Nile meant everything to them. It was their mode of transportation, their source of
nourishment, their standard for measurement, and even an object of worship. Therefore there was
no better way for the God of Israel to show that he was also the Lord of Egypt than by turning
the Nile into blood.
James Boice explains the religious significance of these miraculous signs and wonders:
In order to understand these plagues we need to understand that they were directed against the
gods and goddesses of Egypt and were intended to show the superiority of the God of Israel to
the Egyptian gods. There were about eighty major deities in Egypt, all clustered about the three
great natural forces of Egyptian life: the Nile river, the land, and the sky. It does not surprise us,
therefore, that the plagues God sent against Egypt in this historic battle follow this three-force
pattern. The first two plagues were against the gods of the Nile. The next four were against the
land gods. The final four plagues were against the gods of the sky, culminating in the death of
the firstborn.
Many people have tried to explain this miracle as a natural occurrence. The real problem with
trying to explain away this miracle, is that a merely natural phenomenon would not have
accomplished God’s purpose, which was to prove that he was the Lord. If the Nile turned to
blood every time there was a downpour somewhere upriver, this sign would have been
meaningless. Pharaoh wouldn’t have even bothered to call for his magicians. He would have
said, “Big deal, Moses; this happens all the time.” For all these reasons, it is right to believe and
teach that the river of blood was a divine miracle, a supernatural demonstration that the Lord is
God.
At least three Egyptian gods were associated with the Nile. One was the great Osiris, the god of
the Nile, who was depicted with the river running through his bloodstream. Another was Nu, the
god of life in the river. But the most important was Hapi, the god of the flood. Hapi was a
fertility god who was portrayed as a bearded man with female breasts and a pregnant stomach.
The idea was that the annual flooding of the Nile gave birth to Egypt and nursed its strength.
Seven long days of blood.
Frogs
God warned Pharaoh that he was about to smite Egypt in judgment. In spite of this warning,
God’s demand met with the usual response, which was no response at all. Although the Bible
does not record Pharaoh’s exact answer, evidently he refused to let God’s people go. And when
he refused, God judged him for the sin of rebellion: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron,
“Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs
come up on the land of Egypt.”’ So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and
the frogs came up and covered the land” (8:5-6).
This was one of God’s funniest miracles ever. Frogs are not particularly dangerous, but they can
be a nuisance, and the Biblical account includes some nice comic touches. Some of the frogs
ended up in the “ovens and kneading troughs” (8:3).
God had a serious theological purpose for sending what seems to be such a silly plague. Once
again he was demonstrating his power over the gods of Egypt. James Boice wrote:
If we are to understand the full significance of this plague, we must recognize that a goddess of
Egypt was involved in the judgment — the goddess Hekt [also Heqet], who was always pictured
with the head and often the head and body of a frog. Since Hekt was embodied in the frog, the
frog was sacred in Egypt. It could not be killed, and consequently there was nothing the
Egyptians could do about this horrible and ironic proliferation of the goddess. They were forced
to loathe the symbols of their depraved worship. But they could not kill them. And when the
frogs died, their decaying bodies must have turned the towns and countryside into a stinking
horror.
Charles Spurgeon pointed out how appropriate it was for God to plague the Egyptians in this
way:
There was suitableness in God’s choosing the frogs to humble Egypt’s kings, because
frogs were worshipped by that nation as emblems of the Deity. Images of a certain frogheaded goddess were placed in the catacombs, and frogs themselves were preserved with
sacred honors. These be thy gods, O Egypt! Thou shalt have enough of them! Pharaoh
himself shall pay a new reverence to these reptiles. As the true God is everywhere present
around us, in our bed-chambers and in our streets, so shall Pharaoh find every place filled
with what he chooses to call divine. Is it not a just way of dealing with him?
The Egyptians relied on Heqet for two things in particular. One was to control the frog
population by protecting crocodiles, the frog’s natural predators. Obviously, when Egypt was
overrun (or overhopped!) with frogs, Heqet was humiliated. This plague proved that she was
powerless to resist the mighty strength of the Lord.
Heqet’s other responsibility was to assist women in childbirth. Since she was the spirit who
breathed life into the body, women turned to her for help when they were in the pains of labor.
Pharaoh requested one more night with the frogs.
The end of the plague was every bit as much a divine miracle as the plague itself. Some of the
frogs hopped back into the Nile, where they belonged. The rest of them died all over Egypt.
There were heaps and heaps of them. Their carcasses were stacked into giant piles, where they
rotted under the hot African sun. This is the kind of detail that comes from someone who actually
witnessed the events. No doubt it made Pharaoh wish he had been more specific about how he
wanted the frogs removed! Even after massive cleanup efforts, he still had a public health crisis
on his hands. This, too, was an act of divine judgment.
Moses prayed, God answered, and then Pharaoh broke his promise. It was the first time he went
back on his word, but it wouldn’t be the last. Pharaoh was the kind of man who says anything to
get out of trouble, but as soon as his troubles are over, he goes right back to his old selfish ways.
The only thing that really mattered to Pharaoh was his own personal comfort.
Gnats – a thick swam of flying insects (not in Goshen)
The late Charles M. Schulz wrote a humorous book called What Was Bugging Ol’ Pharaoh? In
the case of the third plague, that is precisely the question: What kind of insect did God use to bug
the Egyptians? The possibilities include gnats, fleas, lice, maggots, midges, sand flies, and
mosquitoes. Take your pick!
However an entomologist would have classified them, they were nagging, annoying pests that
swarmed all over Egypt, molesting every living, breathing creature.
By turning the dust into bugs, God was claiming authority over the very soil of Egypt and thus
over the god of the ground. God’s strategy for gaining glory over the gods of Egypt was to defeat
them one at a time by demonstrating his control over the creatures that the Egyptians worshiped.
Not only were the magicians unable to produce any more bugs, but they were completely
covered with them, and there was nothing they could do about it. It was utterly humiliating,
especially because the religious leaders of Egypt prided themselves on their physical purity.
Before performing their daily rituals, they bathed thoroughly and shaved off all their hair.
Therefore, according to John J. Davis, it is “rather doubtful that the priesthood in Egypt could
function very effectively having been polluted by the presence of these insects. They, like their
worshipers, were inflicted with the pestilence of this occasion. Their prayers were made
ineffective by their own personal impurity with the presence of gnats on their bodies.”
“The magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘This is the finger of God’” (Exod. 8:19).
Flies only on Egyptians
One of the wonders of the exodus is that God used tiny insects to demonstrate his power over
Pharaoh and his gods. This miracle led Charles Spurgeon to observe, “When it pleases God by
his judgments to humble men, he is never at a loss for means: he can use lions or lice, famines or
flies. In the armory of God there are weapons of every kind, from the stars in their courses down
to caterpillars in their hosts.”
These verses mark the beginning of the second cycle of three plagues. By now the pattern is
familiar: Moses went to meet Pharaoh early in the morning (cf. Exod. 7:15). He went down by
the riverside, where he found Pharaoh still worshiping the same old gods. He went as God’s
chosen servant to bring a message from Heaven. He was told to “confront Pharaoh” — literally,
to “stand his ground” — and in the name of the God of Israel he said, “Let my people go, so that
they may worship me” (20).
Pharaoh turned a deaf ear to God’s demand. This was the sixth time that Moses told him to let
God’s people go, and for the sixth time Pharaoh refused to give God the glory by giving the
Israelites their freedom. In response God did exactly what he had said he would do. Verse 21
uses a play on words to say that if Pharaoh did not send the Israelites out, then God would “send”
in the flies. The Scripture goes on to say, “And the Lord did this. Dense swarms of flies poured
into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his officials, and throughout Egypt the land was
ruined by the flies” (v. 24).
Imagine a whole plague of them, an inundation so severe that flies covered every inch of ground
and invaded every corner of every building. There were flies everywhere, buzzing in the ears of
every Egyptian. The Bible says that they wreaked such havoc that the land was “ruined” (8:24).
It must have been awesome to see swarms of insects descend on Egypt and devour the land, but
what was equally amazing was the complete absence of flies in Goshen.
The absence of swarms in Goshen was as miraculous as their presence throughout the rest of
Egypt. No merely natural explanation would suffice. The miracle in Goshen prevented the
Egyptians or anyone else from trying to rationalize what God had done. The fourth plague was
miraculous in its severity, miraculous in its timing, and miraculous in the absolute distinction it
made between the Israelites and the Egyptians, all of which explains why God called it “this
miraculous sign” (Exod. 8:23).
Egyptian livestock
Not only was the fifth plague the first to bring death, but it was also the first to destroy Pharaoh’s
personal property.
The symbolism of the fifth plague is especially potent because many of Egypt’s gods and
goddesses were depicted as livestock. Cults dedicated to the bull were common throughout
Egypt. There was Buchis, the sacred bull of Hermonthis, and Mnevis, who was worshiped at
Heliopolis. Sometimes bulls were considered to embody the gods Ptah and Ra. But the chief bull
was Apis. At the temple in Memphis, priests maintained a sacred enclosure where they kept a
live bull considered to be the incarnation of Apis. When the venerable bull died, he was given an
elaborate burial.
Then there were the goddesses. Isis, the queen of the gods, was generally depicted with cow
horns on her head. Similarly, the goddess Hathor was represented with the head of a cow,
sometimes with the sun between her two horns. Hathor was a goddess of love and beauty,
motherhood and fertility.
Since livestock were such an integral part of their religion, the Egyptians were devastated by
God’s plague on their livestock. Cattle lay dying on every farm and at every temple. Farmers
anxiously watched their cattle get sick and grow weak. To their shame, priests saw their holy
cows stagger around their sacred pens until they fell down dead. God was proving himself to the
Egyptians on their own terms, exposing the cult of the cow as a false religion. Thus the fifth
plague followed the pattern: When Pharaoh refused to meet God’s demand, God sent a
miraculous plague that demonstrated his power over Egypt’s gods.
Six Lessons from the Plagues:
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Meaning of Salvation – deliverance
The Purpose of Life – to glorify God
The Folly of Idolatry – God humiliated Egypt’s gods
The Superiority of Faith – Plagues only on Egyptians
5. The Consequence of Rebellion – suffering and death
6. The Necessity of an Understanding Heart – Pharaoh’s hardened heart
Pharaoh was a hardened skeptic. The man had a front-row seat for all God’s signs and wonders
in Egypt. Yet no matter how many miracles he saw, Pharaoh always found a way to ignore
God’s claim on his life.
There is a time and a place for investigating God. Before anyone can make a decision about
following Jesus Christ, one has to answer some hard questions about who he is and what he has
done. Can the Bible be trusted? What about the incarnation — was Jesus divine, or was he
merely human? What about the crucifixion? When Jesus of Nazareth was crucified — as the
historical records prove that he was — did he suffer the full price for sin? And what about the
resurrection? Did Jesus rise from the dead on the third day, or was it all a hoax?
No one can make an honest appraisal of Christianity without answering these questions.
However, there comes a time to stop investigating and start believing. Once someone has begun
to consider that what the Bible says about Jesus Christ is true, then the only thing keeping that
person from God is hardness of heart.
Boils on Egyptians
The Egyptians were covered with painful, open sores from head to toe. This showed that the God
of Israel had power over their bodies, and it should have warned them that their very lives were
in danger.
Like the first five blows that God struck against the Egyptians, the sixth plague had three results:
first, Pharaoh’s gods were humbled; second, Pharaoh’s magicians were humiliated; and third,
Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.
Before dismissing the Egyptians for their folly, it is important to recognize that we are tempted
to worship the same deities. This is an age of remarkable progress in medicine — the age of
lasers and CAT scans, of antibiotics and anesthesia. During the twentieth century many diseases
were virtually eradicated, diseases like polio and small pox. In the next hundred years scientists
may well discover cures for killers like AIDS, cancer, BSE (mad cow disease), and the Ebola
virus. Genetic research will develop new forms of treatment for hereditary diseases, including
medicines that manipulate human DNA.
Medicine makes a wonderful tool but a poor deity. Whenever we get a prescription filled or go in
for surgery or start chemotherapy, we should remember that all healing comes from God and that
Christ alone is Lord of the body.
It was customary for Pharaoh’s priests to take sacrificial ashes and cast them into the air as a sign
of blessing. But God took that ritual act and turned it into a curse. This was a matter of justice,
because the soot may well have come from a furnace for making bricks, like the bricks the
Israelites baked for Pharaoh. If so, God was exacting strict justice, repaying the Egyptians for
their sins. John Currid writes, “The type of furnace spoken of here was probably a kiln for
burning bricks. The furnace, then, was a symbol of the oppression of the Hebrews, the sweat and
tears they were shedding to make bricks for the Egyptians. Thus the very soot made by the
enslaved people was now to inflict punishment on their oppressors.” God was making Israel’s
curse a blessing and was turning Egypt’s blessing into a curse.
Pharaoh’s hard heart confronts us with the mystery of divine sovereignty and human
responsibility. Both of the following statements are true: Pharaoh hardened his heart; God
hardened Pharaoh’s heart. But how can these two statements be reconciled? What is the
relationship between them?
Some scholars argue that God did not harden Pharaoh’s heart until after Pharaoh hardened it
himself. When God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, he was simply confirming the decision that
Pharaoh had already made. Thus the moral of the story is that “God hardens those who harden
themselves.” This is often true. As a matter of justice, God sometimes hardens the hearts of those
who have hardened themselves against him. However, in this case that explanation is less than
fully adequate because even before Pharaoh hardened his heart, God promised to harden it for
him. The Lord had told Moses, “I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go”
(Exod. 4:21b).
While it is true that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, the deeper truth is that even this was part of
God’s sovereign plan. The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was not God’s response to Pharaoh, but
his purpose for Pharaoh. God did this to demonstrate his justice. He also did it to demonstrate his
power, as we will discover when we get to the seventh plague (Exod. 9:16). And he did it to
display his mercy. As God said to Moses, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply
my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on
Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites”
(Exod. 7:3, 4). God hardened Pharaoh’s heart in order to multiply the plagues, which magnified
the power of both his justice and his mercy.
Although it was perfectly just, and although God was glorified in it, there is still something sad
about the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. A church member once wrote me the following note:
“Pharaoh grieves me. He grieves me because his hardened heart and unwillingness to accept
God’s sovereignty remind me so much of my sister. Her heart is so hard towards Jesus and her
will so unyielding to God’s sovereignty.... She and Pharaoh have too much invested in
sovereignty over their own lives.... Why doesn’t she see that lasting peace comes only from
knowing Jesus?” —Preaching the Word
Hail on Egyptians – The Worst Hailstorm Ever
The demonstration of God’s praiseworthy power always demands a response, and really there are
only two ways to respond. One is to believe that the Lord is God and to obey what he commands.
The other is to doubt God’s power, refusing to praise him, and then to wait and see what
happens.
Pharaoh’s refusal placed his staff in an awkward position. They had heard Moses’ prophecy —
which included hail in the forecast — and now they faced a choice. One option was to take their
chances with the gods of Egypt. There were plenty to choose from, because many of the
Egyptian gods and goddesses were personified in the elements of nature. Pharaoh’s officials
could trust in Shu, the god of the atmosphere, who held up the heavens. They could pray to Nut,
the sky goddess, who represented the vaulting sky. They could depend on Tefnut, the goddess of
moisture, or on Seth, who was present in the wind and storm. Maybe, just maybe there was
something that one of their gods could do to save them. But frankly, some of Pharaoh’s officials
were starting to have their doubts. They didn’t need ten plagues to convince them of God’s
power; six were more than enough! So as soon as they could leave the palace without being rude,
they followed the safety instructions and ran for cover.
Pharaoh’s false confession (9:27) Charles Spurgeon explained it like this: In certain instances the
man’s hope in prayer is the result of a condemning faith. There is a justifying faith and a
condemning faith. “What?” say you. “Does faith ever condemn men?” Yes, when men have faith
enough to know that there is a God who sends judgments upon them, that nothing can remove
those judgments but the hand that sent them and that prayer moves that hand. There are persons
who yet never pray themselves, but eagerly cry to friends, “Entreat the Lord for me.” There is a
measure of faith which goes to increase a man’s condemnation, since he ought to know that if
what he believes is true, then the proper thing is to pray himself.
Finally, Pharaoh did not turn away from his sins. He was very sorry that he was getting plagued
with hail, but he was not truly sorry for his sins. As soon as Moses’ prayers were answered and
the storm was stilled, Pharaoh went right back to his sins. He was afraid of the plagues, but he
did not fear God. To put this another way, he hated the consequences of sin without ever learning
to hate the sin itself.
His example thus reveals the deadly danger of partial repentance. If by God’s Spirit we are able
to admit that we are sinners, then we need to make a full confession. We must tell God that we
are truly sorry for all our sins and then begin to walk in new obedience by his grace.
Locust
Pharaoh himself was about to be humbled, which of course was exactly what he needed. He had
the opportunity to humble himself by letting God’s people go, but if he continued to rebel, then
eventually God would have to do the humbling for him. The choice was up to him: humility or
humiliation. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 1 Peter 5:5 (HCSB)
Why all ten plagues? So that you may tell your son and grandson how severely I dealt with the
Egyptians and performed miraculous signs among them, and you will know that I am the LORD.
Ex 10:2 (HCSB)
The exodus was not just any old story; it was the story, the story that shaped the Israelites into
the people of God. It was the story of their salvation. It was a true story, a story based on the
facts of history. It was a story that explained everything the children of God needed to know. It
explained who they were: the people of God, delivered from slavery. It explained who God was:
the Lord God of Israel, the God of all power and glory. It explained where they came from: out
of Egypt. It told them where they were going: into the land of promise. And it explained what
their purpose was: They were saved for God’s glory. By sending his plagues against Pharaoh,
God was giving his people a story that answered all the big questions: Who am I? Where did I
come from? Where am I going? What is the meaning of life? Is there a God? If there is, how can
I know him, and what does he want me to do?
The story was so important that God wanted all his children to know it. Moses was to be the
chief storyteller.
Darkness in Egypt for three days
Days of darkness would frighten anyone, but they held a special terror for the Egyptians because
they worshiped the sun.
The Egyptians served Horus (the god of the sunrise), Aten (the god of the round, midday sun),
and Atum (the god of the sunset). But the supreme deity in their national pantheon was AmonRe, who said, “I am the great god who came into being of himself, He who created his names...
he who has no opponent among the gods.” The Egyptians believed that this solar deity was their
creator.
Like most Egyptians, Pharaoh was a sun worshiper. More than that, he was regarded as the Son
of Re, the personal embodiment of the solar deity.
Like the ancient Egyptians, postmodern Americans have many gods, but our supreme deity
seems to be Self. We honor, admire, and love ourselves more than anyone or anything else. For
an example of this type of idolatry, consider Walt Whitman’s famous “Song of Myself”:
I celebrate myself, and sing myself...
the song of me rising from the bed and meeting the sun....
Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch....
If I worship one thing more than another it shall be... my own body.
Spurgeon described a conversation between a minister and a young woman who, although she
had heard the gospel many times, had never committed her life to Christ.
At last he said to her, “Well, Hannah, do you intend to come to Christ one day?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied, “I do intend.”
“Well, now,” he said, “will you give me a date when you will come to Christ? You are twenty
now, will you come to the Lord Jesus Christ when you are thirty? Will you put that down as a
definite promise?”
The young lady answered, “Well, sir, I should not like to promise that, because I might be dead
before I was thirty. Ten years is a long time.... I hope I shall know the Lord before that.”
“Well, Hannah,” the good man said, “we will say nine years, then; that is to be the time that you
fix when you will yield to the mercy of God.”
“Well, sir,” she said, “I hope it will be before then.”
“No,” he said, “the bargain is made; you will have to run risks for nine years, you know. You
make the bargain that you will come to Christ in nine years’ time; let it stand so, and you must
run the risk.”
“Oh, sir!” she exclaimed, “it would be an awful thing, a dreadful thing, for me to say that I
would wait nine years, because I might be lost in that time.”
The friend then said, “Well, suppose we say that you will serve the Lord in twelve months’ time;
will you just take this year, and spend it in the service of Satan, and then, when you have enjoyed
yourself that way, give your heart to Christ?”
Somehow, the young woman felt that it was a long... and very dangerous time.... She could not
bear that thought; and as her minister pressed her to set a time, and brought it down by little and
little, at last she said, “Oh, sir, it had better be to-night; it had better be to-night! Pray to God that
I may now give my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, for it is such a dreadful thing to be without a
Savior. I would have Christ as mine this very night.”
Do not delay. God is calling us to leave the heart of darkness and give our hearts to him. Jesus
said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have
the light of life” (John 8:12).