The plagues of Egypt and the Egyptian gods

The Israelites migrated to Egypt during the time of Joseph, and initially enjoyed the favor of the Egyptians because of Joseph’s accomplishments as the pharaoh’s vizier or prime minister. But as the years passed, the Egyptians came to view the Israelites as a threat and, when a new pharaoh came to power, the Israelites were enslaved. Then conditions went from bad to worse when the Egyptians began killing thousands of Hebrew male babies by tossing them into the Nile to drown or to feed the crocodiles and fish, in order to prevent the Israelites from outnumbering the Egyptians (Exodus 1:22).

God then raised up a deliverer called Moses, who was saved at birth by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised as a member of the Egyptian royal family. But after killing an Egyptian, he fled from Egypt to the land of Midian where, 40 years later, God spoke to him at the burning bush and sent him back to Egypt to deliver the Israelites from slavery.

God told Moses He would do three things: bring the Israelites out of Egypt, and do it “by great judgments,” and in a way that “the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord” (Exodus 7:1-5). In Exodus 12:12 God also adds that: “…against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.” This would teach a lesson to both the Egyptians and the Israelites, who had become immersed in corrupt Egyptian culture and religion, and had drifted far from the religion of their forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The ten plagues the Egyptians suffered were a confrontation between the true God, Yahweh, and the false gods of Egypt, showing that their gods were false and powerless.

The first plague – waters turn to blood

This plague was aimed at the valuable resource of the Nile River and associated Egyptian gods. Egypt’s economy depended on the Nile to irrigate the crops. It was also the primary “highway” for much of Egypt’s trade and commerce.

The god Khnum, represented with a ram’s head, was viewed as the guardian of the Nile River, while the god, Hap, was credited with the annual Nile flood that brought in thousands of tons of fresh topsoil to refertilize the land. The goddesses Hapi and Osiris and Hatmehit were also worshiped as protectors of the Nile.

When the waters of the Nile turned to blood: “…the fish that were in the river died, the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water …” (Exodus 7:21). Even water stored in pitchers and buckets became bloody. Only when Moses and Aaron prayed to the true God were the waters refreshed.

The second plague – frogs

The second plague of frogs was also connected with the Nile (Exodus 8:1-3). Frogs were viewed as sacred because they lived in two worlds—in water and on land. Heqet, the goddess of birth, was depicted with the head of a frog, as well as the gods Nun, Kek and Heh. Accidentally stepping on a frog could be punished by death, and during this plague the Egyptians literally could not walk without stepping on frogs and squashing them.

The third plague – lice

The plague of lice is described in Exodus 8:16-17 when “…all the dust of the land became lice…” This plague was probably directed at Geb, the god of the earth and other healing gods. The Greek historian Herodotus tells us the Egyptian priests had to perform many cleanliness rituals to serve in their role and when they became infected with lice, they were prevented from carrying out their religious duties to their gods. Pharaoh, who was considered a god, was also afflicted with the lice.

The fourth plague – flies

With the onset of the plague of flies the magicians were no longer able to deceive Pharoah by pretending to duplicate God’s miracles. With this plague God intervened and did not allow the flies to afflict the area of Goshen, where the Israelites lived (Exodus 8:20-23). This was a powerful witness to the Egyptians that the Israelites were under the protection of the true God.

In these verses the phrase “of flies” has been added by the translators and isn’t in the original Hebrew. The word “swarms” is used which probably referred to the scarab or dung beetle which fed on manure, and was considered divine. The Egyptian god Kheper was depicted with a dung beetle in place of his head. It was believed he pushed the sun across the sky, like dung beetles would roll manure into spherical balls and push them around.

The fifth plague – pestilence on Egyptian livestock

The Egyptians worshipped many animals and considered them sacred including bulls and heifers. The Egyptians considered their cattle to be under the control of Apis, the bull god, and Hathor, the cow-like mother goddess, as well as other gods also represented by bulls or cows. This plague demonstrated that the various gods of Egypt who were supposed to protect Egyptian livestock were powerless (Exodus 9:1-4).

The sixth plague – boils

The plague of boils (Exodus (9:8-10) demonstrated the Egyptian gods Imhotep and Thoth, the gods of magic and healing were ineffective against the power of Yahweh, who continued to protect the Israelites from these plagues. The magicians of Egypt were so affected by these boils they were unable to appear before Moses (verse 11).

The Egyptians worshipped several healing deities and, on occasion, even sacrificed human beings to them. The victims were burned on an altar, and their ashes were cast into the air, where the wind would blow the ashes over the people as a blessing for them. When Moses threw the ashes from the furnace into the air they turned into painful boils which was another affront to the Egyptian gods of healing.

The seventh plague – hail

The plague of hail would have been unusual in Egypt, as the region received only about two inches of rain per year. Exodus 9:24-25: “So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail…And the hail struck…both man and beast; and…every herb…and broke every tree of the field.” But there was no hail in the land of Goshen where the Israelites resided (verse 26).

The hail would have discredited Nut, the sky goddess and several other gods, as well as ruining the Egyptian economy. The Egyptians had already lost fish from their diet and much of their livestock had been killed off. Now the animals still in the field at the time of this hailstorm were killed by the hail, destroying the Egyptian sources of meat and milk. The various cow deities they worshiped were powerless.

The eighth plague – locusts

The plague of hail had wiped out the crops and most plants, but then the locusts “…ate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. So there remained nothing green on the trees or on the plants of the field throughout all the land of Egypt ….”(Exodus 10:12-15). Again, as with the preceding plagues, the gods of Egypt were silent. Where was the jackal-headed guardian of the fields, Anubis, Osiris, the agricultural god, or Shu, god of the air and Amun, god of the wind?

The ninth plague – darkness

Thick darkness then spread over Egypt for three days (Exodus 10:21-22), wth the children of Israel once again being protected: “They did not see one another; nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings” (verse 23).

Of all the gods of Egypt, none were worshipped as much as the sun. Amon-Ra was considered the greatest of the gods, and viewed as the creator and the giver of life, who flooded the land with his energizing rays. Not only were all of Egypt’s other gods and goddesses powerless, but their greatest and most important god, Amon-Ra, was just as useless.

The tenth plague – death of the firstborn

The 10th plague destroyed the Egyptian firstborn, both human and animal (Exodus 11:4-6) and even pharaoh’s son. Once again the gods of Egypt were silent and, with this plague, the Egyptian pharaoh finally relented and let the Israelites go. The fact that the Pharaoh was forced to act against his will demonstrated God’s overthrow of his sovereignty, as the Egyptian pharaoh was considered to be a god.

The plagues on Egypt were not random. God sent each of the plagues to specifically show the Egyptians and Israelites that He was greater than all their gods. The severity of the plagues shows how seriously God took their sins, and it is a reminder to us that we must never minimize sin in our lives. God is patient, giving us warnings and time to repent, as He did with the Egyptians, but His patience has limits.

Many people “turn to God” in a time of calamity, but when things get better they turn away again. Pharaoh wasn’t all that unusual. When the pressure was on, he relented and said he would let the Israelites go. But as soon as the pressure was off, his heart was hardened again.

God requires obedience, not just belief. A false god is anything that comes between us and the one true God. We need to ask ourselves what consumes our time and energy, and if there is anything that stands between us and God. We can take great comfort and hope in that nothing is out of God’s control. Once He has begun a good work in us He will continue to guide and assist us as long as we are receptive and open to Him and allow Him to continue that work in us ( Philippians 1:6).