Bible Studies
Plagues of Egypt
As I said earlier, in preparation for the Passover meal, several questions came up and I wanted to answer them better than the few sentences I was able give them at that time. One of the questions was about the Plagues of Egypt. One of my first papers in Seminary was on the Plagues of Egypt unfortunately I could not find it but I was smart during Seminary and bought most of my books so it will be fairly easy to be able to put it back together are at least the interesting points for you and the blog.
One more thing I realized after starting to write this is that it is going to be a very long essay. Therefore, I will make this a series and go over a couple of plagues a week. It is either that or I would have to give you like a twenty page blog.
I would first like to point out that all the plagues of Egypt make fun of one the many god’s of Egypt. By God using the very things that the Egyptians worship and God showing control over it was God’s way of showing the Egyptians who the real God was. I will keep pointing to this as we go along. Exodus 7 shows us this point.
3And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.
4But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
5And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.
One other point that is not a true Plague of Egypt that I would like to look at is the rod turning to “snake” Exodus 7
9When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.
10And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
11Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
12For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.
The word used here for serpent in Hebrew is best-translated dragon. In fact this word is used several other time in the Bible and it is translated every other time dragon. Bible scholar J. Vern McGee in his commentary on this comes out and says that the Bible translators made a mistake and should have translated this as crocodile. He points out that in that area of Egypt, that there are not a lot of snakes also that there was not an Egyptian god that was a snake but there was a crocodile looking god. (See below) Another point McGee point outs that the dragon is used as a symbol of Satan. Therefore showing God had power and control of Satan also. This is very interest because Sobek (the crocodile god) was the evil god of Egypt it. He fought the sun God (Ra) the strongest Egyptian god by he would grab the sun in his mouth and hide it. This is very much like Satan; he fights God and tries to hide Jesus.
Sobek
The first plague was to turn the Nile in to blood. See below.
Exodus 7:19-24 (King James Version)
19And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.
20And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
21And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
22And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the LORD had said.
23And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also.
24And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.
The Nile River was the lifeblood of Egypt. Without the Nile River Egypt would be all dessert. They needed the Nile River to water there crops, animals and the people. They based there whole life cycle on the flooding ebb and flow of the Nile river. The Nile was a one of the main gods of Egypt. It was a woman called Anqet. (See picture below) It was called a woman because the Nile River gave birth to the crops of the Egypt.
By God turning the river to blood He killed the river. It says all the fish died and the Egyptians could not drink the water. This thareatens the whole country of Egypt.
Let me say this carefully I belive God created the heavens and the earth. Therefore I belive God can use anything in His earth to cause the plagues. In saying that I am not saying as some televison documentry about the plauges say the Mother Nature was responsible for the plagues. God had to time everything right and He is the the aruther and finishisher of our faith their God used his nature to make the plagues and time them just right and to direct Moses to when to talk to Pharo. Most of the documentrys take God out of the equations and say Moses used these acts of nature to his advantave to get his people released.
With all of this said scientist have and Bible schoolars alike agree that the turning of the Nile to blood was caused by a red tide. A rid tide is caused by mirco organism in the water when they have an over growth or bloom tend to color the water red. This happens in the ocean and bays and when this happens they tell people not swim then or eat the shell fish or fish because the micro organism can make you sick. There are fresh water version of the these orgaism being called a blood funge. Call blood funge because when it is in a massive bloom the funge makes the water look just like blood. With all of these mircorganism in the water they lower the oxygen level in the water so low that the fish to not have enough to breath and they die. The fish died in the water will cause the river to stink both just like the Bible says. (see picture below of red tide out break notice the color of the water and white stuff on the lower left of the picture are died fish)
Another point from the Biblical account that points to a red tide is that the Egyptians had to dig around the Nile River for drinking water. This means they used the ground as a filter to filter out the microorganism so that could have water to drink.
The next plague of Egypt was frogs.
Exodus 8:1-6 (King James Version)
Exodus 8
1And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
2And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:
3And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs:
4And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.
5And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.
6And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.
Above is a picture of two actual carved stones of the goddess Heqt. These were on auction. Egyptians would have these in their house to worship. Heqt was another river goddess that was supposed to be a goddess of nourishment. She is depicted in hieroglyph as feeding many of the other gods.
The interesting thing is that scientist and Biblical scholars agree that the plague of frogs is set in motion by the Plague of blood. As pointed out earlier the plague of blood was caused by a red tide. The microorganism in the red tide lower the oxygen in the water causing the fish to die but causing the tadpoles in the Nile to speed up there life cycle. The stress of lack of oxygen cause the tadpoles to speed up there life cycle so they could get oxygen from another source, the air. Scientists have proven this in the lab. Thus, all the tadpoles that were in the Nile quickly became frogs thus giving a population explosion forcing the frogs out of the Nile and on to land and everywhere as the Bible describes.
With frogs everywhere, it would have been a great problem. You need to know that they were scarred therefore the Egyptians could not kill them for if they did they would be put to death. However, if the frogs are everywhere you step, or if you lay down you cannot role over or you will kill a frog. This would have paralyzed Egypt.
The next plague was lice or sand fleas.
Exodus 8:16-19 (King James Version)
16And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
17And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
18And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.
19Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
This plague is attacking the god called Geb. (Picture to the right) Geb was the god of earth. You see that Aaron touched the ground to make this place all the others before had more to do with the Nile River. One of the jobs of Geb was to lead the dead to heaven and feed them meat and bread.
This plague would have been torturous. The Hebrew word used means to dig therefore the insect that was this plague would bite and dig under the skin making this a painful plague for everyone.
Now again this plague and the next was actually started up by the first two plagues. The Bible tells us that there were so many frogs that died that they dumped them in piles and the land stunk.
Exodus 8:13-14 (King James Version)
13And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields.
14And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank.
It is also believed that they piled up the dead fish from the first plague. As most of us have seen when we watch CSI that bug are attached to dead bodies. In addition, different bugs come at different times. Thus all the dead bodies attached the bug and then caused a population explosion of the different bugs at there life cycle in the dead bodies. Look at this in retrospect is awe-inspiring to see how God timed all of this so well and then told Moses the perfect time to talk to Pharaoh.
One more thing of important note here is this is the first Plague that he magicians of Pharaoh could not re produce. This was again further proof that God was one true God and that the gods of Egypt were not all powerful. This also shows that Satan’s power is limited because Satan was the power for these other gods and the magicians’ ability to reproduce the other plagues, but now he was not able to do this.
The fourth plague is a swarm.
Exodus 8:20-24 (King James Version)
20And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
21Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.
22And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.
23And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be.
24And the LORD did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.
Unfortunately, the word in Hebrew that is translated swarm of flies is just really means swarm. The English translators added the word flies. Most scholars believe that the swarm was of beetles. The below is a remake of a stone carving that would have been kept in the house to worship. I again found this on an auction site showing us that there are still people out there worshiping these false gods how sad. The beetle god known as Amon Ra was the father god who gave birth to Ra the main god of Egypt and many of the other Egyptian gods.
The beetles, as mentioned before, would have been attracted by the dead flesh of the frogs and fish causing a population explosion. The beetle would have been very destructive. They would have attacked and eaten everything. They would have eaten everything from wood to human flesh. They would have endangered building of destruction just like a termite. They would have also given a very nasty bit to a human.
Here again is a very important note that from this plague on none of the plagues will affect the Israelites. This has two important points. One, it show God’s protection for his people. Moreover, as before, one plague leads into the next plague therefore if God stops them here the next few plague will not have the effect on the Israelites. This shows God’s power in that the can control the plague to effect one area and not effect another. This is just awesome.
The next plague is the death of livestock.
Exodus 9:1-7 (King James Version)
Exodus 9
1Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
2For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still,
3Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.
4And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel.
5And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land.
6And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.
7And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.
First, the word murrain literally means death. Therefore, God killed all the livestock of the Egyptians. This is a huge blow to the Egyptians because now they cannot make any sacrifices to any of there Egyptian gods. However, please also notice that the Israelites livestock lives so they can still make sacrifices to God and they would have animals to go sacrifice if Pharaoh would let them go. In addition, God will need them to have sheep for the Passover that is coming up. I am just floored how God has this all planed out to the T.
The god of the Egyptians that God was mocking was Apis (seen below). He was the god of strength and fertility. The priests would search the land for a prize bull every year and when they found it, they would take it and feed it lavishly. Till the end of the year when it would be ritually slaughtered and then Pharaoh would have to eat the flesh of the bull because this is where Pharaoh was to have gotten his strength to be a god and produce male heir.
The other interesting thing is that God as before used the other plagues to set up this plague and the next. As we all know for hygiene reasons, insects are bad for our health. In addition, the insects started on rotten flesh of the fish and frogs, which would have all kinds of bacteria. The last two plagues the insects bite both animals and humans. These bites most likely infected the animals for this plague and in the next plague with humans. The bacteria lead to infection that killed the animals. Now look at the timing, God said it would happen tomorrow. Only God could have set up the dead fish, frogs, insects and project the timing down to the day and in the next plague the hour. Many people try to take God out of the equation by saying that Moses just had lucky timing by asking Pharaoh at the right time before the plagues. I have even heard some that Moses did not ever ask before but the Bible took liberties. This just infuriates me.
The sixth plague is Boils
Exodus 9:9-11 (King James Version)
9And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.
10And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.
11And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.
This plague is mocking the Egyptian god Imhotep, the god of health for humans. He was to a great medicine god and magician. Therefore, it is the very magicians or priest of this god that could not stand before Pharaoh. To me, this is just hilarious that they are in such pain and embarrassment that they cannot come to Pharaoh because there god is defeated. Below is a picture of statue of Imhotep that is in the Louvre in Pairs.
Again, the plagues before this one set this plague up. The insects’ bits mainly the ones from the beetles is what cause this plague. The beetles would have been carries of bacteria that when they bit someone the bacteria got under there skin and after and incubation time cause this boils on the skin. I have a couple of times had a boil on my backside and it made if very uncomfortable to sit. I could not image what it would have been like to have multiple boils at once. It must have been excruciating pain.
Notice again the Israelites did not get this plague because God stopped the beetles form attacking the land of Goshen. Therefore, the Israelites were not bit by the beetles, thus, they are free from this plague also. I also like to point out that again God time this perfectly to have Moses go talk to Pharaoh and then the outbreak happen just the right time. It just shows how much God is in control.
The seventh plague Hail.
Exodus 9:13-26 (King James Version)
13And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
14For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.
15For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
16And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
17As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go?
18Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.
19Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.
20He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:
21And he that regarded not the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.
22And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.
23And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
24So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
25And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.
26Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.
Egypt has only about 2 inches of rain a year and chances are that they had never seen hail. This was a real test of the Egyptian people this is the first plague that God tells the Egyptian to do something to save themselves from the plague they are to bring in their cattle. God is seeing if the Egyptians are starting to believe God over there Pharaoh and gods.
Another question comes up here where did the Egyptians get more cattle and animals if just two plagues before all the cattle and animals died. There are two possibilities one that the Israelites sold the Egyptian some cattle or Egyptians stole them from the Israelites. Egyptians also could have bought them from or stole them form other countries.
There is another part of this plague that is over looked by most it is that the plague is fire and ice. 24So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, The best explanation of the fire is what is called St. Elmo’s fire. When you were a child, did you ever rub a balloon on your hair the hold it up next to your hair and have your hair stand on end or rub your feet on the carpet the shock your brother or sister. (See mom, when I was doing this as a child I was doing scientific experiments). This what happened during the plague the hail came down with such force that static electricity build up on the hail and when it got close to the ground a spark would jump the distance to the ground this would case the fire.
The god that is being picked on is called Nut. She was the goddess of the sky, and stars. (See picture below)
She was a mothering or protective god and it was her job as a goddess to protect the Pharaoh. She also was responsible for watering the earth. There was an other picture that I could have use to show this but this is clean website and the picture was x rated for she water the earth with her milk that should be enough for you figure the picture out. The hail was direct attack on her responsibilities of as a god. One scary point about this goddess is when I was looking for a picture of her I came across an active web page that was trying to convert people to worship her.
The Bible says the hail destroyed the crops of the field and killed the animals and slaves that were left in the field. This again would have caused great devastation to the Egyptian economy but Pharaoh still refused to let the Israelites go.
The eighth plague - Locusts
Exodus 10 (King James Version)
Exodus 10
1And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him:
2And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the LORD.
3And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.
4Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
5And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:
6And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.
7And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?
8And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the LORD your God: but who are they that shall go?
9And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD.
10And he said unto them, Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you.
11Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.
12And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.
13And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
14And the locust went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.
15For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
16Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said, I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you.
17Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the LORD your God, that he may take away from me this death only.
18And he went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD.
19And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.
20But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go.
First of all most people do not know what a locust is (see picture below)
It is a grasshopper that lives in arid areas. If they come in hordes, they eat everything in their path. The plague before was the hail and fire so most of the crops were already damaged. After hail damage to crops sometimes the crops will make a comeback and they can get a small harvest so people can survive. However, God had other plans. The locust came and finished off any green plants, thus there would be no grain, no produce at all for the Egyptians this year. Again, God used the previous plagues to help do the destruction and perfect timing to punish Pharaoh for his sin against the Israelites.
Another thing is that God brought the locusts from all parts of the Eastern World. The Lord brought an East Wind all day and all night and the wind brought the locusts. This also explains why they were so ravenous; they had flown all night to get to Egypt. Also, notice that God does not want the locust to attack anyone else, he so he blows the wind west and throws them in the Red Sea.
The Egyptian god The Lord is making fun of is Nepri the god of grain. See stone carving below.
By destroying the grain, God shows that He has power over the grain and not the false gods of Egypt.
One more thing about this plague that is often overlooked is the end time parallel. Both the books of Joel and Revelation talk about a plague of locusts as a judgment on the people of the tribulation. It is very devastating in the tribulation as this plague was to Egypt. In fact, J. Vernon McGee says that the “Insects probably had the greater effect upon the land of Egypt than any of the previous plagues.”
The Ninth Plague Darkness
Exodus 10
21And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.
22And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:
23They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
24And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you.
25And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the LORD our God.
26Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the LORD our God; and we know not with what we must serve the LORD, until we come thither.
27But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go.
The next two plagues go right after the biggest two gods of the Egyptians: Ra the sun god and Pharaoh himself. You see in the ninth plague there is no sun; in fact, there is not any light and they cannot see anything. The Bible even says, “23They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days.” They could not move for fear of bumping into things. J. Vernon McGee says the only thing he can remember that was like this is when he went to Carlsbad Caverns and they turned the lights out for a few seconds, it was total darkness, he could not see his hand in front of his face. Most of us have not experienced this much darkness because of city lights and the stars and moon at night.
The other thing about this darkness is ‘even darkness which may be felt… and there was a thick darkness.” Some commentators say this is because they could not see and where bumping in to things. However, I side with the group that believes that this is referring to a spiritual darkness. The only thing I and other commentators can reference this to is Hell. Hell is a place with the absence of God and the oppression of Satan can be felt. These three days in Egypt were a foretaste of what Hell will be like. This would have been a very scary, depressing, three days in Egypt. However, notice that there was light where the Hebrews were “but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.”
As mentioned earlier, Ra was the god that God was mocking. He was the sun god in charge of all the other gods of Egypt and he made sure they did their jobs and gave light to the land. See picture below.
The orange disk represents the sun and he could turn into a hawk to search the land, which is represented by the head of the hawk. He was the highest god of the land and God showed that He was even greater than the Egyptians greatest god was.
The Tenth and Final plague
Exodus 11:4-10 (King James Version)
4And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:
5And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.
6And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.
7But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.
8And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger.
9And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.
10And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.
This plague is directed at Pharaoh. Pharaoh was considered a god, as pointed out earlier in the bull god Apis, Pharaoh ate the bull to gain his godly strength and power. This plague killed the first-born son of Pharaoh, the heir to the throne; thus ending the dynasty. Notice also that it killed all the first born, from Pharaoh down to the lowest slave except for the Hebrews.
A picture of what a Pharaoh was to look like.
The Bible tells us that it is God’s Angel of Death who performed the killing of the people. This same angel is used throughout the Bible, including in the final judgment seen in the book of Revelation. The only thing that saved the Hebrews was the blood of the lamb, which we know now, is the foreshadowing of Jesus Himself. This is also the Plague that started the Passover feast, which started this whole series of blogs. The Passover and other aspect of this Plague could easily become another series of blogs so I will not go into that much detail now, but maybe at a later date.
In conclusion, I would like to point again to the power and timing of God. He so carefully made fools of all the Egyptian gods by besting them, but also in the way He used one plague to build on the previous plague. He then told Moses the exact time when to go see Pharaoh and the exact time when to remove the plague. I did a lot of research on these and almost all of the commentators agree on which gods God was making a fools of, the only major difference I saw was that a few reversed the bug gods of Amon Ra and Nepri. They said that Amon Ra was being made fun of with the hail and Nepri was being made fun of when the bugs were biting. The main reason behind this was the last three plagues would be making fun of the three biggest god of Egypt. I like the way I have it because the beetle best explains the biting bugs.
I have enjoyed this series of blogs, but it also has been tedious and has almost taken on a life of its own. I hope you have enjoyed them as much as I have and that I hear back from some of you that you have enjoyed them.
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