History of Israel: Plagues of Egypt - Part 1

What were some of the other consequences of the plagues of Egypt? Why, after witnessing these miracles, does Pharaoh continue to harden his heart? And what is God showing Israel through these plagues? In this episode of Bible Backdrop, we start to look at the first 3 of the 10 plagues of Egypt. We discover how they match to a different Egyptian god and talk about their far reaching consequences. If you are enjoying Bible Backdrop, please leave a 5-star rating and review. You can get in touch with the show by the e-mail mentioned in this episode. Bible Backdrop is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever podcasts can be found.

Transcript

The Egyptian was out in the field with his wife and son working their parcel of land. Well, technically it belonged to Pharaoh, but they maintained it and gave him 20% of the produce each year. Not a bad deal, but you certainly couldn’t get wealthy off of this type of farming.

He was glad to be out here too. The past few weeks had seen some crazy things happen and he wondered what it all meant. First, the Nile turned to blood. The huge, life-giving river was suddenly a torrent of red. He’d seen it turn red before, but nothing like this. Normally when it happened, it was a watery red color. This was solid red and was 100% blood. Before he could stop him, his son tried to drink some and immediately spit it out. They had to dig wells to find fresh water and there was a ration.

Not long after this, he woke up feeling something crawling across his face. He swatted it away and felt more things crawling on him. His wife must have felt it at the same time because she opened her eyes and let out a scream. When he opened his eyes, he wanted to do the same. Frogs...they were everywhere! The creatures, considered holy by the priests, were in his bed, on his floor, and in his food. Holy or not, they were dirty and could easily contaminate their meals. They heard their son moving in the other room as he tried to make his way to them, but he didn’t know where to go. Frogs blocked his path everywhere. After some time, they were able to get some of them out of the house but not without stepping on many others. He knew this to be an offense to the goddess Heqet but he didn’t know what else to do. Maybe don’t send such a blessing next time.

Then, one day, all the frogs died...and the stench was almost unbearable. The bodies were piled up and eventually decayed, but it was awful for quite a while. He’d also heard some neighbors mention that their family had become sick with an illness probably brought from the frogs.

Now he was happy to be back out in the fields again. His family had been farmers for generations and he actually enjoyed it. Then, without warning, he heard a buzzing sound. His wife gave him a questioning look and both of them straightened up to see where the noise was coming from. Out of nowhere, a great cloud was rolling towards them. Before he could tell his family to turn and run back home, they were overwhelmed. He heard his son crying and saw why. He was covered in bugs; and not just any bugs. It was lice. The creatures got in your hair and were almost impossible to get rid of. Seeing them on his son made his skin crawl; then he realized that he too was covered. They all ran home to get the awful creatures off of them as quick as they could.

None of this made sense. Why was this happening? Were the gods angry? He was a simple farmer and didn’t understand such things, but something was definitely wrong.

Hello again everyone and welcome to the next episode of Bible Backdrop. Today, we’re continuing our series on the History of Israel by going through the 10 plagues that God used to strike Egypt and make Pharaoh free the Hebrews. When we left off, Moses had already confronted Pharaoh and, as a result, Pharaoh made the Hebrew’s work harder by no longer giving them straw to make the bricks but required them to make the same amount of bricks. Moses gets the blame and asks God why this happened.

Now things are about to get real. God tells Moses: “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.” Since Pharaoh earlier said that he doesn’t know the God of the Hebrews, then Moses will be God’s representative. Moses seems to understand what he should have understood at the burning bush...that Pharaoh is no match for God. He is to act as God commands and then Aaron will follow Moses’ directions. Neither are to act out of their own initiative. This will help prevent Moses from going back to his old thoughts that he could do this under his own power. The 40 years in the desert would not go to waste.

God commands them to go before Pharaoh again and demand the people be freed to go worship in the wilderness. Pharaoh demands a miracle and Aaron, as directed by Moses who was told by God, throws down his staff and it becomes a serpent. In what had to be a disheartening moment, Pharaoh summons his magicians and they also turn their staffs into serpents. Moses is probably wondering what he has to do to catch a break when all of a sudden, Aaron’s serpent staff swallowed the Egyptian staffs. Unfortunately, Pharaoh still hardens his heart and doesn’t let Israel go.

A few notes on this meeting. First, the Egyptian magicians did not perform a parlor trick or a sleight of hand. There was a dark, demonic influence in the magic they practiced. Second, the word for serpent here is tannin and is different from the miracle Moses performed for the Israelite elders. Commentaries believe that this was more like a crocodile which is a symbol of Egypt. Third, even though Aaron’s staff swallowed the others, Pharaoh still latched on that his magicians were able to match what Aaron was able to do. As a result, he hardened his heart again believing that his magicians were just as good. He was about to find out how wrong he is.

Now we get to the meat of this episode. After this warning shot, God tells Moses that He is about to release the first plague on Egypt. While doing research for this episode, I discovered a recurring theme that I had not noticed before. Each plague was tied to a different god that the Egyptians worshiped. In other words, the one true God, Yahweh, was about to show the Egyptians how powerless their “gods” really were. Another thing I found out was the pattern of the plagues. They were delivered in sets of 3 with the first 2 including a call of warning and repentance for Pharaoh and the third one with no warning. The last one, the death of the first born, stands alone.

For the first plague, God commands Moses to go and meet Pharaoh in the morning when he goes to the Nile. This was either a standard visit for a sacrifice or perhaps a special ceremony; maybe even to give thanks for the start of the annual flood. In this case, the Nile would be overflowing it’s banks and the people would be celebrating to get ready for the annual planting. This may also draw a large crowd to see Pharaoh perform the ceremony. The Bible does not go into any of these details, so it’s possible that it may have been a smaller group of people. God uses the opportunity to warn Pharaoh of the plague and the fact that it is the result that he has hardened his heart: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened. This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.” Moses then must have given the staff back to Aaron because the next verse says “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt – over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs-and they will turn to blood.’ Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone.” 

As mentioned on the episode about ancient Egypt, the Nile was the lifeblood of the daily life and the engine of the economy. This plague will hit not only the Nile but all it’s tributaries. As mentioned before, God is showing how powerless the “gods” of Egypt are. In this case, it is several gods – Khnum the protector of the Nile; Hapi who is said to be the spirit of the Nile; and Osiris who has the Nile as his bloodstream. All of these gods are going to be shown as powerless in the face of Yahweh.

Moses and Aaron follow God’s command and confront Pharaoh. Aaron raises his staff and, as promised, the Nile and all it’s tributaries, turns to blood. When this happens, all the fish die and the stench from rotting fish and blood had to be horrendous. The fish dying is also a blow to the life and economy as many people relied on the fish of the Nile as a source of protein that was easily available. Fish, of course, are not the only creatures in the Nile. With the Nile turned to blood, crocodiles and hippos may have come out of the river looking for relief...and food. It’s not impossible that this plague may have also caused some people to be eaten as these animals went looking for a food source. So this plague has far bigger consequences than just what is described in the Bible.

Pharaoh, remembering what happened with the magicians from before, summons them to see what they can do. In this case, they are able to match it by turning other water, what must have been wells, into blood. The result is that Pharaoh’s heart is hardened again. Ironically, they couldn’t do the thing which would have actually been helpful; they could only copy what God has already done. However, they could not overturn His plague. They could not make the blood back into fresh water. 

Now onto the second plague. The Bible says that after seven days, Moses is commanded to go before Pharaoh again demanding the release of the Israelites. If not, then he will send the second plague: “If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials.” This might seem like a strange plague, but it does make sense given the Egyptian culture of the day. This plague was targeted at the Egyptian goddess Heqet who was often pictured with the head of a frog and was the goddess of fertility. Frogs were revered as they reproduced rapidly, were common around the Nile, and as amphibians belonged to both land and water. Because of all this, they could not be killed. 

As before, Moses tells Aaron to stretch out his staff and make the frogs appear. Aaron does so and frogs come up out of all the waters of the Nile. One thing the Bible doesn’t mention is if the Nile returned to normal. If not, this plague as the second one makes sense as the frogs are also being pushed away from the Nile. Now God is going to miraculously multiply them...to the point where people won’t be able to move without stepping on a frog. Not only is this against their religion, but the Egyptians set a high priority on cleanliness and this did not help in that area. Again, though, Pharaoh’s magicians were able to replicate this plague. Of course, as I said earlier, they couldn’t make it stop...they could only make it worse. After some time, Pharaoh sees that it’s not getting any better and in desperation, tells Moses that he will allow Israel to go and make sacrifices to the Lord. Moses allows Pharaoh to set the time when this would happen. He does this as proof to Pharaoh that it is God who stops the plague and it’s not just a natural phenomenon. Pharaoh asks that it be done the next day and it is so. The frogs all die, again showing that God is greater than the Egyptian gods. In spite of their religious reverence for the frogs, the Egyptians have no choice but to pile them up. The decaying frogs caused an almost unbearable stench and probably brought in flies and disease. 

Hindsight being 20/20, we know how the story continues and God has already told Moses that Pharaoh wouldn’t yield until forced to do so; but I bet Moses was hopeful that Pharaoh would keep his word. I think Moses truly cared for the Egyptian people as he was brought up in their court. As we see later in Exodus, Moses is humble and caring even when the Israelites start to rebel during their wanderings. He understands the reasons and obeys God’s commands, but he’s probably hoping that Pharaoh will yield so the plagues don’t continue.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. As soon as the frogs are gone and there’s relief, Pharaoh goes back on his word and does not let Israel go.

Now we come to the third plague. This is the first one that comes without a warning. God tells Moses to tell Aaron: “Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.” Most commentaries say that these aren’t gnats, but were actually lice. I’m not sure which would be worse. This plague is an attack on the Egyptian deity Geb who is the god of Earth and protector of the soil. It also put a stop to their sacrificial system. The Egyptian rules on hygiene extended to the priest and the animals being sacrificed. If the priests and animals were covered with lice, then they would not be able to make any sacrifices.

Unlike the other two plagues, the court magicians finally found an end to their power and were unable to bring forth lice from the ground. They finally realize that this was a power beyond their own and tell this to Pharaoh. However, the Bible says that Pharaoh continued to harden his heart.

So a few things to note here before we wrap up this episode. First, you would think that seeing the Nile turn to blood, dealing with a plague of frogs, and having everything coated with lice so much that your sacrifices need to stop would immediately soften Pharaoh’s heart and let Israel go. We’ve seen earlier in Exodus, though, where Moses stood before a burning bush and God talked directly to him, but Moses didn’t want to listen either. Pharaoh believed that he could hold on past each plague. Also, we have to keep in mind that while the Bible describes each plague one after the other, this is almost certainly not the case. More likely, the plagues took place over a longer period of time. Remember these are broken down into sets of 3, so they could be dispatched in that way. The first 3 may be over a month or so and then there may be a few weeks, a month, or even a few months until the next 3. There may have been enough time for Pharaoh to feel comfortable and when Moses and Aaron show up again, he hardens his heart knowing he got through the last set of plagues.

Second, were the Israelites affected by the plagues? Personally, I think they were. As we’ll see later, God says He will make a distinction between the land of Goshen, where the Israelites live, and the rest of Egypt with the other plagues. If He makes that distinction, then it stands to reason that they were affected. So if they are God’s chosen people that He’s trying to free, why have them suffer through the plagues? God does everything with a purpose and this is no different. The Israelites have been in Egypt for hundreds of years. It is likely that they have picked up some of the religious practices of the Egyptians either to curry favor or because...well...when in Rome, do as the Romans do. God is making Himself known again to His people that He is Yahweh and He is the one who brought them to Egypt to save them and will lead them out of Egypt. The Egyptian gods have no power and they are seeing the proof. In the future plagues, they will see His mercy and how He will separate them for Himself.

On that note, I think we’ll leave it here for now. Next episode, we’ll look at the next set of plagues and their meanings. If you are enjoying Bible Backdrop, please subscribe and leave a 5 star rating and review. If you want to get in touch with the show, you can e-mail me at BibleBackdrop@gmail.com. Word of mouth is still the best way for this show to get around, so tell a friend and have them subscribe. You can find Bible Backdrop on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere podcasts are found. Thank you again for listening and have a great week!