A daily, 32-day Lenten Devotional Series by Rev. Dave Brown
The Ten Plagues inflicted upon Egypt had a variety of purposes. John Stott summarizes these in three categories: They brought judgment against the recalcitrant Egyptians. They were used to persuade Pharaoh to release the Israelites; but supremely, they were inflicted so that “you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth;” or, “that you may know that I am the LORD.” (Stott:56)
The first three plagues were the mildest, but they set the pattern. A warning was given to Pharaoh as he went out to the Nile for water in the morning. This was followed by a warning delivered to Pharaoh in his palace. The third plague commenced without warning. (Kaiser:348) Each of the first round of plagues commenced with an attack against the false gods of Egypt. Did Egypt worship the Nile as the giver of life and fertility? It is an unworthy god, unable to make good on its promise. God changed the Nile’s water into blood, killed the life in the river and cut off the fertility of the land and people with one motion from Moses’ staff. (For a complete study on the Plagues, see Ryken: 215-324)
Did the Egyptians mistakenly think that the frog-goddess Heqet breathed life into human bodies, when the Scriptures clearly state that God breathed life into the man so that he became a living being? The plague of frogs multiplied these false symbols of divinity. As a result, the whole land was filled with them. When they died, the whole land reeked from the odor of dead frogs. Goodbye dead gods!
Were the Egyptian leaders boastful about their divine ability to bring order out of chaos? Simply by stretching out his staff at the LORD’s command, Moses disrupted this false narrative about Pharaoh’s ability to control the natural world. Whether the dust Moses stirred up became gnats, flies, lice, maggots, sand flies or mosquitoes, the Egyptians soon enough got the point. “This is the finger of God” declared the magicians of Egypt.
The worship of false gods did not go away with the commencement of ancient plagues. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he describes the world’s idolatry as follows:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:18-23)
Reflections: God condemns the worship of creation as an inexcusable suppression of truth! It dishonors our Creator and leads to futility and to the foolishness of glorifying birds, animals and creeping things.