The Ten Plagues on Egypt - Why and on Whom

Almost every Sunday School curriculum - at one time or another - has covered the 10 plagues on Egypt, as it covered the narrative of God's rescue of His people from Egyptian bondage and slavery. Let's refresh our memories on what they were, and then we will attempt to answer the "why and whom": turn in your Bible to Exodus chapter 7, beginning at verse 1 for context and read of the plagues through chapter 12. As you read the account, try to immerse yourself into the story, either as an eyewitness or better yet, in the land of Goshen where the Israelites lived so that you would have experienced what they experienced.

As a serious Bible student will know, the deliverance from Egypt is only one part of the full story. And the full story is only one part of God's overarching plan of salvation (see John 3:16-21). So we start in the Garden of Eden, we witness the betrayal by Adam and Eve and the devil's deception as he poses/speaks through a snake (sidebar: satan the devil has now had several thousand years to "perfect" his evil intention of turning all of mankind against God - and he is really good at it). Being ousted from the perfect Garden, Adam and Eve are in the wilderness suffering from the sin condition that has come upon them physically, mentally, and spiritually. This condition settles into their "DNA", i.e., it is a permanent characteristic of humanity, so that it is passed on from generation to generation. Yet, it was not only impacting humans, but every living thing over which God had initially given them dominion (Genesis 1:26-28; compare Romans 8:19-22) 

In only a handful of generations following the fall in the Garden, the wickedness of human mindsets, morals, and a seeking after other gods had spread throughout the entire inhabited earth; God was grieved over what sin had accomplished in humans so quickly, and how the earth had fared under the 'supervision' of mankind and, justifiably, because of the ravage that sin had caused, God sought to remove that wickedness from the earth. (see Genesis 6:5-8) He would call a faithful man, Noah, to be a witness and to forth-tell as he built the ark of salvation according to God's specific criteria that God's wrath had declared a destruction of sin and those who rejected Him in due time. For 100 or so years, the opportunity was there; however, only Noah and his family - 8 human souls, along with the God-directed collection of land and winged animals would survive the punishment (Genesis 6:8-8:22).

In time, God calls Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans to serve Him. He was to go to Canaan and settle there to fulfill another step in God's salvific plan - the raising up of a people with whom He would come into covenant relationship with. God promised Abram, whose name would be changed by God to Abraham, that he would have offspring more numerous than the stars of heaven. The LORD promised the land of Canaan to Abraham as the place where his descendants would dwell (Genesis 12-17). God would, at the appointed time, open Sarah's womb so that she would bear a son, Isaac, who would be Abraham's promised heir. God also prophesied through Abraham what He would do at an appointed time - offer up His own Son (Genesis 22). Isaac would eventually marry, and would become father to Jacob who, through Divine intervention, would come to be known as Israel. Jacob would become the promised heir, would have 12 sons. One of his sons, Joseph, would be sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, and eventually come to be in Egypt. Through a series of Divinely-willed events, Joseph would become the vice regent of Pharaoh, with the authority of a ruler over Egypt. A famine was foretold that would overtake the region from Canaan to Egypt and surrounding areas. Jacob (Israel) would take his entire household - family, servants, slaves - and relocate in Egypt to join his son Joseph. Years later, Joseph would die; however, the Israelites would be fruitful and multiply in the land of Goshen in southern Egypt. Because Joseph had garnered through the grace of God favor of the Pharaohs, the Israelite people lived well and flourished for about 400 years. However, a new Pharaoh would arise who developed a hatred for the Israelite people, eventually enslaving them and relegating them to captivity in the land. 

And so we now come to the appointed time for God's deliverance of His people. God raised up for Himself an unlikely prophet named Moses, whose life God had preserved despite Pharaoh's mandate for all male Israelite infants to be killed. Moses would come to live in Pharaoah's household until he was 40 years old; Moses would kill an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite, news of which spread like wildfire. Moses escaped to the land of Midian, where he would remain in hiding for 40 years as a shepherd. God was ready to use Moses, even though Moses was reluctant to be the leader and God's agent to deliver His people. God would call Moses' brother, Aaron, to join him for this amazing calling. They were to go to Pharaoh and deliver the message from The LORD, the I AM: "Let My people go." God told Moses that He would harden Pharaoh's heart, i.e., would leave Pharaoh to his own arrogance and rejection of Israel's God, never to relent of his choice to go against the will of The LORD (Genesis 3:19; Exodus 4:21). 

The Israelites were at first very skeptical of Moses' authority and mission, and blamed him for the added labor punishment that Pharaoh had chastised them with. Even Moses became discouraged when Pharaoh immediately rejected God's demand and the people railed against him! God would respond to Moses complaint by using Moses to reveal more fully to the people who the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is, and what He was about to do. God would tell Moses that He was making Moses like God to Pharaoh, and that Aaron would be the prophet / spokesperson. God confirmed again that Pharaoh's heart would grow harder with each successive sign, until God forces His hand and causes Pharaoh to surrender. 

THE PLAGUES

God had ordained 10 plagues to befall Egypt, chiefly to glorify Himself before the human leader Pharaoh and confirm His Sovereignty, His claim to the people of Israel  The people of Egypt would suffer greatly because of the rejection by their god, Pharaoh, of the I AM's demand to release all of the Israelites. These plagues would be unlike anything Egypt had encountered before, impacting both man and beast and the very land itself - defying the Egyptian gods of land, water and creation -- Geb and Khnum, Aker, Amun, and leaving even the war god Anhur, weak and impotent. They would befall the people in succession - one after another, even though the intervals between each varied. They would come to fear the Almighty God of the Israelite people and eventually do all they could to placate their God and turn his wrath away.

What is as interesting to a Bible student is the fact that not only did the Egyptians need to witness the revelation of the God of Israel, but also God's people, the Israelites, needed to know who the I AM, the LORD was. They had not had a personal relationship with this God about whom they spoke about from generation to generation. They did not know him aside from being the "God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," their forefathers. They did not know Moses aside from the couple of times they interacted with him; the older Israelites who were still alive would remember Moses as a prince of Egypt until he fell out of favor, which would have cut off any authority he may have had until that time. They have only heard the words that Moses told them were from the I AM; they did not have intimate knowledge of who this "God" was. They lived as a people in a land of multiple gods for every experience in life in the culture of Egypt. The descendants of Israel enslaved in Egypt needed to believe in a God who was great, who was powerful, and who would come to their rescue. They needed to know Him as Sovereign over all creation - not just a favored deity of their forefathers. God would show them who He was, and what His power and authority were: He would allow the Israelites a taste of that power and authority by permitting them to know and even be exposed to the first three plagues that God would pronounce against Egypt!

There is a point upon which not all Bible scholars agree, based on how they interpret Exodus 7:19-21, 8:2-6, 16-18 and the reference to the "whole country of Egypt." But, as we approach the account of the fourth plague - the flies, notice this new statement in verses 21-22, which is not found in the first three plague pronouncements: "21Otherwise, if you won’t let my people go, I will send swarms of insects [flies] on you, your servants and your people, and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of swarms of insects, and likewise the ground they stand on. 22But I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people live — no swarms of insects will be there — so that you can realize that I am Adonai, right here in the land."  A similar statement would be repeated for the next five plagues. The final plague, the tenth plague, God would spare the lives of the firstborn only within the homes where there was sacrificial blood on the lintel. Placing the blood on the lintel was a matter of obedience and faith; by the tenth plague the Israelites should have developed a saving faith and thus obeyed the command. The command was given to the Israelite people so that they would not experience this final plague; if they chose not to follow the commandment, their firstborn would die just as surely as the Egyptians who were not included in this 'salvific' act of faith.

I encourage us to read and re-read these accounts. The reason for doing so: if you have lived in Christ for any amount of time, you will have experienced suffering - not because God does not care for you or has abandoned you, nor necessarily because you/we have done something wrong (John 10:27-28). We may -- not everyone of God's people, but there may be some among those who will, for example, be impacted by extreme weather events and lose materials things as their neighbors around them have, or who may be the victim of an automobile accident like others have suffered who may not be children of God, or other set backs - even unexpected death (Romans 14:7-9; Philippians 2:25-30). Why would God allow these things to befall those whom He has called to be His children? No doubt, the Israelites may have asked the same question, or began to doubt on the deliverance that had been promised. 

We may never know the exact, primary reason. But we will experience, by God's grace, a newer intimacy with God, a new revelation of who He is even in the throes of something negative. God does not promise us that He will make us live forever in these damaged bodies and souls (Romans 7:23-24); He promised to never leave us. He uses the hard things and turns them into something good for a reason that has to do with our eternal souls and eternal relationship with Him (Romans 8:28). While the Israelites would have been pained for a short period of time, their experience nevertheless gave them a new understanding of who the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was. That He was not some mythical person, nor far away unsympathetic god type, or the god of cultural lore. He is real, He is Almighty, Creator, Sovereign, and Deliverer (Exodus 15:1-18). The Great I AM wants us to know Him as such also; in the new covenant that we are blessed to be under, our future is one that would have been hard for the Israelites of Moses' day to understand. Because our future is founded in the blood of Jesus and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Yet, in both cases, RELATIONSHIP is at the heart of the matter. 

Is our relationship with God beyond stories, Christmas and Easter, good times and material blessings? Do we seek to obey Him by knowing His word and keeping it? Do we long to live a life of sacrifice to Him, or do we long for the days before we knew God when we felt free to live our lives to please ourselves? Have we engaged in relationship with God to know all that He has revealed about Himself, or do we 'engage' with God long enough to get the rewards? These are tough questions; these are tough times. As God shows us in His Word: Today is the day of salvation; do not harden your hearts in rebellion and suffer a death that one can never rise from.

Be - Atta - What? The Nine Beatitudes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount

Our youth group had this assignment recently - to understand the Beatitudes or the statements of promised Blessings by Christ that He spoke during what would be called His Sermon on the Mount. 

Here they are listed as they occur in Matthew's Gospel. The Bible version is the New Revised Standard Version.

Matthew 5:1-12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. 
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

           A view from a mount near the Sea of Galilee. Jesus preached His Sermon on the Mount
                on a hillside near the Sea.

Here is the initial and general write up I provided:

Many of us are growing up in households where we are told the “do-nots” and the “dos” of behavior by our parents, and then when we go to school we are given more! Things like, “say thank you, say please, don’t read in the dark – turn on some light, don’t hit your brother/sister, don’t watch tv – do your homework, don’t chase a ball into the street, don’t eat so many sweets, don’t push the swing too high, don’t touch the stove, don’t run with scissors – even as you read this you are remembering some of those and other “do-nots” and “dos” from your parents, uncles, aunties, and grandparents. Sometimes we are kind of ‘bribed’ (clearing my throat) – I mean, taught that we could be rewarded for good behavior; consequently, the reward became our goal for “obeying the law”. So the standards were “do-not, do this” and you receive a reward for obedience. From time to time the parents or other authoritative figures would explain to you the “underpinnings” [look this up if you don’t know what it means] of those household laws – that is, why they were important, how they would protect you and keep you safe, how they would help shape you into a responsible adult, how it involved a closer relationship with your parents and one another in your family and with your friends. Maybe even how does God feel by the way you act. And maybe we didn’t want to hear the explanation and just focused on the rewards! 

Something similar happened with the ancient nation of Israel. When God gave them the Law at Mount Sinai through Moses (found in Exodus, Leviticus and emphasized in Deuteronomy), after He saved and delivered them from bondage in Egypt, it was His follow-up to what Moses told Pharaoh several times – God wanted to bring the people out of Egypt to bring them into relationship with Him, so that they could serve and worship Him according to His promise. God created the Law to teach His people how to worship, to teach them the proper way to depend upon Him, to reveal to them who He was (for 400 years they lived in a society that worshiped animal spirits, humans, Pharoahs, idols and images, things of nature and magic; they only had stories of this God of Abraham and who He was; now He was there, showing them that He was the true God, that no power – not even the mighty Egyptian Pharaoh and his armies which kept them in bondage and fear for hundreds of years – could trump this God of Abraham). God wanted them to learn that He was their true reward, their true Promised Land. That a relationship with God was the best; that treating family members and neighbors/others with a new level of righteousness, i.e., being fair and respectful, would reflect their LORD’s character and bring them peace and joy – the ‘side effects’ of worshiping the true God. This God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would reward them with lands full of crops, the rain to keep their crops alive and flourishing, the fruit of the womb, no shortage of livestock and other animals that would give provisions to the people, that He would protect them from their warring neighbor countries, would provide healthcare and all needs - when and only if they obeyed Yahweh, the Great I Am. They would be the most prosperous and the strongest nation in all of that known world - if they obeyed Yahweh. Readers of Israel’s history know that, despite all of what God had done and provided, the people still rebelled. For centuries. The rewards of obedience were not enough for them!

Religious leaders sought to “improve the law” by adding interpretations that would require  more duties and create burdens on people to try to keep them in line, but mostly in line in ways that benefited the rich, the king, and the religious establishment. Only a small few grasped the essence of the Law of Moses God had given  them – that God was not only a Rewarder, but that He was a Father to them who wanted a reciprocal [look it up if you don’t know what that word means] relationship. By the time Jesus came, the religious establishment had enlarged the Law – adding various rules and regulations that had little to do with relationship with God.

For example, the sabbath law which was a simple, concise Word from God in the Ten Commandments that would give His people an opportunity for true rest from labor and to enter more deeply into relationship with God, where they learned how to trust and depend on Him for their lives and livelihood, that law had become polluted and expanded to hundreds of regulations by the religious establishment: how many steps you could walk on the sabbath; that you were not allowed to pick up sticks to keep the fires going – in fact, they iterated all the things you could not do. They were very big on not even getting medical attention on the sabbath – you’d have to wait until the next day. The laws were strict and restricting; much of the essence, i.e., the things of God, had faded from the law and now it was all about being legally right. Instead of drawing people to God, the religious establishment was seeking to be more important than God, in fact, to be a god to be obeyed, or else.

So, for hundreds and hundreds of years, the people of Israel/Judah were subjected to religious teachers who did not teach the essence of the law of Moses, only the legal demands – adding rules and regulations that created burdensome obligations. These superfluous additions took the focus off the true God and Father, rather than encouraging a relationship with God. The leaders exalted Abraham as Father – claiming their worth and righteousness in his name; they would even make it wrong for a person to say the LORD's name. It seemed like the “dos” and “do-nots” – those legal burdens on the people that had little to do with God or had a "God flavor", would continue to be the norm for His people.

In Jesus’ first advent, His commission was two-fold: He came as the Lamb to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29, 35-36), not just the sins of Israel. He also came to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let those long oppressed by burdens and taxes to be set free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:16-21). He would teach the truth about the kingdom of God and be a revelation of the God of Moses and Abraham. (Matthew 4:12-17,23;Matthew 5-7; 13:1-53).

Jesus would reframe the true Law of Moses through teaching the true essence of God’s law. In interpreting the Law and God’s intent behind it – for the religious establishment had failed in their obligations to do that, Jesus taught the people the fundamentals of worship that the Law was intended to bring to people – the essence and underpinnings of the Law to instruct the people what a real relationship with God was about. One of the most notable and recognizable of Jesus’ teachings of such are found in the Sermon on the Mount; Matthew's Gospel reports the Sermon in three consecutive chapters - 5,6,7. In the opening part of His sermon, Jesus speaks to the “blessings” (also referred to as the “beatitudes”) inherent in true worship of God. He contrasts the legalistic structure that the religious leaders had created and substantially voided out the essence of the Law; Jesus speaks to the spirit of the Law, which was that of relationship with the true God. As we examine these blessings - all 9 of them - that help us to see how they support God's covenant with Israel, and which transcend to those covered by God's New Covenant through Christ, we will consider what good news Jesus is intentionally teaching to them and to us today. 

It is important to reiterate:  The Beatitudes and the teachings contained in the Sermon on the Mount were not just an 'event', a one-and-done and solely historic episode, nor were they given to be a palliative or a salve on our human condition; instead, these are to be fundamental means of growing in relationship with God; they were to become integrated, even renewed, into our daily faith walk. They are a continual awareness of who we are in Christ. Jesus' initial listeners of this Sermon - persons of Jewish heritage - understood the phrases "blessing of God" or "blessed by God" differently than how it is most often used now. For the Jewish person, to be blessed or receive a blessing meant for them to be called into the presence of the LORD, Adonai, Yahweh - to experience God's shalom peace and uniquely commune with Him. Today, though, we most often equate the "blessing of God" to mean a material reward or position of some type that lasts for a little while, brings us a temporary pleasure or happiness, or easing of our situations - something which would essentially aggrandize the human and his/her circumstance. The human satisfaction is the desired focus, rather than having the most incredible experience a human can have - the privilege of uniquely communing with the Sovereign of the universe, the sanctified person's Abba Father, having an experience of eternal reverbrations. As one reads through the Beatitude expositions found at the links below, the recurring theme will be a God-centered awareness and relationship.  (Psalm 34:8; Psalm 65:4; Romans 6:4,11)  This and the following papers were written so that we may bathe in the Light of His wisdom and power, as our knowledge of God grows deeper and more rooted.

The promised Blessings of Jesus (the Beatitudes) in His Sermon on the Mount are posted individually, showing us the relationship with God which He continues to desire.

Bonus: "Order My Steps in Your Word," feat. HCC Choir

EXPOSITION/EXPLANATIONS OF THE BEATITUDES ARE AT LINKS BELOW. (The series is designed to be used as a small group Bible study.) 

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
 
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. 

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."