Blood, Crocodiles, Frogs and Gnats

Home , Gold (hieroglyph), Hapi (Nile god), Nekhbet, Wadjet

October 17, 2012, Rebecca Jones

Exodus 7:6–8:19

I AM gave this “sign” to Moses

Exodus 3:12 "I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."

Hold that thought!

I. A Croc on the Loose: Setting the Scene A. Which Pharaoh? Perhaps Ramses II (Dynasty 19 – about the 13th century BC). Perhaps Amenhotep II (15th century BC, with Thutmoses III reigning for most of Moses’ life). One scholar feels that the Egyptian timeline is erroneous. We don’t need to know in order to benefit from the truth of the Scriptures. The biblical texts were written by someone familiar with Egyptian beliefs and habits.

Pharaoh was known as the king with a “strong arm.” Now it will be proven that the “arm” of the I AM will save.1 I AM begins the one-on-one struggle to the death – of Pharaoh’s firstborn, or I AM’s firstborn. B. Snake or Crocodile? Aaron and Moses throw down the staff and I AM turns it into a “monster of the sea,” perhaps a crocodile (tannin, not naḥaš, as in chapter 4:3). The magicians are able to do the same, but Aaron’s serpent swallows2 their serpents. Some scholars think that a snake is meant by both words, but that the text is reminding us of the Genesis references, in which naḥaš is used (3:1) for the serpent that tempted Eve, whereas tannin is used (1:21) for the sea creatures. Tannin also represents the chaotic forces of nature (Enns, 196-7). “Some Egyptians worshiped the crocodile god Sobek as ‘Ruler of the Nile’” (Ryken, 205). The word tannin is also used for a large venomous snake, such as a cobra. As this was the symbol of Pharaoh’s kingly power, such a translation is satisfying, though not certain. C. What about the Magicians? Is the sorcerers’ magic real or simulated? The Scripture does not imply that these were parlor tricks. God allows a certain deceptive power to Satan and his servants. When pagans seek demonic intervention, or contact with the dead, they find power, but the power only imitates

1 Isaiah 50:2-3 Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering." 2 For the Eyptians, swallowing something was to absorb its power. Ryken points out that the magicians were the first to recognize the power of I AM. (Ex 8:19). 1

October 17, 2012, Rebecca Jones or corrupts God’s real creative power and hurts not only the one who tries to wield it, but all who come in contact with it. We are to be encouraged by this passage that such power trembles and pales before the power of the word of I AM.

Esquimaux sorcerers, when converted, have declared that their sorceries, when they were heathen, were not mere impostures, that they were acted on by a power they could not control; but when they believed in Jesus they had neither the will nor the power to do what they used in their pagan state. Brainerd states the same as to the Indian diviners, namely, that all their former powers of divination departed the moment the word of God entered their souls. (Fausset 990)

Egyptian magicians prided themselves in their control of snakes, and the flared cobra, ready for war was the symbol on the crown of the Pharaoh (the ureaus), indicating his power over the entire land of Egypt, thanks to two goddesses: the Ureaus-goddess Wadjet (Lower Egypt) and the vulture-goddess Nekhbet (Upper Egypt) (Currid, 89).

There were large libraries of scrolls containing curses and blessings from the gods. Apparently the wise men were unable to find the scrolls needed to deal with Moses and Aaron and the great I AM!

II. I AM Confronts Pharaoh and the Gods of Egypt A. Pharaoh Pharaoh cannot be distinguished from the gods. He is seen as the incarnation of the gods, who give him all power and authority over the entire land of Egypt, and the Nile itself. Here Moses is given the authority of I AM (Ex 7:1) and confronts Pharaoh in His name. As I AM says to a later prophet about another Pharaoh:

Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt; speak, and say, “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon (tannin) that lies in the midst of his streams, that says, “My Nile is my own; I made it for myself.”’” Ezekiel 29:2–5

The Egyptians saw the Nile as their lifeblood, the defining gift of the gods that created Egypt. And Pharaoh was the Lord of that Nile. Pharaoh was “eternal, worthy of worship, and omniscient: he imbued Egypt with existence and power….he was ka, the life force and soul of Egypt,…[but] Pharaoh’s cobra-crested diadem had no power against Yahweh.” (Currid 93-4) B. The Gods of Egypt

1. The Ennead – nine major gods There are over eighty Egyptian gods, many of whom were originally regional gods that gradually morphed into a national religion, maintaining many inconsistencies3 that didn’t seem to bother

3 Adolf Erman says, “we find a mythology with myths which are absolutely irreconcilable existing peacefully side by side ; in short, an unparalleled confusion.” (Erman, 361).

October 17, 2012, Rebecca Jones anyone. In theory, they were all One god, but Egyptians mixed and matched them at will. (Sound familiar?)

 Atum – creator and father to the King  Shu – son of the creator god, god of dry air, wind and the atmosphere.  Tefnut – the lunar goddess of moisture, humidity and water and the solar goddess of dryness  Geb – god of the earth, the vegetation god  Nut – sky goddess, who swallowed the sun each nitght and birthed it each morning  Osiris – god of resurrection, the underworld, the afterlife, agriculture, fertility, including the annual flooding of the Nile and patron of Pharaohs  Set – god of the desert, Storms, Darkness, and Chaos  Nephthys – female goddess, divine assistance and protective guardianship

Psalm 135:15-18 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them!

We can see from this incomplete list, that it is hard to associate each plague with a particular god, but I AM defies them singly as well as in their united claim to power. God says, “against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments -- I am the Lord” (Exodus 12:12).

2. Worship of Creation All the gods and their power are associated with nature: the Nile River, the land and the sky. Egyptians worshiped creation rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). These were, are, and always will be the only two possibilities for worship, and no faith but the Christian faith truly worships the Creator and Redeemer whose power is displayed in this event. All other religions worship creation in one way or another. C. The Plagues

1. Plague 1: Blood Drawn from the River Plague announced in advance, early in the morning. The magicians could imitate this sign but do nothing to stop it.

 A preview that the Nile will be the source of death to the Egyptians  A challenge to Hapi: A specific challenge to Hapi, the god of the Nile.  A challenge to the country’s lifeblood: The Nile served Egypt as the main transportation and commercial system, its source of drinking water, its source of food (fish), and its irrigation and fertilization source.  A challenge to Pharaoh, who was the Lord of the Nile and of the whole land of Egypt – a power given to him by the gods.

To strike the Nile was to strike at the heart of the entire country’s religious, cultural and physical existence.

One author suggests that when the text says blood was “in wood and stone” (no mention of jars), it could refer to idols, which are elsewhere associated with “wood” and “stone.”

October 17, 2012, Rebecca Jones

Apparently the Egyptians washed their wood and stone idols each morning in the Nile! (Ryken, 221).

Blood sacrifices were offered during death ceremonies, as well as by priests in religious rites, and in general blood would be perhaps even more repulsive and unclean to an Egyptian than it would to us.

Pharaoh’s Response: Refusal

I AM said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is heavy; he refuses to let my people go.” Exodus 7:14:

See the supplemental page to see how an Egyptian heart was “weighed” against a feather before Osiris, who judged enrance to the afterlife. If the heart was lighter than a feather, the person was judged to be ma’at – righteous, or in balance. But I AM declares Pharaoh’s heart “heavy,” i.e. “wicked” for not obeying I AM’s command.

Anti-Creation: The waters are not filled with living creatures, but are spitting out those living creatures. They are not a source of living water, but of living death! There is a reference to the creation account in v. 19: “reservoirs” is the same word as the “gathering together of the waters” (KJV) in Genesis 1:10.

2. Plague 2: Frogs Drawn from the River Plague announced in advance at the palace. The magicians could imitate this sign but do nothing to stop it.

In Egyptian religion frogs were seen as symbols of fecundity. The Lord took the picture of life and turned it into death and decay. It was the frog-headed goddess Hekhet who breathed life into bodies formed by her husband, the creator god Khnum. (Motyer, 188, note 70)

 Hekhet, goddess of frog population control  Hekhet, breather of life  Hehket, divine midwife

This affront to the goddess of fertility is rendered more ironic since the whole problem with the Israelites began years before, when the Pharaoh in power decided to control the fertility of the Israelites by asking the midwives (“servants of Hekhet” – see attached sheet) to kill the baby boys. Fortunately for Israel, there were Hebrew midwives who obeyed God rather than Hekhet. This did not go down well with the Pharaoh, who ordered the murder of the baby boys by drowning in the Nile, Hekhet’s domain. And now this new Pharaoh has another problem with fertility –the frogs go wild and inundate the land. To make things worse, frogs were considered sacred in Egypt, so should not be killed. A right mess for all! God has struck Pharaoh where he struck God’s people – the Nile, where Pharaoh annihilated (no pun intended) God’s sons, and the midwives, who presumably took part in that annihilation.

I AM multiplies blessing on His people, and multiplies frogs on the Egyptians.

October 17, 2012, Rebecca Jones

Pharaoh’s Response: He asks for prayer, and knows God’s name, but doesn’t know God. Doesn’t ask for God to take away his sin, but to take away the frogs. Then hardens his heart yet again.

Moses proves God’s word by allowing Pharaoh to set the time when the frogs will go – “Tomorrow,” says Pharaoh ---peculiar.

Anti-Creation: Each creature has its rightful place in creation – now the frogs are forced from their natural habitat and take over human habitat. Their reproduction is uncontrolled and chaos ensues. The land “teems” with frogs, whereas in creation, the waters “teem” with living creatures (Gen. 1:20) This gives dominion to the animal kingdom which, in God’s creation mandate, was supposed to be under the control of humans.

3. Plague 3: Gnats Drawn from the Dust of the Ground Plague comes without warning and does not end. (Magicians cannot imitate it)

The dust seems to (or even does) become some kind of biting insect that “covers” the land and its people. In creation, God creates man out of the dust of the earth and when they multiply, as He as commanded them to do, the dust of the earth becomes a symbol of how numerous they have become:

ESV Genesis 13:16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.

ESV 2 Chronicles 1:9 O LORD God, let your word to David my father be now fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

 Dust–Human mortality: “from dust you were taken and to dust you will return.” Dust here seems to be swallowing Egypt back into chaos and speaks of death.  Dust—Humility. Many uses of “dust” in the Bible refer to being humiliated, one’s face in the dust, or kings bowing to the dust before a greater king.  Dust– Dissipation. Dust flies away in the wind. As the people are covered in the dust- become-lice, one gets the image that they themselves become dust. The power of Pharaoh and the land will be dissipated in the wind.  Dust–Lack of water. The Egyptians depend on the river, but here the dust threatens to envelop them. The Nile god can do nothing to help. These bugs could probably not be washed out with water. Lice, for example, are amazingly tenacious! As mother of seven whose children sometimes brought lice home from school, I know how persistent these little critters can be!

An attack on the god Set, god of the desert.

An attack on the religious purity of the priests of Egypt, who shaved their hair in order to present sacrifices (Ryken, 242).

The magicians recognize the superior power as the “finger of god” (elohim), but this may only mean the “finger of the gods.” They use the more generic name for gods, not the I AM name.

October 17, 2012, Rebecca Jones

They do not know Him the way the Israelites know him. I AM is revealing Himself to them and they are recognizing the power, but there is no indication that they turn to Him in faith.

This plague does not have any recorded end-point. Nor does plague 6 (see chart on last page). The bugs may have been persistent in Egypt.

Anti-Creation: I AM created humans in his image from the dust and told them that they would be more numerous than the sand of the seas. But the dust here becomes attacking insects.

Thou dost send forth Thy burning anger, and it consumes them as chaff. Who is like Thee among the gods, 0 Lord? (from Exodus 15)

III. Conclusion: Egypt My People! A. Why is Worship at Sinai a Sign? Why did God say that Moses’ worship on the mountain was a “sign”? Wasn’t the arrival at Mount Sinai the fulfillment of I AM’s promise to bring His son out of Egypt to serve him at the mountain?

The ultimate fulfillment became clearer to Moses much later, when he worshiped on another mountain and witnessed the declaration of a new law: “This is my beloved Son. Hear him!” Moses, Elijah and Jesus spoke together about Jesus’ “exodus” (Luke 9:31). Once more the cloud of glory enveloped him, as he stood on the Mount of Transfiguration. There Moses doubtless saw a much grander vision. Though he was not allowed into the original land of promise, Jesus would take him to the more glorious land of promise. B. Jesus’ Control of Creation Jesus, in his miracles, showed his control over the forces of nature. You can search for miracles indicating this control in your study group. C. Jesus Control of the Devil and Evil Jesus also had control over the demonic powers. He comes out of the desert after his temptation having defeated the demons, and he continues to defeat them and wipe them out of the land.

We have been purchased by the blood of I AM’s firstborn son and, though we are now wandering through our own desert, we are free from serving Pharaoh —free to worship and serve the living God. Our obedience to His commands is possible because we are freed from the tyranny of evil. D. Jesus’ Control of Life and Death Jesus did many signs showing that he controlled life and death. He raised people from the dead, and was raised himself from the dead.

October 17, 2012, Rebecca Jones

E. Jesus’ New People Includes Egypt! Evil was defeated for us in that final battle between I AM and Satan (represented by Pharaoh in our lesson). The judgment rod of God falls on his own firstborn son, thereby ironically crushing the serpent and conquering Pharaoh for eternity. We have been rescued from Egypt, carried through the waters of destruction and are on our way to a promised land that will never fade and in which there will be no more sorrow or sin.

But worshiping God at Sinai is only a “sign”!

Eventually, God brings ALL HIS PEOPLE out of the slavery of idolatry. In the end, they are from every nation, even Egypt and Assyria, which were iconic symbols of God’s enemies.

Isaiah 19:18–25: In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. … And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them. And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance." (See also Isaiah 11:11-16)

Plague Forewarning Time of Warning Instruction

First series 1. Blood Yes In the morning “Station yourself” 2. Frogs Yes none Go to Pharaoh 3. Gnats No none none

Second series 4. Flies Yes In the morning “Station yourself” 5. Livestock Yes none Go to Pharaoh 6. Boils No none none

Third series 7. Hail Yes In the morning “Station yourself” 8. Locusts Yes none Go to Pharaoh 9. Darkness No none none

Climax 10. Death of Yes none none firstborn Chart is taken from Enns, 208.

October 17, 2012, Rebecca Jones

Bibliography

Websites: http://davelivingston.com/plagues.htm http://www.squidoo.com/frog-goddess http://www.britishmuseum.org/?ref=header http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com/2007/01/17/croak-croak/

Blackburn, W. Ross. The God Who Makes Himself Known. IVP, 2012.

Campbell, Iain D. Opening Up Exodus. Day One, 2006.

Cassuto, U. Commentary on Exodus. Jerusalem, 1951.

Cole, R. Alan. Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary, IVP 1974.

Currid, John D. Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament. Baker, 1997.

Enns, Peter. The NIV Application Commentary: Exodus. Zondervan, 2000.

Erman, Adolf. Life in Ancient Egypt, Macmillan, 1894, free ebook version. http://ia600303.us.archive.org/34/items/lifeinancientegy00ermaiala/lifeinancientegy00ermaial a.pdf

Motyer, J. A. The Message of Exodus. IVP, 2005.

Ryken, Philip. Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory. Crossway, 2005. Extra Questions

 Look up Revelation 8:7-8; 11:6; 16:3-7. What parallels do you see to the Exodus story?  Read the following quote. In what ways is the Egyptian idea of man’s purpose and balance (ma’at) similar to current religious attitudes of present-day America?

The ten pestilences..were a polemic against the Egyptian concept of the created order (ma’at). ..Ma’at was.. . “the equilibrium of the whole universe, the harmonious co-existence of its elements and …the cosmic force of harmony, order stability, and security.” ….Humans had to struggle to preserve ma’at and to keep cosmic balance upon the earth. (Currid, 118, quoting George Posener)

 In what way do we worship the goddess Hekhet, so to speak, as we think about fertility and childbirth?