You awake to a hundred frogs in your bed. Swarms of nasty insects raid your house. Your city panics as food sources vanish, stricken by plagues of disease, hail, and locusts. And that is not even the worst of it.
How could a loving God do that?
The ten plagues were vicious disasters sent by God that majorly crippled Egypt (see Exodus chapters 3-12). At that time, the Israelites were slaves of Pharaoh. They did not yet have their own land but lived in the region of Goshen in Egypt, where they were brutally beaten and forced to hard labor. This went on for generations.
This kind of slavery was commonplace in ancient times. In fact, the everyday evils of the ancient world would shock us today. Egypt, despite its brilliance and ingenuity, was one of many wicked nations. (If you don’t believe me, just take a peek at Exodus 1:8-22). God chose Israel to be a light to that dark world so that people might turn from evil and find life in Him. This was God’s plan from the beginning.
But Israel was stuck in Egypt, slave to a king of cruelty.
Egypt was a force of power in the ancient world. They had horses, chariots, a trained military, and cutting-edge weaponry. As Pharaoh’s slaves, there was just no way that Israel was making it out alive. Not without a miracle.
To the Point: The Israelites were brutally enslaved in Egypt, and God was the only One who could deliver them.
This sets the stage for the ten plagues. God chose Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt. Before Moses confronts Pharaoh (“Let my people go!”), God warns him that Pharaoh will say no.
“But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.” EXODUS 3:19-20 NIV.
God knew the future as well as He knew Pharaoh’s wicked heart. He knew what it would take to free the Israelites: a mighty hand. The plagues begin: the Nile turned to blood for seven days, an invasion of frogs, incessant gnats, and so on. Nothing sways Pharaoh; though he begs Moses to plead with God to relent, he changes his mind the moment things calm down. The Israelites remain his slaves, and Pharaoh’s heart grows hard as stone. After the sixth plague (the boils), Pharaoh receives this message from God:
“For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” EXODUS 9:15-16 NIV.
Did you catch that? God did not send the plagues to wipe people out. His intention all along was to show His power and proclaim His Name in all the earth. He was not just concerned with Israel, but with all the nations.
To the Point: The plagues would eventually compel Pharaoh to let the Israelites go; AND they revealed God’s desire to save the entire world.
Ok, but…why frogs? Why boils? Why seven days of the Nile turning to blood?
Though the Bible does not explicitly state so, the plagues, taken individually, strongly imply judgment on the specific gods of Egypt. For example, the god of the Nile, Hapi, was highly revered by Egyptians because the Nile was the life source of Egypt. The first plague, the Nile turned to blood for seven days, demonstrated God’s power over the Nile, and thus over Hapi himself.
In Until Our Shackles Fall, Tafne’s treasured god is Hapi. When the Nile turns to blood, she is staggered by the idea that her god has been murdered.
Tafne looked to her bedside table, where her statuette of Hapi stood in his place. She sat up and reached for him, bringing him under her scrutiny. “Do you still live, Hapi?” she whispered. “Has Moses killed you?”
He told her nothing. She stroked his blue-green face with her thumb, chilled to her bones by the idea of her precious Nile, her Hapi, slain.
The rest of the plagues also seem closely tied to other Egyptian gods and goddesses. Because the Egyptians worshiped deities crafted from nature (the Nile, sky, earth, dung beetle (!), cats, etc.), the upheaval of nature would have rattled them to the core. In their minds, each god or goddess performed certain roles, and nothing could thwart them. So, when God physically demonstrated His power over nature, He was proving Himself as the One True God.
To the Point: One by one, the plagues vividly demonstrated God’s power over the false gods of Egypt.
We know that the Israelites worshiped the gods of Egypt too. Several places in the Bible reveal this, including Ezekiel 20. Here is what the Lord says regarding that time:
On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands. And I said to them, “Each of you, get rid of the vile images you have set your eyes on, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” EZEKIEL 20:6-7 NIV.
This is really sad to me. Not only were the Israelites slaves to the Egyptians, they were also spiritually enslaved to a false religion. God knew this and used the plagues to shake the Israelites from their delusion. He was fighting for the souls of Israel, and for the whole world too. Every nation had false gods and practiced unspeakable evils in “worship” of them (including sacrificing their own babies!). Despite their sinfulness, God loved the world. He loved every nation and wished for them to be saved.
To the Point: Israel also worshiped the false gods of Egypt, and God sent the plagues to bring them back to Himself.
So, how could a loving God send the ten plagues? In short, because He loved the world. What measures would you take to save someone from a road that led to death? Would you go to extremes to steer them away from a cliff ahead? God did exactly that with the ten plagues. The world was deceived into worshiping very strange and wicked gods, and God loved them too much to do nothing. Israel was as deceived as the rest, and God knew that they would not be convinced with mere words. It had to be drastic. Anything less would not have worked.
The ten plagues were one demonstration of God’s desire to save a lost world. What does this mean for us? Well, God has not changed. His mission remains the same: to save a lost world. Ultimately, He sent His own Son to finish the work. Jesus Christ offered Himself as the sacrifice that paid for our sins, and through Him we are saved.
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” ACTS 4:12 NIV.
Ellenore Meadows 