All Days
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JUDGEMENT
Then the Lord said to Moses,
Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.[1]
| WORD OF GOD THROUGH MOSES | PLAGUE | EGYPTIAN GODS | EFFECTS ON ISRAEL & EGYPTS OFFICIALS | PHARAOH’S RESPONSE | |
| 1 | ‘’Let my people go so they may worship me in the desert.’’ | BLOOD | Hapi god of the Nile. | Could do the same and dug for water. | Unimpressed. |
| 2 | ‘’Let my people go so that they may worship me.’’ | FROGS | Heket with head of a frog goddess of fertility. | Could reproduce frogs but not make them go away. | Would not listen. |
| 3 | No warning to Pharaoh | GNATS FROM THE DUST | Geb god of the dust of the earth. | ‘’This is the finger of God.’’ | Would not listen. |
| 4 | ‘’Let my people go so that they may worship me.’’ | FLIES | Khepri with head of fly god of creation. | No flies in Goshen where the Lord’s people live. | Started bargaining – can go but not very far ‘’pray for me.’’ later hardened his heart. |
| 5 | ‘’Let my people go so that they may worship me.’’ | DEATH OF LIVESTOCK | Hathor with head of a cow god of protection. | Investigated and found not one of the Israelite animals had died. | Would not listen. |
| 6 | No warning to Pharaoh. | BOILS | Isis the goddess of medicine. | Unclean and not able to stand before Moses. | Lord hardened his heart, and he would not listen. |
| 7 | ‘’Let my people go so that they may worship me.’’ | HAIL & LIGHTNING | Nut the goddess of the sky. | Those who feared the Lord hurried to bring in their slaves and livestock from the fields. | ‘’This time I have sinned; the Lord is right. Pray for me’’ Afterwards he hardened his heart. |
| 8 | ‘’How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?’’ | LOCUSTS | Seth god of the desert and chaos | ‘’Let the people go so that they may worship the LORD their God’’ | ‘’Have only the men go.’’ |
| 9 | No warning to Pharaoh. | DARKNESS | Ra the god of the sun | Total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived. | ‘’Go worship the LORD. Even your women and children may go with you; only leave your flocks and herds behind.’’‘’The day you see my face you will die.’’ |
| 10 | ‘’This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die.’’ | DEATH OF FIRSTBORN | Pharaoh was the ultimate god of Egypt, the son of Ra in the flesh. | The LORD made the Egyptians favourably disposed towards the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. | ‘’Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go worship the LORD as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds. And also bless me.’’ |
Three times Pharaoh was warned early in the morning to let God’s people go.
Pharoah initially ignored the LORD and his prophets but as the judgements increased in severity he started to negotiate on his terms.
He made numerous temporary confessions with no change of heart or behaviour.
He tried to let them go a short distance.
He tried to prevent the women and children from going to worship.
He tried to prevent the community from taking their most precious resources, their flocks to worship.
Whenever the officials headed the warnings, they were spared from the judgement. However, when the danger was passed, they hardened their hearts.
The book of Revelation lists remarkably similar judgements to the ones the LORD sent on Egypt. The judgements lead some to harden their hearts and others into salvation, praise, worship and the Kingdom of God.
Reflection
List the false gods in our culture.
Is salvation possible without judgment on the false gods in our lives?
Do you welcome wholeheartedly the LORDs judgements on false gods?
With what signs and wonders are you perceiving the LORD to be judging false gods today?
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.[2]
Prayer
Go for a walk in a private place and:
[1] Exodus 7:1-7.
[2] 2 Corinthians 10:5.
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