Lesson 8: A Rumble in Egypt

For our purposes in these lessons we are going to skip ahead from Abraham and right into Moses and the ten plagues. Not to suggest that the Jacob, Isaac, and Joseph’s stories don’t have merit or even feed into our discussions, I might even reference them in future lessons, only that I have limited Sundays to work with before the end of the year. You dear reader will just have to be content with the fact that we are doing a brief overview of the Bible to concentrate on a few key themes for your spiritual defense and effectiveness. To that point we are jumping to the next major showdown between The Almighty and the rebellious gods wayward humanity has chosen to follow.

The first part of God’s covenant has come to pass. The descendants of Abaham and Isaac are now a numerous people with twelve tribes, but no territory of their own. However, they’re big enough now that the gods of the world have taken notice of them. They’re reaction is to instantly attempt to enslave them, and essentially work them to death even going so far as culling their male population.

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.

Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”

Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.

Exodus 1:8-11

Now dear reader, you might point out that this was Pharaoh and the Egyptians doing this, and I would agree. But I would add that they are doing these actions on behalf of their dark gods. Pharaoh was considered a descendant of the gods, and Egypt was the center of the twisted set of civilizations made by the rebellious Sons of God. That context alone should give us a hint of the cosmic forces at play.

The world has been given over to Satan and his cronies for generations now, and they’ve had their way gorging on creation using man as puppets and toy soldiers as they squabble over territory and influence. One only has to take a cursory glance at the various mythologies to see the various petty intrigues and resulting death these entities caused on creation and humanity. Rare will you find a set of gods who are sane in the various stories told of them from their worshipers from the East to the West. 

We shouldn’t assume these epics are gospel, but if we assume the ancients were observing the wars of gods and squabbles of the rebellious sons we can see a picture of freaks drunk on power. Convinced of their own victory over the Almighty and his prophecy to bring about a Savior to crush their leader and bring judgment upon them as in Psalms 82. They will “Die like men”, and God is about to remind them all that he wasn’t idle while they partied on his property.

Who knows how this exactly played out, but judging by the reaction ascribed to Pharaoh and the Egyptians in general hints that the growing power of God’s portion of the nation, the one he called forth and patiently pruned like a bonsai tree, blindsided them and their gods.

But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.

So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves

and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves…

…Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

Exodus 1:12-22

The reaction seems inline with the strategies of evil we have already seen in Genesis. The point of enslaving the Israelites, and then killing off a generation of males seems to be aimed at weakening them till they can be bred out of existence and absorbed into Egyptian society thus destroying and claiming God’s chosen nation without a direct confrontation with the Almighty. A similar move with the giants in the fallen watchers attempt to claim the earth. God of course, is ready for this development, and when he judged the time was right called up Moses to remind the gods of this earth and their chief rebel Satan who is the bigger God. The resulting cosmic spectacle would go down through the ages.

The showdown starts with snakes (Exodus 7:10-12). An interesting decision that we can only speculate at, but seems to be God calling out the original rebellious prince who took on serpent form, whether that’s metaphorical or literal, in the Garden of Eden. God makes a snake out of a staff tempting the Devil’s magicians to do the same to downplay the miracle only to have God’s serpent eat the other snakes. The Almighty’s point is clear. I’m stronger, bigger, and like these snakes my kingdom will consume yours. The lines are drawn. The bell has rung. Shots have been fired, and all of you who have been in the church, even churchian establishments, know who’s about to be beaten to a bloody pulp.

Now obviously the Ten Plagues could take entire semesters to unpack, but we have more to get to for these lessons. I’m not going to touch on Predestination or anything like that. All we need to know for now is God beats his rebellious children to the curb ending with the first Passover where God returns the favor of the killing of his people’s sons with the slaughter of the Egyptians’ first born with their gods being powerless to stop him.

At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock.

And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead.

Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as you have said.

Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”

The Exodus

The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.”

So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.

The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing.

And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.

Exodus 12:29-37

The Isrealites leave Egypt free, and with the wealth of their previous masters in tow. This leads to a final confrontation. A last showdown in the desert where the dark gods have gathered their forces for a final desperate throwdown to destroy Israel before God can grow his portion further.

Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them,

coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night[fn] without one coming near the other all night.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic,

clogging[fn] their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.”

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.”

So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw[fn] the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.

The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.

But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

Exodus 14:19-29

Complete, and utter victory with the god of this world humiliated, and his most powerful mortal servant washed away by the sea. The dark gods despite their best efforts were powerless against the Almighty both in their political games and spiritual machinations to destroy God’s chosen nation as well as their direct attempt to wipe them from the face of the Earth. But there was a problem.

God has great plans for his chosen people, and far more rebellious entities to punish. Still, there are already signs of cracks in the Israelites faith, and those would soon turn into fissures that the gods of this world would expose and exploit mercilessly. Now was a new phase in the spiritual war over Israel. Since evil couldn’t kill them they were going to do everything in their power to corrupt them. A pattern, dear reader, you should pay attention to as it will rear its head throughout the Bible and history as well. For now God wins and the Devil not only has a broken nose but several lost teeth, yet the serpent isn’t out of the running yet. We have a long way to go before the savior comes.

Question 1: Does changing the view of the Plagues as a battle between the gods of Egypt in the form of rebellious principalities of darkness make the old story more interesting?

Question 2: Despite the epic events that led to the rescuing of the Hebrews from Eygpt the Isrealites constantly needed reminders of The Almighty’s power, and tested him repeatedly. Can you think of a time you or somebody else had seen God answer miracles, and still doubted him afterwards?

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