Bible Study #11
The Plagues as Cosmic Warfare
Make the pure light of Your divine knowledge shine in our hearts, Loving Master, and open the eyes of our minds that we may understand the message of Your Gospel. Instill also in us reverence for Your blessed commandments, so that overcoming all worldly desires, we may pursue a spiritual life, both thinking and doing all things pleasing to You. For You, Christ our God, are the Light of our souls and bodies, and to You we give the glory, together with Your Father, without beginning, and Your All Holy, Good, and Life- Creating Spirit, now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen. (2 Corinthians 6:6; Ephesians 1:18; 2 Peter 2:11)
Review. God sent Moses back to Egypt to liberate His people, but Pharaoh’s heart was “hardened” and he refused to let them go. Now we are awaiting the final plague, the death of the firstborn.
Exodus 12:12. [The Lord said;] “I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am Yahweh [“I AM”]. See also Numbers 33:4.
Against the gods of Egypt? Where does that come from? Remember one of the consistent narratives of the Bible: the fallen gods trying to claim the nations and the world as their own.
Pharaoh admitted his part in this when he said; “Who is Yahweh that I should obey Him by letting Israel go? I do not know anything about Yahweh, and besides, I will not let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:2).
Let’s go back and look at all the plagues again.
Three interpretations (theologoumenon). (sources: “Biblical Archeology”, Heiser, imagination)
The naturalizing explanation (logically possible and there are records of such things).
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Blood in the Nile: red clay from the Ethiopian highlands (beginning of first sequence).
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Frogs: the diseased dead fish force the now diseased frogs out of the Nile into homes.
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Lice: the frogs die and deliver their lice into people’s homes.
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Flies: the dead frogs attract flies.
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Pestilence vs Animals: flies (and carrion diseases) kill the animals
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Boils: this is the effect of the carrion diseases on humans.
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Hail: it just happens (beginning of second sequence).
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Locusts: they just happen.
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Darkness: a dust storm from the desert (again, they just happen).
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Death of First-Born: infant mortality?
Against the gods of Egypt
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Blood in the Nile: vs. Khnum; creator of water and life; or against Hapi, the Nile god.
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Frogs: vs. Heket; childbirth and consort of creation; head and body of a frog.
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Lice (sand flies): vs. Geb; earth (i.e. sand/dirt).
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Flies: vs. Khepri; mother, creation, sun, rebirth; head of a fly.
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Pestilence vs Animals: vs. Hathor, love, protection; cow. Or vs. Apis; fertility; a bull.
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Boils: vs. Isis; medicine, peace.
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Hail: vs. Nut; sky. Or vs. Seth; wind, storms. Or vs. Min; fertility, protector of crops.
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Locusts: vs. Min; fertility, protector of crops.
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Darkness: vs. Re (or Aten, Atum or Horus); Sun.
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Death of First-Born; vs. Pharoah. Supported by Egyptian mythology and prophecy (BA)
Cosmic Battle and the Undoing of Creation (from Heiser’s The Unseen Realm & Biblical Archeology):
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Pharaoh, the son of Re vs. Israel, the son of Yahweh (Exodus 4:23; cf. Hos 11:1).
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At least in the last plague, does this in the form of “his angel”, the Lord Himself (see Exodus 12:23)
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The word “destroyer” (mashkhit) means angel in Exodus 12:23, 2 Samuel 24:16, and 1 Chronicles 21:15 (also see Zechariah 12:8-10 for this idea and the grieving over the firstborn).
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In all the Plagues, however, Yahweh undoes the Cosmic Order against the fallen gods
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The Ten Plagues show the Israelites that Yahweh is in control (e.g. “When Israel saw the mighty act which the Lord had done in Egypt, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.” Exodus 14:31)
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Blood in the Waters. Mikveh (gatherings of water) in Exodus 7:19 links this to Genesis 1:10, as does “Let them become blood”.
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Frogs. Chaos in the water. The “swarm” fecundity of Genesis 1:20 has gone awry.
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Lice. Chaos in the earth. The terrible “multiplication” of crawling creatures in Genesis 1:22 loosed.
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Flies. Chaos in the air. The terrible “multiplication” of flying creatures in Genesis 1:22 has completed the reversal of Genesis 1:28, where man is to “Rule the fish of the sea, the winged creatures of the heavens, and all living creatures which creep on the earth.”
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Pestilence vs. Animals. vs. the order of Genesis 2:18–20; animals given for man are taken away.
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Boils. Doesn’t really fit the pattern as well, but the Egyptian had purity laws… they are shown not to be strong enough (vs. the laws later given by Yahweh).
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Hail and Locusts. These plagues “create” a world that is in contrast to the lush world God made for man. Compare Genesis 1:12 with Exodus 10:15.
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Darkness. This darkness is tangible (see Exodus 10:21b and 10:23). The pattern of light and darkness has been taken away, but both still exist (one with Egyptians and the other with the Israelites). This puts us back to the end of Genesis 1:4 (before Genesis 1:5).
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Death of the First-Born. Vs. Genesis 1:26 (first in this plague, then in the Red Sea; what do they look back and see? Desolation).
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But why ten plagues?
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The ten divine utterances of creation (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28, 29).
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But there is another thing worth looking at
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In Psalm 77(78):44–51 and Psalm 104(105)5:28–36 present a different view of plagues (order and number) and show what was really important.
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The Psalms have Seven Plagues, evoking the days of creation.
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This time, it doesn’t end in the Sabbath, but in an undoing. This is not coincidence. In the Sabbath Commandment of Deuteronomy; “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God: You shall not do any work” because “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God freed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm [a reference to the plagues]; therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5:15). In the Exodus version, it is because of creation. How cool is that?
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Next Week: The Passover and the Red Sea. Note on Great Lent.
