Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to our
Ancient Future Story, navigating
Scripture Through the Eyes ofFamily, where I share with you
biblical stories like a familymember would share a story
around the dinner table.
As children of God, we are apart of God's family and his
family story has a lot ofhistory.
Each week, we will take onestory and talk about it the
cultural, historical,geographical and sociological
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impacts.
We will be looking at thesestories from the perspective of
our ancestors, through the lensof ancient times, in hopes of
learning more about our family.
This is our Ancient FutureStory.
Welcome back to our AncientFuture Story.
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I'm Vic and I am so excited toshare this part of Moses' story
with you.
The plagues of Egypt is trulyone of the most fascinating
things I have ever studied and Ihope that through this episode
you will see the grandeur thatis Yahweh and how he approached,
battled and won against theEgyptian gods.
When we left off last time,moses and the Israelites were
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completely defeated becausePharaoh had increased their hard
labor and the spirit of thepeople was completely broken,
and Moses felt like God had lethim down.
But Yahweh was just gettingstarted.
So grab your cup of coffee orsomething to drink and let's get
ready to dive into the story ofMoses.
Our story opens with the Lordcoming to Moses and telling him
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to take Aaron and go beforePharaoh and ask him for the
second time to let the people ofIsrael go and worship in the
wilderness.
But God told Moses he wouldharden Pharaoh's heart and he
would not let the people ofIsrael go and worship in the
wilderness.
But God told Moses he wouldharden Pharaoh's heart and he
would not let the people go,because God wanted the Egyptians
to know that Yahweh is God andthey will acknowledge him as
such when they see him pullIsrael out from among them with
his mighty right hand.
So Moses did as the Lordcommanded and he took Aaron and
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they went before Pharaoh.
And when Pharaoh asked them toprove themselves, god told Moses
to tell Aaron to throw down hisstaff in front of Pharaoh and
it became a serpent.
When Pharaoh saw this, hecalled for his magicians and
sorcerers and they turned theirstaffs into serpents as well.
But Aaron's staff ate the otherserpents, but still Pharaoh's
heart was hardened.
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Then the Lord said to Moses Godown to the Nile in the morning.
When Pharaoh is coming down tothe water, stand on the bank of
the Nile.
And when you see Pharaoh throwdown your staff and it will
become a serpent, then say theLord, god of the Hebrews says
Let my people go that they mayworship me in the wilderness,
but so far you have not let themgo.
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So now I will show you who I am.
My servant Moses will strikethe Nile with his staff and all
the water in Egypt will becomeblood and the fish in the Nile
will die and the Nile will stink.
So, in the sight of Pharaoh andall of his servants, moses told
Aaron to stretch his hand overthe Nile and all the canals,
ponds and pools.
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And when Aaron struck the Nile,all the water in Egypt became
blood.
But the magicians and thesorcerers did the same.
So Pharaoh turned and headedback inside the palace, for he
did not take this sign to heart.
But just as Yahweh had promised, all the fish in the Nile died
and the Nile stunk.
Seven days passed.
Then the Lord told Moses to goto Pharaoh and say let my people
go that they may serve me, butsince you refused, I will send a
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plague on your country withfrogs.
The frogs will come up out ofthe nile and will fill your
homes, beds, ovens and bowls.
Then the lord said to mosestell aaron, stretch your hands
with your staff over the riversand canals and ponds and make
frogs come up from the land ofEgypt.
So Aaron did as he wascommanded and frogs came up and
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covered Egypt.
But the magicians and thesorcerers did the same, but this
time Pharaoh asked Moses andAaron to plead with their God to
take away the frogs from Egyptand he would let the Hebrews go.
Moses said Tomorrow frogs willbe cut off from Egypt and only
be in the Nile, so that you,pharaoh, will see that there is
no one like Yahweh.
So Moses and Aaron went outfrom Pharaoh and Moses pleaded
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to the Lord and Yahweh honoredhis request and the next day all
the frogs in Pharaoh's homes,courtyards, fields, all died,
where they were so many that thepeople of Egypt created heaps
of frog carcasses and the landstunk.
But when Pharaoh saw relief fromthe frogs, he hardened his
heart and did not let the peoplego.
Then the Lord said to Mosestell Aaron to stretch out his
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hands and strike the dust of theearth.
And when he did, all the dustof Egypt became gnats.
Okay, pause, hold on, I'm sorry.
Gnats.
Okay, pause, hold on, I'm sorry.
All the dust of Egypt.
Yeah, all the dust of Egypt.
And when the magicians tried toreplicate this, they could not.
In fact, they told Pharaoh thishas to be the fingers of God.
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But Pharaoh hardened his heartand would not listen to them.
Then the Lord said to Mosesrise up early in the morning and
present yourself to Pharaoh ashe is going down to the water.
Say to him Thus says the LordLet my people go that they may
serve me, for if you refuse, Iwill send a swarm of flies on
you, your servants and yourpeople.
But I will separate the houseof Egypt from the house of
Israel so that the swarm offlies will not be among the
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Hebrews.
I will do this that you mayknow that I am Yahweh in the
midst of the earth.
Then the Lord did this and thegreat swarm of flies entered the
homes of Pharaoh and Egyptianpeople and the land was ruined
by the swarms of flies.
Then Pharaoh called for Mosesand Aaron again and said Go,
sacrifice your God within theland.
But Moses said we cannot dothat, for it is an abomination
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to the Egyptians.
We must go three days into thewilderness to worship our God.
But Pharaoh said I will let yougo worship, just don't go too
far.
Only plead for me.
Moses said okay, I will pleadfor you, but don't cheat us
again.
So Moses pleaded with Yahwehand the next day the flies were
removed from Pharaoh, hisservants and all the Egyptians.
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Not one fly remained.
But Pharaoh again hardened hisheart and did not let the
Israelites go.
Then the Lord said to Moses Goto Pharaoh and say Thus says
Yahweh, god of the Hebrews Letmy people go, that they may
worship me.
But if you refuse, the hand ofYahweh will fall on you and a
plague will come upon yourlivestock in the fields.
But I will make a distinctionbetween the livestock of Egypt
and the hand of Yahweh will fallon you and a plague will come
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upon your livestock in thefields.
But I will make a distinctionbetween the livestock of Egypt
and the livestock of Israel sothat the plague will not harm
the Israelite livestock.
And the next day all thelivestock of Egyptians died, but
not one of the livestock ofIsrael was harmed.
But still the heart of Pharaohwas hardened and he did not let
the people go.
Then the Lord said to Moses andAaron Take handfuls of soot
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from the cline and let Mosesthrow them in the air in the
sight of Pharaoh, and it willbecome a fine dust over the land
of Egypt and boils will breakout on man and beast.
So Moses did as the Lordcommanded and the magicians
could not stand before Mosesbecause of their boils, for
their boils came on theEgyptians, but still, pharaoh's
heart was hardened and he didnot let the people go.
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Then the Lord said to Moses riseup early in the morning,
present yourself to Pharaoh andsay to him.
Thus says Yahweh, let my peoplego that they may serve me, but
this time, if you do not, I willbring the plague on you, your
servants and your people, sothat you may know that there is
none like me in all the earth.
For by now I could havedestroyed you all, but I have
instead raised you up so that mypower and name will be known
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throughout the world.
So because you have continuedto exalt yourself, tomorrow I
will bring hail on Egypt, ahailstorm so terrible that has
never happened in Egypt untilnow.
So that this is your warningBring in all your livestock and
men into safe shelter, becauseanyone outside will die.
Then all who feared the Lordamong Pharaoh's servants hurried
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to get their slaves andlivestock inside.
But whoever did not payattention to Yahweh's words left
his slaves and livestock in thefields and they perished.
The land, plants, trees, crops,all were destroyed in the
hailstorm.
Only in Goshen there was nohail, for God had separated the
Hebrews from the Egyptians.
But then Pharaoh called forMoses and Aaron and said I have
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sinned against Yahweh.
I am in the wrong.
He is right.
Plead with him, for we have hadenough of his hail and thunder.
I will let you go.
Moses said to him.
I will go outside the city andstretch my hands to heaven and
the hailstorm will cease, sothat you will know that earth
belongs to Yahweh.
So Moses stretched out hishands and the hailstorm ceased.
But when Pharaoh saw the storm,he stopped.
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He sinned again and hardenedhis heart and he did not let the
people of Israel go.
Then the Lord said to Moses Goto Pharaoh, for I have hardened
his heart so that you, moses,can tell your sons and grandsons
how I dealt harshly with theEgyptians and what signs I have
done among them, so that you mayknow that I am Yahweh.
Okay, pause.
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I love that Yahweh remindsMoses why he's doing these
things.
This is the eighth plague, andMoses has got to feel really
defeated because God has notreleased them from Egypt yet.
They're still in slavery.
But Yahweh reminds him.
It's not about him, it's aboutYahweh displaying his power
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against these Egyptian gods.
So then Moses and Aaron went tosee Pharaoh and said thus says
Yahweh, let the people of Israelgo, but if you do not, tomorrow
, I will send locusts on yourcountry, so many that they will
cover the land of Egypt and theywill eat whatever is left after
the hail, so that all the landof Egypt will be in ruin.
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This will be a plague likenothing your fathers or your
grandfathers have seen from theday they came to the earth until
now.
Historical fun fact Egyptiansbelieve they had been around for
hundreds of thousands of years.
So no plague like this, frombasically the start of humanity,
which is a crazy statement, butYahweh makes it so.
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Then Moses and Aaron left thepresence of Pharaoh.
Then Pharaoh's servants turnedto him and said how long shall
this man torment us?
Just let them go.
Don't you understand?
Egypt is in ruin.
So Pharaoh called Moses andAaron back and said okay, who do
you need to go with you toworship?
And Moses said um, everyone,our young and our old, our
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daughters and our sons, all ourflocks and herds, for we must
hold a feast.
Okay, pause, pharaoh isswearing by Yahweh.
Now what is happening?
But anyway, pharaoh againrefuses to let the people go
because he fears they have anevil intent and he drives Moses
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and Aaron out of his sight.
So the Lord tells Moses tostretch his hands over all of
Egypt, and a great wind from theeast came in and brought
locusts on all the land, a greatswarm of locusts over the whole
land like there had never beenbefore and will never be again.
The swarm was so great that thewhole land was darkened and the
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locusts ate everything left inEgypt, and the land of Egypt was
in complete ruin.
Pharaoh then hastily calledMoses and Aaron and said I have
sinned against Yahweh andagainst you.
Now forgive me for my sin andplease plead with Yahweh for me,
only to remove this death fromme.
So Moses went out and pleadedwith Yahweh, and the Lord
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returned the wind into a verystrong west wind and drove all
the locusts into.
The Lord turned the wind into avery strong west wind and drove
all the locusts into the RedSea.
Not a single locust remained inEgypt, but still Pharaoh's
heart was hardened and he didnot let Israel go.
Then the Lord said to MosesStretch out your hand toward
heaven, and that there may bedarkness over the land of Egypt,
a darkness that can be felt.
So Moses stretched his handtoward heaven and a pitch
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darkness fell on the land.
For three days the Egyptianscould not see one another, but
all the people of Israel hadlight wherever they went.
Then Pharaoh called Moses andsaid Go, serve Yahweh, take your
little ones with you, onlyleave your livestock behind.
But Moses said you must let ushave sacrifices for burnt
offerings that we may sacrificeto our God.
Our livestock must go with us.
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We cannot leave anything behind.
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh'sheart and he did not let them
go.
Then Pharaoh said to them Getaway from me, take care never to
see my face again, for on thisday you will see my face.
You will die.
And Moses said as you wish.
And he left out of his sight.
Then the Lord came to Moses andsaid one more plague I will
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bring on Egypt and after thisone he will let you go.
Speak now to all the Israelitesthat they asked their Egyptian
neighbors for gold, silverjewelry, and the Lord gave the
people favor in the sight of theEgyptians and Moses's fame grew
throughout Egypt.
Then Moses said thus saysYahweh, at midnight the
firstborn in the land of Egyptshall die, from Pharaoh who sits
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on the throne to the slave girlbehind the hand mill and all
the firstborn cattle.
There will be a great cryacross Egypt such that there has
never been before and willnever be again.
The Pharaoh will drive us out.
Moses and Aaron did all thewonders before Pharaoh, but he
did not let them go.
Then, at midnight, just asYahweh had promised, the angel
of death passed over Egypt andall the firstborn sons in Egypt,
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from the throne of Pharaoh tothe servant girl.
All of the firstborns perished.
And Pharaoh rose in the middleof the night, he and his
servants and all the people ofEgypt.
And there was a great cry inEgypt because there was not a
household without someone dead.
The Pharaoh summoned Moses andAaron and said to them Get out
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from among my people, both youand your people, and your
livestock and your flocks Go andbe gone.
So Moses and Aaron and all thepeople of Israel fled Egypt.
And that is where our storyends, for today, yahweh
successfully proving his powerover the Egyptian gods in the
first step of rescuing hispeople out of Egypt.
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If you grew up in church, youhave probably heard this story
many, many times.
It is basically the staple ofVBS story, but I think there are
a few things that are importantfor us to know that will help
shape the context of the story.
So first is location.
We know our story takes placein Egypt, roughly around 1446 BC
if you take the early date, or1275 BC if you take the late
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date.
Moses is now back in Egypt andis either facing Thutmose III,
if we go by the early date, orRamses II, if we go by the later
date.
As I said last time, it isinteresting that these are the
two pharaohs that could havebeen most the third if we go by
the early date, or ramses thesecond, if we go by the later
date.
As I said last time, it isinteresting that these are the
two pharaohs that could havebeen the ones that moses
confronted, because they wereboth not people to mess with.
They were ruthless and built areputation throughout the known
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world as military leaders.
Remember, tutmus the third wasa warrior as soon as he came of
age and led most of theexpansion campaigns out of Egypt
.
And Ramses II was no picniceither.
Also a warrior, but anunpredictable one.
His famous battle was theBattle of Kadesh against a
Hittite army, where he is saidto have struck down an entire
army by himself in a surpriseattack.
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Needless to say, these men werenot to be crossed without
severe punishment.
As for Moses's relationshipwith them, we said last time
that Thutmose III very likelygrew up with Moses in the palace
, whereas Ramses II and Mosesdid not know each other at all.
And it's interesting readingthese interactions with these
relationships in mind.
Facing your half-brother is alot more difficult than facing a
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complete stranger.
The next main point I want tocover are the ten plagues.
We will take them one at a timeand go through all ten, because
they are each unique, specificand intentional, and we will ask
the question why would God dothat?
And hopefully, after goingthrough all the plagues, we will
understand a little bit moreabout the ancients in this epic
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battle between Yahweh and theEgyptian gods.
So the first plague was theNile being turned into blood.
Now, the first thing I want tonote about this plague is that
this is the third sign God hadtold Moses to perform at the
burning bush.
He told him to throw his staffdown and it would become a snake
, and then to put his handinside his cloak and it become
leprous.
But the third sign, god said,if they do not believe you with
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the two signs, to go down to thewater of the Nile and get some
water and pour it out on dryground and it will become blood,
and then they will believe you.
So it is interesting that thefirst plague that God sent on
Egypt was Nile into blood.
But it is also important tonote that in the Nile there is
an algae that is known to haveturned the Nile blood red, and
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this algae is known to be prettytoxic.
However, when the Nile did turnred from exposure to this algae
, the Egyptians would kneel bythe side of the river and dig on
the river bank so that the sandwould filter the algae out of
the water and it would bepurified for them to drink.
But in this plague, when Mosestells Aaron to raise his staff
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and stretch his arms over thebodies of water and striking the
Nile, all the waters of Egyptbecame blood.
It's interesting that all thewater in Egypt was turned to
blood.
Exodus 7, 26 tells us thatseven days passed after Aaron
struck the Nile.
Now, I found this interesting,because we know that humans can
only survive for three dayswithout water, which brings up
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several questions, but the mainone being did the Egyptians have
to drink contaminated water ordid they find water in the
Mediterranean Sea?
We don't know, and actually wedon't know if or when the Nile
was restored.
Our Bible does not give us anend date.
It only says seven days passedbefore Moses and Aaron warned
about the next plague.
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The Egyptian god that wastargeted here, though, was not
just one, but several, becausethe Egyptians had many gods
connected to the Nile, but I'mgoing to talk about two in
particular.
First is Happy, the god of theNile.
He is the one credited forannual floods from the Nile that
produced good soil for crops.
He is also considered the godof the Nile.
He is the one credited forannual floods from the Nile that
produce good soil for crops.
He is also considered the godover Upper and Lower Egypt.
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He was typically depicted as amirrored image of himself, a
human male in form and body, butincorporated pieces of both
Upper and Lower Egypt, and theother was Sobek, the protector,
god of the Nile.
He was depicted in hieroglyphsand ancient writings as having
the head of a crocodile and thebody of a human, or later, as he
began to get tied to Pharaoh,he took on the name Sobek-Re,
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which tied him to the sun, godRe, and was depicted as a
crocodile body with a falconhead.
It is interesting that God chosethese gods first to confront,
because the Nile was the sourceof all life.
Everything they knew aboutagriculture and economy came
from what these gods provided inthe Nile.
Side note, exodus 7 21 tells usthat all the fish died in the
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Nile when the water was turnedto blood.
But what about the otherwildlife?
Where did they go?
Now some scholars havesuggested that it's because the
water turned to blood that thefrogs came out of the Nile.
And though that is a goodtheory, exodus 7.25 says that it
was seven full days that theNile was bloody.
Where did all the wildlife go?
But let's hold that questionfor a little bit.
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The second plague was frogs.
Exodus 8 starts with Godtelling Moses to tell Aaron to
stretch his hands over all thewaters of Egypt.
And the frogs came up out ofthe waters and were everywhere
Inside people's homes, in thepalace, in pools, in bowls,
everywhere.
But the magicians were able toproduce frogs as well.
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But Pharaoh called for Mosesand Aaron to get rid of the
frogs, and all the frogs diedwhere they were in homes,
courtyards, fields, whereverthey were.
They just died and theygathered their carcasses in
heaps like let's picture thatfor a minute the amount of frogs
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that covered all of egypt.
They just died on the spot andthen now they have heaps of
carcasses.
No wonder the land stunk.
So which Egyptian god was frogs?
Hecate is the goddess offertility and birth and the
symbol of future generations.
She's depicted with a frog headand a body of a human woman.
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Also, frog gods were some ofthe oldest gods in ancient
Egyptian world.
They are thought to have beeninstrumental in the creation of
the world.
In fact, she is credited forliterally breathing life into
the first human.
So which brings us to the thirdplague gnats.
Exodus 8 says that at Moses'word, aaron struck the sand and
all the dust of Egypt becamegnats.
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Exodus 8 says that at Moses'word, aaron struck the sand and
all the dust of Egypt becamegnats All the dust of Egypt.
That's insane.
In case you forgot.
Egypt is a sandy desert that isin no short supply of dust.
We have to imagine it like theDust Bowl in the 1930s in the
Midwest here in the US, wherehuge dust storms swept across
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the land.
It was so much that peoplecould not get away from it.
It was in their homes, in theirlungs.
So picture that, but instead ofdust, it being gnats.
The ancient god, jeb, was thegod of the earth and also very
instrumental in the Egyptiancreation story, as he is
literally depicted as layingdown under the gods of air and
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sky.
Jeb was associated with goodsoil and agriculture and
therefore life itself.
I think it's interesting tonote that the magicians could
not replicate this plague.
In fact, they even tell Pharaohthis is the finger of God.
The next plague is a littletricky because it has been
debated over and over again.
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And it's debated because ofthis little Hebrew word, a rove,
which can be translated, as ourBibles do, as flies, but could
also be translated as stinginginsects like mosquitoes or
hornets, or it could betranslated as wild beasts like
lions.
There have been some debateover this, so I'm going to give
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you both sides and let youdecide.
Now, these different sides doesmake this plague interesting
because, on one hand, after thegnats, flies would be super
annoying, but also hornets, beesand other stinging insects
would be terrible.
But if it is the wild beast, itmight explain what happened to
the wildlife that left the Nile.
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So let's get into it.
Some scholars have suggestedthat it wasn't the wildlife in
the Nile, but rather wildlifethat was domesticated for
worship.
Remember, the Egyptians hadimages of their, and many of
them were portrayed as partialor fully animal-like, and they
would capture these animals andworship them as the gods
incarnate.
They fully believed the spiritof the deities lived in these
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animals.
So what does that mean for thisplague in particular?
Well, some Jewish scholars havesuggested that these wild
animals who had beendomesticated for worship have
suggested that these wildanimals who had been
domesticated for worshipsuddenly went back to their
animalistic roots and turned ontheir trainers and had a killing
streak throughout Egypt.
But in any case, the Egyptiangod that was most believed to be
attacked in this plague isCapri, the god of the morning
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sun.
He is depicted as human with abeetle forehead.
His job was to roll the sunacross the sky.
This plague was the first plaguethat God brought the plagues on
Egypt and not on Israel.
It was also the first thatbrought destruction on Egypt and
not just some discomfort andinconvenience.
It's in this plague that we seePharaoh start to negotiate with
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Yahweh.
He tells Moses they can worshipYahweh, just stay inside the
land.
But Yahweh refuses, for thepeople must leave Egypt and go
to the wilderness to worship.
The next plague is the plaguethat killed the Egyptian
livestock.
The plague is similar to thatof the bubonic plague.
The bubonic plague began withthe disease that spread quickly
throughout the animals, and theplague on the livestock did the
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same.
But God again separated Egyptfrom Israel and the livestock in
Israel did not die.
The Egyptian goddess for cowswas Hathor.
Hathor was most oftenassociated with kingship and the
royal family.
She was depicted as a purewhite cow with horns, and it's
believed that she gives milk tohumanity.
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Again we see this trend ofsustaining life through the gods
.
The next plague brought boils onthe Egyptian people and animals
, but again God separated theHebrews from the Egyptians.
I have long since said this wasthe worst plague.
The pain the Egyptians were inis immeasurable.
At this point Some have arguedthat the boils came from the
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influx of bugs from the previousplagues.
But regardless of how they gotthere, boils were very dangerous
at this time because infectioncould spread and people and
animals could, and did, die.
This goddess that was attackedhere was Isis, the goddess of
healing.
She was the primary deity fordeath and sickness because it
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was believed that she hadmagical healing power.
She was used primary deity fordeath and sickness because it
was believed that she hadmagical healing power.
She was used exclusively by thekings and the royal family,
which brings us to the nextplague brought hail to the
desert of Egypt.
Outside of just being anenvironmental anomaly, the
devastation this would havebrought is insurmountable.
The likelihood that an Egyptianhad seen hail before was so low
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that many of them and theiranimals were killed by being hit
by it.
They didn't know to take cover.
This goddess was Nut, thegoddess of the sky.
She is usually depicted asstretched out across the expanse
of the sky above Jeb, the godof the earth.
She is most often referred toas the separation between heaven
and earth, but she is also thegoddess of the cosmos, the stars
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and astronomy.
The next plague is locusts, andthis is the final straw for the
land of Egypt.
The locusts came into Egypt insuch large amounts that they
covered the land completely.
You cannot see the land, andthey ate everything that was
left behind from the hail.
So now the land is completelyand totally bare.
This is the first plague thatGod tells Pharaoh will be told
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for generations.
Nothing like this has ever beenor will ever be again Complete
and total devastation.
And which god is challengedwith this plague?
Well, that would be Seth, orSet, the god of the sky, the
counterpart to Nut, but probablymore famously, the god of
storms, mostly worshipped in theNile Delta, but not too far
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from the Israelite camps.
He was mostly correlated withBaal of Canaan.
Me and you're like huh.
That's interesting, isn't itinteresting, that when Israel is
freed from Egypt and they gointo the desert in the
wilderness, that the god thatthey create for themselves is
Baal, the storm god, likelybecause of all this influence,
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of being around Seth for allthose years.
Now for the plague of darkness.
This plague leads the people ofEgypt into complete and utter
darkness.
Our story describes it as adarkness that could be felt and
not just like a total solareclipse that lasted only a few
minutes.
This was three days of completeand total darkness.
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We now know medically that ifhumans are not exposed to light,
their internal clock will getout of sync and the human body
will begin to deteriorate Slowly, but we will still deteriorate.
But again we see God separateEgypt from Israel because the
Hebrews had light.
Wherever they went, theEgyptians could look out toward
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Goshen and in the distance theywould see little lights.
This Egyptian god was thebiggest one of all, ray the sun
god, or probably better known asthe creator god.
He is said to be the father ofcreation.
He's usually depicted as a manwith a hawk head.
He is also one of the highestesteemed gods.
So when Yahweh brings darknessall around them, it is clear a
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direct attack on Re.
The last plague may be thecruelest one of them all, but it
is also the final straw forhumanity to lose the thing they
value most, the one thing thatholds their legacy their child.
The death of the firstborn sondid not escape anyone in Egypt,
man or beast.
Only those who killed the lamband put the blood on the
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doorpost were saved.
And when the angel of deathpassed over Egypt, this included
everyone from the lowestservants to Pharaoh himself.
But what Egyptian god was beingattacked here, and the answer is
Pharaoh himself.
Pharaoh was considered to be agod incarnate.
Each pharaoh had their deity,who they were named after and
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who was believed they wererepresenting to the people.
So for Thutmose III, this wasthe god Thoth.
Thutmose literally means bornof Thoth.
Now, thoth was the god ofwriting and communication.
He was the creator of languageand acted as a scribe.
He was the representative ofthe sun god, re.
Thoth usually depicted as a manwith ibis as a head.
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An ibis is like a waiting bird.
It's in the same family as thespoonbill, and I find it
interesting that the last plague, yahweh took down Thoth, the
god of communication and writing.
However, ramses II claimed tobe the incarnate of Re.
His name literally means bornof Re.
Re, as we just talked about,was the sun god and his job was
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to sustain life by providinglight on Egypt.
But you may be asking yourself,as I did, why would Yahweh
re-attack Re, especially afterthe last plague of darkness?
And this is a great question.
And the reason is that RamsesII fully believed he was like
God.
He was just arrogant enough tobelieve that he could have taken
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down Yahweh himself.
So how do all of these plaguespoint to Yahweh.
How does this story tell usabout Yahweh?
As we have done every time wegather together to talk about
how the story points to Yahweh,in today's story we see God show
up and reveal his power andmight.
Yahweh proves himself to begreater than the Egyptian gods.
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The Nile turns to blood.
Hape is the god of the Nile,but Yahweh is the living water
and the true source of all life.
With frogs we have Heket, whois the goddess of fertility and
birth, who breathed life intohumanities, but Yahweh is the
creator of humanity and put hisown breath of life into them.
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The plague of Gnats Jeb is thegod of the earth, but Yahweh
used the earth to createhumanity, flies or wild beasts.
Kehepri is the god of themorning sun, but Yahweh tells
the sun to stand and where toshine.
The plague of livestock Hathor,the goddess of cattle,
associated with kingship androyalty, but Yahweh is the one
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true king of boils.
Isis is the goddess of healing,but Yahweh is the divine healer
.
The plague of hail nut is thegoddess of the sky and the
cosmos, but Yahweh is thecreator and ruler of the cosmos.
Plague of locust Seth, the godof the sky and master of storms,
but the storms obey the voiceof Yahweh.
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The plague of darkness Ray thesun.
God, the creator, god.
But Yahweh is the true lightand the true designer and
creator of the world.
Lastly, the death of thefirstborn son.
Pharaoh believed he was Godincarnate, but he was powerless
when his son died, because onlyYahweh has the power to raise
the dead back to life.
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So let's ask the obviousquestion why would God do this?
Why would he attack these godsof this nation?
And the answer is in Exodus 9,16.
But for this purpose I'veraised you up to show you my
power, so that my name will beproclaimed over all the earth.
Yahweh has always and onlywanted his name to be famous in
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the world.
He is the one true God anddeserves all the glory and
praise.
So, as we end our time together,I want to end it a little bit
differently.
I know we usually end byreading the scripture from where
our story comes from, buttoday's story is from chapter 7
through 12.
And though I encourage you togo back and read it for these
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chapters for yourself, insteadof me reading five chapters to
you, I want to ask you somequestions to help you reflect on
these plagues and what they sayabout Yahweh and what they
meant for the ancient worldNumber one.
And what they meant for theancient world Number one.
What do these plagues tell usabout the intentions of Yahweh?
Two, how does Yahweh prove hispower to both the Egyptians and
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the Israelite people?
Three, does knowing this aboutthe plagues change the way you
read this story?
I would love to know yourthoughts.
If you want to comment and postthem on social media, feel free
to share and tag us at OurAncient Future Story.
But next week we will start ourPassover series and we will
talk about the importance ofPassover and the significance of
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Passover, especially next week,as it is actually Passover.
My family has celebratedPassover for the last 20 years
and it has taught me so muchabout this story in Egypt and I
am so excited to share it withyou, so I hope to see you next
time.
Thank you for listening totoday's episode of our Ancient
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Future Story.
I hope that you really enjoyedit.
This episode was written by me.
Vic Harmon Music is Embarkingon an Adventure by Evan McDonald
.
Please support the show bysubscribing and rating us, and
if you want to know more or growdeeper, check out our website
at ourancientfuturestorycom.
See you next time.
Bye.