This message was delivered at Hillcrest Baptist Church, on the evening of September 21, 2014. The message details the specific reason each of the ten plagues was sent on Egypt, each one targeted specific Egyptian deities. Included in this post is an audio file of the sermon, and a download link for the file. My sermon notes are also included, but they are not a full transcript.
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Sermon notes:
Exodus 5:1-2
Exodus 7:1-5
God sent the ten plagues on Egypt for the following reasons:
- To deliver the Israelites.
- To answer Pharaoh’s question.
- To show that the Earth belongs to Yahweh, not the Egyptian gods.
Psalms 24:1
- To execute judgment on all the gods of Egypt.
Exodus 12:12
Numbers 33:4
The plagues were direct attacks on the gods of Egypt.
PLAGUE 1:
The Nile was turned to blood. (Exodus 7:20)
This plague was directed against the Nile itself, which the Egyptians worshipped as their source of life.The plague confronted the numerous river deities:
- Khnum (Guardian of the Nile)
- Hapi (Spirit of the Nile and god of fertility)
- Osiris (god of the underworld, whose blood the Nile was considered to be)
By turning the Nile into blood and killing the fish (supposedly protected by Hathor and Neith), Moses was not only shaming all these Egyptian objects of worship, but also showing that sustenance comes only from the hand of Yahweh.
PLAGUE 2:
The plague of frogs. (Exodus 8:3)
This plague attacked the Egyptian goddesses Heqet and Isis (goddesses of childbirth and fertility), depicted as women with frog’s heads.
Frogs were sacred to the Egyptians; however, these goddesses were powerless to prevent these symbols of life (frogs), from becoming rotting piles of death.
PLAGUE 3:
The plague of lice. (Exodus 8:16)
This plague from the dust of the Earth, confronted all the gods of the Earth such as Akhor.
The gods of the Earth could not prevent these plagues which originated from the Earth. This, once again, showed the Egyptian gods to be powerless.
PLAGUE 4:
The plague of flies. (Exodus 8:21)
This plague confronted another favorite god, Khepri, the scarab (dung beetle) god.
A plague of flies shows the failure of the dung beetle god to do its job of burying the dung, which stops flies from breeding in it.
This god was also associated with rolling the sun across the sky, like dung beetles rolling balls of dung.
PLAGUE 5:
The plague on the livestock. (Exodus 9:3)
This plague on the livestock, which provided food, milk, clothing, and transportation was a direct attack on:
- Apis (the sacred bull god)
- Mnevis (a bull-god symbol of fertility)
- Hathor (the cow-like mother goddess)
- Isis (the queen of the gods), who wore a cow’s horns on her head.
They were all shown to be imposters.
PLAGUE 6:
The plague of boils (Exodus 9:8-9)
This plague showed the impotence of any of the gods of magic and healing, such as Hike and Thoth.
They were unable protect even the magicians from the boils, and thus from the power of Yahweh.
PLAGUES 7 & 8:
The plagues of hail and locusts. (Exodus 9:18; 10:4)
These plagues destroyed crops and brought by the wind (locusts), attacked the various sky deities.
Shu, Tefnut, and Nut (deities of air, moisture and sky), who supposedly controlled the weather.
The loss of crops showed the impotence of the gods of vegetation, agriculture, and harvest. (Geb and Seth)
Plague 9:
The plague of darkness. (Exodus 10:21)
This was an attack on the supreme deity of Egypt, the sun god, Ra or Amon-Ra.
He was believed to bring light and heat to the Earth.
Other sky gods who were proved impotent were Horus, Seker, Khepri, Mut, and Nut.
PLAGUE 10:
The killing of the firstborn. (Exodus 11:1-6)
This was an attack on the divinity of Pharaoh, whom the Egyptians believed was an incarnation of the sun god and of Osiris, the giver of life.
It was Pharaoh’s task to retain the favor of the gods and to uphold the laws of Ma’at, goddess of order.
However, he was powerless to prevent the death of his own son, the next divine ruler, or that of anyone else’s son in the land of Egypt.
Thus, Yahweh alone has absolute control of life and death.
Who is your god?
Who or what do you worship, what stands between you and God?
Whatever it is, know that God is not mocked, Galatians 6:7. He will take what you worship, and use it against you, in order to show His supreme power and authority.
We would do well to place God first (He is the First and the Last, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End).
Don’t make him prove his authority in your life, rather make him Lord over your life. Yielding to him completely as a “living sacrifice”, Romans 12:1
In Defense: The Blog 
Posted on September 21, 2014
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