YHWH vs. the gods

THE COSMIC CONFLICT OF THE PLAGUES

On Sunday, we journeyed through Exodus 7:14-10:29 - the first 9 of 10 plagues upon Egypt. This is the great action sequence of Exodus. And, unlike so many stories and movies today, this action actually means something. No explosions just because. No fights that are just meant to entertain. No action just for action’s sake. But all of it designed to teach us more about who we are, the world we live in, and the whole purpose of it all. God decided to tell the story this way to not only captivate us with this run of compelling scenes, but to show us something we really need to see.

Zooming in on one of these 3 sights, we focused on the world we live in. Exodus teaches us that it’s an embattled world. And one of the purposes of the plagues is to: Demonstrate the real power of darkness & God’s real triumph over darkness. This stands at the heart of what the central conflict in the story is all about. As scholar, Philip Ryken puts it:

“The great confrontation in Exodus was not simply a dispute between Moses and Pharaoh, or a conflict between Israel and Egypt, but a battle between God and Satan. A battle which pitted YHWH, the true God, who moved Moses and Israel, against all the false gods of the Egyptian pantheon, backed by a host of fallen angels who had turned from God as part of Satan’s original rebellion. Thus, the exodus was another engagement in the invisible war that continually rages between Heaven and Hell.”

The “great confrontation” in Exodus is not just Moses against Pharaoh and his magicians, but YHWH, the God of Israel, vs. the real dark powers that stood behind these sorcerers. In no uncertain terms, it is a battle of YHWH vs. the gods of Egypt, and this conflict comes to a head in the plagues upon the land. Because in the plagues, YHWH is defeating the gods of Egypt. He’s dethroning the powers they trusted in one by one. He’s demonstrating to them that they need a better God. He’s proving to the Egyptians back then and to everybody, everywhere, ever since that he alone is worthy of our worship.

Learn more about the cosmic conflict and find a full hit list of dethroned gods here.