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.

HERE’S THE FULL HIT LIST

Taking the first 9 plagues in order, each one was meant to target specific deities in Egypt. While there were many more than 9 gods worshiped in Egypt and any plague could have had multiple connections, we can generally say that:

“In order to understand these plagues we need to understand that they were directed against the gods and goddesses of Egypt and were intended to show the superiority of the God of Israel to the Egyptian gods. There were about eighty major deities in Egypt, all clustered about the three great natural forces of Egyptian life: the Nile river, the land, and the sky. It does not surprise us, therefore, that the plagues God sent against Egypt in this historic battle follow this three-force pattern. The first two plagues were against the gods of the Nile. The next four were against the land gods. The final four plagues were against the gods of the sky, culminating in the death of the firstborn” (James Boice).

More specifically, we’re on good ground to make the following connections between the plagues and particular Egyptians gods.

1. Turning the water of the Nile River to blood (Ex 7:14-25) - “The Nile meant everything to [the Egyptians]. It was their mode of transportation, their source of nourishment, their standard for measurement, and even an object of worship” (Philip Ryken). In the opening plague, YHWH targets the gods Osiris and Hapi. The Nile was the lifesource of Egypt and believed to be the very bloodstream of Osiris which gave life to all the land. So YHWH turned it into a literal river of death.

2. Frogs (Ex 8:1-15) - A rather silly plague, making fun of the frog-headed goddess of fertility, Heqet. Very ironically, YHWH brought all sorts of life out of the Nile - so much so that the land was overrun! Only then, to have all these frogs, the hopping symbols of life and the goddess’ blessing they were, to be piled up into stinking heaps of death all across Egypt.

3. Gnats or lice (Ex 8:16-19) - The dust of the earth is transformed into an army of bugs, humiliating the earth god, Geb and demonstrating that YHWH had authority over every square inch of soil.

4. Flies (Ex 8:20-32) - Swarms of flying insects which buzzed, bit, and may have even sucked the blood of man and beast. Taking a shot at Wadjet, the serpent-headed goddess who was said to protect the pharaohs and send vengeance upon their enemies like swarms of flies. And perhaps also at the big-headed, scarab-god, Khepri who was said to raise the dead, just like the scarab beetles raised the balls of dung they’d made out of the ground. 

5. The death of the livestock (Ex 9:1-7) - All the animals of the field on which the Egyptians depended for milk, food, clothing, labor, and transportation got sick and died. And in Egypt, they worshiped the bull-god of male fertility, Apis, had the cow-horned queen of the gods, Isis, and the cow-headed goddess, Hathor who presided over love, beauty, and motherhood. God literally humiliated Egypt’s sacred cows.

6. Boils (Ex 9:8-12) - Inflamed skin and festering boils which broke out into blistering sores covered the body of man and beast in burning, itching, screaming pain. And the god over disease, Sekhmet couldn’t cure them. 

7. Hail from heaven (Ex 9:13-35) - To show that it was YHWH, not the sky goddess, Nut or the storm god, Seth, who brought the rain, controlled the wind, and reigned in the skies and heavens above. 

8. Locusts (Ex 10:1-20) - Which came upon the land and devoured everything the hail left over, especially the wheat which had grown since the hail fell. Min, the patron deity of the crops, together with other deities of the land, couldn’t protect the fields or provide Egypt’s daily bread.

9. 3 days of darkness (Ex 10:21-29) - YHWH sent “darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt…and they did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived” (10:21, 23). A pitched blackness completely obscured the sun the Egyptians worshipped. The gods Horus, Aten, and Atum couldn’t keep the lights on. But, more than any other, Amon-Re, or Ra, the sun god, who said of himself, “I am the great god who came into being of himself…he who has no opponent among the gods” - the one Pharaoh was supposed to physically embody - was dethroned in order to demonstrate that YHWH alone is the great, “I AM THAT I AM” (Ex 3:14) - the God who simply is, has always been, and will forever be. 

THE BIG TAKEAWAY FOR US

Here’s the big idea with all this. Back then or right now, whatever gods we happen to worship, the One True God will confront them head on. While we might not be tempted to worship Osiris, our worship will go somewhere. While we aren’t prone to place our trust in Ra, we will place our trust in something. Everyone is looking for that which will provide life and prosperity. Depending on something for their daily bread. Hoping to find fertility, family, children, and a legacy to leave behind. Looking for healing, medicine, and interventions to make us well and keep us whole. At the mercy of the weather we can’t control. And more than anything else, longing for a life that lasts even in the face of death.

Every person who ever was has been on the hunt for life that lasts forever. For meaning and identity. For hope, joy, and peace. To find stable ground under their feet. To find something that holds their world together. Some big story to make sense of their story. Whether that’s ancient gods, new age practices, other people and what we can get from them, or even us and what we can do for ourselves. We’re looking for someone to worship. Something to trust in. And the purpose of the plagues is to compel us to look no further than the God of the Exodus. Because the God of the Exodus is the same God that’s revealed in Jesus. The Savior who stepped into the world, defeated the devil once and for all, and holds himself out to you and I as the Savior who is better than anything else we could ever trust in.

LAY HOLD OF THE VICTORY OF JESUS

One final quote from our friend, Philip Ryken:

“The exodus was God's triumph over Satan, but it was not his greatest triumph. God made his supreme demonstration of power over Satan through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Satan opposed Jesus from the beginning, almost from the day he was born. He used the power of government, sending soldiers to kill him. He used the power of demons and even personally tempted Jesus in the wilderness. He used the power of religion, sending priests to accuse him. Finally, God allowed Satan to put Jesus to death, but that turned out to be Satan's biggest mistake of all because it was by dying for our sins that Jesus delivered us from the devil's power. Jesus disarmed Satan's authority and made a public spectacle of him, triumphing over him through the cross (Colossians 2:15). Then, in order to prove that he was not under Satan's power, Jesus was raised from the dead. Now we can say, "Death is swallowed up in victory ... thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:54, 57).”

It was not in the exodus, but in Jesus that God made his greatest triumph over Satan. Where he proved once and for all there is no better Savior and no other Savior than the Son of God who took on flesh, bore a cross, tasted death, and rose on the third day. Those who trust in him are forgiven for every moment of false and misdirected worship. They are set free to live for the glory of the One True God for endless and eternal moments of ever-deepening joy.