Mysteries of the Messiah by Rabbi Jason Sobel

Author:Rabbi Jason Sobel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2021-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

THE TEN PLAGUES

In Egyptian culture, pharaohs were considered to be part of the cosmological order. According to Egyptian mythology, the greatest spiritual battle was the one that took place between order and chaos. Life and death, sunrise and sunset, and the yearly flooding of the Nile, which made Egypt fertile, were all part of the cosmic rhythm that kept creation from devolving into chaos. Various gods maintained and protected these cycles.

While the gods kept order in the cosmic realm, Pharaoh helped to keep order in the earthly realm. All ten plagues were meant to discredit the false gods of Egypt and Pharaoh’s fallacious claim to govern creation as a semi-god. The plagues brought chaos out of order and exposed Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt as powerless before the Lord, the true Creator of heaven and earth.

The ten plagues are also referred to in the Bible as “signs.”1 They were meant to convince all Egypt that the God of Israel existed, that He had a special covenantal relationship with the children of Israel, and that He was the Creator and King of all. Thus, the ten signs were not primarily punitive but redemptive. They were intended to elicit faith among the Hebrews as well as in the hearts of Egyptians so that they would repent and believe in the Lord. The ten signs/plagues are (1) blood, (2) frogs, (3) gnats, (4) flies, (5) death of livestock, (6) boils, (7) hail, (8) locusts, (9) darkness, and (10) death of the firstborn.

The Structure of the Ten Signs

The ten plagues were broken into three sets that demonstrated three spiritual truths to Pharaoh: (1) the Lord exists; (2) His control extends over all creation, from the greatest to the least; and (3) He is all-powerful. The plagues were not random but divinely designed to reflect the character of God as “compassionate and gracious . . . slow to anger” (Ex. 34:6; see also Ps. 145:8). The plagues first affected the environment, then material possessions, and ultimately led to increasing personal harm, culminating in the death of the firstborn when Pharaoh refused to repent. God gave ten opportunities for the Egyptians to have a change of heart, but they refused.

Did God Harden Pharaoh’s Heart?

Can we honestly say that the Lord was merciful to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, since the Scripture says, “The LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (Ex. 9:12 NIV)? Pharaoh chose to harden his own heart, after being warned by the Lord (Ex. 7:13, 22; 8:11, 15; 9:34, 35), before God caused Pharaoh’s heart to become even more hardened (Ex. 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8). When God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, He was merely strengthening Pharaoh in the way he had decided to go—he would not repent and let the children of Israel go free.

The Lord desires that the wicked repent and not die: “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11 NKJV). God, therefore, did not harden Pharaoh’s heart

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