The Almighty does what He Pleases
During the ten plagues about the only thing the Almighty didn’t cause was a snowstorm. But he could have. Frozen ice did fall from the sky during God’s deadly hailstorm.
I believe the ten plagues took place over a few years, because Egyptian society needed time to recover. For instance, God’s 5th plague killed all the flocks and herds the Egyptians owned. But during the 7th and 10th plagues, the Egyptians’ livestock are dying again.
Plague #4
- Dense swarms of flies: Starting with this plague, God makes a clear distinction between the Egyptians and their Jewish slaves. Because the flies didn’t enter the land within Egypt where the Hebrews lived. The next seven plagues would only torment Pharaoh and his people. Exodus 8:24 states, “Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his officials; throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.”
Humiliated Egyptian Deity:
- Uatchit, goddess of the marshes. In this wetland ecosystem, insect populations thrived and wild grasses grew. The Egyptians harvested the papyrus reeds from this area, creating an early form of paper.
My own personal experience. When I was in college, my ornithology professor took us on several early morning field trips to seek out different bird species. Once we walked through a wet bog. To this day, I don’t remember if we saw any birds. Because immediately, large masses of flying insects swarmed everyone. Nobody could tell if the strong bug spray we each wore even helped. The students tried to cover their faces, afraid of accidentally inhaling a bug or two.
Random thought; the Egyptians could have used some extra frogs to help eat all those flies. Unfortunately, life just didn’t work out that way.
Plague #5:
Death of the Livestock: God struck down all the horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep, and goats that the Egyptians owned. Every animal died. But Pharaoh soon learned that the Israelites didn’t lose even a lamb. Economically this plague was devastating. Pharaoh also lost all the horses used to power his war chariots. Animal sacrifices to the Egyptian gods and goddesses ended too, temporarily.- Humiliated Egyptian Deity:
- Apis, a male bull deity worshipped in Memphis, the ancient Egyptian capital.
- Hathor, the goddess of love, protection and fertility. She took the form of a cow. Like the Hindus today, the Egyptians viewed the cow as a sacred animal.
Plague #6:
- The Plague of Boils: After Moses threw dust in the air, painful abscesses filled with pus covered all the Egyptians and all their animals.
- Humiliated Egyptian Deity: Imhotep, the Egyptian god of medicine. Interestingly enough, Imhotep was originally the chief human advisor, architect and physician to an early Egyptian king named Djoser. He lived 2600 years before Christ. Documents attributed to Imhotep show him as a skilled healer who didn’t rely on magical cures. Just 100 years after his death, Imhotep was declared a demigod. Several centuries later, he received a promotion and became the god of wisdom and medicine.
Resources:
This is the papyrus reed which ancient Egyptians harvested from the marshes to make paper for their scrolls and paintings. Because of the dry climate, some papyrus sheets have lasted 2000 years. The Egyptians also formed the sheets into scrolls. It was so useful that Egypt exported it’s papyrus throughout the known world.
Here’s a short presentation on “Papyrus Making 101.” Just click on the slide show.
Editor’s Note: I find it refreshing that contrary to Hollywood’s 1999 movie “The Mummy,” Imhotep really lived in ancient Egypt and was a brilliant man. He was one of the earliest physicians to recognize disease came from a natural cause. All the others thought people who fell ill were cursed by a wrathful deity.
2nd Editor’s Note: On December 13, 2013, Cairo Egypt experienced its first snowfall in more than 100 years. Are the snowy pyramids real or a Photoshopped creation? I don’t know. But the same snowstorm also hit Jerusalem, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Iran and Turkey.
