Egypt's gods and the Plagues of God

The Book of Exodus tells the story of how God delivers His ancient people from slavery in Egypt. Moses takes center stage in this book: a Hebrew baby boy who narrowly escapes death and instead is given up for adoption to the Egyptian queen. In her house, he is raised as the son of Pharaoh.

But, in a classic “riches to rags story,” God calls Moses out of Pharaoh’s house to become the deliverer of God’s people. Though it would not come for another forty years, when deliverance finally came, it came with high drama. Beginning with the Ten Plagues, we see a Righteous God display His sacred jealousy for His Name and for His People.

Historians have observed Egypt was a polytheistic society that worshiped over eighty gods. It is in this context that God, again and again in Exodus, was intent on displaying His glory and His power to the world.

The plagues constituted something like a heavyweight title match between Almighty God (in the one corner) and any Egyptian god who dared to show up (in the other). In fact, studies have shown that each plague directly confronts one sacred Egyptian deity after another. In each case, the world is shown that the LORD God of the Hebrews is the One True God, and will not share that title with any other.

We see this jealousy for His name throughout the account of the plagues; here are a few examples:

• “The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt…” (Ex. 7:5)
• Exodus 9:14b, “…so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.”
• Exodus 9:16, “But for this purpose have I raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”
• “How long will you refuse to humble yourselves before Me?” (Ex. 10:3b)
• “Pharaoh will not listen to you that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” (Ex. 11:9)

You might not be too surprised to find out that Exodus and the Plagues mirror the story of the whole Bible: God is the star of the show; it is His glory, and His honor, and His majesty, and His beauty, which is on center stage.

To cite just one example, Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4 looks out over Babylon and says, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”

Bad idea; he goes insane and crawls on the ground for seven years until he repents and worships the One True God.

Reminds me of the bumper sticker that says, “Nietzsche said, ‘God is dead.’ God says ‘Nietzsche is dead.’” Beloved of God, God is jealous for His own Name! He desires all glory and honor to go to Himself!

God's Parable, God's Story

Matthew, in his Gospel, reports that Jesus only spoke in parables: "All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable." (Matthew 13:34).

(To the left is Murillo's The Return of the Prodigal Son.)

Granting the rabbinic and ancient near eastern story-telling practice of exaggeration, we can at least conclude that the most important foundational truths Jesus taught in the form of a parable. But why?

The reason, we're told, is that some had closed their eyes and had rejected the Lord:

“‘...For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’
--Matthew 13:14-15

What does this charge of dullness have to do with parables? Parables are stories; somehow, these stories were not accessible to the proud, self-righteous religious leaders of Jesus' day. I think the reason is because they replaced God's story with something else, something less.

In His story, God takes center stage; "something less" is a story that "violates international copyright laws." Its a knock-off tale with out-of-work actors: poor, proud sinners who gave up their spot on Broadway downtown to "star" in a second-rate show in the 'burbs.

"Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” --Matthew 13:51-52

God's story is like a treasure, then. By bringing out things "new and old," God opens the way for the lost, the poor, the outcast, the broken, to upgrade to Broadway. There, they enter into the Great Story of the World, the Great story of the Universe, the Gospel.