A small town on the border of the black sea was full of new agers. Among them lived an old psychic goat who made his living selling charged water. That is, he would place his own biological energy into bottles of water and then sell them as a health tonic. One day, news of this amazing water spread to the Runan Shah, a creature who lives in the Black Sea and takes it upon himself to oversee all things water. The shah investigated the water and found nothing extrordinary about it. He declared to the people that the goat was a fraud. The people, however would not listen. They wholeheartedly believed the goat. The shah publicly tested the water. He proved that it carried no electric charge, no magnetic charge and no ionic charge. He even took kurlian photographs and came up with nothing. He tested the blood pressure of someone who had just imbibed the water. Finally, he had the psychic attempt to pick out a bottle of water that had allegedly been charged. The goat claimed that this was impossible, because he would accidentally charge all the bottles by thinking about them. No one would believe the runan shah. Finally, completely fed up, the runan shah summoned his magical powers and charged a bottle of water. It glowed bright blue. "THAT" said the shah in an eloquent Russian tone "is what charged water looks like!" Soon afterward, the goat closed up shop.
Fraud can be hard to beat. Quite often, the people who are being taken don't care whether they're being taken. They are quite happy to go on believing the lie. Somtimes, the only way to successfully expose a fraud is to beat him at his own game. This is what God did during the exodus.
The exodus was far more than the salvation of Israel from Egypt. It was an opportunity for God to demonstrate his power, authority and sense of justice to the entire world for all subsequent generations.
The egyptians were the perfect target. The caananites were also prime candidates, except that God had already vowed to wipe them out for their failure to turn from their detestable practices. Egypt, however, would survive. This was God's blessing to Egypt for taking Joseph's people in during the time of famine. still, Egypt has always been steeped in the worship of false gods. Even today, their names still resonate through the corridors of time, though most choose to speak them with a hint of ridicule or derision. But in Moses' day, people actually believed in Ra, Anubis, Hathor, Isis and what have you. They also believed that Pharoh was a god. But Yaweh was about to make that belief seem pretty ludicrous indeed.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob started out very simply. He told Pharoh to let the Hebrews go and worship in the wilderness. He provided two miracles to authenticate the fact that it was the one true God speaking. The only one mentioned as actually being performed was when Moses' staff turned into a serpent. Jannes and Jambres did the same, whether by demonic power or by sleight of hand, we do not know. It's really not important, though. Moses' staff swallowed the two other and reverted back into an inanimate object with no sign that the other two staves had ever existed. This was the first sign that God was greater than Egyptian magic. Pharoh's heart was unmoved, and that's exactly how God wanted it. Jehovah wanted a throwdown.
The first gods Jehovah went after in 7:14-25 were Hapi and Khnum. The former was the spirit of the nile and the latter its protector. (I speak, of course, as an ancient Egyptian might view the events.) By turning the nile and all of its tributaries to blood, God demonstrated that Hapi and Khnum were nothing to Him. of course, Pharoh's priests did the same thing. But then what is the point of that? if Khnum is supposed to prtect the nile, shouldn't he enable the priests to turn the water BACK into water?
In 8:1-15, God sent frogs up into the houses of Egypt. This was a slap in the face of Heqt, the frog god. again, the priests duplicated the effect, but did not undo it.
The third plague in 8:16-19 was lice and gnats. Offhand I would say that this is a challenge to Nut, the goddess of the sky.
The fourth plague, described in 8:20-32 was flies. By now, the plagues were getting beyond the priest's abilities to duplicate. The attacks also were becoming more focussed. The flies didn't touch the Hebrews. This attack was aimed at Uatchit, a god with the form of a fly.
These first four plagues were major annoyances, but now, it gets serious. In 9:1-7, the cattle become diseased. Bulls were almost as widely revered in Egypt as they are in India. Among those who lost credence that day: Ptah, Hathor, Mnervis.
Plague six, verses 9:8-11. Boils and sores appeared on all the Egyptians, regardless of species. We're now getting into the higher egyptian deities. This attack discredited Serapis, the god of healing, and Sekhmet, one with healing powers.
You'd think this would be enough, but Pharoh didn't consider himself beaten yet. and that was fine with God. He had a lot more to demonstrate. In 9:12-35, the seventh plague kills plants and animals with fiery hail. In this, he smacks down Nut again, but also Seth, the protector of crops.
Plague eight in 10:1-20 finishes the job with a swarm of locust finishing what is left of the crops. The total destruction of the crops is not only a dig a Seth, but also Ises, goddess of life.
Plague nine seems almost out of place because it's not something we consider deadly. 10:21-29 tells us that darkness enveloped Egypt for three days. But now we are getting up toward the really big false gods. Atum- god of the sunset, and Ra, god of the sun. Anyone who watches stargate knows that Ra was the big one.
Finally, the last plague in 11:1-10, slammed the lid shut on the two biggest false gods in Egypt. With the death of the firstborn, Yaweh proved himself to be the true creator of life, rather than Osiris, and the true master of death in place of Anubis. And to top it off, by taking the life of the crown prince, God proved that Pharoh, too, was not a god.
Ten plages. All of them demonstrated that the gods of Egypt were nothing. But There is more to this last plague. It not only discredits the false god-man, but it leaves us with a sign of the real God-man. It was only by displaying the blood of the sacrificial lamb that death could be pursuaded to pass over a house. This was a sign for us that the true God and master of life, death, water, air, earth, sun, plants, animals, health and disease, would not be a heartless psychopathic dictator, but a lamb. A lamb who would prove his holiness and power not by demanding sacrifice, but by giving HIMSELF as a sacrifice. The final plage took the claim of godhood from pharoh and reserved it for Jesus.