Bible History of the Old Testament

No. 38

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The First Five Plagues

We talked about the length of time between the plagues, the duration of them, and other details in the last text.  To read about this, go to the Home Page above and then to the Archives Page of Bible History #37.

The First Plague - Early one morning during a certain time of the year when the Nile would rise, Pharaoh went down to the river to offer the customary Divine worship unto its waters.  He was probably accompanied by his wise men and magicians.

Here he was confronted by Moses with a message from God for him.  When Pharaoh refused to listen, Moses smote the waters with the rod of God, and the Nile became red like blood.  This was immediate in all the river branches, canals, cisterns, and reservoirs. 

This change in color of the Nile could not have been too uncommon, or Pharaoh would probably not have hardened his heart so quickly against the miracle.  When the river started to rise, it brought with it the red earth and also small cryptogamic plants and animals.  Pharaoh would have seen the river this color before.

So the true miracle lay in the suddenness of which it changed from normal to red at the sudden command of Moses, and also the now altered qualities of the river itself.  The fish died, which deprived the people of one of their main staples of food.  The river also stank so badly that they couldn't drink the water from it. 

Somehow, though, the magicians were able to imitate the miracle, probably on some water that had been drawn before Moses had smitten the river with his rod. 

So for 7 days through out the whole land, the blood-like undrinkable water sat everywhere a person could look.  They eventually had to dig other places for water and filter it so they could have drinking water. 

The Second Plague - The plague of frogs was also in connection with the Nile River.  Frogs were connected with the most ancient forms of idolatry in Egypt.  Since they had been worshipped in the past, God made them a curse to the people.  This also was a kind of natural occurrence that was not uncommon in Egypt.  The mud that is brought in by the Nile produces thousands of frogs even today, and which the Arabs still call by the Biblical name. 

The frogs "are small, do not leap much, are much like toads, and fill the whole country with their croaking.  They are rapidly consumed by the ibis, though, which keeps them from stinking when they die, unlike the biblical account in Exodus.

The supernatural part of the plague lay in the extraordinary number of the frogs, with all the trouble they caused, and in their sudden appearance at the bidding of Moses.  The magicians were able to imitate Moses on a small scale, but apparently they were unable to remove the whole plague, because Pharaoh had to ask for the help of Moses.  He got Moses to get rid of the frogs with the promise that he would let the people go. 

In order to show the supernaturalness of the whole thing, Moses even told Pharaoh that he could choose the time for the frogs to die.  After they were gone, his heart became hard again, though. 

The Third Plague - In every case, the third in each of the series came completely unannounced to Pharaoh.  It consisted of a very small kind of lice-like insect that was scarcely visible, but which penetrated everywhere and caused intense inconvenience.  It was described as "though the very dust were turned into lice."

The plague came when God directed Aaron to smite the dust of the earth with his rod.  Just as the Egyptians worshipped the river, they also worshipped the very fertile soil that brought them so many delicacies of the land and set them so apart from the other peoples.  Again, then, the object that they worshipped had become a curse to them. 

The magicians tried their best, but they could not imitate this plague, and told Pharaoh that it had to be the result of the power of a God, or "the finger of Elohim."  They said that the God had done it, and implied that Moses and Aaron had nothing to do with it. but by a Divine power that was equally superior to them and to the magicians.  Hearing that, Pharaoh hardened his heart once again. 

The great distinction in all this was the fact that the Israelites were not bothered by the insects.  So this showed that "the finger of Elohim" was not just any God, but was their personal Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt. 

For this same reason, Moses and Aaron were also not used in the fourth and fifth plagues.  They were simply announced to Pharaoh by them, but inflicted by God Himself, to show that they came directly from Him. 

The Fourth Plague - This plague consisted of swarms of so-called dog-flies.  They infested all the houses and ruined much of the land because they deposited their eggs everywhere.  In our day, this is the plague that would have been the worst, because it would have been the most painful and the most dangerous healthwise. 

The animals fastened themselves upon every uncovered surface, especially the eyelids and corners of the eyes.  Their bites caused severe inflammation. 

This one was announced to Pharaoh as he went down to the Nile to the opening ceremonies for the solemn festival that was held 120 days after the first rise of the Nile.  This would have made it around the end of October or early November. 

This plague was so horrible that all the people were begging Pharaoh to ask Moses to get rid of it.  Yet on its removal, he hardened his heart once again.  It may have been that because he had not seen Moses do anything to bring it, he fell back on the theory of the magicians about "the finger of Elohim."

The Fifth Plague - The next plague was a plague of their cattle dying.  This was not uncommon in Egypt, but was far more extensive than anything they had ever seen before.  Sure enough, when Pharaoh checked, he found that the cattle of the Israelites were not being affected by this terrible plague, so his heart was hardened again. 

The rest of the plagues will be covered in the next text. 

For more information from this book, go to the Archives Page at my site    www.cathydeaton.com     There are other articles of interest there also.

This text has been taken from the book Bible History Old Testament written by Alfred Edersheim.  This book has been used by permisison.