The Exodus Plagues
(God's Attitude Toward Idolatry)
In "The Gods Who Walk Among Us" authors Thomas Horn and Donald Jones uncover evidence that Egypt's deities were at the center of the Exodus plagues...more below.
1. The Nile Plague
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"Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt....that they may become blood...."
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Why would Yahweh turn the Nile into blood? Because the Nile was worshiped as the single most important element needed for the ongoing success of the culture, economy, and paganism of the Egyptian people. The annual flooding of the Nile brought new life and sustenance to over 1,000 miles of Egyptian-dominated settlements, and the watery event was perceived by the Egyptians as the best evidence that the gods of the Nile were pleased. When the Hebrew God challenged the welfare and divinity of the Nile River, He was striking a blow at the core of the Egyptian's faith and pantheon.
First, the waters of the Nile were esteemed sacred. Blood, on the other hand, was considered an abhorrence to the Egyptian people. The Nile River was supposedly protected from the contamination of human blood and other such impurities by the fearsome ram-headed god, Khnum, who consorted with Sati—the goddess of Elephantine—as the dispenser and protector of the cool waters. Secondly, the Nile was "possessed" by the spirit of Hapi, the son of Horus, who was often depicted as a corpulent man with the breasts of a female (representing the abundance and succoring of the Nile) and was honored as the god who, through using the silt and waters of the Nile, provided the abundant fertility of the land of Egypt. At other times Hapi was depicted as a mummified man with the head of a baboon, a portrayal in which he was considered the guardian of the lungs of the deceased and the Nile-servant of Osiris. Keeping Osiris happy was important to the welfare of the Nile, because the origin of the Nile was not known in ancient times (the central African location was not discovered until 1862) and the Nile origin was considered by the Egyptians to be the spiritual bloodstream, or divine "life flow," of the netherworld Osiris. Turning the Nile into blood was thus, in part, a mockery of the Osiris blood-myth by the Hebrew God, Yahweh. Fourthly, the fish of the Nile were considered sacred and were supposedly protected by two powerful goddesses—Hathor, the goddess of the sky and the queen of heaven (who protected the chromis or "small fish"), and Neith, the very ancient goddess of war who protected the lates (large fish), which were also considered to be her children. Neith was a powerful Egyptian deity, the sister of Isis, and the protectress of Duamutef—the god who watched over the inner stomach of the dead. More importantly, she was the mother of the Nile-god Sobek, an evil god with the head of a crocodile, to whom pharaoh may have "offered" the Hebrew male children when he commanded the midwives to throw them into the Nile. (Ex. 1:22)
Another Nile crocodile god—Apepi—was the arch rival of the sun god Ra, and may have been one of the "serpents" who appeared before Pharaoh and Moses in Exodus 7:10-12. We read, "And....Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh...and it became a serpent (tanniym, dragon or crocodile)....the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments....and they became serpents [crocodiles—Sobek and Apepi?]: but Aarons rod swallowed up their rods." Since the word tanniym is not translated "serpent" anywhere else in Scripture, Dr. Jones believes, as do many other Bible scholars, that tanniym should be interpreted as dragons or "crocodiles" in the Book of Exodus, as it was thus translated throughout the Books of Isaiah and Ezekiel. Either way, by turning the Nile River into blood, no less than nine separate deities were judged by the Hebrew God and found to be inferior and under His authority; the Nile River, Khnum, Sati, Hapi, Osiris, Hathor, Neith, Sobek, and Apepi. Through the first plague Yahweh confirmed that He alone is the supplier of every human need, and the true Judge of the after life and only Sovereign of destiny.
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2. The Frogs Plague
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"...behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs: And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly...."
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When I was a young Christian I had an interesting experience during a time of intercessory prayer. I was fasting and praying for the salvation of a member of my wife's family when suddenly the image of a frog appeared to my mind's eye. The vision startled me because it was unexpected and powerful. No matter how I tried, I could not shake the uncanny feeling that a "frog" was resisting my prayer. It had the appearance of a typical river frog, but it stared at me as if to warn me that I had wandered into its "territory" and that it was fully intending to defend its position within the life of the person for whom I was praying. After a while it became obvious that whatever or whoever the frog creature was, it was not going away, and so I rebuked it "in the name of Jesus," and it immediately vanished! Some time later I was amazed to discover that certain demons can appear in the images of frogs. In the Book of Revelation we read: "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet" (Rev. 16:13). My experience had been genuine, and, over time, helped me to understand that the Hebrew depiction of frogs as unclean animals was perhaps based on an ancient and spiritual revelation from Yahweh.
To the ancient Egyptians, however, frogs were sacred animals, and, ultimately, the infants of the frog-goddess Heka. Heka played an important role in the development of infants, including humans, beginning at the embryonic stage and continuing up until childbirth. She was thus an important patroness of midwives and a powerful goddess of fertility. As the wife of Khnum, she assisted in the original creation of mankind and was closely associated with Hapi, who held the divine frog in his hands as the waters of nourishment flowed from her mouth.
When the krur (frogs) increased along the banks of the river during the annual receding of the Nile, it was perceived by the Egyptians as a good Heka omen. It's easy to see how the Plague of the frogs was a substantial embarrassment to the Egyptians—to have the frog-goddess babies so multiplied that one could not walk upon the ground or move within the house without squashing the divine creatures beneath their feet. Pharaoh could not order the Hebrew slaves to destroy and haul the frogs away, as it was a capital offence to kill a frog in Egypt! How powerful the Hebrew Creator-God must have appeared compared to the stupidity and stench of the creator-frog goddess, as her infants lay rotting in massive filthy heaps, covering nearly every square inch of Pharoah's Egyptian empire. Through the plague of the frogs, the mystical power (in the chapter on Greece we shall discuss how Heka was associated with Hekate, the Greek goddess of mysticism and witchcraft) of Heka was reduced to nothing more than a greasy pavement crushed to death beneath the feet of the sorrowful Egyptians.
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3. The Lice Plague
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"...Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt...."
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Four distinct areas stand out in the plague of the lice: First, the priests of Egypt were immaculate regarding their purifications. Discovering a single louse would have rendered an Egyptian priest as unclean, and, as such, incapable of ministering in the temple. The shutdown of the priestly ministry would have been no small matter, as the priesthood numbered in the thousands of men who maintained a strict regimen of daily ministering, bathing, shaving, and of sacred purification. Such priests exercised great influence over the common Egyptians, and were considered the uppermost servants of the gods—the "consecrated ones" who carried out the required daily ceremonies of the hundreds of Egyptian temples deemed necessary for the ongoing functionality of the local community. The religious duties of the priests included two main categories: 1) carrying about the little shrines or oracles (small replica temples containing statues of the gods) which were made available to the common people (those who could not enter beyond the veil); and, 2) performing the mystery rituals in the inner sanctums or "holy of holies" of the temples. The difference between the two priestly categories was that the portable gods were publicly available to nod their heads and speak (it's been suggested that the priests spoke for the idols while moving their mouths with a string) while the mystery functions of the priesthood were highly secretive and included the important creation rituals conducted in the inner sanctums of the main temples, like those of Amun-Ra at Karnak, where a priestess known as the "hand of god" performed ritual masturbations on the priests as a form of imitative magic (referring to the Amun masturbation/creation myth). This practice was considered necessary for the ongoing balance of nature, the annual flooding of the Nile, and regulating the seasons.
Moses was a man "learned in [such] wisdom of the Egyptians..."(Acts 7:22). As such, he was aware of, and may have been trained in, the mysteries of the Egyptian priesthood. It's even possible that Moses served as an Egyptian priest. The name Moses means to be "drawn out of" or "born of" and was usually associated with a priestly Egyptian deity, i.e., Thothmoses (born of Thoth), Amenmosis (born of Amen), or Rameses (born of Ra). The slight variations of the spelling of Moses (mosis, meses, etc) did not change the priestly Egyptian meaning. This has caused some scholars to conclude that the Hebrew Moses may have been named after a Nile deity by the Pharaoh's daughter (Ex. 2:10), and that he served as an Egyptian priest who later dropped his Nile deity-name reference upon encountering the omnipotent Yahweh—the God of his fathers. Whether or not that's true, Moses was raised in the Pharaoh's court, thus he had a special understanding of the far-reaching ramifications of the plague of the lice. Moses understood that, when every micro-particle of dust began to crawl upon the Egyptians, the priesthood was ceremonially unclean, and thus immobilized. The masturbation mysteries of Karnak could not be performed! The portable gods could not walk and talk! The seasons could not bring forth their blessings! While this kind of reasoning may seem simplistic, such imitative magic, as performed by the Egyptian priesthood, was central to the Egyptian way of life and was considered of the highest importance.
The second point of interest concerning the plague of the lice involves the fact that Pharaoh was supposedly the incarnation of Horus and the son of the Sun god Ra. He was thus god incarnate. The dust of Egypt was therefore holy ground. To say the least, it was a serious slap in the Pharaoh's face for the Hebrew God to transform the sacred dust of Ra into Lice.
The third notable point concerning the plague of the lice is that the magicians (priests) of Egypt could not duplicate the miracle, as they had duplicated the first two plagues. The Hebrew God was perhaps illustrating that He alone has the ability to create life out of the dust of the earth. Even the magicians testified, "This is the finger of God" (Ex. 8:19).
Fourthly, Geb (earth) was the god who protected the soil, while Seth was, among other things, the angry god of the desert sand. In the Osiris myth it was Seth who raged against the other gods in his bid to become the greatest among the Egyptian pantheon. In the plague of the lice, Yahweh was perhaps mocking the Egyptian religion by causing the dust god Seth to literally struggle against Geb, Ra, and Osiris, while leaving the Egyptians to suffer as collateral casualties.
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4. The Flies Plague
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"...and there came a grievous swarm of flies...and....the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies...."
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The beetle was known in Egypt as a fly. The scarab beetle was the sacred emblem of the sun god Ra and was the symbol of eternal life. But the flies of the forth plague were most likely a blood-sucking breed that spread blindness and disease among the populace that lived along the Nile. Whereas such flies were generally disliked by the Egyptians, they were, nevertheless, revered as the servants (demons?) of Vatchit—the Egyptian "lord of the flies." In this context it's possible that the Hebrew God was administering a threefold judgement: First, of the Egyptians for their veneration of the fly-deities; second, of the sun god Ra—the Egyptian almighty creator; and third, of Vatchit himself, the Egyptian equivalent of Baalzebub (Beelzebub), the very ancient god who, according to various eastern religions, was the Evil god and "lord of the flies."
The name Baalzebub originally derived from two different words; Baal (lord, master), and zebub (of flies). While the original meaning is unclear and may have refered to a certain priestly interpretation of the flight path of flies as an oracular communication between a Baal and his followers, some have pointed out that flies are adjoined to decaying bodies, and thus Baal-zebub may have been a kind of Baal-Osiris; a lord-demon of the human corpse.
According to the Grimorium Verum and the Grand Grimoire (18th century textbooks on magic) Baalzebub manifested himself in the image of a huge fly whenever he was summoned by the sorcerer. Whether Baalzebub, like Vatchit, commanded the flies to do his bidding, or delivered from their nuisance, is unclear. Additionally, since the title "Baal" refered to any lord, deity, or human master, there were many gods of antiquity known as a Baal; i.e. Baal-berith (lord of the covenant), Baal-Gad (lord of the fortune), Baal-hazor (lord of the village), and so on. That some Baals were worshiped by the Egyptians is known from the titles of certain Egyptian provinces; i.e. Baal-ze-phon ("Baal-of-the-North" or "Hidden Place") of Exodus 14:2. In times of great distress it was usually a Baal that was called upon for help, and people who sought material prosperity believed their lives could be improved by offering their firstborn child as a sacrifice to the deity. The Greek author Kleitarchos recorded the dastardly process of sacrificing infants to Baal three hundred years before Christ:
'Out of reverence for Kronos [Baal], the Phoeniciens, and especially the Carthaginians, whenever they seek to obtain some great favor, vow one of their children, burning it as a sacrifice to the deity, if they are especially eager to gain success. There stands in their midst a bronze statue of Kronos, its hands extended over a bronze brazier, the flames of which engulf the child. When the flames fall on the body, the limbs contract and the open mouth seems almost to be laughing [such areas of child sacrifice were often called "the place of laughing"], until the contracted body slips quietly into the brazier.'
The sacrifice of babies to Baal was widespread in antiquity and was practiced by the children of Israel under the reign of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. A recent archeological find illustrated how far-reaching such offerings were. It unearthed the remains of over 20,000 infants that had been sacrificed to a single Baal. Ahaziah, King of Israel, may have authorized such a child sacrifice when he sent messengers to the Philistine city of Ekron to inquire of the fly-god as to whether he (the king) would recover from his illness. Yahweh intervened and instructed Elijah to prophesy to the King; "Thus saith the Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shall surely die" (2 Kings 1:16).
The Hebrews acknowledged Baalzebub as Satan's highest power and often refered to him as Beelzeboul, "lord of the height," a classification in which he was depicted as the dark atmospheric god who controlled the kosmos, or circumambient "air." Baalzebub eventually developed into a demon-god of such evil reputation that he became known as "the prince of devils" (Mt. 12:24). Milton refered to Baalzebub in Paradise Lost as Satan's chief lieutenant, and, in the litanies of the witches' Sabbath, Baalzebub is ranked, together with Lucifer and Leviathan, as an equal member of the supreme trinity of evil. The mocking of Vatchit as the Egyptian equivalent of Baalzebub, and thus as the ultimate manifestation of evil, may have been what the Hebrew God had in mind during the plague of the flies.
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5. The Murrain Plague
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"...Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field....there shall be a very grievous murrain...."
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The first chapter showed how, down through the ages, Satan distorted the various aspects of the Original Revelation of God. The sacred Apis bull of Egypt was a perfect example of such plagiarism in that the Apis bull was a demonization of the life of Jesus, especially of the protoevangelium—the biblical promise of an immaculately born Son of God, who would also be God in flesh. (See Gen. 3:15; Is. 7:14) Cattle, and especially the Apis bull, were sacred to the Egyptians. But the Apis bull (also known as Serapis or Osorapis) was special in that it was supposedly born of a miraculous conception when, every twenty-five years, divine moonlight (or lightning) struck a cow and it conceived. The Apis bull was thus considered to be the incarnation of god on earth. During its life span the Apis was worshipped as both the son, and incarnation, of Ptah—the Universal Architect god. As Ptah incarnate, the Apis embodied the Egyptian logos god who created, according to a later version of the Egyptian creation myth (the Memphite cosmology), all of creation by the authority of his spoken word. In death the Apis supposedly experienced a "resurrection" with Osiris, and thus the Apis bull, identified with Osiris, was a remarkable parallel of the Christian Messiah.
For practical reasons the Apis bull was, for the most part, kept in seclusion. The Egyptian priests cared for the sacred animal and worked with a team of doctors and nutritionists in maintaining the bull's health. At the end of the twenty-five year cycle, a new bull was chosen with the pomp and ceremony of royalty. A celebration followed the selection and, for a period of forty days thereafter, the Egyptian women raised their dresses and exposed themselves to the bull. Such exposure was thought to capture the fertility energies of the Apis, and to excite the life-giving waters of Osiris. It was also believed that a special generational blessing came upon the exposed women's offspring. At the end of the forty days of "exposure", the new bull was removed to the Apis temple in Memphis where it was kept in a special sanctuary. It was thereafter publicly displayed during special occassions only. We find the Apis sanctuary mentioned in, The Geography of Strabo (63 B.C.—A.D. 26):
'Memphis itself, the royal residence of the Aegyptians [Egyptians], is also near Babylon; for the distance to it from the Delta is only three schoeni. It contains temples, one of which is that of Apis, who is the same as Osiris; it is here that the bull Apis is kept in a kind of sanctuary, being regarded, as I have said, as god....'
Once the new Apis was inaugurated, the old bull was drowned, mummified, mourned, and placed into a huge sarcophagus. The burial rites of the passing bull were so revered and costly that they were paralleled in Egypt only by those of the Pharaoh. The comprehensive nature of such Apis burial rituals was illustrated in 1851 when 60 Apis sarcophagi of red and black granite weighing more than 60 tons each were discovered in Saqquara just west of Memphis where the Apis temple stood. I once took notes on, and photographed, the mummified head of one such bull. It was obvious from the detail and craftmanship that great reverence was given to the animal during the mummification process. Especially impressive were the elaborate glass eyes which had been placed into the eye sockets, and the golden sun-disk of Ra that rested between the horns. Such golden discs were similar to the moon-discs worn by other members of the divine bovine family, including those donned by Hathor, the cow-goddess-mother of the sun god, Ra.
While other religions have practiced similar venerations of cattle—most notably Hinduism and in India where the humped Zebu cow continues to be worshipped as the respresentative of Aditi, the 'sinless cow'—nowhere was the deification of such animals more noteworthy than in Egypt. The ancient Egyptians considered all cattle to be sacred sources of generative power, and the cults of Apis and of Hathor thus set the standards of eastern myth and ritual. This fact has caused the plague of the deadly murrain to be considered an especially effective grievance, as, in a single move, it repudiated the six most important aspects of the Apis cult: 1) it devastated the protected livestock of the Egyptians including the vast herds of Pharaoh; 2) it illustrated God's unlimited power when, miraculously, none of the Hebrew cattle died; 3) it humiliated the Universal Architect god, Ptah, and exposed him as a helpless demon; 4) it destroyed the dominion of the sacred Apis and Mnevis bulls of Heliopolis; 5) it judged the goddess Hathor, and the god Osiris, and found them to be inferior; and 6) it nullified the generational blessings of Apis-Osiris (Serapis).
Amazingly, after all of this evidence, the foolish heart of Pharaoh was hardened against the Hebrew God.
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6. The Boils Plague
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"...And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt...."
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During the third Egyptian Dynasty and at least 1,000 years before the Exodus, a man named Imhotep served as the vizier of the Pharaoh Zoser. Imhotep was an engineering genius and built the first-known massive stone structures, including the great Step-Pyramid (still standing) at Saqquara. From history we learn that Imhotep's well-founded distinction as a builder was surpassed only by his talent as a skilled magician and healer. When the Egyptians suffered under a seven-year famine which occured during the reign of Zoser, the king appealed to Imhotep, who in turn consulted the sacred books. After several days Imhotep emerged from isolation and announced to the king "the hidden wonders, the way to which had been shown to no king for unimaginable ages." Zoser, impressed with Imhotep's discernment, obeyed the divinations. Simultaneously, Egypt withdrew from the famine and Imhotep was decreed the chief Kheri-heb priest ("son of Ptah") of Egypt.
But the popularity of Imhotep's life eventually gave way to the fame that followed his death, as, later he was elevated, deified, and transformed into a healing god. By the time of the reign of the Pharaoh Menkaure (BC 2600), temples throughout Egypt were dedicated to the god Imhotep. Such temples contained incubation or "sleeping" chambers used in the convalescence of the sick and the mentally diseased, and the same became acknowledged as the most potent healing alchemies of Egypt. The incubation-temple of Imhotep at Memphis, for instance, proved to be so popular that the Greeks identified Imhotep with Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, and affirmed his divine membership within the powerful Egyptian "trinity" composed of Imhotep, Ptah, and Sekhmet the lion-headed goddess.
It's said that Imhotep convinced the Egyptians that premature forms of sickness and disease could be ultimately avoided if the proper aspects of healing-magic were carefully employed. The magicians of Imhotep used the magic crystals and incantations of Isis to call upon Sekhmet—the goddess-sovereign of epidemics and diseases—to work with the positive energies of Serapis in the administration of the healing needs of the Egyptians. Such rituals were often accompanied with burnt offerings (sometimes human), and the ashes of the same were sprinkled into the air as a health-blessing for the Egyptians. At other times the diagnosis called for an extended stay in the temple of Serapis where the sick or injured person was placed under the mystical spell of the katoche. Such katoche supposedly provided the internal coercion of the god and ultimately led to the proper diagnosis, and divine assimilation, of the transmissible and healing energies of the god. The katoche, affiliated with Imhotep's sleep-wizardry, was linked to the mystical crystals of Isis. These, in turn, were joined with Sekhmet's administration of the overall life-giving energies of Ptah and Osiris. Combined, they provided the Egyptian magicians with the powerful and esoteric tools necessary for the overall health (?) of the people. Such magic was indeed powerful, and the fame of such men and magic (Jannes and Jambres) continued up until the times of the New Testament. (2 Tim. 3:8)
When the Hebrew God attacked the divine health of the Egyptians by placing a filthy, eruptive disease of boils upon the population, He accomplished what no other surrounding power had attempted to do: 1) He sent the respected Egyptian magicians fleeing powerless before Moses—unclean and unable to perform their priestly duties; 2) He illustrated the inferiority of the Egyptian high gods—Ptah and Osiris—and denounced them as helpless demons; 3) He judged the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet and demonstrated her impotence at regulating diseases; 4) He altered the ritual of "casting ashes" and made the ashes a cursing instead of a blessing; and 5) He mocked the temples of Imhotep and Serapis, and thereby notified the surrounding nations that neither crystals, nor psychic dreams, nor positive energies, nor yet coercions of men and their gods, can defy the incontestable will of Yahweh.
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7. The Hail Plague
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"...Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now...."
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The goddess Nut was the Egyptian protectress of the sky and weather, and was depicted in Egyptian art as a woman arched over the earth, with the stars above her back and the earth (her brother Geb) beneath her belly. She was the consort of Osiris—the 'blesser' of crops and fertility—and was cherished as the caring mother "sky-goddess" by the agricultural people of the Fertile Crescent. According to myth, Nut elevated herself each morning upon her fingers and toes and thereby provided an expanse between herself and Geb/earth. The spherical covering generated by Nut's towering action allowed the sun god Amun-Ra to coat the earth with light, and the warmth of the new day was received as a blessing of the goddess. At night, when Nut lay down, the expanse closed anew and darkness covered the earth. To the Egyptians, this was the natural order of things. But when violent storms erupted and the daytime skies were darkened, the same was perceived as a distubance in the original cosmic scheme.
Nut was displeased with such nonconforming weather, and, at times, the skies grew red with the blood of her wounds (other myths define the red skies as Nut's menstrual period) as she struggled against the storm to restore the cosmic rhythm. For the sake of her people, the Egyptians, Nut bravely fought to maintain the essential universal cycle. Both men and gods depended on the cycle of Nut. Amun-Ra needed her expanse to visit the earth each day. Seth needed the same to dry the desert sand. Osiris needed Nut's meteorological blessings to sustain the agriculture; and Pharaoh desired the sanctions of Nut for two essential reasons: First, she controlled the atmospheric conditions surrounding the Pharaoh's Egyptian empire, and second she conquered the fierce storms that could herald the death of a king. For these and other reasons, Nut was particularly important within Egyptian devotions.
When the Hebrew God sent a storm of hail and fire "such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation" (Ex. 9:24), He was repudiating the combined efforts of Nut, Geb, Amun-Ra, Osiris, and Pharaoh, to control the atmospheric conditions that befell the land of Egypt. A similar storm of fire mingled with hail is predicted to hit the earth again during the Great Tribulation. We read, "The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth..." (Rev. 8:7). Just as Pharaoh rejected Yahweh, embraced pagan idols, and hardened his foolish heart, modern men seem destined to repeat the same mistakes. We find "...the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood" (Rev. 9:20). Such verses indicate a latter-day revival of idolatry, and provide the impetus for the last two chapters of this book in which we discuss the prophetic and exstensive aspects of modern paganism.
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8. The Locusts Plague
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"...behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast...."
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The locust plague was an awesome spectacle and was one of the most feared pestilences of the ancient world. Such invasions darken the sky and ingest every green thing. An average locust can consume its weight in food daily, and can quickly amass an army of insects numbering in the hundreds of millions per square mile. In 1927, a few African locusts were spotted near a river in Timbuktu. Within three years the whole of west Africa was besieged by the creatures. Eventually, locusts covered an area more than 2,000 miles wide—extending from Ethiopia and the Belgian Congo to the luxuriant farm lands of Angola. Finally, 14 years after the plague began, 5,000,000 square miles of Africa (an area twice the size of the United States!) had been destroyed by the locusts.
In ancient times the idea of such a calamity brought instant terror to the disposition of the vegetation-dependent Egyptians. To avoid defoliation created by Edipoda locusts and other living things, the Egyptians prayed to Sobek—the crocodile-headed god of animals and insects. As the son of Neith, Sobek was the underworld demon of the four elements—fire, earth, water, and air. At his cult center in Arsinoe (Crocodilopolis) where devotees cared for his sacred crocodiles, Sobek was ritually associated with Ra (fire), Geb (earth), Osiris (water), and Shu (air). It was believed that Sobek controlled such elements to the extent that he restrained the activity of certain creatures within specific habitats. Thus Sobek limited the activity of a crocodile within water, a locust within air, etc. His mastery of such elements was demonstrated in the Isis/Osiris myth when Isis searched the Nile for the severed body-parts of her husband/brother Osiris. Sobek, out of respect for the goddess, limited the appetite of the river animals and thus spared the floating pieces of Osiris.
As an Egyptian demon, Sobek was associated with the goddess Ammit—the crocodile-headed "eater of souls" that dwelt beneath the Scales of Justice in the judgment hall of Osiris. At other times Sobek and Ammit were depicted as one and the same. In his book, Egypt, Gift of the Nile, Walter A. Fairservis, Jr. paraphrased a section of the Book of the Dead. In the following paragraph he describes Sobek in the role of Ammit:
'According to the book Meri would at last reach the place of the greatest test of all—the Great Judgment Hall. Here in the presence of Osiris, King of the Dead, Anubis the embalmer, Thoth the ibis-headed scribe, and the 42 gods of judgment, the heart of Meri would be placed on the scales to be weighed with the "Feather of Truth." If Meri had been a bad man in life, no words or deeds could save him now. His heart would not balance the Feather of Truth, and Meri would be thrown to Sebek (Sobek), the crocodile-headed eater of souls.'
In another Sobek-related chapter of the Book of the Dead—Making The Transformation Into The Crocodile-God—we read:
'The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am the crocodile god [Sobek] who dwelleth amid his terrors. I am the Crocodile-god and I seize [my prey] like a ravening beast. I am the great Fish which is in Kamui. I am the lord to whom bowings and prostrations are made in Sekhem. '
Such bowings and prostrations were made to Sobek along the Nile river and at his centers at Kom Ombo and Thebes. Sobek's oblations often included human sacrifices and such may have been the Pharaoh's intention when he commanded the midwives to throw the Hebrew children into the Nile. The offerings anticipated Sobek's favor in delivering from bothersome insects, and, if a person wanted to eradicate an annoyance—such as locusts—they simply made supplications to Sobek while chanting, "To Sobek with it (the locust)!" The modern-day slang, "to Hell with it!" is a derivative of such ritual.
It was undouptedly against the demon-god Sobek—and his pestilence-protection rituals—that the Hebrew God initiated the relentless plague of the locusts. In so doing, Yahweh revealed that Sobek was unable to control the elements, or limit the activity of God's insect army. Sobek's companion—the high god Ra (of fire)—could not scorch the creatures. Ra's son Shu—the Egyptian god of sun and wind (air)—could not blow the consuming insects away. It was not until the Hebrew God commanded "a mighty strong west wind, which took the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea" (Ex. 10:19), that the grievous plague was ended. Even so, the heart of Pharaoh was hardened against the God of Israel.
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9. The Darkness Plague
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"...and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days...."
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My research companion, Dr. Jones, (I call him "Indy" after Indiana Jones) spoke recently of his trek through Hezekiah's Tunnel in Jerusalem. He described the interior of the cave as dominated by a darkness "...that could be felt, compounded by feelings of claustrophobia, obscurity, and utter dejection." One can imagine the terrors that the Egyptians must have experienced when the Hebrew God devised a proportional darkness that spread throughout "all the land of Egypt" and lasted for three days! Such an occurrence must have caused an unparalleled despondency, and most certainly would have devastated the Egyptian's religious idea that Amun-Ra ("The Hidden One") was the incarnation of the midday sun, and the most powerful god in the Cosmos.
The Egyptians refered to Amun-Ra as "the king of the gods." They believed that no deity was superior to him, and that the whole of the pantheon would perish without his symmetry. The sun itself was considered "the Eye of Amun-Ra", and the light and warmth of the midday sun was perceived as the bath of his blessing. Amun-Ra was also called Khepri (the rising sun), and Atum (the setting sun), so that each position of the sun—rising, midday, and setting, was perceived as a posture of Amun-Ra. According to myth, Amun-Ra, like the Sumerian god "Utu" (Shamash), traversed the sky each day. At night he journeyed through the underworld where the evil god Apepi attempted to prevent him from rising again. With the assistance of the magical masturbation-rituals conducted by the Egyptian priests, Amun-Ra was empowered each night to conquer Apepi and become the Ra-Harachte —the bright and morning sun. His cult center at Thebes was the primary location of such rituals, and the same site boasted the largest religious structure ever built—the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak. Interestingly, the great Temple of Amun-Ra (with it's 100 miles of walls and gardens) was the primary object of fascination and worship by the nemesis of Moses—the Pharaoh of the Exodus, Ramses II. It was believed that each pharaoh, including Ramses II (who completed Amun-Ra's temple), reconciled his divinity in the company of Amun-Ra during the festival of Opet. The festival was held at the Temple of Luxor and included a procession of gods carried on barges up the Nile river from Karnak to the Temple. The royal family accompanied the gods on boats while the Egyptian laity walked along the shore, calling aloud and making requests of the gods. Once at Luxor, the Pharaoh and his entourage entered the holy of holies where the king joined his ka (the mysterious ritual is unknown) and transmogrified into a living deity. Outside, large groups of dancers and musicians waited anxiously. When the king emerged 'transformed' (supposedly), the crowd erupted in gaiety. From that day forward Egypt was "guarded" by their king and the Pharaoh was considered the son of the sun god—the earthly representative of the creator deity, Amun-Ra.
Subsequently, it was believed that the midday sun arose above Egypt because the Pharaoh had been honored and inaugurated in the Temple of Amun-Ra. If the sun was ever darkened or eclipsed, it was an evil omen for the king. Egypt's priests carefully interpreted such 'signs', and even offered life-saving maneuvers to the Pharaoh. But when three days of utter darkness paralyzed the Egyptians (Exodus 10:21-23); the number three being understood by the Hebrews and the Egyptians as representing divine providence, the king's magicians were uncharacteristically silent. Like the three hours of darkness that accompanied the death of Christ (Luke 23:44), the sovereignty of the Highest was believed to be at work. It would do no good to call upon the goddess Nut. She had been proven powerless before Yahweh. If the God of the Hebrews was at work, Nut could do nothing to elevate herself nor could she force the light of Amun-Ra to come forth. The sky-cow-goddess Hathor had been equally humiliated by Israel's Lord during the deadly murrain, and the evil god Sobek had been found impotent at controlling the element of sky. The mystical spells of Isis were useless against Yahweh. The priestly magic, paralyzed. And now, Amun-Ra, the Creator "king of the gods" and champion of the Egyptian pantheon, was confirmed helpless before the God of Hebrew slaves. "And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said....Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die. And Moses said, Thou has spoken well, I will see thy face again no more" (Ex. 10:24; 28-29). With this final act of hardness, Pharaoh sealed the destiny of his kingdom, and, sadly, that of his firstborn son.
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10. Death Of The Firstborn
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"...And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill...."
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At least six deities were committed to the protection of Egypt's children. They included Heka, the mystical frog-goddess, who oversaw the development of animals and children beginning at the embryonic stage; Isis, the advocate-mother of the children who kept her word; Min, the god of virility who conferred reproductive vigor upon men and who was ritually called upon to produce an heir to the pharaoh; Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, who protected the Pharaoh's son; Bes, the patron protector of mothers and their children; and the Pharaoh himself—Egypt's protector-incarnation of Amun-Ra and Horus. The female deities, Heka and Isis, oversaw different aspects of the children's physical development, while Min and Horus were the powerful male deities responsible for the spiritual progress and overall health of the child.
Min's full name was Menu-ka-mut-f ("Min, Bull of his Mother"), and he was often worshiped in the image of a white bull. At other times Min was depicted as a bearded man with an oversized phallus. Such iconography of Min served to verify his position as the eminent Egyptian god of male sexuality, while also accounting for his mythological marriage to Qetesh—the equivalent Egyptian deity of female sexuality. Egyptian boys supposedly acquired their sexual strength from Min, and subsequently made offerings of lettuce (considered an aphrodisiac by the Egyptians) to this god. The Greeks confused Min with Pan—the Dionystic god of unbridled sexual desire—and thus participated in the orgiastic festivals held in his honor. But the most important area of Min's dominion, insofar as the Pharaoh was concerned, was the mystical relationship between the god and the royal family, including Min's association with the princely heir of Egypt—the pharaoh's son. The pharaoh was so concerned with the blessings of Min that he ceremoniously hoed the lettuce fields during the festival of this god. The idea was to humble himself in the presence of Min and thereby procure divine favor and reproductive synergy. Sexual energy, such as was abundantly produced by Min, was believed to be synonymous with health and longevity. Thus, If the pharaoh and his son were to live long and prosperous lives, they required the favor of Min—the preeminent god of sexual power. Such power of Min would have likely been sought during the death of Egypt's firstborn.
Legend has it that the god Horus was also involved in guarding the pharaoh's son, due, in part, to the mythology that the child Horus had been subjected to homosexual rape by the evil god Seth. The adult Horus was thus protective of children in general. Equally important, Horus was believed to incarnate himself within the living pharaoh, and to fill the heart of the pharaoh with respect for the father. The virtue of such parental respect was an important part of ancestor ritual, and refered to the story of Horus and his war with evil Seth over the murder of his father. Such myth supposedly contributed to the survival of the pharaoh and his son in two important ways: 1) Horus was the protector of the father and child, and perched above and behind the pharaoh, spreading his wings around and guarding the pharaoh's head (another plagiarism reminiscent of the Old Testament passage "in the shadow of Thy wings"); and, 2) Horus reminded the royal son of his responsibilities toward the father, especially of the offerings to be made daily at the deceased father's tomb. Such offerings were deemed necessary for the maintenance of the afterlife, and amulets (the eye of Horus) placed beside the offerings protected the stomach of the dead. In this way the living pharaoh (Horus) served the needs of the deceased father, while the predecessor pharaoh conducted himself as the Osiris in the underworld.
In the classic film by Cecil B. DeMille, The Ten Commandments, Yul Brynner, in the role of the pharaoh, placed his firstborn son in the arms of the falcon-headed god, Seker (who protected the dead as they passed through the underworld), and said, "Seker, great lord of the lower world, I...bow before you now. Show that you have power above the God of Moses. Restore the life he has taken from my son. Guide back his soul across the lake of death to the place of living men." Ramses II undoubtedly prayed in such fashion for the life of his son. Nevertheless, "at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon" (Ex. 12:29). By initiating the death of the firstborn, Yahweh executed His final judgement "against all the gods of Egypt" (Ex. 12:12). Heka was proven powerless. Isis was defunct. Min was unable to energize the pharaoh's son. Horus was equally inept. The pharaoh was without a successor to watch over his tomb. Amun-Ra was without earthly representation. Egypt was without an heir. And the whole of the Egyptian pantheon, with its magic, myths, and rituals, crumbled at once beneath the feet of the Hebrew God. "And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants....for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said" (Ex. 12:30-31).