THE PLAGUE GODS

You recall we already discussed the gods of Egypt, how they were amorphous, more related to emotional commitments to nature, an attempt to give forces a face. Idols erected to them to personify but also a cross mix with animals. Worship of man and nature. the chart below gives you a briefing on that aspect.

Name of God
Amun	King of the Gods When Amun was combined with the sun god Ra he was even more powerful. He was then called Amun-Ra.	Head of a ram
Anubis	God of Mummification (embalming and the dead). His role was as the "guardian to necropolis" Priests often wore a mask of Anubis during mummification ceremonies.	Head of a jackal
Bast (Bastet)	Goddess of Protection and of household entertainment Thought to be the daughter of the sun god Ra	Head of a cat
Geb	Earth God The ancient Egyptians believed that earthquakes were Geb's laughter.	Head of a goose
Hathor	Goddess of love and joy and also of music and dance .	Head of a cow
Sekmet	Goddess of war and battle	Head of a lioness
Horus	God of the sky The Egyptians believed that the pharaoh was the 'living Horus'.	Head of a falcon
Heket	Goddess of childbirth	Head of frog
Tefnut	Goddess of of the rain	Head of lioness
Thoth	God of wisdom (writing and knowledge)	Head of an ibis bird
Sobek	God of Nile and swift action	Head of a crocodile

The Egyptians had gods everywhere for everything. And, in freeing Israel, God sent plagues on 10 of those gods.

An excellent chart at this source:

http://www.biblecharts.org/oldtestament/thetenplagues.pdf

The plagues with their verses from the 'pedia: (Don't go there. Some things need to be seen through filters.)

The plagues as they appear in the 1984 New International Version of the Book of Exodus are:^[26]

1. Water into blood (דָם): Ex. 7:14–24[edit]

This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink and the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.

— Exodus 7:17–18

2. Frogs (צְּפַרְדֵּעַ): Ex. 7:25–8:15[edit]

3. Lice (כִּנִּים): Ex. 8:16–19[edit]

"And the LORD said [...] Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt." […] When Aaron stretched out his hand with the rod and struck the dust of the ground, lice came upon men and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became lice.

— Exodus 8:16–17

The Hebrew noun כִּנִּים (kinim) could be translated as lice, gnats, or fleas.^[27]

4. Flies or wild animals (עָרוֹב): Ex. 8:20–32[edit]

The fourth plague of Egypt was of creatures capable of harming people and livestock. The Torah emphasizes that the ‘arob (עָרוֹב, meaning "mixture" or "swarm") only came against the Egyptians, and that it did not affect the Land of Goshen (where the Israelites lived). Pharaoh asked Moses to remove this plague and promised to allow the Israelites' freedom. However, after the plague was gone, the LORD "hardened Pharaoh's heart", and he refused to keep his promise.^[28]

The word ‘arob has caused a difference of opinion among traditional interpreters.^[28] The root meaning may be related to "mixing".^{[citation needed]} While most traditional interpreters understand the plague as "wild animals" (such as lions, venomous snakes, rhinos),^[29] Gesenius along with many modern interpreters understand the plague as a swarm of flies.^[30]

5. Diseased livestock (דֶּבֶר): Ex. 9:1–7[edit]

This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats.

— Exodus 9:1–3

6. Boils (שְׁחִין): Ex. 9:8–12[edit]

Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land."

— Exodus 9:8–9

7. Thunderstorm of hail and fire (בָּרָד): Ex. 9:13–35[edit]

This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go. Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now. Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die. […] The LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt; hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

— Exodus 9:13–24

8. Locusts (אַרְבֶּה): Ex. 10:1–20[edit]

This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.

— Exodus 10:3–6

9. Darkness for three days (חוֹשֶך): Ex. 10:21–29[edit]

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt." So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days.

— Exodus 10:21–23

10. Death of firstborn (מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת): Ex. 11:1–12:36[edit]

This is what the LORD says: "About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again."

— Exodus 11:4–6

Before this final plague, God commanded Moses to inform all the Israelites to mark lamb's blood above their doors on every door in which case the LORD will pass over them and not "suffer the destroyer to come into your houses and smite you" (chapter 12, v. 23).

After this, Pharaoh, furious, saddened, and afraid that he would be killed next, ordered the Israelites to leave, taking whatever they wanted, and asking Moses to bless him in the name of the Lord. The Israelites did not hesitate, believing that soon Pharaoh would once again change his mind, which he did; and at the end of that night Moses led them out of Egypt with "arms upraised".^[31]

And an analysis by Pastor Chuck Missler which touches the subject perfectly:

(About Chuck: http://www.khouse.org/pages/mcat/about_the_misslers/

http://www.khouse.org/articles/2000/263/

The Invisible War:

Against the Gods of Egypt

by Chuck Missler

PURSUE THIS TOPIC:

ARTICLES

Exodus

The Book of Exodus

There have been few dramas that can equal the cosmic warfare that took place against the gods of Egypt when God used Moses to free Israel from their bondage.
We all are familiar with the death of the firstborn that finally caused Pharaoh to release them. Yet few of us, probably, are aware of the significance lying behind the other nine plagues: a cosmic war against the demons of darkness.¹

Waters Turned to Blood
The first of the judgments was upon the waters of Egypt. The Nile was the highway of this ancient land, as it still is today.
Not only was the Nile turned to blood, but the other waters of the land were as well, even the water that was drawn for use in the houses in wooden and stone jars. For seven days the whole land was in horror, with dead fish and a stench from the river.²
To better appreciate what was going on, we must examine the numerous gods of the river: Osiris, one of the chief gods of Egypt, was first of all the gods of the Nile. He, with his companion, the mother god, Isis, and their child, Horus , were human-headed gods (in contrast to the many that had heads of birds, beasts, and reptiles).
There were other gods of the Nile, too: Hapimon in the north, and Tauret at Thebes, and the hippopotamus goddess of the river. There was also Nu , the god of life in the Nile.
The supernatural pollution of the waters of the land were a humiliation to the gods the Egyptians worshiped.

The Frogs
The second of the wonders further proved the powerlessness of the gods of Egypt. The land was covered with a plague of frogs in such abundance that they infested the Egyptians' houses and beds.³
One of the principal goddesses of the land was Hekt , the wife of the creator of the world, who was always shown with the head and the body of a frog.
The frogs came out of the sacred Nile⁴ and Egypt's devotion to them prevented them from dealing with them: they soon had decaying carcasses throughout the land, resulting in a stinking horror. (It is interesting that the climactic war against God in Revelation is assembled by three frog-like spirits.⁵ )

The Sand Flies
The third of the judgments on Egypt came out of the soil in Egypt. The Hebrew word ken , is translated "lice" in our English translation, with "sand flies" or "fleas" in some marginal notes.
The Hebrew word comes from a root meaning to dig; it is probable that the insect was one which digs under the skin of men.
This was an embarrassment to their great god of the earth, Geb, to whom they gave offerings for the bounty of the soil. Also the presence of the fleas or lice were a barrier to their officiating in their priestly duties!

The Scarabs
The fourth of the plagues were "swarms" ("of flies" is not in the original). The word is `arob , a swarm, possibly suggesting incessant motion.
The deification of the scarab beetle is still conspicuous - even today - in the jewelry and artifacts celebrating ancient Egypt. Amon-Ra , the king of the gods, had the head of a beetle. Some of the giant scarabs were even accorded the honor of mummification and entombment with the Pharaohs.

This is particularly bizarre since the scarab is actually a dung beetle. The insect is about the size of a nickel and feeds on dung in the fields or the side of the road.
When animals defecate, these insects swarm from their holes in the ground and collect their provender for future meals by forming it into round balls about the size of golf balls, which they roll across the ground to their underground dwellings.
Since they seemed to "come from nowhere," and perhaps because these perfectly round balls were possibly associated with the sun, these beetles became associated with creation. (Also, the Egyptians seem to have had the mistaken notion that the scarabs deposited larvae in the spheres, but that is not true.)
The plague of swarms of scarabs, with mandibles that could saw through wood, and destructive qualities worse than termites, must have caused extreme consternation since they were so venerated and thus were not to be interfered with!
Pharaoh called Moses, pleaded for a cessation, hinted at the possibility of compromise, and even asked to be prayed for.⁶ But God doesn't compromise; the judgments continued.

The Animals
The fifth plague was against the domestic animals of Egypt, and thus Apis, the bull god, and the cow-headed Hathor, goddess of the deserts. These were so widespread that even the children of Israel had become tainted by their worship, which led to the fiasco of the golden calf in the image of Apis . ⁷
The plague was a "murrain," a contagious disease among the cattle, and even the sacred bulls in the temple died.⁸ Other domestic animals were sacred also, and their images adorned many of the idols, such as Bubastis , the cat goddess of love, feminine matters and fashion, etc.
(The veneration of cows still creates a sight in India, when cows appear on the streets and even in stores and shops.)
The cattle of the Hebrews, of course, were not touched.

Ashes
The sixth wonder was manifested against the bodies of men. The plague of shechiyn , translated "boils",⁹ may hide something more terrible. The root means "burning," and the same word can be translated as leprosy,¹⁰ and as the Egyptian botch,¹¹ which was declared to be incurable.
Among the gods to which cures would have been ascribed were Thoth, the ibis-headed god of intelligence and medical learning, and Apis, Serapis and Imhotep .
Here even the magicians did not escape and could not carry on their priestly functions. It was their custom to take the ashes of human sacrifices and cast them into the air. Borne by the wind over the milling populace, they were viewed as a blessing.
(It is inferred by some that this heathen custom was the source of the practice of putting ashes on the forehead on the first day of Lent.)
Moses launched this plague with a parody of this practice, and may even have had access to the very furnaces used in the sacred precincts of the royal temple.

Fiery Hail
Egypt is a sunny land with virtually no rain. The seventh wonder was a tempest of hail and fire.¹²
Where was Shu, the wind god? And Nut, the sky goddess? Where was Horus , the hawk-headed sky god of upper Egypt?
When Pharaoh confessed his sin and the sin of his people, he even used the Hebrew names for God:
I have sinned this time: the Lord [YHWH] is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Intreat the Lord [YHWH] that there be no more mighty thunderings ["voices of Elohim"]. -Exodus 9:27,28
(The French have a phrase for one who speaks with spiritual language but whose heart is far from God: le patois de Canaan , the dialect of Canaan.)

(Since we talked of the end times, it seems a good moment to point out God says He will destroy the invading Russian army with hail when the attempt their attack on Israel. Again, a link within a link:

http://www.grantjeffrey.com/article/rusisrl.htm

The prophet Zechariah prophesied twenty-five hundred years ago, "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it" (Zechariah 12:23). Ironically, the first nation to formally recognize the state of Israel was Russia. In 1948, Joseph Stalin hoped that Israel would become a socialist nation and help offset the growing influence that the Western powers exercised in the Middle East. However, as Stalin soon came to realize, Israel would not become a Russian pawn, so Russia quickly turned to the Arabs and encouraged their hatred toward the Jewish state.

More than twenty-five hundred years ago, Ezekiel prophesied about an invasion by Russia (called "Magog") and her allies that would occur during the last days, "after many days." He said that after Israel was reborn as a nation, Russia and her allies would attack her in a violent attempt to completely annihilate the Jewish state. Naturally, Ezekiel did not describe the present nations of Russia, Germany, Syria, and Iraq by their modern names. Rather, he referred to them by the names of the ancient tribes that occupied the geographical territories of the present nations at the time of his writing. The prophecies found in Ezekiel, chapter 38 and 39, describe this massive, future Russian-Arab invasion of Israel and the spectacular defeat of the enemies of the Jews by the supernatural act of God.

The Lord warned the leader of Russia in these words addressed to Gog, the ruler of Magog (Russia):

Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. (Ezekiel 38:79)

Many of the tribal names in Ezekiel 38 are recorded in the book of Genesis. Following the Flood, Noah's sons and grandsons dispersed to various parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa. Genesis 10 records the ancient genealogy of the nations, naming the tribes descended from Noah's children, later referred to by Ezekiel. Ancient historians, including Herodotus and Flavius Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews, tell us where most of these tribes ultimately settled. Many Jewish and Christians scholars conclude that the tribes referred to by Ezekiel are those listed in figure 1 and figure 2, which show the ancient name of each tribe and the modern nation that now occupies that particular territory.

*Figure 1*
The Nations of Ezekiel 38: 1 6
The Ancient Nations	The Modern Nations
The land of Magog Meshech and Tubal Persia Ethiopia Libya Ashkenaz Gomer Togarmah "Many peoples with thee"	Russia Somewhere in Russia Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan Ethiopia and Sudan Libya Austria and Germany Eastern Europe Southeastern Europe - Turkey Various other nations allied to Russia

(This link leads to a site with much more detail and full end times discussion of the Russian alliances. Highly recommended.)

Locusts
Some of the earlier plagues may have been separated by extended intervals, but the eighth plague followed immediately on the heels of the seventh: locusts came upon the land.
Every twig and leaf that had somehow escaped the hail and fire was now taken by the locusts.
Where was Nepri, the grain god? Where was Ermutet, goddess of childbirth and crops? Where was Anubis , the jackal-headed guardian of the fields?
And where was Osiris , great head of their senior trinity who was also their agricultural god? Having lost faith in their gods, rebellion was now in the air.¹³

Thick Darkness
The ninth wonder was a darkness that could be felt! Josephus writes,¹⁴
But when Moses said that what he [Pharaoh] desired was unjust, since they were obliged to offer sacrifices to God of those cattle, and the time being prolonged on this account, a thick darkness, without the least light, spread itself over the Egyptians, whereby their sight being obstructed, and their breathing hindered by the thickness of the air, they were under terror lest they be swallowed up by the thick cloud. This darkness, after three days and as many nights was dissipated.

(Three days and nights, bespeaking Jonah's time in the whale and Jesus' time in the grave.)

(Where was Ra, god of the sun? In the school of On, or Heliopolis, city of the sun, the worship of Rawas virtually almost monotheistic. He and Aten, the sun's disc, were worshiped with the ankh , symbol of life from the sun, as almost a sort of trinity.
Where was Horus, the god of the sunrise? Or Tem, the god of the sunset? Or Shu , the god of light? Or the deities of the moon and planets?

The Firstborn
And, of course, the well-known tenth and final plague was the death of the firstborn - on those homes not covered by the lamb's blood on the doorposts or lintels.
We all know the story of the Passover in Egypt, remembered by the Jews to this day. And, of course, Jesus is our Passover: John the Baptist introduced Him twice as "The Lamb of God."¹⁵
Lessons for Today
The invisible war goes on. These same demons are worshiped today. ¹⁶

The Scriptures tell us that we become like the gods we worship. ¹⁷

Visit Egypt today and when you leave Cairo you will see villages living on dung hills. And this is not a typical "third world" country: it once ruled the known world!

Are idols of stone cold, unresponsive, and immovable? If you worship idols of stone, you, too, will become cold, unresponsive, and immovable.

Is the world materialistic? Harsh? Unforgiving? If you worship the world, you, too, will become materialistic, harsh, and unforgiving.

You will become like the gods you worship.

Now that same Wikipedia source quoted above gives us the example of a modern god being worshiped over the God who actually sent those plagues to awaken Pharaoh and Egypt. Not strangely at all, the very same god underpinning those plague gods.

Natural explanations[edit]

Some historians have suggested that the plagues are passed-down accounts of several natural disasters, some disconnected, others playing part of a chain reaction. Natural explanations have been suggested for most of the phenomena:

Plague 1 — water turned into blood; fish died
- Dr. Stephen Pflugmacher, a biologist at the Leibniz Institute for Water Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin believes that rising temperatures could have turned the Nile into a slow-moving, muddy watercourse—conditions favorable for the spread of toxic fresh water algae. As the organism known as Burgundy Blood algae dies, it turns the water red.^[36]
- Alternatively, a bloody appearance could be due to an environmental change, such as a drought, which could have contributed to the spread of the Chromatiaceae bacteria which thrive in stagnant, oxygen-deprived water.^[40]
Plague 2 — frogs
- Any blight on the water that killed fish also would have caused frogs to leave the river and probably die.
Plagues 3 and 4 — biting insects and wild animals
- The lack of frogs in the river would have let insect populations, normally kept in check by the frogs, increase massively. The rotting corpses of fish and frogs would have attracted significantly more insects to the areas near the Nile.
Plagues 5 and 6 — livestock disease and boils
- There are biting flies in the region which transmit livestock diseases; a sudden increase in their number could spark epizootics.
Plague 7 — fiery hail
- Volcanic eruption, resulting in showers of rock and fire.
Plague 8 — locusts
- According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), when they get hungry, a one-ton horde of locusts can eat the same amount of food in one day as 2,500 humans can.^[41]
Plague 9 — darkness
- The immediate cause of this plague is theorized to be the "hamsin", a south or southwest wind charged with sand and dust, which blows about the spring equinox and at times produces darkness rivaling that of the worst London fogs.^[42]
Plague 10 — death of the firstborn
- If the last plague indeed selectively tended to affect the firstborn, it could be due to food polluted during the time of darkness, either by locusts or by the black mold Cladosporium. When people emerged after the darkness, the firstborn would be given priority, as was usual, and would consequently be more likely to be affected by any toxin or disease carried by the food. Meanwhile, the Israelites ate food prepared and eaten very quickly which would have made it less likely to be contaminated.^{[citation needed]} However, this does not explain how the firstborn cattle alone also would have perished.
- Several researchers have proposed that the 10th plague was the intentional sacrifice of the firstborn of both humans and animals, in order to appease the gods and bring an end to the plague that was ravaging Egypt, e.g. Wilson (1985),^[43] Sassoon (2001),^[44] and Trevisanato (2005, see below)/ In Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews ^[45] it is recorded that the Egyptians knew in advance what was awaiting them. Many of Egyptian families attempted to shield their firstborn from death by hiding them among their Hebrew neighbours. The firstborn who were destined to die pleaded first with their fathers and then with the Pharaoh to let the Israelites go so that they could be saved, but they were beaten and sent off by the servants of the Pharaoh. In the end, those Egyptians who refused to comply were violently forced to do so. God appeared in Egypt at midnight, attended by thousands of “Angels of Destruction” who were fashioned of hail and of fire, and the firstborn were slain. The sacrifice of a firstborn child, usually by fire, was a well-known practice in the ancient Middle East.^[46]^[47]^[48] Those who died by ‘hail’ must have been stoned to death, possibly in an act of mercy after having been set alight. The mention of force used against those who wished to protect their firstborn suggests that a royal decree had been issued for the firstborn to be sacrificed, and that it had been enforced countrywide by soldiers. The sacrifice of the firstborn is the only natural interpretation that can explain why all the firstborn of both people and cattle had died at exactly the same moment in time. It should be noted that according to Josephus,^[49] Moses was given the Pharaoh’s crown and that there was no other heir to the throne, suggesting that he was the Pharaoh’s firstborn son. Accordingly, Booysen theorises that Moses as firstborn of the Pharaoh also had to face the sacrificial fires, but somehow managed to escape. Believing that the Hebrew God had saved him from this horrendous death, he recorded his narrow escape as God’s revelation of himself to him (Moses) as the ‘burning bush’ episode in the Bible.^[50]

In the 2006 documentary Exodus Decoded, filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici hypothesised ( read "conjectures", "elaborated" or, more accurately, "took a wild stab at with no proof." W.) the selectiveness of the tenth plague was under the circumstances similar to the 1986 disaster of Lake Nyos that is related to geological activities that caused the previous plagues in a related chain of events. The hypothesis was that the plagues took place shortly after the eruption of Thera (now known as Santorini), which happened sometime between 1650 BCE and 1550 BCE, and recently narrowed to between 1627–1600 BCE, with a 95% probability of accuracy. Jacobovici however places the eruption in 1500 BCE. According to the documentary, the eruption sets off a chain of events resulting in the plagues and eventually the killing of the firstborn. Jacobovici suggests that the firstborns in ancient Egypt had the privilege of sleeping close to the floor, while other children slept at higher levels or even on roofs. This view, however, is not supported by any archaeological or historical evidence. As in Lake Nyos, when carbon dioxide or other toxic gases escape the surface tension of a nearby body of water because of either geological activity or over-saturation, the gas or gases, being heavier than air, "flood" the surrounding area displacing oxygen and killing those in their path.^{[citation needed]}

^{And selecting only the first born. Ancient Alien thinking. Nature is so wonderful to perfectly duplicate it's creator.}
^{In the minds of those who don't believe.}
^{Next: The importance of being Moses.}

Resurrection Flesh

Tuesday, November 22, 2016