Chapter 9
The Deliverance from Egypt?
  As we study the great drama of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt from the story given to us in the scripture, we notice many facts that show the authenticity of the Biblical account.
  The picture of Egyptian life given us here, depicts a true picture of ancient Egyptian life at that time. The authority that Pharaoh held in his hand over Israel as slaves gives a true representation of the authority that Pharaoh held in that period of history.
  The part that is played by the magicians of Egypt in performing miracles, is a faithful representation of the power that the ancient priesthood possessed.
  The Egyptian priesthood was in reality a corporation endued with magical powers which were exercised on behalf of the living and the dead.
  The scripture account in every name, incident, and custom portrayed, reveals the very Egypt of this period. The truth and sharpness of the reflection show that it was written by someone who knew the facts. Exodus, giving to us this drama of the miracle working Covenant-God on behalf of His people, was written by someone who knew about the facts. It was not written, as some suppose, by a Babylonian Jew about 400 BC In every line it bears the mark of ancient Egypt which God judged.
  Archeologists have uncovered buildings made of brick in which stubble was used instead of straw as recorded in Exodus 5:12.

The First Miracle
  Moses in obedience to God, now approaches Pharaoh on behalf of God's covenant people, Israel (Exodus 7:1-7).
  Exodus 7:8-13 gives to us Moses first encounter with Pharaoh and his magicians. The first sign which was given was the casting down of the rod, which was instantly changed into a serpent. "Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and his servants and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; now the magicians of Egypt, they did also in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods" (Exodus 7:10-12).
  Some may wonder at the power by which the rods of the Egyptian priests turned into snakes also. The spirits which they identified with gods of the Egyptians to whom they made their appeal, did not leave them without an answer. The revival in our own day of spiritualism and all the phenomena which cannot be explained away by trickery, shows the working of Satan in miracles, when it will bring to him the worship of man.
  The conflict between the maker of heaven and earth and the gods of Egypt began at the outset. In this light the miracle in Pharaoh's presence, had a startling significance. As the rod of Aaron swallowed up the rods of the magicians, so would the religion which God was about to establish swallow up the delusive trusts by which the wise men or the world, sought a knowledge and a greatness, that still left them and their fellows, slaves of Satan.

The Plagues
  Let us now study the story of the plagues, which smote Egypt's strength, and broke its stubborn heart. A sign had been given when the rod has been changed into a serpent. The sign was challenged by the magicians with the result that the power of almighty God was more fully manifest. But, it was only a sign, and it could be easily forgotten. God must therefore have recourse to judgment. The first plague was that by which the waters of Egypt were changed into blood.
  The divine command came to Moses. "Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand on the river's brink to meet him" (Exodus 7:15).
  The reader will observe the command to meet Pharaoh at the brink of the river. We at once see a glorious fitness at the time and place that was chosen. The god of the Nile, was an impersonation of Nu, one of the chief father-gods of Egypt, and an object of profound veneration in this section of Egypt. Over him, therefore, God almighty by this plague, asserted His supremacy. It is probable that Pharaoh went in the morning to offer his devotions.
  To the king then, while standing before the very altar of this god, the message of Jehovah was delivered. It was a startling one. The god and his worshippers were alike to be judged.
  "And the Lord spake unto Moses: say unto Aaron, take thy rod and stretch out thy hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams and upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood, that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone (Exodus 7:19).
  The male children of the Israelites had been thrown into the waters, and now God would bring the sin of the Egyptians to their remembrance. The river of blood shall tell their deed to earth and the horror of it shall rise and cling to them.
  The second plague was an affliction well known and dreaded. Its intensity was described in words everyone of which must have gone home and filled the breast of every Egyptian who heard the words of God by Aaron, with loathing and dread.
  "Behold I will smite all the borders with frogs, and the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and go into thine house, and into thy bed chamber and upon the bed, and into the house of thy servants and upon thy people, and into thy ovens and into thy kneading troughts and the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people and thy servants" (Exodus 8:2-4).
  Place behind these words the affliction which we know these animals to be in Egypt, and the plague immediately acquires a significance which is terrible. We loose sight of the insignificance of the instrument in the magnitude of the chastisement.
  The plagues of frogs was not only a terrible chastisement upon the people, but also another judgment upon their gods. Frogs were always a great nuisance in Egypt, and from the beginning the driving of them away was trusted to the goddess called Heki. She many times appears with the head of a frog. So important was the office which she fulfilled that she was supposed to be one of the supreme goddesses of all Egypt. Now, the Covenant God of the Israelites, the slaves of the Egyptians, again shows Himself greater than the gods of the mighty Egyptians.
  As Pharaoh's heart becomes more hardened, the plagues continue to come upon them. Exodus 8:16-19 and Exodus 8:20-24 gives an account of the plague of lice and then flies. Another plague was manifested against the gods of the Egyptians, for the flies were worshipped in Egypt.
  Note, first of all a mere sign had been given, when the rod had been changed into a serpent. Then personal discomfort revealed God's power and displeasure. But now along with the peril brought by the flies, their garments, furniture, trappings were destroyed. "The land was corrupted by reason of flies."
  In the fifth plague, God still goes further. He lays His hand upon one of the most valued possessions, their cattle. The matter was not to end when Pharaoh said "no" to God's demand, or when he promised obedience and then neglected to fulfill his promise.
  Again Moses was sent with a message, "Let my people go that they may serve me," and Pharaoh is warned, "if thou refuse to let them go and wilt hold them still, behold the hand of the Lord, is laid upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses and upon the asses, upon the camel and upon the sheep: there shall be a grievous murrain."
  Exodus 9:1-5 We notice that the separation between the Egyptians and God's Covenant people continues. Nothing was to die of the cattle of the Israelites, now, the possessions of the Egyptians have been touched, the greater part of Egypt's wealth. In the sixth plague, their bodies are touched. They are smitten with a painful and loathsome disease, which the magicians, their champions in this conflict, confess to be from the hand of God, and they retire from the contest. Notice the mercy of God in the conflict.
  His mercy sent milder chastisements at first to turn them away from disobedience and to save them from the final and awful calamity. When lighter chastisements fail to save, love lets heavier strokes fall, to see whether these will turn the disobedient from his way.
  In the seventh plague, a distinct advance is made in severity of the chastisement. There is now to be a loss of life as well as the crops. "Behold, tomorrow," so ran the divine command, "about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof until now."
  Exodus 10:4-6 As the eighth plague is announced, the word "locusts" had a terrible sound in the ears of the Egyptians.
  Exodus 10:7 For the first time we hear a remonstrance in the Egyptian court. The princes and great men who surround the king, and who revere him as a god are driven to forget the awful distance that stands between them and the throne. They throw aside, in very evident terror, their habitual reverence and expostulate with the Lord of Egypt.
  "And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, how long shall this man be a snare unto us? Let the men go that they may serve the Lord, their God, knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?"
  We now come to the ninth plague. This was God's last appeal before the long deferred judgment fell. Each man was shut in so to speak, with God during those awful three days and nights. All business was suspended. Everything was laid aside. Each dwelt alone, King, counselor, noble, and priest, merchant, artisan, and peasant. Each was held in God's hand and confronted with the question, spoken in the memory of one plague after another, and re-uttered in the consciousness of the awful darkness that dragged on hour after hour. God was speaking loud and clear. "Canst thou dash thyself against the buckler of the almighty?" Those three days of awestruck isolation, permit us to look into the depths of that infinite compassion which would have saved Egypt from the last stroke which was to break all its stubbornness and pride.

The Blood-Covenant and Its Tokens in the Passover
  There came a time when the Lord would give fresh evidence of His fidelity to His covenant of Blood-friendship with Abraham. Again, a new start was to be made in the history of redemption. The seed of Abraham, with whom God had cut the blood covenant was in Egypt, and the Lord would bring from there that seed, for God had promised Abraham and his seed the land of Canaan an everlasting possession. The Egyptians had refused to let Israel go at the call of the Lord. God would keep his covenant with Abraham. Read Genesis 15 and 17.
  In the original covenant of blood friendship between Abraham and the Lord, it was Abraham who gave his blood (by the rite of circumcision) in token of the covenant.
  Now the Lord was to give His blood, by substitution, in a reaffirmation of that covenant, with the Israelites, the seed of Abraham. So, the Lord commanded the choice of a lamb without blemish, a male of the first year, typical in its qualities, and representative in its selection.
  The blood of the lamb was to be put on the two side-posts and on the lintel of every house of a descendant of Abraham; above and longside of every passer through the doorway.
  "And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are," said the Lord to this people, "and when I see the blood (the token of my covenant with Abraham) I will pass over you, and there shall be no plague upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt" (Exodus 12:7-13).
  The flesh of the chosen lamb was to be eaten by the Israelites reverently, as the indication of that inter-communion which the blood-friendship rite secures; and in accordance with a common custom of the primitive blood-covenant rite, everywhere.
  Dr. Trumbull (H. Clay Trumbull: The Blood Covenant) says that he from personal observation, saw the passover blood shed on Mount Gerizim to bring to mind the blood covenant aspect of the passover.
  The last plague broke the heart of Egypt. Death, terrible everywhere, made an awful pause in the life of this pleasure loving people. When anyone died in Egypt, it especially caused great mourning.
  It may be imagined then, what effect this last affliction had upon the entire people. There was not a house in which there was not one dead. Those who might have mourned with others had to bow under their own grief. "And Pharaoh, rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead."
  But when we have noted the grief of Pharaoh and all his people because of their dead, we have not summed up all that was accomplished by this judgment. "I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment." We notice the phrase, "and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment, both man and beast."
  We have seen that animals were worshipped in Egypt, and also that the king was esteemed an incarnation, and worshipped as a god. Now, Pharaoh, worshipped as a divinity is smitten, and chastised in his own land, and in the presence of his people.
  Pharaoh's heir, who had already been hailed with divine honors lay in stillness of death. It is impossible to doubt, that the blow was from the hand of the Covenant-keeping God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
  The first-born of the Israelites were safe. Not one of the plagues had touched God's covenant people. A great fear pressed upon Egypt. The hand that had struck, might strike again. Freedom was therefore given to oppressed Israel. They were thrust out. Pharaoh will not even wait for the day's dawning.
  He called for Moses and Aaron by night and said: "Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go serve the Lord as you have said . . . and be gone and bless me also." And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, we will all be dead men Exodus 12:31-33.


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