Exodus 7-12 with notes from the Reformation Study Bible.
Only the youngest Christians have neither heard, nor asked the question, “why do bad things happen?” But even the youngest Christians, or at least the children of Christians in Sunday School, have heard this story. The story of God vs. Egypt, with the purpose of redeeming Israel out of its 430 year slavery. I believe that if Christians remembered this story as adults, they might have a better answer to the above question and related ones that follow it. You might say, “wait, Pharaoh and the Egyptians are the bad guys in this story, they deserved it.” I’m not so sure. In this story, if we’re paying close attention, God sovereignly selected who the good guys and bad guys were, and he himself was the hero.
In our modern western mind, slavery is one of the most deeply repugnant offenses against humanity, but in the time in which this story occurs, it was normal practice. Slavery was not yet considered immoral, even within the culture of God’s chosen people, and the Mosaic Laws that addressed slave ownership were not yet written. In the standards of the day, there was nothing immoral or sinful about Pharaoh and Egypt enslaving Israel. One later theme in Exodus is Israel’s complaining about its unpleasant circumstances in the wilderness, and preferring instead the slavery in Egypt. No matter how bad the slavery in Egypt actually was, Israel’s memory of it seemed to be preferable to life in the wilderness. Even though Pharaoh was certainly not one of God’s people, or even a convert, he wasn’t a bad person by the standards of the day. He and many of the Egyptian people were exactly the types of folks for whom people today would ask “If God is loving, then why do bad things happen to ‘good’ people?”
One response is focused on the nature of the people, a pastor or thoughtful Christian might respond to that question with another, “‘good’ by whose standards?” They would then proceed to talk about sin and the contrast of man’s sinful nature with the Holy nature of God. That’s a good answer to start with, but I don’t think that it’s a complete answer. I think that a better answer would focus on God’s nature first, then deal with human nature. God is certainly loving, or else we would not have the hope offered in the Gospel, and scriptures whose primary purpose is to teach the Gospel. But God is also sovereign. Five times in the stories of the plagues, God proclaims “I am the LORD” (7:5, 7:17, 8:22, 10:2, 12:12). What proceeds those statements is an explanation that the purpose for what is happening is so that the world, Egypt, and Israel will all know beyond doubt that Yahweh is the LORD, and there is none like him.
Not only are the plagues collectively brought on Egypt as a part of God’s plan to demonstrate his sovereignty, but several of the plagues also assault the Egyptian religious system. The first plague of turning the Nile river system into blood showed Yahweh’s supremacy over the Nile god. Through the frog infestation, the LORD demonstrated his superiority over the Egyptian goddess Heket. From the statement in 8:26 that “… the offerings that we shall sacrifice to the LORD our God are abominable to the Egyptians,” we get the idea that it was offensive to the Egyptians to sacrifice certain animals because they deified those animals. In the fifth plague, the death of the Egyptian livestock, we can be at least confident, if not certain, that some of the deified animals died – by which God again rose above the Egyptian gods. In the ninth plague of darkness, God beat Ra, the Egyptian sun god.
Add to all of this, that the very word that we read as “plague,” מגּפה (maggêphâh), can potentially also be translated as “stroke,” “strike,” or “beat [down].” The idea is clear that the LORD God was laying a literal smack-down on Egypt for his own sovereign purpose of being known and acknowledged as God, even though Egypt had done nothing wrong by the moral standard of the day. It is tempting to object and say that God was being egotistical to force the world into recognizing him in such a way. Which is absolutely, one hundred percent true. God was being egotistical, and is egotistical even today when he brings calamity (or has mercy) on whomever he will so that he will be seen as God. But God is the only entity for whom pride is not a sin. It is perfectly ok, acceptable, and in fact HOLY for God to show such pride.
Related Posts:
We can’t get off the hook (Exodus 3-6)
See also:
Desiring God: 10 Reasons You Should Read the Book of Job
Think Rhema 