The plagues are coming. And before we read them as spectacle frogs and flies and darkness and hail we need to understand what they actually were. Each plague was a direct confrontation with a specific Egyptian deity. The Nile was a god. The frog was sacred to Heqet, goddess of fertility. The sun was Re, the chief god of Egypt. Pharaoh himself was considered divine.

God was not just freeing Israel from slavery. He was systematically exposing the emptiness of everything Egypt trusted in. One by one, the gods of the most powerful nation on earth were shown to be nothing. Not by argument. By demonstration.

God does not debate false gods. He dismantles them. And what He dismantles in a culture, He also dismantles in a life the things we have trusted in that are not Him will eventually be shown for what they are. Not to punish us. To free us.

The first plague. Aaron strikes the Nile with his staff. The water turns to blood. The fish die. The river stinks. The Egyptians cannot drink from it. And Pharaoh’s magicians do the same with their secret arts. They can replicate the plague. What they cannot do is reverse it. They can make more blood. They cannot make the water clean again.

— There is a kind of power that can only add to the problem, never solve it. Pharaoh’s magicians could mimic the judgment but could not deliver from it. Only the God who sent the plague could lift it.

Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. He turns and goes into his house. And does not take even this to heart. He is not curious about what is happening. He is not asking why. He walks back inside and closes the door.

Hardness of heart is not usually a single dramatic choice. It is a pattern of walking away from the thing that should make you stop and consider. Every time Pharaoh went back into his house, he became a little more the man who could not hear. Attention is a spiritual muscle. Use it.

The plagues escalate. Frogs everywhere in the houses, in the bedrooms, in the ovens. Pharaoh calls for Moses: pray to the Lord to take away the frogs. Moses asks: when? And Pharaoh says: tomorrow. Tomorrow. He is sleeping surrounded by frogs tonight rather than asking for relief right now. The delay is its own kind of self-punishment.

— Tomorrow is the most expensive word in the spiritual life. The relief God is offering today is available today.

The frogs die. They are piled in heaps and the land stinks. And Pharaoh sees there is relief and hardens his heart. The pattern is locked in now. Plague. Pain. Prayer. Promise. Relief. Hardening. Again.

The gnats come from the dust of the earth. And this time the magicians cannot replicate it. They tell Pharaoh: this is the finger of God. For the first time, the servants of Egypt’s power system are acknowledging what is happening. Pharaoh does not listen.

The flies come but only to the land of Egypt. The land of Goshen, where the Israelites live, has none. God is drawing a line between His people and the world around them. The plague is targeted. The protection is visible. The distinction is impossible to miss.

God marks His people in times of judgment. Not to make them feel superior but to make His protection undeniable. When the flies do not come to Goshen, everyone on both sides of the border knows why. The protection of God is meant to be a witness.

Pharaoh negotiates again. You can sacrifice, but do it here in Egypt. Moses says no. You can go, but don’t go far. Moses says no. The flies leave. The heart hardens. The pattern continues.

Chapter 9 brings three more plagues, each escalating in severity. The livestock die but not the livestock of the Israelites. Not one. Pharaoh sends to check, and the report confirms it: not one of the animals belonging to the Israelites is dead. And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.

The boils come festering sores on every Egyptian and every animal. The magicians cannot even stand before Moses because of their own boils. They are done. Egypt’s entire occult system is physically incapacitated and cannot lift a finger.

And then the hail. God tells Moses to warn the Egyptians: bring in your livestock and servants or they will die in the field. And some of Pharaoh’s officials feared the word of the Lord and brought their servants and livestock in. Others did not listen and left their servants and livestock in the field. Even inside Pharaoh’s own court, individuals are making different choices. The word of God is dividing the room.

“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.”

— Exodus 9:16