10 Mar. God sends ten plagues upon Egypt
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘The king is being stubborn and refuses to let the people go. In the morning the king will go out to the Nile River. Go and meet him by the edge of the river, and take with you the walking stick that became a snake.’”
“'Tell him, "The LORD, the God of the Hebrews sent me to you. He said, 'Let my people go and worship me in the desert.' Until now you have not listened. This is what the LORD says, 'This is how you will know that I am the LORD. I will strike the water of the Nile River with this stick in my hand, and the water will change into blood. Then the fish in the Nile will die, and the river will begin to stink. The Egyptians will not be able to drink the water from the Nile.'””
“The LORD said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron, “Take the walking stick in your hand and stretch your hand over the rivers, canals, ponds and pools in Egypt.” The water will become blood everywhere in Egypt, both in wooden buckets and in stone jars.’”
“So Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded. In front of the king and his officers, Aaron raised his walking stick and struck the water in the Nile River. So all the water in the Nile changed into blood. The fish in the Nile died, and the river began to stink, so the Egyptians could not drink water from it. Blood was everywhere in the land of Egypt.”
(Exodus 7:14-21)
God promised Moses and Aaron that he would perform “many miracles” if the Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go (Exodus 7:5).
The day of reckoning was not long in coming: “Still the king was stubborn and refused to listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.” (Exodus 7:13) So God acted on his promise to help his people and free them from slavery.
In order to persuade the pharaoh to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt, God sent ten disasters that plagued the country over the next three years (c.1449-1447BC):
1. Blood. The River Nile turned red and the fish died (see Exodus 7:14-25).
2. Frogs. Frogs left the polluted river and plagued the land (see Exodus 8:1-15).
3. Gnats. The rotting carcasses brought mosquitoes and flies (see Exodus 8:16-19).
4. Flies. Swarms of flies plagued the royal palace (but not Goshen where the Israelites lived – see Exodus 8:20-32).
5. Cattle pest. Disease was spread to the cattle (see Exodus 9:1-7).
6. Boils. Open sores spread to the Egyptians (see Exodus 9:8-12).
7. Hail. Hail destroyed the plants, flax and barley (Exodus 9:13-35).
8. Locusts. Locust swarms were brought by the easterly winds and consumed what remained of the crops and fruit trees (see Exodus 10:1-20).
9. Darkness. Darkness covered the whole of Egypt for three days (see Exodus 10:21-29).
10. Death of the firstborn. Finally, God threatened to destroy every firstborn son in Egypt and the firstborn of the cattle (see Exodus 11:1-10).
If you’d like to read the details of each plague, you can follow up the references at the end of the paragraphs above. Tomorrow, we’ll return to the final plague, and look at the effect of these catastrophes on the pharaoh’s actions.
The photo shows the River Nile at Aswan.
You can read more about the ten plagues @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney2/25-the-israelites-journey-from-egypt-to-mt-sinai/egypt-suffers-ten-plagues/