There are a number of infamous characters that show up in the pages of Scripture. Herod the Great thought nothing of killing Bethlehem’s infant sons in an effort to save his throne. Goliath blasphemed the Lord and taunted Israel before he met a well-placed stone with his forehead. The hands of Ahab and Jezebel were stained with innocent blood. And, of course, Judas Iscariot may be the most tragic figure in history. These are all names with which a typical Sunday school student would be acquainted.
Yet the name of one of the greatest villains of all is barely known by even the best of Bible scholars. I am referring to the main antagonist of the book of Exodus, the pharaoh who opposed Moses and, in the process, defied the living God.
Which Pharaoh and When
The Scripture refers to him by the titles of “Pharaoh” and “king of Egypt.” However, his specific name is not given. This is left for the diligent to find by doing background research on Egypt of that day. A good principle for studying the Scripture is to research historical context. When did the exodus occur? Once we know that, we can determine who was sitting atop Egypt’s throne.
First Kings 6:1 says, “And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.” This passage gives us an important clue as to when Israel’s departure from Egypt occurred. For reasons we won’t go into here, many archaeologists and Bible chronologists believe that Solomon laid the foundation of the temple in 966 BC.1 When we work back 480 years earlier as the verse instructs, we are left with 1446 BC as the date for the parting of the Red Sea.
Who was pharaoh in 1446 BC? The best evidence suggests the pharaoh who hardened his heart in the face of those miraculous plagues was Amenhotep II.2
What Plagues and Why?
Amenhotep II reigned during the 18th Dynasty and was a member of the New Kingdom. These rulers had driven the Hyksos from the Nile Delta and brought in a style of worship that focused on the worship of nature.
The plagues that God brought about in the book of Exodus were an amazing display of His power. Through them, the Lord demonstrated His awesome (indeed infinite) might in comparison to all the gods of Egypt.
Yet these plagues were also a tremendous act of grace on God’s part. He was demonstrating to the Egyptians that they were worshipping false gods. Their gods were no gods at all! The Lord deliberately chose plagues that would unmask these mother-nature type deities and reveal what they truly were: imposters. In so doing, the Lord both enlightened Egypt and demonstrated the existence of the one true God.
Even Pharaoh himself was considered a deity by Egypt, but he could not prevail against the God of Israel. The plague of the firstborn reached all the way to the household of Amenhotep II (Ex. 12:29f), and Pharaoh’s own son died when the Destroyer passed through the land.
What Outcome and Who?
The plagues had a devastating effect on Egypt. In the words of Pharaoh’s advisers, “Egypt is destroyed” (Ex. 10:7). Combine this with the subsequent destruction of Egypt’s army in the Red Sea, and the impact on the national psyche was profound. Egypt would never be the same.
Amenhotep II lost his son and the heir apparent to Egypt’s throne during the plague on the firstborn. Found between the paws of the Great Sphinx in Giza is great extra-biblical confirmation of this event. Here, a stone slab rests that is known as the Dream Stela of Thutmose IV. This man was the son of Amenhotep II and the ruler who replaced his father on the throne. Remarkably, Thutmose IV conveys within the stela that he never expected to be ruler in Egypt. If he had been the oldest son of Pharaoh, there would have been no surprise over his being the next ruler—from his earliest recollection, he would have been groomed to be the next king. Egyptologists have concluded that something clearly happened to his older brother: an early death that caused the nation’s rule to fall to Thutmose IV.4
It wasn’t just Thutmose IV who had been heavily impacted by the events of Exodus. This is the one time in antiquity where Egypt flirted with monotheism. They had just seen what the one true God had done to their set of deities. For at least a short time, they began to rethink their polytheism. God is a God of grace and mercy; His demonstration of power was not only for the children of Israel, but also for the children of Egypt (Ex. 10:1f).
The son of Thutmose IV and next ruler of Egypt was Amenhotep III. He and his wife, Queen Tiye, ushered in one of the greatest periods in Egypt’s history. It was most likely during their reign that Joshua began the conquest of Canaan. Their son in turn, became one of the most famous Pharaohs of history: Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaton. He and his wife, Nefertiti, tried to do away with Egypt’s traditional polytheism and bring about the worship of only one god. Unfortunately, they weren’t advocating worship of Jehovah, the very One who had brought Akhenaton’s great-grandfather to his knees. Instead, they advocated the worship of Aten, the sun god.5 How different might Egypt’s history have been if they had only taken this opportunity to come to faith in the one true God!
Endnotes
1 http://bit.ly/Amenhotep-II-History
2 ibid
3 http://bit.ly/10-Plagues-10-Gods and http://davelivingston.com/plagues.htm (See also http://www.egyptian-gods.org/ )
4 http://bit.ly/Thutmose-IV
5 http://bit.ly/akhenaten-ancient-egypt