Sometimes we can see things in the darkest times that may be easily overlooked in the light. Northwest of Cairo’s center and 60 feet below the surface lie the ruins of biblical On, later called Heliopolis (Sun City) by the Greeks. Here Joseph’s father-in-law, Poti-Pherah, served as a priest. This was the center of the […]
Read More… from October 19, 2021 — The Illuminating Darkness
Locust swarms can contain 4-8 billion, eating in a day what 3.5 million people would consume. As Exodus 10 opens, the Lord explains that these plagues are also lessons “that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt” (v 2). Every generation […]
Read More… from October 18, 2021 — Pharaoh, What’s Eating You?
This was no child’s tale. They really felt as if the sky was falling—with nowhere to hide. I know this would not be your first choice in naming a daughter, but Nut, the sky goddess, was well connected in the pantheon of Egyptian false deities: granddaughter of Atum-Ra, daughter of Shu and Tefnut, wife of […]
If we learn to obey God’s soft voice, He won’t raise His voice. But He’ll shout if He has to! Pharaoh had someone check and, sure enough, there wasn’t one Israeli cow dead. God was making His point! “But the heart of Pharaoh became hard, and he did not let the people go” (Ex 9:7). […]
Read More… from October 14, 2021 — The Sixth Plague: A Body Blow
Slowly, God is loosening the king’s clutching fingers from the things that would doom his soul. Pharaoh tries another ploy with Moses: “I will let you go,…only you shall not go very far away” (Ex 8:28). Doesn’t this sound like the devil? You don’t want to be too different, do you? But if you’re close […]
The plagues are now focusing on Pharaoh. The magicians quit. The flies even know better! Three significant changes occur during the execution of this next plague. First, with the retiring of the court magicians, Aaron moves to a secondary position. From now on, the showdown is between Pharaoh and Moses. Moses is to intercept the […]
Read More… from October 12, 2021 — Flies Won’t Fly In Goshen
See how God marshals all His forces to free His people; even lice can argue the case for Him! The frogs that covered Egypt’s landscape did not go gentle into that good night. “They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank” (Ex 8:14). Now, without warning, without a gentlemanly visit of Moses to […]
Read More… from October 11, 2021 — The Lice Speak To Pharaoh
Imagine all the frogs in your hometown deciding they would prefer your home over theirs. Slowly the Nile returned to normal, but God was not finished. Another deity worshiped was Heqet, an Egyptian goddess of fertility, who grotesquely had the body of a woman but the head of a frog. When my wife and I […]