The Plagues
Commentary for the July 26, 2025, Sabbath School Lesson
"When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So, the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt; hail fell, and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation." Exodus 9:23-24, NIV
The account of the plagues is a perplexing dilemma. The story of God destroying Egypt is not dissimilar from the story of God sweeping the earth of everyone except Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives. In a sense they are both types pointing to an apocalyptic cataclysm that is yet future, according to the book of Revelation. The God portrayed thus seems more like the pagan Zeus of the Greeks who readily hurled lightning bolts at those who displeased him in any way. This is a common theme in paganism. Rome's Jupiter was the Latin equivalent of Zeus. One might even see a similarity in the Norse pantheon between Thor's hammer Mjolnir and Zeus' thunderbolts. Also, as Zeus had an eagle as a messenger, the Norse Odin had ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who served in a similar fashion. But if God is just another pagan deity hurling bolts of lightning, how does that fit with the Apostle John's statement that "God is love?" (1 John 4:8)
Those who have chosen to become New Testament Christians will cite this incongruity in God's character, but that dissonance is present in both Testaments. Moses promotes this inconsistency. When he asked to see God's glory, "the Lord said, 'I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.'" (Exodus 33:19) His glory was not in destroying the wicked but in forgiving them and showing mercy. How does one then see the character of mercy and compassion in the God who laid waste to Egypt?
Even Paul was challenged by this, seeing us as little more than clay pots God has created, and he has therefore the right to toss aside those that are flawed. In dealing with the conundrum of God "hardening" Pharaoh's heart as it says in the account of the ten plagues, he wrote, "One of you will say to me: 'Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?' But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?" (Romans 9:19-21)
However, this explanation only adds to the problem. If we lay at God's doorstep the creation of all things for different purposes, special or common, it begs the question "Did God create evil?" Surely if he is omniscient, he knew humanity would fall and every imagination of their thoughts would be evil. (Genesis 6:5) He also would have known that there would be rebellion even in heaven as Satan and his followers rose against God. (Revelation 12:7-10) Why did God allow the evil to rise in the first place, only to supplant it through a flood or heavenly warfare? Is it to give hope that evil will one day be overcome? Or is it to show that we have a choice?
Our Calvinist friends would have us believe that some were purposely created for salvation and others not, a predestination of the elect. As we might guess, this is based on the quote from Paul's letter to the Romans I have already cited. However, it does not explain the wickedness even among the elect. As Paul also shares in that same epistle, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) Ever since the Fall of Adam and Eve, sin has brought only one thing to humanity, death. The older I get and the more disabled I become through age, the more I feel the breath of that fate on my neck. When we are young those thoughts are far from us, even though we see it all around us: the rose petals that fall to the ground to be followed thereafter by the leaves, the trees each autumn that shed their leaves after a brilliant display of color, and the pets we love so dearly and leave us so soon with their short life spans.
When I was young, I did not give much thought to these things, but now I shed tears, not only at the loss of a beloved pet, but also the grief of the loss of a spouse or a close family member. When those things happen, it reminds me of the death of Lazarus. When Jesus stood outside Lazarus' tomb, knowing he was going to raise him to life again, he wept. This tells me more about the character of God than the plagues in Egypt. As a psalmist wrote, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants." (Psalm 116:15) We might ask, "If God feels this way, why doesn't he put a stop to all the evil?" He did with the flood. He did with Sodom and Gomorrah. Neither instance eliminated the problem, for evil continued to raise its head.
The Bible reveals the source of that evil is Satan, the one who rose in rebellion against God. As nature itself tells us, it is futile to pull weeds in the garden if we do not also pull the roots up as well. We are tempted to pull the weeds we see all around us to hasten what we feel God is going to do anyway. But Jesus tells us that is not our work because we tend to pull up the good plants along with the bad. We draw a large circle around what we feel is bad and an exceedingly small circle around ourselves and those who agree with us, claiming to be the remnant elect. A particularly good example of this is when our lesson cites the passage at the end of Romans, chapter one, excoriating sexual deviancy but fails to include the first verse in the next chapter. There were no chapter divisions in the original Greek text. Those were added over a thousand years later by Stephen Langton to standardize the various texts. The distinction of where chapter one should end is artificial and is often used just as it is in our lesson quarterly to express moral superiority over others. If read properly, it should read:
"Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things." Romans 1:24-2:1
Too many see themselves as Phineas running through the camp with a spear, impaling everyone on behalf of God, a work they were never called to do. They do not wish to wait until the apocalypse when the angels, who are more in harmony with God's compassion and mercy, will take on that work. They do not understand why God does not deal with the sin they see around them now instead of allowing those spiritual weeds to bloom and sow their seeds. Even in the days of the apostles, people asked about this, and Peter offered an answer. "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)
Although sin has made death our lot in this life, God's compassion and mercy are illustrated by the prophet Ezekiel, "No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised. Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, 'Live!'" (Ezekiel 16:5-6) This is the God who is love that the Apostle John saw. He is not willing that anyone should perish and offers life to all who would have it. He would not have us drive from the fold those sheep whom he would save and give life to. He only asks that we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us to model that same love and patience.
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