by Mindi Popovich-Schneider
This month, we are going to look at the ten plagues of Egypt and what they, in their rich symbolism, reveal about God. We will also connect them to the Ten Commandments. Help your students make the connections themselves, giving them just as much information as they need to do so. Begin by reading Exodus 7-11 and Exodus 20:2-17. Then, print off the table on the next page and fold it in half to refer back to throughout the lesson. Open the discussion by asking these questions:
What aspects of the story are repeated with each plague? Why do you think that is?
Go back and look at verses 7:5, 8:10, 8:22, 9:14, 9:29, 10:2, and 11:7. How do the different plagues show us “who God is”?
The first plague: Blood in the Nile / The First Commandment
The ancient Egyptians greatly revered the Nile River, viewing it as the source of life-giving waters. It was closely associated with the god Hapi, the personification of the annual flooding of the Nile. This event was important to the Egyptians, as it created fertile soil in an otherwise dry and arid land. So why would God, the true Living Water, turn these waters into blood–a symbol of death?
Next, consider the first commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. How is this related to God overcoming the Nile River–what the Egyptians perceived as the source of all life?
The second plague: The Frogs/The Second Commandment
It’s interesting to note that Hapi, in many depictions, was attended by frogs. At the same time, the frog-headed fertility goddess Heqet was also greatly revered: in Egyptian thought, she was not the source of life, like the Nile, but she supervised the last moments of birth–the child’s entrance into the world. She comes from the source of life–an image of it.
The frogs covered the earth, infesting the Egyptians’ beds, pantries, and feeding troughs. It took three days for the frogs to die off, but the land stank of frogs for a long time. As St. Gregory of Nyssa says, “Their breeding in these numbers was not natural, but Moses' command changed the normal density of frogs.” God took a creature, an image of fertility, and made its own fertility the enemy of the Egyptians that worshiped it.
Consider the second commandment: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images. How does this commandment overturn the second plague?
The third plague: The Gnats (Lice)/The Third Commandment
Exodus 8:17 says that when Aaron stuck the earth with his staff, “All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became lice.” Imagine how many lice that must have been! There is no known Egyptian god of gnats specifically, but there is a god of earth (or dust): Geb. This god is also closely associated with Hapi–in fact, one of Hapi’s titles, or epithets, is “friend of Geb.” Like Hapi and Heqet, Geb is associated with fertility, as the earth brings forth fruit.
Thus, as the True God made man from dust, Aaron–through the power of the True God–makes destruction from the Egyptians’ idea of life.
Now, consider the third commandment. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain. How does this relate to lice? This one’s a little trickier: the Hebrew word for lice (“ כּן” or “kên”) is similar to the another word “ כּנה” or “kânâh,” which means “to call by name.” (While many concordances make a connection between the two words, we do not know if there’s an actual etymological connection, but they certainly sound similar!)
The fourth plague: The Flies/The Fourth Commandment
Unlike the other plagues, this one is not as clearly connected to a specific pagan god, but there are many interesting elements to it. God says this: “But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people live, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I the LORD am in this land. Thus I will make a distinction between my people and your people.”
The fourth commandment is: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” This day, the Sabbath, is distinguished or set apart from the other days as holy–just as God has set apart his holy people from the Egyptians.
The fifth plague: The Pestilence of Livestock/The Fifth Commandment
Before the fifth plague, God says, “Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats.” Of course, Pharoah refuses.
There are many different gods associated with cows in particular, but one stands out as especially important: the apis bull. This bull (or rather, bulls) was sacred, as its continual ritualistic sacrifice and rebirth was a significant part of worship. Do you see any echo–or perhaps fulfillment–of this in our worship as Orthodox Christians? Where do “sacred” cows appear elsewhere in the book of Exodus?
“Honor thy father and mother that thy days may be long upon the land, the Lord thy God giveth thee,” reads the Fifth Commandment. Livestock would have been considered part of a family’s generational wealth–what was passed down from father to son, or given as part of a young woman’s dowry. The destruction of livestock symbolized the destruction of the family’s estate–an inversion of God’s promise in the Fifth Commandment.
The sixth plague: Boils/The Sixth Commandment
God tells Aaron to "Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land." We have multiple accounts from Ancient Egypt of sacrifice or punishment by immolation. Once again, with this sixth plague, God is showing the Egyptians the weight of their own actions, following it up by directing his own people to avoid the same sin: “Thou shalt not kill.”
This plague also overturns the power of Isis, the goddess of medicine.
The seventh plague: Hail/The Seventh Commandment
Before sending down the hailstorm, God tells Pharaoh: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But 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.”
The Seventh Commandment is, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” In God’s warning, we hear the consequences of what happens when He is forsaken for worship of a false god, as when a spouse forsakes their true spouse for a false one. Additionally, we are told that in this plague, “The LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground,” which calls to mind the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah: “Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. [...] [Abraham] looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.” (Genesis 19). Those wicked cities were destroyed for their debauchery.
The eighth plague: Locusts/The Eighth Commandment
Next, God sends locusts that will “cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields.” Just as the Egyptians, in enslaving the Israelites, had stolen everything from them, God takes what little is left of the Egyptians’ prosperity. Later, he reminds the Israelites that now that they are free, they must not do what the Egyptians did to them. In the Eighth Commandment, He says, “Thou shalt not steal.”
The ninth plague: Darkness/The Ninth Commandment
Three days of darkness covers the land of Egypt–God showing that it is He, not the Egyptian god Ra, who gives light. (It is, of course, very significant that the darkness lasts for three days!)
The Ninth Commandment tells us: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” When we lie–or bear false witness–we are obscuring the Light of truth, bringing about darkness. According to St. Gregory of Nyssa, the Egyptians “lived in unchanging gloom,” but His people are called to “walk in the Light.” (1 John 1:7).
The tenth plague: The Firstborn/The Tenth Commandment
In Ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh himself was worshiped as a deity–the son of Ra made flesh. In taking the firstborn sons of Egypt, God is sending the Egyptians’ cruelty back on themselves, both as punishment for their murder of the firstborn sons of Israel and as punishment for their jealous enslavement of the Hebrews. More than that, He is also showing that He is the only true God: not even Pharaoh can escape God’s hand.
The Tenth Commandment says, ““Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.” The Egyptians were angry that the Israelites had prospered when they came to Egypt. They also feared that the Israelites would become too great, which is why they killed the firstborn sons. God has righted the evil of the Egyptians, now He calls His people to avoid their grave sins.
Further reading:
http://www.newhumanityinstitute.org/pdf-articles/Gregory-of-Nyssa-The-Life-of-Moses.pdf
https://biblethingsinbibleways.wordpress.com/2022/02/27/the-10-plagues-and-the-10-commandments-are-they-connected/ (Note: not an Orthodox source)