The Thread: Part IIنموونە

God wants His People to Know His Power

As the plagues continued, Pharaoh refused to see that he had led Egypt into a downward spiral. Moses told Pharaoh that God had hardened Pharaoh's heart so that Israel would know the power of their God. God's demonstration of power would become a testimony to the children of Israel for generations to come! God never does anything without a purpose: he said several times that he was bringing these plagues "so that you may know that I am God." He wanted his people to know without a doubt that he is the Lord over every other god.

Many scholars believe that each of the ten plagues was designed to undermine the authority of the Egyptian gods. For example, the ninth plague—three days of "pitch darkness" throughout Egypt—undermined Ra, the Egyptian sun god. The Israelites still "had light where they lived," demonstrating that their God was more powerful than anything the Egyptians could dream up.

Question: Just as God showed his power over the gods of Egypt, he rules over the gods of this age. Where in your life or community do you need to be reminded of the testimony of his might?

Prayer: The Israelites were instructed to always teach the next generation about the greatness of God. Join other believers today in praying for God's character and power to be revealed to today's and tomorrow's generations. Let's ask God for a fresh outpouring of his Spirit across the lands in which we live—for his glory, honor, and fame!

Go Deeper: Looking at this list of Egyptian gods, see if you can figure out which ones were confronted by each plague:

• Khuum: the guardian of the Nile
• Hapi: the spirit of the Nile
• Osiris: the Nile was believed to be the bloodstream of Osiris
• Heqt: a frog-like god of resurrection •Hathor: a mother goddess who was a cow
• Apis: a bull of the god Ptah, a symbol of fertility
• Minevis: also a bull, the sacred bull of Heliopolis
• Imhotep: the god of medicine •Nut: the sky goddess
• Set: the protector of crops
• Re, Aten, Atum, and Horus: all sun gods
• Pharaoh: also said to be divine and often synonymous with Ra