Fully Devoted: Israel, Act 1Sample

Plagues and Passover

Today we’re talking about the 10 plagues in Egypt. This is more than Moses and Pharaoh bargaining over the Israelites’ freedom—it’s a cosmic wrestling match between the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the various gods and goddesses of Egypt. The point was not to inflict cruelty on the Egyptians, but to defeat their false deities and reveal God as the one true God. 

This would prove to be a pivotal moment in Israel’s and Egypt’s stories.

It’s important to address two things up front. 

1. To a certain point, the Egyptian magicians were able to mimic God’s miraculous signs, but only God—working through Moses—could bring them to a stop. The intensity steadily increased until the magicians were no longer able to keep up. This was part of the message God was sending: His power is far greater than anything humans can manufacture, yet He chooses to work through humble and willing people like Moses.

2. There’s a pattern: Moses talks to Pharaoh, Pharaoh is stubborn and arrogant, a sign is performed, Pharaoh seeks relief and makes false promises he doesn’t follow through on—and the whole sequence then plays on repeat. The Scripture keeps using the language of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. This highlights what we talked about at the end of our conversation on Noah : What we need is more than a fresh start; we need a new heart.

Neither the flood nor these plagues were enough to eradicate sin from the human condition. God’s long-term intention was to confront every false deity His people might be tempted to worship, and to free His people from the sway those false gods held over them. Pharaoh himself was considered a direct descendant of the gods, and was to be worshiped. God repeatedly showed the faultiness of their decision to worship this man by exercising power over the heart of Pharaoh—and each subsequent plague addressed and disarmed another Egyptian deity.

A Few Plagues to Note

Plague 3: Lice From the Dust. Geb was the Egyptian god of the earth. Moses gets the signal and tells Aaron to stretch out his hand over the dust of the earth. When he does, it becomes lice. This is a callback to Genesis when God formed man from the dust of the earth—and only He can bring life from dust. 

This one completely stumped the magicians and they professed, “This is the finger of God.” The dust that became us was the one piece of creation to bear the image of God. And it’s when God once again works with dust that the pagan sorcerers recognize His fingerprint. 

Plague 7: Hail from the Heavens. Nut was the goddess of the sky. This plague accomplished the purpose of revealing God’s might to the Israelites and the Egyptians, and some people came to active, repentant obedience. Here we see a division among the Egyptians: There are those who have come to fear the Lord and understand Him as the one true God—and those who still refuse. The distinction is clearly visible in who obeys God’s cautionary instructions and who ignores them. Some of the officials obey and are protected. One key feature that God looks for in His people is the trust to follow Him wherever He leads.

Plague 10: The Firstborn. The final plague was a showcase for this growing trust in God. Taking the fight to Pharaoh himself, God issues this plague and this promise: 

“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” Exodus 12:12-13 NIV  

Note that this was God’s last act in this particular show, further reinforcing His nature as patient and merciful, not malicious. The pharaoh and his people had already been allowed nine opportunities and 400 years of enslaving the Israelites—they could have repented anytime, bowed a knee to the one true God, and decided to treat His people with dignity. 

Instead, they had 400 years of oppression to answer for. Again, this is not a God who just suddenly decided to kill a bunch of people—this is a God who has given people every opportunity to take a different course, and now a reckoning has come.

The people were instructed to take a male lamb without any blemishes or defects, kill it at an appointed time, and use the blood to mark the doorframe of their homes. This would serve as a sign so that when God saw the blood, He would cause death to pass over that house.

In much the same way, Jesus, the Lamb of God, was sent at just the right time. He gave His life, and it is His blood that now marks the doorframe of our hearts. In Jesus’ own words:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” John 5:24 ESV

This event became the Passover Feast. When Jesus celebrated this feast with His disciples years later, He revealed that He was the fulfillment of the passover implements. A huge part of that meal was the unleavened bread. During the feast, the bread is broken and passed around the table. Jesus says that bread is a representation of His body that would be broken for us. 

There are also multiple cups of wine that are shared throughout the night. Jesus tells His followers that the wine represents how His blood would be poured out for us—it’s the blood of a new covenant with God.

Journaling Questions 

• What verse impacted you the most from the reading? Why? Write it down in your journal.
• What does God’s direct confrontation of the idols worshiped by the Egyptians say about Him?
• How has the passover been brought to you by Jesus?

Memory Verse

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10 NIV