The Nile Smitten – Frogs Called Up – The Dust Of The Earth Turned Into Pests
Here were ten plagues sent upon Egypt. The last, the death of the firstborn, was specially directed against Pharaoh, being the execution of the threat concerning the death of his son, should he refuse to let Israel go. This plague stands by itself. The nine others are formed in three groups of three. The first and second of each group have in each case a preliminary warning, the third none.
The number ten is notable in connection with the ten commandments and with parts of the sanctuary of Jehovah, particularly the place of His throne, which was situated in a chamber that was a cube of ten. The number implies completeness; having uttered the ten words, Jehovah added no more – He dwelt where all was absolutely equal. So in the ten plagues of Egypt we see a divine fullness of judgment and a, completion of it upon all the gods of Egypt. The number nine was symbolically most important to the Egyptians; it signified “either the gods of a locality or the entire Pantheon.”
The plagues were signs as well as judgments – they were sent to prove who Jehovah was, in a land which once knew sufficient of God to restrain it from idolatry, but which “did not like to retain God in” its “knowledge,” and which consequently had sunk into the grossest idolatry; and very particularly were they sent to teach Israel that Jehovah alone is God.
Once the Egyptians recognized one sole and indivisible God. But they had turned the truth of God into a lie. They deified God’s creative power and His attributes, and thus worshipped as separate deities, a creative principle, and a variety of God’s expressions of His glory, and consequently the truth respecting the Divine Being was practically smothered up under innumerable falsehoods.
Egypt stood in the terrible position of having hidden within it such knowledge of the truth as was sufficient to call for the repudiation of its religion, and yet of following under the leadership of its priests, a system of known falsehood. According to the system of their religion, nature was worshipped under various forms; insects, reptiles, fishes, birds, and animals had homage paid to them; certain trees were held to be sacred, and the heavenly bodies and the earth were deified. Examples of these deities will be given as we proceed. By His plagues, God showed that the heavenly bodies were but His servants, for He called up darkness, and hid the sun and the moon from man’s sight; and He showed that the animal and the vegetable kingdoms yielded Him obedience, for He commanded, and insects, reptiles, fish, and animals either arose or died, and at His word, the trees and the fruit of the field perished. The elements, too, were proved to be but Jehovah’s messengers; for the earth brought forth insects, the wind carried the locusts, fire ran along the ground, and water became blood. He proved Himself to be God, both creating and overruling.
The Egyptians grouped their deities in combinations of threes frequently, and also of twos and fours. Special localities had these groups for their own peculiar worship. The number of these groupings is unknown, but it was large. A god which stood first in one group would become the last in another. To confine ourselves to the threefold combination. Certain towns would have their own peculiar groups of three gods. A deity, who figures in one triad, will be found also in another triad – that is, there is a kind of interchange of deities in the system, so that-all the gods were given glory. Thus the Nile is termed “creator of the sun,” and the sun is termed “creator of the gods.” There was always a significance in the threefold combination, the first and second of the triad being regarded as the cause of the third. “The Egyptian temples are always dedicated to three gods. It is what Champollion calls the Triad. The first is the male principle, the second the female principle, and the third is the offspring of the other two. But these three deities are blended into one.” As we have already observed, in these triads lies a corruption of the truth of the Holy Trinity.
Among the triads that are known we find Ra, the Sun; Ptah, the Creative Power; and Hapi or Nilus, the River Nile. The idea of the group being, the Sun and Creative Power in union, produce the River. But as will be observed in the hymn quoted on the next page, addressed to the Nile, the Sun was at times regarded as the offspring of the Nile, since the hymn supposes the worshipper to be adoring the Nile, and not on that particular occasion, or in that particular locality, the Sun
We now consider the first plague, the turning of the Nile and its branches into blood. The river was the very life of Egypt. The food, and the wealth, and the beauty of the land were all derived from it. Upon Hapi, or Nilus, the first judgment of God fell. The beneficent river, to which all Egypt owes its existence – the fruitful Nile, not owned as made by God, but regarded as the result of the impulse of the Sun and Creative Power – a stream evolved, as it were, by nature out of nature – was to be a River of Death in the midst of the land.
Hapi was an important god of the Egyptians, and widely worshipped. To him temples were built, and in his honor gorgeous processions were made. His image is that of a corpulent man. This is usually colored blue, since the Nile is generally of that tint, but in some representations it is colored green and also red, since at the time of the inundation, the Nile assumes these hues. So that the river is termed the “Green Nile” and the “Red Nile” during the opening of the inundation. Various temples were erected to the honor of Hapi in towns along the banks of the river, and special priests were engaged in the exclusive service of the deity. These priests treated the river as most sacred, so much so, that any human body found drowned in the waters, or killed by crocodiles, was regarded as honorable, and was accorded an imposing funeral.
Religious pomp and processions were dearly loved by the ancient Egyptians, and one of their most noted and most joyful ceremonies was in honor of Hapi at the time of the inundation. Offerings were presented to him, and to him were prayers made for prosperity, consequent upon the rise and overflow of the river. Thus runs one of Egypt’s most ancient hymns –
“Hail O Nile!
O thou who dost manifest thyself upon this earth,
And who comest in peace to give life to Egypt.
Thou hidden god, irrigator of the fruitful land,
Creator of the Sun.
Thou dost water the whole earth, thou creator of the corn,
When thou arisest the earth is filled with mirth.
Thou dost drink the tears from all eyes,
And scatterest the abundance of thy goodness.”
“Men and women assembled from all parts of the country in the towns of their respective nomes; grand festivities were proclaimed, and all the enjoyments of the table were united with the solemnity of a holy festival. Music, the dance, and appropriate hymns marked the respect they felt for the deity, and a wooden statue of the River god was carried by the priests through the villages in solemn procession, that all might appear to be honored by his presence and aid while invoking the blessings he was about to confer.”
But not only was the pomp and the procession loved, the god was supposed to be pleased by the honors paid him Indeed, unless the rites were duly observed and duly carried out by the recognized priests and others, it was thought Hapi would be angry, and that the expected inundation would not occur. Thus a grand ceremonial was effectually guaranteed by the confidence of the people in its beneficial results. This mingling of pleasure and superstition is suggestive, as we think of similar observances in our own times.
Pharaoh had rejected the sign of the power of Jehovah, and was betaking himself to the river’s brink in the morning. Probably this particular morning visit was in view of a religious ceremony in honor of the deity, and there seems good ground for the suggestion, that it was the occasion of the inundation, the time of the Red Nile – that is, the time when the waters assume a reddish hue owing to the deposits in them brought down from the mountains in the depths of the south. Hence Pharaoh’s visit to the river would be of the most imposing grandeur.
As Pharaoh was nearing the riverside, Moses addressed him: “The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness; and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear. Thus saith Jehovah, In this thou shalt know that I am Jehovah; behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood, and the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink, and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river.”
Then, under the very eyes of the mighty monarch, and before his glittering retinue, the rod was lifted up, the river smitten, and the divine judgment fulfilled.
Horror pervaded Egypt, terror overtook its mirth, the processions in the towns, and the ceremonies by the river’s banks came to an abrupt end.
We give a picture of a procession by the riverside in honor of Hapi. He is being carried upon men’s shoulders in a shrine with attendant priests, incense, and music, and thus is being conveyed to the temple, very much in the same way as images of saints are now carried about in procession on festival days. He had his special colors for the occasion. Even as to this custom the garments of the images of modern saints are made to resemble those of the ancient gods!
For seven days the river ran blood instead of water, death instead of life, corruption instead of fertility; for seven is the period which God has appointed to mark out time on earth. And may we not add that for all time the stream of idolatry is a tide of death and corruption.
The blow that fell upon the Nile destroyed its fish, and amongst these some of the emblems of the gods were to be found; for worship was paid to different kinds of fish. We must not think that the worship of emblems is unmeaning ignorance. The most sacred of the fish were dedicated to the goddess Hathor. Each fish selected for worship figured some special quality. The Wise men of Egypt did not worship a mere fish, but what the particular fish symbolized. Those who prostrate themselves before an image or a picture, primarily worship, not the representation, but that which is represented. They worship him or her whose likeness is before their eyes; and not unfrequently such worshippers see the likeness move its eyes, or behold its lips smile, and then the idol becomes to them a veritable god. Now, though Egypt had no command of God not to make any image or likeness of any object whatever, in order to fall down before it and to give it reverence, Egypt had “changed the truth of God,” which it once knew, “into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
At one blow fell Hapi and the sacred fish – the fertilizer, and the emblems of abundant fertility, which they worshipped – and the power of Jehovah was known all over Egypt, both by Egyptian and by Hebrew. In the canals and the broad river all throughout Egypt Jehovah’s hand was seen.
In a small way, by their enchantments, that is, by calling on their gods, the magicians did what Moses had done, for where they could find water they turned it into blood. Their actions say, “By the power of our gods we can turn life into death, we can add to the misery that issues from the judgment of God.” But here their power ceased, they could not turn death into life. They could not pass from death into life. This God works, but God alone. However, they succeeded in influencing the king, and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not let Israel go.
The time of the inundation was one of rejoicing. The country people indulged in games and songs, for the seed had been sown, and the cattle had trampled it into the moist ground, and the fruitful waters, entering the various canals, were doing their own good work on the land, and the husbandmen could rest.’
(* Rawlinson, Herodotus, Vol. 2, pp. 18-19.)
But now the land groaned under its seven days of corruption, and every single human being in Egypt was forced to know of the great controversy proceeding between Moses and the magicians.
(** “The animal head placed on the deity showed and alluded to the animal worship; the peculiar animal being that in which the soul of the deity was supposed to be incarnate.” Birch in The Ancient Egyptians, Wilkinson, Vol. 2, p. 476.)
With all Egypt aroused to this knowledge, Moses went to Pharaoh and delivered Jehovah’s message, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs: and the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading-troughs: and the frogs shall come up both on thee and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.” These frogs were no ordinary ones, or, if they were the ordinary reptile, they were about to do that which frogs never do, for they were going into ovens, into hot and dry spots, and all kinds of places utterly contrary to their nature.
As Egypt had its Nile god, so had it its frog-gods and frog-goddesses. The frog itself was held as a sacred emblem of the creative power of the god Ptah. It appears seated upon a ring – an emblem of life – and stands for the idea of multitudes. It was also an emblem of the resurrection. Hence the frog was an outward and visible form of the deity Ptah, one of the greatest of Egypt’s gods. In the form overleaf, of a man having a frog’s head, we have Ptah himself bearing the head of his emblem upon his shoulders. The god Ptah was “the father of the gods.” Of him it was said he “formed all beings, and all things came after him.” The river was at the divine bidding “to bring forth abundantly “these emblems of creative power. At the word of Jehovah the teeming multitude of frogs, contrary to the ordinary instinct of the creature, swarmed over the country, afflicting all things, whether houses, bedchambers, beds, ovens or dough; and all persons, whether the king or the people; nothing, nobody was exempt from their slimy presence, noisome croaking and yelling.
From the various branches of the Nile, with its canals and pools, the frogs came up, leaping forth from the water tanks and the fish pools, those prized accompaniments of villa and palace.
By the means of this plague, Pharaoh’s ignorance of Jehovah disappeared; he said no more “I know not Jehovah,” but he cried “Pray for me to Jehovah, and let Him take away the frogs from me and my people” (Ex. 8:88Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Entreat the Lord, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord. (Exodus 8:8)). The beneficent Hapi had given birth to multitudes indeed! The emblem of creative power had become Egypt’s tormentor by its intolerable myriads. Corrupted by its own deity, “the land stank” (Ex. 8:1414And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank. (Exodus 8:14)).
A set time was accordingly appointed, the intercession of Moses was accepted, and the frogs died out of villages, towns, and fields, and the people gathered them in heaps to rot in the heat of the sun.
In some parts of the country, upon its death, the frog, after a careful embalmment, was honored with a tomb! Do we smile at the folly of the pagans in worshipping a frog? In this nineteenth century sacred stones and relics are honored with kisses and prostrations! The special custodians of these things declare that the objects of their care perform miracles, and tens of thousands believe such to be the case.
In the island of Philx, on the Nile, there is an interesting wall picture, showing how the Nile and the frog were connected in the minds of the ancient Egyptians in relation to the inundation. Hapi holds in his hand a frog, out of whose mouth, as well as from the breast of the god, the waters are represented as flowing.
The highly educated Egyptians were not so foolish as to worship the frog simply because it was a developed tadpole, but because they saw in that development an emblem of a mystery connected with life. So they worshipped the idea, and gave it shape in the form of a frog.
When the frogs swarmed up on the land, entered ovens and other places in direct opposition to the ordinary instincts of the reptiles, the Egyptians, who were noted for their close observation,’ must have recognized their familiar emblem obeying a power beyond that of their frog deities. And when at the word of Jehovah, the reptiles died suddenly all over the land, as the stricken people gathered them into heaps until “the land stank,” they must have seen in their emblem of creator ship a horrible corruption. But the magicians were not to be convinced; they knew too much. A man who is behind the scenes in a system of iniquity against God, and one of imposition upon men, is not to be convinced by mere exposure, for he needs to feel the sin of his ways, and the terrors of the Lord. The magician-priests multiplied the misery which they could not take away, and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not let Israel go.
(* The Egyptians, says Herodotus, “have discovered more prognostics than all the rest of mankind besides.” – Rawlinson, Herodotus, Vol. 2, p. 135.)
The blow aimed at the god Ptah should be carefully noted. He was not only one of the highest of the deities, but the oppressor of Israel had expressly honored him by branding the foreigners and prisoners in Egypt with his name.” “I have marked with thy name all inhabitants and foreigners of the whole land; they are to thee forever “; also, it may be worthy of notice, that the name of the supposed Pharaoh of the Exodus, the Pharaoh to whom Moses addressed himself; contained in it the name of Ptah-Men-ptah, or Mene-ptah-the beloved of Ptah.
Jehovah was demonstrating to Israel as well as to Egypt that the gods of Egypt were not creators, and that He alone is God. Through the imitation of the three divine signs already given, by calling up serpents, blood, and frogs, the magicians had made it to appear that, though Jehovah was greater than the gods of Egypt, still these gods could do a great deal in the struggle, which all Egypt and Israel watched with profound attention. If Pharaoh and his priests were to retain their hold on Israel, it must be by the hand of their gods. Unquestionably these gods had come to the call of the magicians on three occasions; now, once for all, the magicians’ power was to be set aside.
The earth; like the water, was an Egyptian deity, and was personified as a god. Through it, in union with a kindred deity, forms of life arose. Indeed, to the Egyptians, the earth and the heavens were parent gods, from whose union a great part of Egypt’s religious system was due.
God would now smite “the dust of the earth” throughout all the land of Egypt. Without a warning the rod was lifted tip, the dust smitten, and at once Egypt was filled with lice, or mosquitoes – the exact meaning of the word rendered “lice” is not at present known.
As the magicians had hitherto effectually withstood Moses by imitating him, they called upon their gods, lifted up their rods, and smote the dust. But Seb, the Earth, could not help them – Seb, who bore upon him the emblem of life-giving in the bird which lays the egg. Confusion covered them, their folly was made manifest to all. “This is the finger of a god,” they said: that is, of some being greater than those to whom they resorted they acknowledged a superior power to their own.
Henceforth we hear no more of the power of the magicians; God lead drawn the boundary line over which their enchantments could not pass.
Aaron used the rod of God on these three occasions, perhaps because God would put the power in the hand of him who was to be His priest, in the conflict with the priests of the gods of Egypt.
This group of three plagues has a distinct voice in reference to the creative power of God. Whatever the Egyptian mysteries might be, their system of religion, as it is expressed by countless pictures and statues, and by prayers and hymns, does not allow of One Creator. Egypt would seem to be author of that form of paganism which deifies the Universe, making it to be self-evolving, and by its teaching of gods begetting gods, and of the development of man, as expressed in the tadpole becoming a frog, Egypt appears as the father of that infidelity which substitutes evolution for creation.
(* The Cynocephalus was not only the emblem of Thoth, it was also the representative of that deity who was The Divine Intelligence!)