Decreation to re-creation

(Old life to new life)

Plagues, order and structure mimics the creation account, but in a decreation manner

Exodus 7:14–25 “And Yahweh said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is insensitive; he refuses to release the people. Go to Pharaoh in the morning. Look, he is going out to the water, and you must wait to meet him on the bank of the Nile, and you must take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. And you must say to him, ‘Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying, “Release my people that they may serve me in the desert, and, look, you have not listened until now.” Thus says Yahweh, “By this you will know that I am Yahweh. Look, I am about to strike with the staff that is in my hand the water that is in the Nile, and it will be changed to blood. And the fish that are in the Nile will die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable to drink water from the Nile.” ’ ” And Yahweh said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch your hand out over the waters of Egypt and over their rivers, over their canals, and over their pools and over all of their reservoirs …”

Water to blood - Nile water to blood, a curse.

Water to wine, a blessing

God demolishes creation order to show who has sovereignty.

Egyptian concept of Maat - cosmic and social order. Pharaoh’s job to maintain that order. Pharaoh as the incarnation of Horus to maintain Maat, his specific job in Egyptian religion. Every Pharaoh had the obligation to do Maat, this was the point of the plagues (polemic and decreation). Pharaoh is not in charge. Yahweh maintains this order by destroying it. He was also the incarnate son of Ra, which was the chief deity *the sun god) in Egyptian religion. Responsible for the Nile, crops and the sun. De-creation and polemic, de-creation with an aim at the gods of Egypt.

Moses meets Pharaoh along the banks of the Nile. The banks of the Nile, the place where Moses was supposed to die, the place where we was saved. Exodus 1:22 “And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you will throw into the Nile, and every daughter you will let live.””

Even thought the Egyptian magicians did turn water into blood, they could not turn it back into water. Only the God of Israel, Yahweh restored the Nile to water.

Nile river was a god named Hapi, reflected the concept of fertility. Egyptians believed that the god Hapi kept them alive, he being responsible for the Nile river.

So Yahweh, mastered Hapi the god of the Nile, Knuhm the god of water and life, frogs plague against Heket the goddess of childbirth who was portrayed as a frog, Hathor mother goddess of the sky who was portrayed as a cow (which the cattle were plagued by the pestilence, the darkness then relates to an attack on the god Amon-Ra, Aten, Atum and Horus. Death of the firstborn shows Yahweh mastering Osiris, the judge of the dead and even Pharaoh was supposed to be the incarnation of Horus, Osiris was the patron deity of Pharaoh

Enjoy the verses - good music has different parts. In a typical song, there will be verses and there will be a chorus. Most of the time in life, we remember the chorus more than the verses. Good pieces of music have a theme that the writer of the music wants throughout the music. It is reflected in what the instruments play and what the singers sing.

One example of a chorus that we all remember is the “Hallelujah” chorus from Handel’s Messiah. my wife and I went to see a performance of this one time, and throughout the entire performance everyone is sitting, yet when it came time for the Hallelujah chorus, everyone stood up and joined in.