The First Plagues and the Wrath of God

Blessings, Curses, Cause and Effect

Natural blessings or curses if you obey or disobey God’s law of love.

Examples

How Sin Affects the Earth

Leviticus 18:25–28 (AV 1873)

25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.

26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:

27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)

28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

Isaiah 24:3–6 (AV 1873)

3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: For the Lord hath spoken this word. 4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, The world languisheth and fadeth away, The haughty people of the earth do languish. 5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, Broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, And they that dwell therein are desolate: Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, And few men left.

Where does God say the curse comes from?

Genesis 4:11 (AV 1873)

11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand.

Genesis 3:17–18 (AV 1873)

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

The word for “curse” has a few caveats that are crucial to understand:

“The verb (curse), in the form of a Qal passive participle, serves as a noun which denotes a condition brought about by an external agent, which in this case is not stated or which is at the very least ambiguous… the text does not support saying that YHWH Elohim has cursed the ground (3:17). The passive participle form of the verb denotes that the ground is in a condition of cursedness which may be the consequence of man’s action, not necessarily YHWH Elohim’s punishment… YHWH does not impose the curse, strictly speaking; rather, He recognizes and states a condition that has come to be. YHWH Elohim is not explicitly the agent of the cursing.” Eugene Combs, “Has God Cursed the Ground? Perplexity of Interpretation in Genesis 1-5,” in Ascribe to the Lord: Biblical & Other Essays in Memory of Peter C. Craigie, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 67(Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1988), p. 276-277, 285.

If the curse comes from our own actions, and not God, why is He often described as sending and causing the curse?

Consider the insight by Bullinger:

“By Hebrew idiom (and also by modern usage) a person is said to do that which he permits to be done. For examples, see Ex. 4:21; 5:22. Jer. 4:10. Eze. 14:9; 20:25. Mat. 11:25; 13:11. Rom. 9:18; 11:7, 8; 2Th. 2:11. God’s permission, but Satan’s suggestion (Jam. 1:13-14)…” Ethelbert Bullinger, The Companion Bible (Sevierville, TN: C.T. Haywood, 2005), p. 24.

Look at a few of the verses above?

Man a Microcosm of the Earth

Genesis 2:7 (AV 1873)

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground…

We were made from the earth itself and are thus “part of” the earth.

This is why the name for man is ʾâdâm and the word for ground, or earth, is ʾădâmâh.

Both the earth and the human body are made up of about 70% water

Both have a circulatory system that circulates life-sustaining fluid (water and blood)

Both have diverse ecosystems of numberless organisms that serve various functions, such as forming digestive tracts that break down/digest organic matter to better assimilate nutrients back into our bodies or the earth.

If something bad enters our bodies, what happens? Our body works to get rid of it.

“When people get sick, they violate some law; but the penalty is intended to make a man better. That is what it is for. If it were not for the penalties, we would be doing wrong all the time. But the penalty comes in as a correction, and not as an arbitrary punishment. Penalty is simply a consequence of the sin. It is a natural consequence of the things that a man did, and not an arbitrary thing.” General Conference Daily Bulletin, February 18, 1897, page 75, par. 15.

Praise God for fevers and throwing up!

“Teach your children to reason from cause to effect. Show them that if they violate the laws of their being, they must pay the penalty in suffering.” EGW, CG 362.1

When we break the laws of health and corrupt our bodies, the natural result is volatile reactions, and this is exactly what happens when man corrupts the earth with the “toxic matter” of sin.

Just as there is a relationship between our actions and our health, so too is there an intimate relationship between our actions and the rest of creation.

“Significantly, the mood of the land is described as a reliable barometer of the inhabitants’ spiritual and moral condition. Lawlessness and social injustice send ripples of disharmony throughout all creation, registered faithfully on the Richter scale of nature’s tortured soul. After a series of examples of such injustice, the prophet Hosea claims that because of people’s cruelty, ‘the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying’ (Hosea 4:3). ‘How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field whither? asks Jeremiah well over a century later, pained by the same connection between ethics and ecology (Jer. 12:4)… the convulsions of the earth reflect the violation of the moral order and humanity’s short-sighted stewardship.” Tonstad, The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day, p. 392.

When we are sick with a bad fever, a good doctor won’t just take it away, since the fever is working to cleanse the body from something bad. But he will try to restrain the fever from getting too high so the sick person won’t get hurt by it.

In the same way, God is the Great Physician restraining the convulsions of the earth in order to protect us.

When God stop’s holding back/restraining the consequences of our sins, we see the Biblical definition of God’s wrath.

The Wrath of God

Romans 1:18–19 (AV 1873)

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

Romans 1:24–27 (AV 1873)

24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves… 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

27 and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one towards another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

Deuteronomy 31:16–17 (AV 1873)

16 And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be amongst them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.

17 Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not amongst us?

Psalm 78:58–62 (AV 1873)

58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their graven images. 59 When God heard this, he was wroth, And greatly abhorred Israel:

60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, The tent which he placed among men; 61 And delivered his strength into captivity, And his glory into the enemy’s hand. 62 He gave his people over also unto the sword; And was wroth with his inheritance.

Isaiah 54:7–8 (AV 1873)

7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; But with great mercies will I gather thee. 8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment…

Now back to the plagues of Egypt…

The Curse Devours Egypt

The Psalmist described the plagues in these words:

Psalm 78:48–50 (AV 1873)

48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, And their flocks to hot thunderbolts [Resheph]. 49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, and indignation, and trouble, By sending evil angels among them. 50 He made a way to his anger; He spared not their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence [Deber];

The word for “hot thunderbolts” is Resheph: “Resheph was a belligerent, aggressive god who used diseases to attack people, but who could also heal. In Egypt, Resheph was originally venerated as the deity who supported the Pharaoh in battles, but then he was summoned mainly because of illness and everyday needs.”

ADD RESHEPH BOOK COVER TO QUOTE ABOVE

Deber was the name of the demon of pestilence.

Satan brings pestilence (GC 590), as he has power to control the elements of nature and use them to destroy (BEcho July 15, 1893, par. 2; GC 589.2-3)

But what about how it says that God “sent” these evil angels?

Here is the word for “sent”:

A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible (4917. מִשְׁלַחַת)

4917. מִשְׁלַחַת mishlachath, mish-lakh´-ath; fem. of 4916; a mission, i.e. (abstr. and favorable) release, or (concr. and unfavorable) an army:—discharge, sending.

God “sent” evil angels among them by “releasing” them.

God is always at work holding back the Satanic forces of destruction:

Revelation 7:1 (AV 1873)

1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

Revelation 9:14–15 (AV 1873)

14 saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. 15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

When men reject God, He is forced to let leave them to their own devices, because God will not force people to be in a relationship with Him.

Let’s look at some of the plagues in order now, and see if we can reason from cause to effect.

1. Water to blood

2. Frog invasion

3. Biting insects (“lice”)

4. Flies

5. Livestock diseased

6. Boils

Do you see any logic behind this order?

Water contaminated —> Frogs leave water —> Frogs die and attract insects —> Insects come with diseases and infect cattle and humans.

But how could these waters “naturally” turn to blood?

Well, there is reason to believe this is an example of “phenomenal language,” where an author describes how something appears.

Here is one reason why it is likely that the water didn’t turn to actual blood:

Exodus 7:24 AV 1873

24 And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.

This is a method of getting clean water from a polluted source, using what is known as a seep well:

“Essentially a seep well is a hole dug in the ground, near a water source that goes below the natural water table. The water from the water table seeps through the earth and into the hole that you dug. If the hole is dug the correct distance away from the original water source, your water is naturally purified.” “Seep Well,” The Survival University.

This would only work if the water was contaminated, not if it was literal blood.

What could cause this water to appear like blood?

2 Main theories.

One theory involves the Santorini volcanic eruption, one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in human history which “erupted with power equal to two million Hiroshima-type atomic bombs.” “Thera/Santorini Eruption” (1989), Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“Winds would have carried the volcanic ash to Egypt at some point over the summer, and the toxic acids in the volcanic ash would have included the mineral cinnabar, which could have been capable of turning a river a blood-like red color, Trevisanato holds. The accumulated acidity in the water would have caused frogs to leap out and search for clean water. Insects would have burrowed eggs in the bodies of dead animals and human survivors, which generated larvae and then adult insects. Then, the volcanic ash in the atmosphere would have affected the weather, with acid rain landing on people’s skin, which in turn caused boils. The grass would have been contaminated, poisoning the animalsthat ate it. The humidity from the rain and the subsequent hail would have created optimal conditions for locusts to thrive. Volcanic eruptions could also explain the several days of darkness [from ash blotting out the sun]…

“What evidence is there for this? Pumice, which is stone made from cooled volcanic lava, has been found during excavations of Egyptian ruins despite there not being any volcanoes in Egypt. Analysis of the rock shows that it came from the Santorini volcano, providing physical evidence that the ash fallout from the eruption at Santorini reached Egyptian shores.” Olivia B. Waxman, “Did the 10 Plagues of Egypt Really Happen? Here Are 3 Theories” (2019), Time.

Another theory involves a “harmful algae bloom” that would have caused a “red tide.”

Pictures of modern red tides

What causes these algal blooms?

Algae blooms occur when they are “overfed” with nitrogen and phosphorus—the two main components in animal manure.

“… It’s estimated that every minute, nearly 2 million pounds of excrement are produced by animals raised on CAFOs [Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations] in the U.S.

“Unlike human waste, manure from CAFOs is not treated and typically gets flushed into underground pits or lagoons that are several acres wide. It is stored there until it is applied as fertilizer on fields. But the quantity of waste produced on factory farms cannot easily be absorbed, resulting in over-application and runoff of the manure—and all of the chemicals, toxins and bacteria it contains—into local waterways. It is also common for the pits or lagoons to leak, break or overflow, contaminating groundwater. Animal agriculture is the leading polluter of U.S. rivers and streams, the second-largest source of wetlands contamination, and the third-largest source of lake pollution.

“As a result, CAFOs have severe impacts on aquatic health as excessive nutrient concentrations from manure, such as nitrogen or phosphorus, can make water uninhabitable or cause harmful algal blooms. Rural communities rely heavily on groundwater wells for drinking water, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2000 National Water Quality Inventory found that 29 states specifically identified CAFOs as contributing to drinking water quality impairment. Cleanup expenses from CAFOs have cost municipal water systems over $1.1 billion over the past 10 years.” “The Water, Air, and Climate Impacts of Factory Farming,” ASPCA.

Factory-farming exists because of man’s greedy appetite for flesh foods and corporation’s greedy appetite for profit.

In other words, factory farming exists because of sin, and these sins are destroying the earth.

Now consider this verse with this understanding:

Isaiah 24:4–6 AV 1873

4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, The world languisheth and fadeth away, The haughty people of the earth do languish. 5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, Broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, And they that dwell therein are desolate: Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, And few men left.

Some think the plagues could be the result of an algae bloom in conjunction with a volcanic eruption.

Plagues Not Simply “Natural Disasters”

We know this because each plague began when Moses and Aaron did something with their staff.

How do we fit this in? It makes it look like God was the active cause of this destruction,..

Do you remember what the first sign God gave to Pharoah using the staff?

Exodus 7:10 (AV 1873)

10 And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

Was there anything symbolic behind this action?

“When Moses, as God’s representative, held the rod in his hand, it symbolized the forces of nature under God’s control. No harm could come to Egypt as long as God’s protective hand held back the destructive forces of nature. When Moses cast down the rod, it became a serpent, the symbol of evil and destruction. This symbolized the forces of nature out of God’s control and under the control of Satan—the destroyer…” Jay A. Schulberg, Acts of Our Gentle God (Father of Love, 2017), p. 28-29.

God had been restraining the forces of destruction from harming Egypt, but whenever God commanded, these forces were released in order to show that these were divine judgments.

The Death of the Firstborn

Exodus 12:23 (AV 1873)

23 For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.

This verse says that God would smite the Egyptians, but it also says that the Destroyer would smite them.

Which is it? Who is the Destroyer?

John 10:10 AV 1873

10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Revelation 9:1 (AV 1873)

1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

Revelation 9:11 (AV 1873)

11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

What do these names mean?

A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible (623. Ἀπολλύων)

623. Ἀπολλύων Apŏlluōn, ap-ol-loo´-ohn; act. part. of 622; a destroyer (i.e. Satan)

Testimony of the apocrypha:

Jubilees 49:2

For on this night—the beginning of the festival and the beginning of the joy—ye were eating the passover in Egypt, when all the powers of Mastêmâ [Satan] had been let loose to slay all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh to the first-born of the captive maid-servant in the mill, and to the cattle.

But doesn’t the verse we just looked at, Exodus 12:23, says that “the Lord will pass through to smite” the firstborn?

True, but who destroyed Jerusalem?

Jeremiah 13:14 (AV 1873)

14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the Lord: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.

Jeremiah 21:7 (AV 1873)

7 And afterward, saith the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life:

and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

One verse says that God will personally destroy Israel, but in reality this was done by the Babylons.

God is described as doing this because He allowed it to happen.

Which makes more sense, God saying “come to me or I’l kill you,” or “come to me or I can’t protect you”?

Exodus 12:13 (Brenton LXX En)

13 And the blood shall be for a sign to you on the houses in which ye are, and I will see the blood, and will protect you…

The blood over the doorposts in Egypt was a sign to Israel that protected them from the Destroyer, just as the Seal of God in the end is a sign that protects them from the same Destroyer.

Revelation 7:1–3 (AV 1873)

1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

3 saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

Ellen White describes how the destruction in the end will parallel the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD:

“The Jews had forged their own fetters; they had filled for themselves the cup of vengeance. In the utter destruction that befell them as a nation, and in all the woes that followed them in their dispersion, they were but reaping the harvest which their own hands had sown. Says the prophet: “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself;” “for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.” Hosea 13:9; 14:1. Their sufferings are often represented as a punishment visited upon them by the direct decree of God. It is thus that the great deceiver seeks to conceal his own work. By stubborn rejection of divine love and mercy, the Jews had caused the protection of God to be withdrawn from them, and Satan was permitted to rule them according to his will. The horrible cruelties enacted in the destruction of Jerusalem are a demonstration of Satan's vindictive power over those who yield to his control.” GC 35.3

“We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one. But when men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is removed. God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejectors of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown. Every ray of light rejected, every warning despised or unheeded, every passion indulged, every transgression of the law of God, is a seed sown which yields its unfailing harvest. The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner, and then there is left no power to control the evil passions of the soul, and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan.” GC 36.1