Why did god send the 10 plagues?

[Johnnypeterson]

I hope you can help me with my question it is for school!

Why did God send 10 plagues on Egypt? He made boils go on peoples skin and killed the firstborn in each house. They can't all have been bad, especially the children, so why did he do mean things?

God is omnipotent so why didn't he teleport Moses and his people out of Egypt?

I look forward to reading your replies!

 

[reba]

Exo 7:4 But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
Exo 7:5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

 

[nmwings]

Why did God send 10 plagues on Egypt?

Hi, Johnny! God sent those plagues on Egypt because He was trying to prove to them (and to us today) that the so-called “gods†they were worshipping were not real gods. The Lord had to prove it to them by oppressing the Egyptians with the very things that they were worshipping. I know it doesn’t seem “fair,†but the idea of “fairness†is a concept of men. God is not fair, He is just. We don’t WANT God to be “fair†with us, otherwise we would ALL get what we deserve… eternal damnation.

He made boils go on peoples skin and killed the firstborn in each house. They can't all have been bad, especially the children, so why did he do mean things?

The Egyptian people had every opportunity to realize Who the REAL God was and turn from their idols and worship the God of Israel. Some of them did see the error of their ways and they left their homes during the Exodus, became part of Israel and received the Covenant and the Promised Land. Unfortunatly, most of them refused to give up their beliefs and their false gods. Therefore, God dealt with them justly.

God is omnipotent so why didn't he teleport Moses and his people out of Egypt?

Because getting Israel out of Egypt was not God’s main goal of the Exodus. The main goal was for the world to know that the Lord God of Israel is the ONLY God, and the worthless images and things the peoples and nations were worshipping have no power at all.



From the death of the firstborn, we begin to learn the concept of "substitution." See, not all of Israel was saved that night. Only the firstborn that had the blood of the lamb on their doorpost had been passed over (saved) from death, to life. We later learn that all firstborn (whether man or beast) belong to the Lord. In ancient times, if a person saves you from certain death (say you fell in a hole and you couldn’t get out on your own) and someone comes along and literally saves you from dying, you owe that person your life for as long as you live! In this case, every firstborn among Israel owed their very lives to the Lord. But instead of disrupting every family in all of Israel by taking every first born from each and every tribe, the Lord chose the entire tribe of Levi as a substitute for the all the other firstborn. It is from this that we can begin to understand how the Messiah is a substitue for us. We disobeyed His word and broke the Covenant. But when He came and died on the cross, He paid that price FOR us (He is our Substitute) and restored us (brought us BACK) to the Covenant.

I hope this helps!

 

[Johnnypeters0n]

Wow nmwings, thank you for your answer!

You have given me a lot to think about. For example what does "God is just" mean? Why isn't 'Just' the same as being fair?

You have explained that God's purpose was more than just freeing Moses and his people, but I stiill don't understand why he had to use plagues. Why couldn't he send an angel to talk to the Egyptians, or perform some nice miracles to show how nice he is and make them love him? It's like Aesop's story about the Sun and the Wind - "Persuasion is better than force".

Thank you for your help so far, I hope you can tell me more

 

[nmwings]

You have given me a lot to think about. For example what does "God is just" mean? Why isn't 'Just' the same as being fair?

To be “fair,†one assumes that all parties involved are identical in every way, and will therefore make a decision to keep them identical in every way.

Not knowing how old you are, I don’t want to speak over your head, but I don’t want to speak down to you, either! So allow me to go “in between†by using the example of the “No Child Left Behind†program our government put into the schools years ago. Basically, in order to keep every child on the same level, they lowered the standards of every curriculum (or subject) in order for the slower kids (and the lazy kids) to achieve the same grades as the smarter kids and those kids who work harder for good grades. Now, is this fair or is this just? For those kids who worked harder for their grades, it certainly doesn’t seem fair to them, does it? And the kids who didn’t work for their grades to begin with, they just got a “free ride,†didn’t they? Yet the Dept of Education believes this is what is “fair†because it keeps everyone (the hard working and the lazy) on the same level. The result: there is no reward for the hard workers and there is no discipline for the lazy. All are regarded as being equal.

On the flip side is to be “just,†which requires an exact following of a standard of what is right and, more specifically, what is proper. To continue with my example above, the “just†decision is to raise the standards back up to what they were before so that the kids who work hard will shine like diamonds, and the lazy kids will “flunk out.†In this case, everyone gets what they deserve, based on each individual. Does this make any sense or did I confuse you even more ?

You have explained that God's purpose was more than just freeing Moses and his people, but I still don't understand why he had to use plagues. Why couldn't he send an angel to talk to the Egyptians, or perform some nice miracles to show how nice he is and make them love him?

If God makes us love Him, then it really wouldn’t be love we would be feeling, would it? He doesn’t want mindless robots, but rather He wants us to love Him of our own free will: forced love is not real love.

In Exodus 5, we see the very first encounter Moses had with Pharaoh. Instead of Pharaoh having an open mind about a God he had never heard of before, he immediately challenged the Lord to prove Himself. He says in V 2,"Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go." From the very beginning, Pharaoh announced that he didn’t know the Lord, nor was he willing to hear about the Lord. There was no amount of “soft persuasion†that would have worked on him. As it was, even the plagues would not change his mind. During the first 6 plagues Pharaoh hardened his own heart against the Lord. It was not until after the sixth plague (the boils) that God had to step in to harden his heart. Now when the Lord hardens his heart, it doesn’t mean that God made Pharaoh more embittered, more obstinate, or angrier towards God. Pharaoh had free choice to submit to God, but he did not. So God had to toughen Pharaoh up so that he could withstand the next judgments and God could manifest Himself even more.