Dr Paul Allen

PLAGUES OF EGYPT . In commissioning Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt , God had warned him that this would come about only through God’s supreme power overcoming all the might of Pharaoh, whereby Egypt would be smitten with wonders or signs from God (cf. Ex. 3:19–20).  After the sign of the rod that became a serpent and swallowed up those of the Egyptian magicians, which left Pharaoh unmoved, God’s power was demonstrated to him and his people in a series of ten judgments. They were so applied as to portray clearly the reality and power of Israel’s God, and thus by contrast the impotence of Egypt’s gods. The first nine of these plagues bear a direct relation to natural phenomena in the Nile valley , but the tenth, the death of the firstborn, belongs wholly to the realm of the supernatural. These first nine plagues demonstrate the divine use of the created order to achieve his ends, and recent studies tend to confirm both the reality of what is described in Ex. 7–12 and th...

Moses and Jochebed (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) MOSES —drawn (or Egypt . mesu, “son;” hence Rameses, royal son). On the invitation of Pharaoh (Gen. 45:17–25), Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt. This immigration took place probably about 350 years before the birth of Moses.  Some centuries before Joseph, Egypt had been conquered by a pastoral Semitic race from Asia, the Hyksos , who brought into cruel subjection the native Egyptians , who were an African race.  Jacob and his retinue were accustomed to a shepherd’s life, and on their arrival in Egypt were received with favour by the king, who assigned them the “best of the land”, the land of Goshen , to dwell in. The Hyksos or “shepherd” king who thus showed favour to Joseph and his family was in all probability the Pharaoh Apopi (or Apopis ). Thus favoured, the Israelites began to “multiply exceedingly” (Gen. 47:27), and extended to the west and south. At length the supremacy of the Hyksos came to an end. The d...