Welcome back to James Popery. I'm Joe Heschmire, and you probably know the basic story of the 10 plagues and the exodus.

God sends Moses to Pharaoh to tell him,

Let my people go.

Pharaoh, of course, refuses, and so God sends a series of ten plagues, ultimately leading to the death of the firstborn children of man and beast alike.

Only at this point does Pharaoh relent. These Israelites are freed. But that's just

the surface of the story. There's actually a lot more going on with the whole level of spiritual

warfare, of divine punishment being meted out against not only the corrupt Egyptians, but also

on the demons that they've been worshipping as gods. And God all but says as much in Exodus chapter 12.

In announcing the 10th plague, God says,

And on all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments. I am the Lord.

On all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. So the judgment isn't

just against the humans enslaving and killing the Israelites.

It's against the demonic forces that stand behind and beneath this oppression.

Understanding that spiritual warfare is going to be critical for understanding why God uses

these ten plagues in particular to execute his judgment.

Rabbi Joseph Hertz argued that the plagues of Egypt were

far more than a dramatic humiliation of the unrepentant and infatuated at Pharaoh. Instead,

God is showing both Israel and Egypt the impotence of the false gods that were being worshipped by

the Egyptians. In Hertz's words, quote, the frog was venerated as a sign of fruitfulness

and was turned into a horror. The cattle, the sacred ram, the sacred goat, the sacred bowl,

were all smitten. The sacred beetle becomes a torment to those who put their trust in its divinity.

When we add to these the plague of darkness, which showed the eclipse of Ra, the sun god,

...