Plagues striking Egyptian Deities..

Although Exodus doesn’t state it explicitly, anyone versed in Egyptology will tell you that each of the Ten Plagues was specifically aimed at the Egyptian religious system. To add icing to the cake, God saved the best plague for last: Egyptian priests taught that the Pharaoh was himself a god and that his firstborn son (the next Pharaoh) was a god as well. To show them who the real God was, He struck Pharaoh’s firstborn (and all Egypt’s firstborn) because they oppressed His firstborn (Exod 4:22). Here’s a brief list of the plagues and the Egyptian gods they were aimed at:

1. Nile turned to blood: Hapi, god of the Nile; Isis, goddess of the Nile; Khnum, guardian of the Nile
2. Frogs: Heqet, goddess of birth (usually depicted with the head of a frog)
3. Gnats: Set, the god of the desert
4. Flies: Re, the sun god, his symbol may have been the fly
5. Death of Livestock: Hathor, goddess with cow’s head; Apis, the bull god, also a fertility symbol
6. Boils: Sekhmet, had power over diseases; Sunu, god of pestilence; Isis, goddess of healing
7. Hail: Nut, goddess of the sky; Osiris, god of crops and fertility; Set, god of storms
8. Locusts: Nut, goddess of the sky; Osiris, god of crops and fertility
9. Darkness: Re, the sun god; Horus, the sun god; Nut, goddess of the sky; Hathor, sky goddess
10. Death of Firstborn: Min, god of reproduction; Hequet, goddess associated with childbirth; Isis, goddess protecting children; Egyptians believed that Pharaohs (and their first-born sons) were gods.