(Brief Introduction is given by Moses dressed up): We’ve all heard the story of how God delivered His people through my hand, Moses. He used me and my brother Aaron to bring ten plagues upon Egypt. But what would the story sound like from Pharaoh’s point of view? This morning, Pharaoh is here to tell us his perspective.
(The pastor dressed up as Pharaoh emerges from the back of the church): I am Ramses II. Pharaoh of Egypt. I am the supreme ruler over all of Egypt. I am not only the head of the nation, but I am the head of religious leaders too. Yes, I am here to tell you my side of the story. So sit back, relax, listen, and learn.
My name means “Great House.” My job is to be the divine interpreter between the gods and my people, the Egyptians. I do a pretty good job of maintaining harmony if I don’t say so myself. I make the laws, I don’t have to keep them. I wage war whenever I want. I collect taxes, as much as I want. The land of Egypt is owned by me – that’s why they call me: “Lord of the lands” - I am powerful. My subjects bow to me.
So when Moses, little man Moses, came to me, and said: “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Let my people go.” I laughed. Does he have any idea who he is talking to? So I said to him, “Who is the Lord, that “I” should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.”
I could feel my heart harden. I wanted to take my sword and cut his head off right then and there. How dare he speak to me in such a manner. Then I heard the sound of voices. They were singing – within hearing distance of my Great House. I moved over to the window, threw up the latch and saw my slaves excited, happy, singing. There was hope in their eyes over this great Israel deliverer. And my heart hardened even more when I heard my slaves singing:
Sing: “When Israel was in Egypt’s land, let my people go. Oppressed so hard they could not stand, let my people go. Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt’s land, tell old, Pharaoh (that’s me) let my people go.”
“Tell old Pharaoh.” Moses is going to tell me – to Let his people go! Are you kidding? They are MY slaves. I am their ruler. Egypt and all the people belong to me. Not only did Moses want me to let the slaves go – but he approached me in the name of their God – their Lord – insinuating that his God was more powerful than me – and all the gods of Egypt. He said his God would put on a display of signs and wonders that the world has never been seen before.
Once again, I laughed, and my heart hardened even more. I knew there was going to be a showdown. Between the many gods of Egypt and their one God. Their God against all our gods. We were in the plural. We were many. They are only singular.
My heart continued to harden at the very thought of Moses’ audacity to stand up to the gods of Egypt. Egypt has incredible power, majesty, and splendor. Our Pyramids alone stand as a monument to human ingenuity beyond human explanation. Our massive Pyramids, monuments, temples, and shrines speak to our belief in many gods.
There is no separation of church and state here. I am the church and the state. Religion dominates our nation. Nothing is secular in Egypt. Everything we do is backed by a deity and worship. I mean everything!
So when Moses approached me with his Jehovah God taking on all the innumerable gods of Egypt, I laughed. And I hardened my heart.
I still remember the first day Moses and his brother Aaron approached me in the Great House. I asked them to show me a miracle that proved the power of their God over mine. They carried a rod Aaron threw the rod at my feet and it became a serpent.
That’s it – that’s all you’ve got. So I called on my sorcerers and my magicians and they threw down their rod and it turned into a serpent as well. I started to laugh at the weakness of their God, but then their serpent swallowed up our serpent. I wasn’t impressed, it only hardened my heart a little bit more.
But then the real battle began. Moses and his Jehovah God decided they would confront our many gods in Egypt with 10 different plagues. Yes, 10.
When Moses came to speak to me the following morning, the first thing he said was, “Thus saith the Lord, “In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.
And the fish that are in the river shall die, and the river shall stink, and the Egyptians shall loath to drink of the water of the river.”’
How dare he. The Nile River is the very lifeblood of our nation Egypt. We worship the gods of the Nile.
Then Aaron took the rod and he stretched his hand upon all the waters of Egypt. Upon our streams, and rivers, and ponds, and pools of water, and they ALL – ALL became blood. Even the vessels of stone and wood filled with water became blood.
Inside I wept, but my heart hardened. The Nile, the lifeblood of my land, had been contaminated. No country in the world is more dependent upon this major river than my nation Egypt is upon the Nile River. The water irrigates our land through its floodwaters. You see, during late June, July and August, the Nile rises above its banks, and completely covers the land.
The water spreads to the inland, turning the desert into an agricultural oasis. Things that would never grow in a desert begin to grow. The water leaves pools everywhere, so we have a natural irrigation system all year long. All because the floodwaters rise so high. Without the Nile, Egypt would be nothing but a barren desert.
Our Nile god provides transportation, irrigation, pasture, hunting ground, fish, and life in general. The Nile is sacred to us. Our Nile god is so important we sing this hymn of fertility to him: “Hail to thee oh Nile, that issues from the earth and comes to keep Egypt alive. He that waters the meadows which he recreated in order to keep every kid alive. He that makes to drink the desert and the place distant from water, that is his dew coming down from heaven.”
How dare your God take on our gods of the Nile: khnum (ha’noom), the guardian of the Nile, Hapi (hap’pee), the spirit of the Nile and god of the crocodiles, and most importantly Osiris, the god of the underworld, whose bloodstream comes from the very depths of the Nile. Without the Nile, he would bleed to death. Osiris is the ruler of all the Egyptian gods. And my heart hardened when I realized that Moses and his God, had attacked the Nile in an attempt to bleed Osiris to death.
It was a horrible day. Fish died and Egypt stunk - stuck beyond imagination. But it was also a slap in the face against our gods Neith and Hathor (hather). They are the gods of our fish. And Hapi, the god of the Crocodiles was smeared as well, as crocodiles came forth from the bloody waters and inundated the land and scared and ravaged the people. Yes, gobbled them up.
My magicians attempted to follow suit as well as they could. But they failed. And my proud heart only hardened against Moses and his God. I was not going to give in to Moses, even though the bloody water lasted for 7 long days.
When it was gone, I felt like I had regained my strength. And then, Moses came to me again. He said: “Thus sayeth the Lord, let My people go that they may serve Me; and if you refuse to let them go, I’ll smite all the borders with frogs. And the river will bring forth frogs abundantly which shall go up and come into thine house and into thy bedchamber and upon thy bed.” Frogs in my bed! Really!
Now, You need to know, that we worship a frog goddess – her name is Heqt (hayket)– she is the wife of Khnum (ha – noom). Our frogs are sacred. In fact, I instituted the death penalty for anyone who intentionally killed a frog. It is a violation of our frog goddess. But Moses’ plague brought frogs into our beds – our floors – and our streets –frogs were everywhere. We couldn’t help but kill frogs by simply moving or sleeping. Moses and his madness only made me madder. And my heart was hardened more and more.
But it wasn’t over yet. Now Moses and his God brought gnats – yup – lots of mosquitoes and lice. So small you could hardly see them, but they were everywhere in the air and in the dust of the land.
So once again, I called on my magicians to duplicate what Moses was doing from the power of his God. And do you know what my magicians said to me?: “This is the finger of the Jehovah God. This is beyond us! We’re done. Sorry.”
What? Talk about a heart moving beyond hard– I had to be even stronger because my magicians became weak. Then Moses brought on the flies. A swarm of thick, nasty flies. They were everywhere – so thick you could hardly see and they literally ruined our land.
Once again I was angry – they were attacking our Egyptian fly god – Uatchit.
And while I’m seething with anger, Moses had the audacity to say to me: “the Lord has spoken - Let My people go; and if you don’t let them go - the hand of the Lord is on the cattle which is in the field, and the horses, and the donkeys and the camels and the oxen, and the sheep; and there will be a grievous plague.”
And then there was more singing by the slaves:
SING: Pharoah, Pharoah, O baby , let my go. Ya, ya, ya, ya
As they rubbed it in, Moses’ God separated the cattle of Israel from the cattle of Egypt, and no cattle that belonged to the children of Israel died. Only our cattle.
All the plagues up to this point, brought pain. But now, it would be a loss of personal property. Our economic system would be devastated. Our food supply destroyed. And once again, our Egyptians gods, Apis and Ptah (puhtah) and Mnevis (navis), would all be insulted.
Through these plagues, Moses and his God were attacking our gods. One by one. But you know what, I still didn’t listen. I just hardened my heart even more as another plague hit our land. This time, it was boils.
Moses was getting braver every day. He stood in front of me and took a handful of ashes, and tossed it towards heaven. And said: These ashes will become boils breaking forth with ulcers upon man and beast throughout all your land if you do not let God’s people go.”
O brother - Do you think I was about to bend to him now? Things were rough, but I wasn’t going to let Moses and his God win! I was in it for the long haul.
When the boils came, the people had oozing sores everywhere. There was a cry of pain across the land of Egypt like I had never heard before.
Our god, Sekhmet, who prevents diseases, was losing popularity with my people. I cried out to our god Serapis (seh ruh peez) and Imhotop (ee mow tep), Egyptian gods of healing and medicine, but they were both useless, useless and my heart hardened once again.
My beloved land had been almost totally devastated. But Moses was not done yet – he brought on another plague – this time fire and hail. The hailstones literally crushed the people. And then the fire came down. As much as I didn’t want to admit it – it was pretty powerful to see fire and rain at the same time. Their God was literally burning up our land. Egypt was being consumed beyond recognition. It was becoming a wasteland.
I cried out to Nut – our sky goddess. But nothing changed. Except for the next plague - locusts. I thought the first plagues were bad. We survived Moses and his God turning our water into blood, the frogs, the lice, the cattle, the flies, the boils, the fire and hail, but now - locust.
Locust live to devastate. They cover the face of the earth so thickly you cannot even see the ground. Can you imagine what I’m telling you? The locusts were like brown grass. And if anything at all is left that is edible. They will eat it. They are worse than vultures.
Did you know that locusts are capable of eating their own weight every single day. They can flap their wings nonstop for 17 hours straight. They fly at a speed of 10 to 12 miles an hour for 20 hours straight. Yes, they are little – but they incredible, nasty little insects that wipe out the land.
I cried out to Seth and Isis; they are supposed to protect our crops. They failed me, but I still held strong – I did not bend to Jehovah.
So next, Moses brought darkness over the whole land. O no, it wasn’t just dark, this darkness was darker than dark. Why would Moses and his God bring on this plague of darkness. I knew – it was to slap in the face to Ra – he is our sun god. Ra did not have power to shine through the darkness – not even a little bit.
Every morning when we Egyptians get up – we say: “Hail to thee beautiful Ra, who rises at dawn without ceasing. Hail to thee.”
And now – with darkness covering our land – and no hint of sunlight anywhere – Ra was being disgraced in front my people.
Finally, finally, I had no choice. The people were turning against me. So I decided to make a deal with Moses and the God of the Israelites. I agreed to let the people go, on certain terms. Terms that “I” would make. Since most of our animals were destroyed, the slaves could go, but their animals were to stay behind - with us.
Moses’ God refused my offer. Instead, the Jehovah God sent a deadly plague – but the plague was a trick – it came from my own lips. I told Moses, “Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more, for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die.”
Instead of Moses dying, Jehovah God sent an angel of death over the whole land. The life of every firstborn child, and every firstborn animal that remained, was killed. Including my own son. Only those with the Lamb’s blood over the doorpost survived the slaughter.
In my grief I screamed at Moses Get out of my land! He left. But then my hardened heart was hardened like never before. I realized I had lost – Moses and his God had won! How would I ever regain my power and status and position with my own people and the nations around me?
I changed my mind. And I chased after those Israelites with my finest horses and chariots – I was going to bring them back and restore my pride. History will record, that God opened up the red sea and allowed his people to pass on through – but my entire Egyptian army, to this day, lies at the bottom of the Red Sea.
I hear the God Jehovah is still in the business of delivering people from sin and bondage. This Egyptian Pharaoh would remind you –the gods of this world are no different than the Egyptian gods – they just take on a little different form.
I was stubborn, I did not want to give in to the Jehovah God, even though He proved to be more powerful than all the other gods. So think about it: Choose this day whom you will serve – in my hardened heart, I chose the wrong God – don’t make the same mistake.
