EL ELIM
The God of gods.
For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens. Ps 96 (4-5)
According to one estimate, there are approximately 10,000 distinct religions in the world. Religion is faith in a supernatural force that creates human behavioral practices that are consistent with morals, values, integrity, beliefs, and lifestyle. Some people believe in polytheism, while others believe in monotheism and still others believe in atheism. Different people have different perspectives and ideas about God, the supremacy of God, the afterlife, and so on. In Christianity, we believe in a single living God. Unlike other orthodoxies, we do not have a pictorial representation or image of our God "Jehovah." Our fundamental foundation for honoring God is faith. Our assurance comes from comprehending the unseen and eternal.
When God summoned Abraham, the first patriarch, he had the strange experience of hearing the voice of immortality. He obeyed the voice that told him to leave his home and travel to an unknown land with his wife and large livestock, which the voice led him to. As he remained childless until the age of 90, God called Abraham and promised to bless him with descendants who would soon become a multitude as numerous as the sands of the sea and the stars in the sky. Abraham believed in this unknown God and was rewarded with a son when he was a century old.
As promised, his descendants multiplied and had become known as the Israelites. God then revealed to people his name, Jehovah, and established a range of social and spiritual rules for them to follow. God has chosen Israel to be his own people out of all the other nations that are larger in population and have more powerful armed forces. They were legitimately his children, then he became their God. He was very specific in ordering them not to practice any other religious practices and to set an incarnation of a supernatural entity. He gave the instructions that must be preceded generation upon generation through his servant Moses.
"Worship the Lord in spirit and in truth," says John 4:23-24. Our God is a holy God, and he dwells in holiness. For his greatness and splendor, he is to be feared and respected. None of the graven images can foretell his likeability. God required the mortals to be holy and righteous in order to enter his presence and dwell in his sanctuary because he cannot be in an unclean place. Being holy in the bible refers to someone who is opposed to the world's sins and who follows God and obeys his law, respecting and worshipping him exactly as he says. Many of his people strayed from his ways and decided to live a disgusting life, rejecting God's presence, while a few choose to obey God and walk with him.
Our God is the Supreme Being of all known gods on the planet. His supremacy is unfathomable, his deeds are incomprehensible, and his comprehension is infinite. Greater is the power of his fists, which destructed an army of adversaries. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Patriarchs, all heard his voice, witnessed his blessings, and rejoiced as his promises came true in their lives. They all acknowledged one aspect of his nature i.e; his nature of providing for his people, guiding them, blessing them to prosperity, and so on). This is just not God's limit, so he decided to demonstrate his greatness to the children of Abraham.
The Israelites went into Egypt as a group of 70 to make a new life for themselves. They settled down and became shepherds. They have been initially treated with kindness, but as time passed and their population grew, the Egyptian king Pharaoh suppressed them and forced them to work as slaves for them. They were tortured day in and day out to build a huge city called “City of Rameses.” In addition, because of outgrowing birth rates, their new babies were ordered to be killed. As they were unable to bear it any longer, they cried out to their God for mercy to deliver them from the hands of cruelty.
Egypt was now a land of sorcery and deception. They had over 2,000 deities for everything, from danger to chores, each with different responsibilities and each having to be worshipped in order for life to be balanced. God dispatched Moses and Aaron to deliver the Israelites to Pharaoh. Pharaoh simply expressed his displeasure after hearing God's command to release the Israelites. He believed that the many gods of Egypt could defeat the one God of Moses and the Israelites. As a result, God decided to demonstrate his competency not only to Egypt but also to his children Israel, in order for them to understand his superiority over other gods.
1. HAPI, the Egyptian god of NILE.
In Egyptian religion, Hapi represents the annual inundation of the Nile. They prayed towards him to bless the Nile River, which served as the backbone of agriculture. Many rituals have been conducted in his shrine for the fertility of the soil, and he was thereby regarded as the chief among Egyptian gods.
Pharaoh and Moses met in the Nile River while he was worshipping the god standing on the riverbanks. He was unrelenting to Moses' request and denied letting go of Israel. So, Moses' delegate, Aaron, touched the rod to the Nile, and it instantly turned into blood. The river sank, and all of the fish perished. The Egyptian magicians were able to partially perform a similar miracle, leaving the king underwhelmed by God's power. The river, on the other hand, remained bloody for seven days and was thus unfit for use. This duration of time evidenced God's ability to the Egyptian craftsmen.
2. HEKET, goddess of Fertility and water, Renewal.
Heket was depicted as a frog and is revered as the goddess of fertility. According to the image, she had a frog neck and a woman's body, and she was also thought to provide strength to women during childbirth. Her priestesses were trained in midwifery, and most midwives started referring to themselves as "Servants of Heket."
As the Egyptian emperor continued to reject God's order, Aaron touched the rod over the creeks, water channels, and reservoirs, causing frogs to appear in Egypt. The frogs infested their homes, fields, cattle, and everything else that belonged to them. The frog plague affected everyone, from the palace to the houses. They were bothered by the presence of frogs everywhere and despised it. Pharaoh's wizards also performed the same miracle, but only Moses has been capable of driving the frogs away, exemplifying God's dominance.
3. GEB. God of Earth.
Geb was the god of the planet, describing the physical support. To represent the fertile earth, he was usually depicted with green skin or greenery on his skin. He was thought to be the father of snakes, and the goose symbolized both his identity and the tone he was said to chuckle, which resulted in earthquakes.
Pharaoh remained adamant about leading the people of Israel out of Egypt to serve their God and make sacrifices to Him in worship. Moses directed Aaron to take up his rod and smite the dust at the Lord's command. When he followed Moses' instructions, the dust turned into gnats across the land, on both the people and on beasts. Pharaoh's cults, astounded by God's power, admitted it was the finger of God. They couldn't compete with the Lord's sovereignty and couldn't perform the required miracle.
4. KHEPRI, God of creation movement of Sun, rebirth.
Khepri is an ancient Egyptian locust god who represents the rising or morning sun. He can also represent creation and the renewal of life by extension. Khepri was believed to be the source of the sun's motion and was ranked lower than that of the sun god. There were no shrines or rituals dedicated to Khepri, yet he was revered and respected.
Moses met Pharaoh in the Nile once more and inquired his people to let go. Nevertheless, He hardened his heart once more, resulting in the plague of swarms. This time, however, the judgment, or pestilence, impacts only the Egyptians, having left the children of Israel undeterred.
Pharaoh, plagued by flies, tries a new strategy and begins bargaining with the Lord, proving his desire to maintain power and authority over God. He tries to dictate the terms and conditions of the offer, telling them they can sacrifice but only "in the land," clearly not achieving the Lord's requisite of a "three-day journey." Moses held firm, and Pharaoh finally relented, allowing them to leave but alerting them not to "go far enough."
5. HATHOR, goddess of Protection.
Hathor was a goddess of protection who'd been featured with a cow's head. She was figured to be more potent than other goddesses, therefore more temples were built in her commemoration. She also was linked with cattle protection due to the structure of her head, which had a horn on it. Because of the dairy, the cow was highly regarded in the cultural context as an emblem of motherhood and nourishment. Hathor circumnavigated world boundaries, aiding deceased souls in their transformation to eternal life.
Moses urged Pharaoh yet again to let his people leave the land, however, and Pharaoh turned it down. As a consequence, he forewarned government officials about some other plague that would cause widespread devastation. And the next day, God destroyed the Egyptian livestock, exacerbating an economic shortage of milk supplies, food and farming, and materiel produced by the cattle. Despite witnessing God's incredible strength, the king's heart managed to remain hardened.
6. ISIS, goddess of Medicine and peace
Isis was deemed amongst the most powerful goddesses, and her fame spread throughout the Greco-Roman empire. She was thought to be able to heal both humans and animals after resurrecting her own husband. According to mythology, these gods of medicine were associated with healing and the restoration of life. This also explains why physician priests happened to come from the monuments of these gods in ancient times.
This time, unannounced by Moses, God directly attacked the Egyptians. Being instructed by the Lord, Moses took ashes from the furnace of affliction and threw them into the air. As the dust from the ashes blew all over Egypt, it settled on man and beast alike in the form of boils and sores.
Everyone, young and old, official and unofficial, men and women, had been afflicted with painful large boils on their bodies. Nonetheless, the Lord delivered the Children of Israel from the pestilence. so, the people's hearts began to tire, unable to withstand God's power. After experiencing the severity of illness in their bodies, their confidence in the goddess that would save them died.
The Egyptians' motto, "Cleanliness is next to godliness," was shattered by the boils on their bodies. The affliction rendered them unclean, forbidding them from entering the temple to perform rituals and pray to the goddess to save them. On the other hand, when Moses and Aaron stood unaffected in front of the King, they witnessed the power of the living God once more.
7. NUT, goddess of Sky.
Nut was the sky, stars, and cosmos goddess. She was liked to think to be a receptacle that transports souls to the afterlife. Her body was painted blue and encased in stars to resemble the night sky. Nut was commonly painted on the interior of coffins as she was regarded as an honor guard and defender of the dead.
God sent unimaginable sized hail to destroy the domesticated animals, servants, and people as a result of their sustained denial in sending Israel. Because of the weight of the hail, their fields and crops were also destroyed. God evidenced to the Egyptians that there is no one extra powerful than him in the sky and beneath the sky. Pharaoh, on the other hand, was adamant about keeping them.
Over and over, God destroyed their faith in their deities.
8. Seth, god of storm and disorder.
Seth was the god of storms, the desert, violence, and chaos. Seth was a powerful and often terrifying deity, but he was also the patron god of the pharaohs, especially Ramses the Great.
This is the second wave of widespread destruction to follow the hail, and whatever crops were left standing after the hail was now completely consumed by the swarms of grasshoppers unleashed from the sky.
Yet Pharaoh did not listen to God.
9. Ra – the Sun god.
Ra was considered the sun god in Egyptian mythology. He was the sun's, heaven's, kingship's, power's, and light's patron. He was not only the deity who governed the sun's actions, but he could also be the real sun and the day.
Three days of darkness fell on Egypt, and the people couldn't really see the people next to each other. To them, darkness represented passing and despair. While the Israelites lived in Goshen, they enjoyed the daylight and deemed it normal.
10. Pharaoh the Ultimate power.
The Egyptians worshipped Pharaoh because they regarded him as having greater power and authority. As he maintained his stance of not allowing Israel, God made the final move.
Moses summoned the Israelites and instructed them to observe the Passover feast, which required them to stain their doors with the blood of the lamb. He declared that God would destroy the firstborn of humans and cattle in Egyptian homes in order to demonstrate his superior ability of God in freeing them from Egypt.
That night, God destroyed the firstborn in every Egyptian house, beginning with Pharoah. He no longer had the strength to resist and eventually relented and let them go.
I hope you enjoyed how God delivered his people from Pharaoh's stubborn heart. He will save and redeem you from all the injustice and brutality that you are subjected to. He is indeed the God among all gods, and glory to his holy name.
Prayer: Lord, El – Elim, I acknowledge that you are the only true God who has been given to us to worship. Your courage and ability to save your children are admirable. Thank you for performing miracles in front of your children. I believe and admit that you have the ability to do the same in my life. I glorify and praise you with all my heart. Thank you for selecting me and my family to be your children. Continue to amaze me with your abilities in my life. In the name of Jesus, amen!
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