15/11 Series (Part 3): Among the gods...

Like today, the last few weeks had been packed with events. At first, it looked like Moses just needed to prove to Pharaoh that God, the ‘I AM’, was capable of anything. However, after the fifth plague, Miriam had no doubt that those plagues were no ordinary show of God’s omnipotence, but was actually a war of the Gods in display – with the Egyptian gods on one side, and the LORD, I AM, on the other. 

Who were they fighting for? The Israelites.

The Egyptian gods wanted them in perpetual bondage. The LORD, I AM, wanted freedom for His people – His beloved; and this, He was not going to do easily. He needed everyone – Egyptians and Israelites alike – to know that He is the LORD God.

Eighty-seven years in the land of Egypt, and Miriam had learned all she thought she could know about the Egyptian gods. Up until recently, she’d even believed in some of them. That’s why when she saw the River Nile, the great mark of Egypt, turn from water to blood she wondered what Khnum, the special guardian of the Nile, was doing. 

How come he hadn’t stopped the water from turning to blood? The whole of Egypt depends on the Nile for water. Okay, Okay, if Khnum was sleeping, how about Hapi, the spirit of the Nile. Will he let his habitation be defiled like this? Or Osiris, the god of the underworld; didn’t they say the Nile was considered his bloodstream? Where is Sepek? Where is goddess Neith; or Hathor, protector of the smaller fishes of the Nile, and also the goddess of love, beauty and joy? Where are all the gods? Are they all sleeping? Is this “new” God of my fathers more supreme than all these gods? She wondered. Days passed and the Nile was restored. Moses did it.

She was in the kitchen with Zipporah another afternoon when her teenage granddaughter rushed in breathing heavily. She told her of how frogs had covered the entire land of Egypt, and how the Egyptians had to kill so many frogs to survive.

“That’s not possible” was her first thought. 

“Oh sweetie, you must be mistaken. The Egyptians cannot kill frogs. Frogs are sacred beings. They represent fertility, you know; and also killing them is disrespectful to Heqt, the fertility goddess.” Miriam was whispering. Recent happenings in Egypt have become topics for discussion in Goshen, but the Israelites spoke about them quietly for fear of being heard by an Egyptian spy.

“Ol’ma, you’ve got to believe me. I was working in the fields in Egypt when I suddenly started seeing a lot of frogs around me; I looked up and saw that everywhere was covered. I and the other Hebrews ran back to Goshen.”

“Hmmm,” Miriam heaved. This was the second plague. 

Not long after she heard of the plague of lice that rubbished the purity of the Egyptian priests; and then the plague of flies that defied the thye god, Uatchit. 

By the fifth plague, she’d seen the trend. Every single plague seemed to defy one or more Egyptian gods and traditions.

Recalling all this in the middle of the Red Sea thrilled her.

Among all the gods in Egypt, none could fight. Not one. None of them? All of them brought to subjection? Among all the gods? Hathor, Ra, Khnum, Nut, Isis, Seth, Anum-Re, Mut, Khons, Serapis, Imhotep, Uatchit? Not even Min? Ahan! None of them? None of them could fight back? Ah, GOD of my fathers; MY God. I’m amazed. 

Distracted by all her thinking, she almost tripped on a little rock that was on her way. She steadied herself up, gripped her box of jewelries tightly and continued. 

Hmmm, she thought. These jewelries and precious stones, her part-payment for eighty-seven years of inhumane labor, had been gotten overnight. How did Azeneth, Djeserit, and Cleo become nice all of a sudden to give me all these items? When I asked, I didn’t even think they’d listen to me. Haha, God above all men. He made them do it by force. 

What a mighty God I serve! She didn’t expect anyone to answer that. She was beginning to understand who this God is. They were closer to the shoreline now. They had to hasten their steps. 

The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is His name.

Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods?