According to the book of Exodus Moses and Aaron approached the Pharaoh of Egypt and told him, "Let my people go." The Pharaoh did not know of the god Moses spoke of so he refused to let the Israelites go. Because the Pharaoh did not meet the demands of Moses and his Hebrew god, God devastated the land of Egypt with ten plagues to convince the Pharaoh of his powers thus forcing him to let his people go.

What They Don't Tell You in Sunday School

Sure, this sounds like a lovely tale of a loving god wanting to set his people free but not if you actually read what the Bible says instead of just listening to the version preached in Sunday school. First let's take a look at why God wanted his people free. According to Exodus 5:1 God did not want his people free out of an act of kindness or love, but rather out of an act of selfishness. God wanted his people free simply so they hold a celebration in his name and worship him. In Exodus 10:3 God even says "let my people go, that they may serve me." God does not care about their freedom, he only cares about who they are subject to serve.

The disturbing part of this story is that the Bible has God killing and torturing innocent people for his own personal pleasure. The people of Egypt lived in a dictatorship and had no say in the freedom of the Israelites yet they are the ones who had to suffer the wrath of God's plagues. So who is the one to blame in this story? Virtually all Christians will point their fingers at the Pharaoh because the suffering and plagues would have stopped if he simply let the Israelites go.

It is true, as the story goes the plagues were to continue until the Pharaoh freed the Israelites but there is one major problem with that. The Pharaoh also had no say in the matter. If you actually read the Bible God hardened the Pharaoh's heart specifically so the Pharaoh would not be able to let the people go. God even planned to harden his heart in Exodus 4:21 before Moses even talked with the Pharaoh and in Exodus 9:12 God goes through with his horrid plan. Why would God do such a thing that would purposely prolong the suffering of so many people? The answer to this question is told to us in Exodus 10:1. God hardened the Pharaoh's heart so he could continue performing all ten plagues for the sakes of showing off. This is not a tale of God showing off his righteousness, it's about him proving his abilities at the expense of innocent lives. Why couldn't an all-powerful god demonstrate his superior skills and abilities without killing and torturing innocent people?

1. Turned all the water of Egypt of blood

Although the water did not really turn to blood it could have easily turned red looking like blood. There are two natural occurrences that would have triggered this story. The first possibility is the red soil of Ethiopia washing into the river and the second is an event known as red tide. Red tide is caused when a large amount of algae accumulate rapidly and release harmful toxins that discolor the water. In the cause of Exodus the red tide could have very easily been triggered by the eruption of Santorini. The volcano was 500 miles north of the Nile delta but its eruption was thousands of times more powerful than a nuclear weapon and its ash cloud would have reached far enough to completely cut out the sun above the Delta plunging it into darkness. This would have been accompanied by the kind of unusual weather seen after volcanic eruptions – lightening and perhaps hail. This would explain two of the 10 plagues – darkness and hail.

2. Egypt was covered in frogs, yes frogs.

The contaminated water would have caused all the frogs to retreat to the dry lands of Egypt. However the land being covered in frogs is not really much of a tragic plague. This just goes to show that what was later describe as an epic story of God's wrath started as a less significant natural event.

3 & 4. All the dust in Egypt was turned to lice & swarms of flies were upon everything.

The rotting corpses of all the dead frogs would obviously attract swarms of lice and flies.

5. All livestock (cattle, horses, asses, camels, oxen, sheep) were diseased.

The abundance of lice and flies along with the contaminated water and rotting frogs would spread diseases and sicken the livestock.

6. Boils broke out on all of the people and animals.

Disease again will travel with flies, lice, and dead frogs lying around.

7. A hailstorm, the likes that has never been seen by Egypt before.

Any hailstorm can be considered impressive when you live in Egypt. As previously mentioned the eruption of Santorini would have caused this.

8. Locusts covered everything and ate every tree & plant from their fields.

A massive swarm of Locusts is actually a regular thing in Africa and happens about once a year when water from rare rainfall brings life to new vegetation. The locusts travel down wind and devour all plant life on the way. These swarms are so massive it usually takes them three hours just to pass by. As recorded in the Encyclopedia Britannica the swarm of locus in 1889 that flew across the Red Sea was 2,000 square miles in size. If this natural phenomenon is to be claimed as a plague from God then why does it continue, long after Moses' people were set free? Could it be that the natural flight pattern of the locusts was merely interpreted by primitive man as the wrath of a god, just as lighting was believed to be the wrath of Thor?

9. A thick darkness blacked out Egypt for three days.

A swarm of locusts will do that and so would have the eruption of Santorini.

10. The firstborn son of every person and animal were murdered.

The Bible says every single firstborn son, who were too young to be guilty of any crimes, were killed in their sleep. It is not really needed to point out what a horrible act of murder at the hands of God this is. Regardless there is no mention of this event every happening in the history of Egypt.