Exodus 1-14
You can read my previous post on this lesson here.
Exodus as a Creation Story
In discussing the Creation previously, I've detailed how we actually get several Creation stories in the Bible, including the two in Genesis 1 and 2. Isaiah, the Psalmist and others make mention of the ancient Sumerian Creation story, where God must subdue Chaos, which is represented by a great sea dragon, Leviathan or Rahab.
In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. (Isa 17:1)
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? (Isa 51:9)
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. (Psalm 74:13-14)
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Rev 12:7-9)
In the Genesis story, Chaos is represented by Darkness and the Waters of the Great Deep. When the power of God passes over the Chaos, it is transformed into Order: Light and Land.
For the story of the Exodus, we begin a new Creation. The Egyptian world is a land of Chaos. There are many gods, each fighting for its spot in the pecking order. The Egyptians thrive, not because of the land, but because of the River. Without the Nile River bringing water and nutrients in the annual flood, there would have been no Egypt, no dynasties of Pharaohs, nothing. The people depended on the chaotic nature of the River (flooding in spring, lower at other times) to provide for themselves.
As God creates a new people, he takes them through the Creation myth. The Ten Plagues show the Chaos that Egypt brought upon itself by Pharaoh's fighting God and Moses in their Creation story. Turning the Nile River into blood is poetic, as it suggests the blood of Leviathan being poured out as God slays him in battle. As animals are created in Genesis 1 and 2, God destroys the cattle and flocks of the Egyptians, and replacing them with the chaos of frogs, locusts and flies.
The Darkness of Chaos is represented by the days of darkness cast upon the land of Egypt. Only God is able to bring the sun's light again in a new birth of Creation. As the firstborn males of Egypt die, the way is opened for the firstborn of Israel to depart to their new land.
Of course, Egypt's military dragons were not yet done. They also had to be defeated in the depths of the sea. Only God's new Creation is allowed to come forth on the other side of the darkness and floods. The Land of Promise was still far in the future, but sacred places were to be visited and created along the way.
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