Is God Good? Investigating Egypt’s Plagues and the Flood

Everyone who is still alive in 2020 knows that the world is currently facing one of it’s hardest seasons. The top on the list of world woes is the Corona Virus pandemic that seems to be spreading very fast, with an increasing number of death cases daily.  Many have been quick to attribute all of these happenings to God, as acts of his wrath. In trying to excuse our good, merciful God as the source of the current pain and suffering experienced globally I have written this article.

Although, some insist on these things being acts of God by making references to Old Testament happenings like the flood in the time of Noah and the Ten Plagues, we can be certain that the current suffering in the world is not from God. To be honest it might seem on surface level that God has the capacity of causing pain in his sovereignty to prove  a point. But I will like pose some food for thought that might help the skeptic put things in their right perspective.

So, here are some points that should never be ignored when subconsciously attributing evil to God:

– God Has a Plan

God has a motive that is clearly stated in scriptures. God had a plan before the creation of the world. We clearly see that this plan is the salvation of mankind  or the summation of everything under Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:1-4, 1 Timothy 1:1-4). So, we see that God from the beginning of time had a plan for mankind.

Acknowledging this will make us realize why God did a lot of the things he did. Whenever we saw God act in his sovereignty, it was with respect to his plan.

Have you ever wondered why God chose to show so much interest in the people of Israel. It almost seemed like he didn’t care about  other nations. Well, guess what the answer to that question is, it is simply ‘His Plan’, His plan to save the whole world, not just Israel.

Jesus the savior of the world  was to come from Israel; hence God chose to relate with them in ways he did not relate with other nations. Look at your bible again, don’t you realize that after Jesus completed his work on earth, God as it were stopped relating with Israel with preference.

The messiah was to bring salvation to all of mankind but he was to come through Israel, that is why they were given special attention. God from the beginning of time has always been about the fulfillment of his plan (the salvation of mankind through Jesus Christ). When you realize how good a show of God’s mercy and goodness the salvation of mankind is you will understand why it was important that nothing affected that plan. Now that we have looked at that angle, let us go over to the next point and address the matter more specifically.

– The Great Extent of God’s Mercy

In the last point we stated the plan of God and how God has since the beginning of the world shown his sovereignty in the direction of his plan. Following that trail of thought let us look at specific events that seem to question the goodness of God. If God is good why did he choose to allow the plagues in Egypt. Mind my tenses, I said allowed and not caused.

If God is good why did he choose to allow the plagues in Egypt?

The story goes thus, Jacob and his descendants had come to Egypt at a time of global famine to get grain. But God had placed Joseph, one of Israel’s sons, through a series of miraculous events,  as the second in command to the Pharaoh. So, as result of that, Israel was preserved and found a place in Egypt. But as time went on the children of Israel multiplied and a Pharaoh came on board who did not know Joseph and turned the people of Israel into slaves.

The slavery of Israel happened for over 400 years. If you know anything about slavery you know that it is one of the most gruesome acts of wickedness. But God watched patiently for over 400 years as his people suffered in the hands of the Egyptians. To make matters worse , Pharaoh ordered the killing of the babies of the Israelite to reduce their numbers. But still God watches,  may be in expectation that these men will realize the gravity of their wicked ways and let God’s people go, but yet the suffering continued.

Then Moses comes to the scene, an Israelite child who escaped being killed and gets found by Pharaoh’s daughter. He is brought up under Pharaoh’s household and is trained as an Egyptian. But Moses is informed early enough about his origin and seeks to get close to his people. He kills a man in a bid to protect an Israelite, then flees Egypt where he is called by God to return with a message for Pharaoh to let God’s people go. After major confirming signs, Moses heads back to Egypt to give the message from God. But the Pharaoh refuses to let the people go, then God permits the plagues (done through Moses) one after the other and not until the death of every first born son of the Egyptians did they let God’s people go.

Even after their release, they still chase after the children of Israel to bring them back into slavery, but are drowned in the Red Sea. This looks like I just reminded you of a story you know too well from Sunday school, but I want you to pay particular attention to the duration.

God endured with those who chose to inflict his people with sufferings for over 400 years. You will expect that when Moses shows up with God’s message to release them they will oblige, but still it took plagues to convince these people that they were being wicked. This is a story of  God’s enduring mercy amidst him protecting his plan of salvation, remember what we said about God’s plan and the role of Israel in it. God was willing to endure for that long with people whose actions posed a big threat to His plan of salvation of mankind.

That is the extent of God’s mercy and that is what you should realize when you read the story. That should never be a defense for God leading to the deaths of several people.

What about the flood in Noah’s time?

Then we have the flood in Noah’s time which seems to be another bone of contention. Alright, the story goes again in Genesis 6, we see that the sons of God found the daughters of men attractive and decided to have intercourse with them. The next thing we see is that there is great wickedness on the earth, to the extent that God considers destroying the world. But then he finds a man (Noah) who seems to be different from everyone.

There is a crucial question here that should be addressed- what is correlation between the sons of God finding the daughters of men attractive and a sudden wide spread of evil. In fact who are the sons of God?

There are many theological debates to this, but the most probable answer to the question of who the sons of God are tilts towards spirit beings. Job 1:6 tells us that the sons of God and the devil came together before God. Jude 1:6 tells us about angels that did not keep their first estate and had to be locked in chains, he goes ahead to relate it to what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah in the next verse Jude 1:7. We know that the men of Sodom were bent on raping the angels who had brought the warning of destruction to them Genesis 19:1-13.

We see that in the time of Noah evil and violence had multiplied because of the mix between spirits and humans. The result were a lineage of giants who were fierce and brutal Genesis 6:4-6. This abnormal mix was why the world had to be destroyed, something had occurred that if left unchecked had the ability to affect God’s plan negatively. I hope you still remember that plan.

Think about it. These men because of their nature were unrepentant so much so that years of pleading and warning from Noah was met with repentance from just 8 people. Imagine that God made a way of escape for everyone.

The flood was not just God preserving his plan, but an act of God’s mercy in purging the earth from the grave evil that had filled it. In this we see once more the extent of God’s mercy, he even attempted to reach out before the flood to see if these people would change, but from the number of people who followed Noah into the ark we can conclude that these people were past saving.

I have tried to explain these two cases with the intent that we understand that even in these cases God remains good and not the architect of world evil. Also, that he displays his sovereignty within the confines of his will for man which is salvation through Christ.

The Coming, Death and Resurrection of Christ has changed everything.

Today God’s plan has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus. God has completely judged all the sins of mankind in the person of Jesus Christ.

Also, in Jesus Christ we see the nature of God explained, his mercy and is love can now be fully known amidst the grey areas posed in the Old Testament. He has been about that plan, the plan to save mankind through Jesus Christ. Just as we see how enduring God’s mercy is in both the case of the plagues and the flood, today we see that the warning God gives us is the warning to believe his gospel, because just like the flood, there shall be a conclusion of God’s plan when Jesus comes again. At that point those who believe in the gospel (the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus) shall be saved and those who don’t shall be damned.

So, those occurrences also act as points of learning for us who live in these times. In the light of this, it is inconsistent with the unfolded plan of God and his nature to inflict a virus on the earth to lead people to repentance. He has paid the price for man’s sins and rather kill me he would rather have them accept the sacrifice of his son and be saved. The conclusion is that God is not the cause of what is currently experienced world wide.

I hope this answered a few of your questions.

Here are a few other articles that will help;

How I know Coronavirus (COVID- 19) is NOT from God

If God Is Really Good, Then Why Do People Die?

Is God Really Good? – Revealing The Other Actors