Moses and the Gods of Egypt (No. 105)

The story of Moses is not just the story of the liberation of a group of slaves from Egypt in the second millennium BCE. It is the blueprint of the Plan of Salvation of the world as seen from the structure laid down in the Bible.

Moses was the prototype of the Christ or Messiah. More importantly, the nation of Israel saw Moses as a prototype and the Bible record illustrates that point. Moses said:

And Yahweh said to me, they have spoken well what they have said. I shall raise up a Prophet to them from among their brothers, like you; and I will put my words in His mouth; and He shall speak to them all that I shall command Him (Deut. 18:17-18, The Interlinear Bible).

The comparison texts for this application are:

John 6:14 When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, 'This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world'.

Acts 3:22-23,26 Moses said 'The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul that does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people'.………. ²⁶ God having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you in turning every one of you from wickedness.

Acts 7:37-38This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up.' ³⁸ This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living oracles to give to us.

However, the fathers refused to obey Moses, as they would later reject Christ.

Acts 7:39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, 'Make for us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'

They made a calf and made sacrifice to it.

Acts 7:42 But God turned and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets.

Note the worship is of the host of Heaven (stratia tou ouranou).

We have seen that the term stars of the host refers to the subordinate elohim, including Christ, of which the stars are symbolic (Num. 24:17; Dan. 8:10; Amos 5:8,26; Mat. 2:2; Acts 7:43; 1Cor. 15:41; 2Pet. 1:9; Rev. 1:20; 2:1; 3:1; 8:11; 9:1; 22:16). It is God that makes the seven stars (Heb. Kumah, the Pleiades) and Orion who is to be sought and worshipped (Amos 5:8). The symbolism of the seven stars relates to the spirits of God. The seven stars are also seen as the angels of the seven Churches, which were clustered like Pleiades.

This angel in the wilderness, who appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai (Acts 7:30) and who delivered the Law to the fathers (and they did not keep it), was Christ, the righteous one who was betrayed and murdered (Acts 7:53).

This prophet to be raised up, from Deuteronomy 18:15, was also to be a priest from Psalm 110:4, and also a priest-king from Zechariah 6:13. There is no doubt that we are talking of Messiah, who will have authority over four subdivisional crowns or kingdoms in the Temple (Zech. 6:14). This reflects the structure of the Cherubim in Ezekiel 1:1ff.; 10ff. and Revelation 4:7.

Moses’ Life as the Plan

The Plan of Salvation is depicted from the circumstances of Moses’ birth and the stages of his life. Moses’ life was divided into three stages of 40 years. He lived to 120 years of age (Deut. 34:7).

The first forty years were spent in Egypt. The second forty were spent in Midian as a shepherd (Acts 7:29); and the last forty were spent in the wilderness. The symbolism of the three forty-year sequences can only be understood from the Jubilee system and the Sacred Calendar.

From the Plan of Salvation as outlined by the week and the Sabbath, we get the concept of six thousand years followed by the millennial system or reign of Jesus Christ lasting one thousand years, from Revelation 20:2‑6. Peter understood this equation of ‘a day for a thousand years’ at 2Peter 3:8.

More importantly, from Moses' life we understand the six thousand-year sequence was to be broken into three stages of approximately forty Jubilees each. That is 40 x 50 = 2000 years. The first phase was to be from the creation of Adam to the movement of Abraham to establish the nation Israel. The magnitude of the first phase is not understood. The establishment of the planet under a new system stemming from Adam is not understood, because it was wrongly assumed from the rationalisation of Augustine in The City of God that the Bible held that Adam was the first humanoid – which it does not – and also that the sons of God referred to in Genesis 6:4 were not angelic beings. It is now beyond doubt that the Hebrews understood the sons of God in Genesis 6:4 to be angelic beings (see Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls in English). Jude 6 says the angels were like Sodom and Gomorrah, committing fornication and going away after different flesh (sarkos eteras).

The understanding of human anthropology is a separate subject and is examined in the works Creation: From Anthropomorphic Theology to Theomorphic Anthropology (No. B5) and The Nephilim (No. 154). The significance of the Bible record, however, is that Moses' disposal, by placement in the bulrushes, is a reflection of the salvation of humanity by means of Noah and the Ark. This story is also found in other Middle-East legends. The story of Moses may have influenced them, but it is more likely that the common understanding of the Flood story is the basis. This was an essential phase in the cleansing of the planet. More importantly, it reflects the desire of the rebel Host to remove or destroy the figures that are to play a part in the restoration of the Law and of salvation to this planet. The attempt to destroy Moses in childhood was a reflection of the attempt to kill Christ in his childhood, from the murder of the children by Herod in Matthew 2:13-14.

Christ was also symbolic of the redemption of all Israel, and thence the planet. Christ was to have been called out of Egypt (Hos. 11:1, quoted in Mat. 2:15), which was used as the symbol of the world system under the rebellious Host.

Abraham had been given Israel. Isaac and Jacob had inherited the birthright by extraordinary circumstances. There were other tribal groups descended from Abraham, such as the Ishmaelites (Gen. 25:12), the Edomites from Esau (Gen. 25:25f.), and the sons of Keturah mentioned in Genesis 25:1, of which Midian was one. The birthright had passed to Isaac (Gen. 25:5), and then it passed to Jacob (from Gen. 27:6-30). However, the Lord had resolved to send them into Egypt to multiply them by adversity. This example is that of the elect, whereby it is through tribulation (Rev. 1:9) or adversity that we are to enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22).

The Israelites became greater in numbers than the Egyptians (Ex. 1:9). They were put to hard labour (Ex. 1:11) and the midwives (Shiphrah: meaning brightness or to garnish; and Puah: meaning to glitter or brilliance) were instructed to kill the male children (Ex. 1:15-16). The midwives, fearing God, refused to kill the males. The midwives obeyed God rather than Pharaoh and were given houses or progeny by God (Ex. 1:21). Thus those named for their brilliance discharged their duties as God required, and they were accorded a future in the nation Israel.

This story has application to the discharge of the educative (brightness) and priestly (brilliance) functions in relation to spiritual Israel and its development under persecution. Those who obey God rather than the ruling power are protected and given inheritance.

The Pharaoh commanded that the sons were cast into the river (the Nile, Ex. 1:22) in order to control Israel.

Moses was born to the tribe of Levi (Ex. 2:1-3). He was hidden three months and then cast onto the river. The story is well known. The cradle was guarded by Miriam until found by Pharaoh's daughter, who raised Moses as her son (Ex. 2:5-10). This action replaces the story of Horus saved by Buto from the floating island of Chemmis. Buto was god of Pe-Tep, hence one of the ten sacred local deities of Egypt (see Appendix).

According to Josephus (A of J, Bk. II, Ch. X), Moses became General of the Egyptian army in the major war against the Ethiopians. They had invaded as far as Memphis. The Egyptian Oracles stated that Moses was to deliver them and Pharaoh ordered his daughter to deliver him up to lead the army. Irenaeus quotes this tradition in his fragment (ap. ed. Grab, p. 472, quoted by Whiston). Acts 7:22 probably refers to this history. Moses married the daughter of the Ethiopian king, who became attracted to him, and the principal city was delivered up to him. Thus he was educated in the knowledge and military structure of Egypt that he might be prepared to marshal Israel and lead them in the wilderness. Thus God prepared a man and raised him by means of the world system to deliver men out of that system.

The Second Forty Years

Moses fled into exile from Egypt after having killed the Egyptian overseer. He fled after his brethren rejected him.

Acts 7:27-30 But the man who was wronging his neighbour thrust him aside, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹At his retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. ³⁰ Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.

The significance of the time spent in tending flocks was to demonstrate that Israel would spend forty Jubilees, from Abraham to Messiah, in developing its history and its biblical tradition, in other words, its store of wisdom. The first son of Moses, named Gershom (which means a stranger in a strange land), was representative of the nation of Israel and Judah.

The Third Forty-Year Period

The redemption of the planet as Greater Israel would commence with Messiah, as it commenced for the physical Israel with Moses.

Moses was called by God through the angel (Ex. 3:2) whom he termed Yahweh (Ex. 4:10; changed by the Sopherim to Adonai). The Angel thus carried the name as a symbol of authority from Yahweh of Hosts. God spoke through him (e.g. Ex. 3:4).

The doctrine of the resurrection expounded in Matthew 22:31-32 is founded upon the words spoken here in Exodus 3:6 by Christ to Moses in the name of God.

Moreover He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

God revealed himself to Moses and hence Israel here through Christ, as He would later do more completely to the world through Messiah in person. According to Bullinger (see Companion Bible note to Ex. 3:14), God revealed His name to Moses in the form:

'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh

I will be what I will be (or become).

The familiar form of this structure is YHVH, spoken as Yah(o)vah or Yahoveh. YHVH is treated as a first person form, but the Annotated Oxford version of the RSV states YHVH to actually be a third person form, which means He causes to be. The significance of this revelation is that God revealed Himself as a developing structure, which we now understand to be as becoming all in all (1Cor. 15:28; Eph. 4:6). YHVH became the third person reference to the revelation. Thus He causes to be is the reference of each of the subordinate elohim termed YHVH.

The Israelites were monitored and Moses was sent to deliver them out of Egypt and to take the inheritance of those who had forfeited their inheritance by rebellion. In the earthly instance, it was the sons of Canaan, because of the curse of Noah (Gen. 9:25-26) but more particularly because of the fallen Host. God commanded Moses to go to Pharaoh with the Elders of Israel to request that they go three days’ journey into the desert to sacrifice to God (Ex. 3:18) (this also relates to the Sign of Jonah).

Moses was reluctant to assume his duties. God appointed Aaron to be a mouth to Moses and God appointed Moses as an elohim to Aaron (Ex. 4:16).

And he [Aaron] shall speak for you to the people. And it shall be, he shall be a mouth for you and you shall be a god [elohim] for him.

Thus the subordinate relationship of Christ to God, as the word for God, was displayed in the relationship of Moses and Aaron.

God said to Moses that he would make Moses an elohim to Pharaoh in Exodus 7:1.

And Jehovah said to Moses, Come, see, I have made you a god to pharaoh; and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.

Thus the appointment was then shown to apply to the world system, where Christ through the elect, and here Moses as one of the elohim, was to assume authority over the nations.

The association of Moses as elohim is probably reflected in the transfiguration in Mark 9:4. This government system will be developed at a later date. The leaders of the nations are thus elohim, as Moses and Elijah under Christ, and David as elohim of Israel from Zechariah 12:8, where the house of David shall be as elohim like the Angel of YHVH before them.

From Exodus 7:2, God says to Moses (through the Angel of YHVH):

You shall speak all that I command you; and Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel to go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you; then I will lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth my hosts, my people the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. And the people shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.

Now it is of significance to remember the meaning of the word Israel. Israel is a combination of the words El (SHD 410, or God) and sarah (SHD 8280, to have power as a prince or to rule) hence: He will rule as God. This is the significance of the very name of Israel. Spiritual Israel is to rule as elohim.

The symbolism of dealing with Egypt was that Egypt was under the rulership of the fallen Host, and its pantheon represented the system of God's Council, but consisted of the fallen elohim. Pharaoh himself was attributed as a god-being to his people. However, more particularly, God was going to show His supremacy over the entire council that had been established on the Earth, as he would finally do in the Last Days, by a sequence of similar plagues and catastrophes.

In Egypt, God dealt with the provenance of each of the Egyptian gods. The Book of Revelation is the blueprint for the final phase, where God will deal with the gods of this world as they are worshipped at the end of 20^th century. In Egypt, He dealt with their symbolism then.

From the Appendix, we are able to see the general application of the understanding of the Council of the Gods and their subordinate relationship to their Creator, who was the Father.

The Egyptian system consisted of at least ten gods from the Book of the Dead (see Appendix), and it appears from that source that there were some twelve gods involved in the court or council presided over by the Chief Egyptian deity, symbolised by Amun or Amun-Ra. The Hebrew concepts carried into the first century CE were of the twelve sons of light and twelve sons of darkness. This indicates that half the Council had fallen with Satan.

The Book of the Dead was termed in the Egyptian: REU NU PERT EM HRU or the Chapters of the Coming Forth by Day. Hence the term Exodus is a direct reflection on and refutation of the Egyptian belief system. The plagues referred to in Exodus were a direct attack on the specific responsibilities or manifestations of the deities involved.

God gave Moses three signs so that the Egyptians might believe him. From Exodus 4:2ff., these were:

1. The rod, which became a serpent.

2. The capacity to become leprous and be healed at will.

3. The capacity to turn the Nile waters to blood.

The significance of the signs was that Moses was given power over the demons of Satan, over human flesh, and over the living waters symbolising the powers of the spirit.

The final threat given to Pharaoh was the slaying his first-born son (Ex. 4:23). The significance of this was explained by the context of Exodus 4:24, where the Lord is alleged to have sought to kill Moses. The reason was that he had not circumcised his son, as was the commandment to Abraham. Thus, Zipporah took flint and cut off her son's foreskin (Ex. 4:24-26). Hence, Moses was expiated by blood. The circumcision of flint was, as explained previously, that God was the rock by which all flesh would be circumcised in the heart and given salvation.

The Lord also sent Aaron to Moses; thus the greater and lesser witnesses of the Exodus also parallel that of the Last Days in Revelation 11:3.

When Pharaoh was asked to let Israel go and worship in the wilderness, he stated that he did not know Yahovah and that he would not let Israel go, and he punished them by removing their allocation of straw. The statement that Pharaoh did not know Yahovah was true. God had not revealed himself to Egypt, and after the Flood, the Egyptians had turned to the worship of the Host under whom they had been placed. Deuteronomy 32:8 has been altered in the Masoretic Text to read: He set bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. However, the Septuagint reads:

When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds according to the number of the angels of God.

This is supported by the Dead Sea Scrolls, which reads bene eliym or the sons of God (see The Elect as Elohim (No. 1)). Thus the nations were understood as being allocated to the Host, and Egypt was subject to the fallen Council. There are perhaps some 70 gods among the Egyptians paralleling the nations.

After the first request, the people turned on Moses because of their broken spirit and cruel bondage (Ex. 6:9), and Moses doubted his task, alleging he was of uncircumcised lips (Ex. 6:12,30). However, the Lord said: “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand he will send them out” ... (Ex. 6:1). This parallels the later Exodus after the return of the Messiah, where the brethren of Israel will be brought out of all the nations as an offering to the Lord and for priests and Levites (Isa. 66:20). Thus the hardness of the Egyptians’ hearts was to demonstrate the supremacy of Yahovah over the fallen Host in a physical manner.

Moses was eighty years old when he was made an elohim (Ex. 7:1) and sent to Pharaoh (Ex. 7:7). Thus commenced the third phase.

Miracles

1. The Serpents

The serpent/rod ate the serpents of the Egyptians (Ex. 7:10-13), demonstrating the supremacy of Yahovah. The cobra was the symbol of Egyptian sovereignty.

2. Blood

The Nile and all Egyptian waters were turned to blood and the fish died (Ex. 7:17-19). The Egyptian magicians did the same, and the Egyptians dug soaks (Ex. 7:24) around the Nile, filtering the water through the sand. Thus Pharaoh had a quasi-scientific explanation for the phenomena and so he doubted that it was of God, just as the scientists of the Last Days will explain what is happening to the planet during the trumpets and the vials of the wrath of God. The attack here is also on Buto and the deities of the Nile Delta.

3. Frogs

After seven days Moses was again sent to ask Pharaoh to let Israel go, or the next plague was to be of frogs, and also concerning the Nile (Ex. 7:25 to 8:2). The Nile was the principal source of life in Egypt and was so consistent in its flooding that the Egyptians relied upon it instead of upon God. That is why the Israelites were not given Egypt (or Assyria), but rather Israel, because the rains in due season could then directly reflect their relationship with God.

The frogs represented the spirits, but not only of Egypt. This plague is also indicative of the unclean spirits of the Last Days, who are like unto frogs which come out of the mouth of the dragon, the Beast and the false prophet (Rev. 16:13).

The magicians also did the same, bringing frogs upon the land (Ex. 8:7). Pharaoh entreated Moses to take away the frogs, leaving them only in the Nile (Ex. 8:9). Moses did this but Pharaoh, having an explanation for the plague, did not let Israel go. This will occur again.

4. The Flies

In Exodus 8:20ff., the Lord sent Moses to bring a plague of flies upon Egypt. However, the land of Goshen where the Israelites dwelt would be free of flies. Now this plague may have had variant types of flies, gnats and mosquitoes. The nature is not made clear.

This sign was to put a division between Israel and the Egyptians. The intent was by visible means to make Israel a separate and Holy People. Among the Canaanite peoples, the relatives of the Egyptians, the flies were also the symbol of Baalzeebub, the god of Ekron. The tattoo of the fly was seen in Egypt from the end of the third millennium BCE, as was the cross in a form like a swastika. This aspect is covered in the section on Symbols under Tattoos and also in the paper Tattooing (No. 5).

The fly was the ever-present visitor at sacrifices and it seems likely that it was taken to symbolise the fact that the god partook of his sacrifices in that manner. Thus what was taken to be propitious in moderation was turned into a plague of offence. The symbols were thrust down the throats of the Egyptians.

Pharaoh said then that the Israelites could sacrifice within the boundaries of Egypt (Ex. 8:25), but Moses refused as the Egyptians had strong taboos on foreign religious practice and that provided a good reason. Pharaoh then said he would allow them to go a slight distance away (Ex. 8:28). Moses took away the flies, but Pharaoh again refused to let them go.

5. The Plague of the Cattle

The next plague may have resulted from anthrax or other diseases spread by the flies, but this is modern scientific conjecture to reduce the miraculous nature of God's intervention. However, the cattle (including horses, asses, camels, herds, and flocks) of Israel were not affected. No doubt it will be construed that it was because the flies were not present among them either. Pharaoh was given twenty-four hours notice and yet the cattle still died. The distinction of holiness was extended to the cattle because of the requirements of the distinction in the sacrifice and that it was to be symbolic of the sacrifice of Messiah. The bull was also held sacred in Egypt to Apis, and was identified by its markings. Thus the slaying of the cattle was a direct attack on the manifestation of Apis.

6. Boils

Pharaoh would still not let Israel go and so a plague of boils was sent on the Egyptians (Ex. 9:8-12). The magicians also were afflicted, demonstrating their inability to control this problem. This plague was a direct attack on the shamanism of the medico-mystical processes in Egypt. John J. Davis, in Moses and The Gods Of Egypt, notes the lack of distinction in Egypt between magic and medicine (p. 82).

The plague affected both stock and people, reflecting their unclean condition, but Pharaoh still refused them permission to go. This condition will apply in the Last Days when men shall again be afflicted with terrible sores, arising from the mark of the Beast (Rev. 16:11).

After the plague of boils, when Pharaoh would not let Israel go, it was declared to Egypt that God could have destroyed them, but they were not destroyed so that the power of the Lord could be made manifest throughout the Earth (Ex. 9:16).

7. Hail

The Egyptians were given twenty-four hours’ notice to get their stock into shelters or they would die in the field, both man and beast. The notice was given as a warning and a taunt because the sorcerers of Egypt were also agricultural shamans who controlled weather. This plague will again be used in the Last Days (Rev. 11:19; 16:21). Those who feared the Lord went into shelter; those who did not died in the fields (Ex. 9:21). Thunder, hail and fire rained down upon the Earth, shattering every man and beast and every tree of the field except in Goshen (Ex. 9:26). Pharaoh relented, but Moses said that he knew that Pharaoh and his servants did not yet fear the Lord God (Ex. 9:30).

8. Locusts

The Lord used this plague to establish the requirement that the humbling of Pharaoh and Egypt was to be passed down through the generations (Ex. 10:2). The locusts were used to complete the stripping of the fields that had been commenced by the hail (Ex. 10:3-6).

Pharaoh attempted to let only the men go and hold the women and children as hostage against their return (Ex. 10:8-11). The plague was then sent which devastated the land, and hence the power of the gods and shamans of agriculture. On request from Pharaoh, Moses entreated the Lord and a strong west wind blew the locusts into the Red Sea (Ex. 10:19).

9. Darkness

This was a direct attack on the power of the supreme deity of Egypt, the Sun god, Ra or Amun-Ra. This thick darkness was over Egypt three days, but the people of Israel had light where they dwelt (Ex. 10:21-23).

Pharaoh then gave the Israelites permission to leave, but their flocks and herds had to remain. Moses refused on the grounds of the sacrifice (Ex. 10:25). Pharaoh was hardened and stated that the day he saw Moses’ face again Moses would die. Moses said: “As you say; I will not see your face again” (Ex. 10:29). Pharaoh pronounced his own punishment.

God stated that after one more plague Pharaoh would drive Israel away completely (Ex. 11:1).

10. The Killing of the First-born

God resolved to kill the first-born of Egypt (Ex. 11:4), but to protect Israel such that not even a dog would howl, so that the distinction between the two peoples would be known. The first-born was holy to the Lord and the symbol of the fruits of a nation. The Egyptians had reversed the calendar, making night follow day and being solar-based. Thoth, also the Moon god, was the scribe of the gods and the Egyptian equivalent of Hermes. He was the closest to the concept of the spokesman for the gods. His wife was also termed the Mistress of the House of Books, Mistress of the House of Architects, and Foundress of Temples. Thus the pair assumed the titles that are biblically appropriated to Messiah and his Church.

Thus the symbolism of slaying the first-born on the night of the full moon and the removal of Israel from Egypt on that day and night was a display of authority over those deities. It was also a symbol of authority over the term: the coming forth by day or perhaps into the day, as some authorities render the Egyptian words. This view gave the basis for the ancient title Chapters of Coming Forth By Day of what is now known as the Book of the Dead (Budge, Arkana, NY 1985 Introduction, pp. xciii-xciv): Commencing Chapter I, the PERT EM HRU,

symbolises the well known belief of the ancient Egyptians that the journey to the Other World occupied the deceased the whole night of the day of his death, and that he did not emerge into the realms of the blessed until the following morning at sunrise.

As the dead person was accompanied to the tomb, the priest declared to the dead man that: he was Thoth [the scribe of the Gods] and the Great God and that he had the power to do on his behalf all that he and Horus did for Osiris ...(ibid.).

Thus God brought the Israelites out from the night of the Passover by day and by night to demonstrate this aspect of Egyptian blasphemy, after He had killed their first-born in the middle of the night. Hence the journey of the dead was understood by them to be incomplete, and that God had control over life and death.

The ordinance of the Passover ceremony was then established as occurring in Abib or Nisan which, from this ceremony, was established as the beginning of the Sacred Year. The lamb was to be set aside on the Tenth day of the month, according to households. The Passover Lamb was Messiah, and he was killed in accordance with the requirements of that ceremony as the expiation from sin and redemption. The lamb was to be killed on the Fourteenth day of the month in the evening (i.e. towards the end of the 14^th). In the First month in the Fourteenth day of the month at even, the beginning of the holy day of 15^th Abib, we are also commanded to eat unleavened bread for seven days until the Twenty-first day of the month at evening (Ex. 12:18-19). This is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

After the killing of the Passover, the blood was spread on the door-posts and lintels and Israel stayed indoors. The significance of the Passover is that it was the night that the death angel passed over Israel, with the sacrificial lamb – the Messiah – being the expiatory sacrifice. He was to be killed exactly as this ceremony dictated, to open up the way for Israel into a relationship with God. This Passover is to be the mark on the hand and between the eyes, between the Lord and us.

The Lord did not let the people go by way of the Philistines in case they saw war and went back to Egypt, even though it was the nearest and easiest route. Instead, he took them by way of the Red Sea (Ex. 13:17-18).

The Israelites camped at Pi Ha Hiroth in front of Baal-Zephon. Some read Baal-Zephon as the Lord of the Typhon or Destroyer, others the Lord of Winter. We are, however, dealing with another concept of divinity and the tenth plague of Egypt. Thus we are dealing with the ten deifications of Egyptian lands and Osiris.

While there, the Israelites were overtaken by the Egyptian army. Modern Bibles attempt to assert that this was the Reed Sea further north, in an attempt to diminish the extent of the miracles involved in this activity. Christ placed himself in a Pillar of Fire and Cloud between Israel and the Egyptian host. The story is well known.

From Exodus 14:10, when the Egyptian army drew near the people were afraid. Moses said:

Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation the Lord, which he will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be still.

Moses was commanded to lift up his rod and to divide the sea and then to go forward, so that the chariots would be driven in and the Egyptian host drowned:

… so that the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.

This represented the last hardening of Pharaoh's heart by the Lord. Thus this was the tenth and last plague.

The Pillar of Fire and Cloud

The pillar of fire had special significance for the Egyptians. The 63^rd chapter of the Book of the Dead, from its title, provided expressly that the head of a man shall not be cut off in the underworld. In that chapter, Osiris claims the title being appropriated to Christ as Messiah. It reads:

I am the Great One, the son of the Great One; I am Fire, the son of Fire, to whom it was given his head after it had been cut off...I have made myself whole and complete; I have renewed my youth; I am Osiris, the Lord of Eternity (Budge, ibid., Intro., p. xxxiv).

Similarly, in chapter 69 (Budge, op. cit., p. 234), Osiris claimed to be the Fire God, the divine brother of the Fire God ... the first-born of the gods and heir of my father Osiris-Seb (?). Thus the ‘pillar of fire and cloud’ served both as a beacon to Israel and a rebuke to Egypt (and Osiris), who saw it as Fire when they were drowned and hence not one had his head severed in battle. Further, the death in water was perhaps an allusion to the ancient predynastic practice and later prohibition against boiling the flesh of the dead in water (Budge, ibid.).

The story of Moses is thus an integral part of the understanding of the Passover. It is of significance in dealing with the phases and also the forms of deception that are employed in preventing the real understanding of what happened in the rebellion of the Host and the Plan of Salvation in dealing with that structure, and bringing the Host back in as one, within the will of God.

Thus the end of the story is the trek into the wilderness for the next forty years. This trek was to symbolise the wanderings of spiritual Israel within the world system as a persecuted people under affliction, but growing in grace and knowledge. The forty years symbolised the forty Jubilees, or two thousand years, that was to expire until the coming of the Messiah with power and glory. With a mighty hand he will bring Israel out in the next Exodus, referred to in Isaiah 66. This time, the elect will help as spirit beings. The plagues of Egypt will be repeated, as is evident from the prophecies concerning the Feast of Tabernacles and the return of the Messiah.

It was universally understood at the end of the Flood, and had been adopted into both the Sumerian and Egyptian cosmologies, that the gods were found to be in a council. There was understood to be a creator of these elder gods and also that they were ruled by a president. The Chinese termed the Supreme God the Heavenly Master of the First Origin. The second personage of the Godhead was the entity known as the August Personage of Jade, who ruled surrounded by a court. He rules the Earth and will one day be replaced by The Heavenly Master of the Dawn of Jade of the Golden Door (New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, p. 381). This understanding accords with the biblical position that the world is ruled by a Morning Star, namely Satan, who will be replaced by a new Morning Star, Christ. This understanding permeates the nations of the world and is central to an understanding of Mysticism.

The Assyro-Babylonian cosmology accords a Father of the elim or gods, called Ea (New Larousse, p. 56). He created Marduk, who is the light of the Father who begot him. Marduk was accorded the position of supreme authority by the assembly of the gods before the great battle of the heavens with Tiamat. He was allegedly creator of all things and the shepherd of the gods. Marduk had all authority conferred on him by Ea and thus absorbed all the other elim and took over their functions and prerogatives. This allocation approximates the biblical position by counterfeit.

The Sumerians likewise had Enki saying:

My father, the king of the Universe brought me into existence in the universe, My ancestor, the king of all the lands, Gathered together all the me's, placed the me's in my hand... I am the “big brother of the gods... I am the leader of the Anunnaki, I am he who has been born as the first born son of the holy An” (Eliade, Gods, Goddesses and Myths of Creation, Harper & Row, p. 22).

However, it is only polytheist in the sense of the fact that the wills are external to that of God the Father. This is why the Egyptian system is misunderstood also. Egypt had a similar system. From the Coffin Texts (1, 161ff., Tr. by R.T. Rundle Clark in his Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, London, 1959, p. 80), allegedly dating from ca. 2250-1580 BCE, Atum was the creator of the Eldest Gods (equating with the Council of the Elders). Thus the Egyptians sought to make a council of the Elohim, which was centred upon the presidency of Atum.

From chapter 18 of the Book of the Dead, the Egyptians had groups of gods in ten localities representing ten important occasions in the history of Osiris, each under a god. The localities are:

1. Annu (Heliopolis)

2. Tattu (Busiris)

3. Sekhem (Latopolis)

4. Pe-Tep (Buto)

5. The Rhekti lands

6. Abtu (Abydos)

7. The Place of Judgment

8. Tattu (Mendes)

9. An-rut-f

10. Re-stau.

The gods of these localities were:

1. Tem, Shu, Tefnut.

2. Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, Heru-netch-hra-tef-f.

3. Heru-khenti-an maati, Thoth.

4. Horus, Isis, Kestha (formerly Mestha), Hapi.

5. Horus, Isis, Kestha.

6. Osiris, Isis, Ap-uat.

7. Thoth, Osiris, Anubis, Astennu.

8. Amun, Shu, Hatmeyt.*

9. Ra, Osiris, Shu, Bebi.

10. Horus, Osiris, Isis (Budge, op. cit., p. cvii).

* Note: Hatmeyt is an equivalent of Dercato (goddess of fish)

The Egyptians believed that by specific death rituals by duly appointed priests, they could acquire the power of developing out of the dead body an immaterial body called a sahu, which was able to ascend to heaven and dwell with the gods there. The sahu was immortal and took the form of the body from which it sprang. The sahu was the repository of the soul, being placed there by the gods (Budge, ibid., p. 280).

The soul consisted of a ka whose normal dwelling place was in a tomb with the body. However, it could wander about at will and enter any statue of the individual. Thus the Egyptians did not worship statues; they worshipped the ka that it represented. Thus tomb offerings were to make it unnecessary for the ka to wander. The ba or heart soul was connected with the ka and could assume material or immaterial forms at will. It is depicted as a human-headed hawk in the papyrus of Nebqet in Paris.

Animal life, and good and evil, resided in the heart or the ab. It was measured in the Judgment, which seemingly took place soon after death in the Judgment Hall of Osiris, who was Judge. The condemned were devoured straight away by the Eater of the Dead. Thus there was no general concept of a Resurrection of the Dead. Those not condemned went immediately to the domains of Osiris into everlasting happiness. In the time of King Unas (Budge, ibid., p. lxvii & p. 286) evidence is found of the khaibit or shadow, which was associated with the ba and resided with the ka. The Khu is also connected with the ba or heart soul but it is an ethereal being, and in fact The SOUL. Under no circumstances can it die. It dwelt in the sahu.

The sekhem or power can be seen as the incorporeal personification of the vital force of the person. The sekhem dwelt in heaven among the khus or spirits. It is usually mentioned in connection with the soul and the spirit (ibid., p. lxviii).

The Egyptians held that the ren or name of a person must be preserved or he ceased to exist. It ranked equally with the ka. This view is consistent with the biblical Book of Life. There are thus a number of concepts that are akin the biblical but which seek to appropriate to the individual immortality, which the Bible attributes only to God. Similarly the concept of demonic possession could be catered for in another complex cosmology.

The cult of Osiris, Isis and Horus, is also part of the structure of the dying god we see with Attis and Adonis. In Egypt, Isis was seen as the centrality of the Mother-goddess system in the Triune god. She was symbolised by SSS and in numerical terms this was also 666. Thus the later Christian identification of the Beast system was associated with the Mysteries based on Isis. She also became the Star of the Sea or Stella Maris. This aspect was introduced by Greek sailors and is understood as being Sirius rising in July and heralding the calm waters of the area. The identification and other aspects of Isis were all passed to the Mother-goddess system in Mariolatry. She was also identified with Hathor in the fertility cults and was associated in that aspect with the Golden Calf, as we see in the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222).

Osiris was also mourned as the dying God and is related to the other Mystery cults in this aspect. The devotees of the cult shaved their heads and wore wigs. This is held to be the undoubted origin of the tonsure in Christian Monasticism, and explains the difference between the tonsure in the Celtic system, via Carthage, and the Roman system. Frazer has extensive notations on the systems in The Golden Bough (Vols. iv; v; & vi, McMillan, 3^rd ed. 1976 print).

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