How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture

by Dan Kimball

After four hundred years of slavery and life in Egypt, God decided it was time to rescue his people, the descendants of Abraham. He chose Moses to lead “the chosen people” of Israel into “the promised land.” God punished Egypt with a series of ten plagues to knock down the arrogance and confidence of Pharaoh, the Egyptian leader, and force him to release Israel from slavery. The plagues God chose were not random events—they were quite intentional. Each of the ten plagues was a direct assault on one of the gods of the Egyptians. For example, Egyptians worshiped the god Hapi, the Egyptian God of the Nile River, and it was believed that the god Osiris had the Nile River as his bloodstream. God demonstrated his power over the river—and the Egyptian gods—by turning the river water blood red. The Egyptians also worshiped the goddess Heqet, who had the head of a frog. God demonstrated his power over this Egyptian goddess by causing frogs to appear everywhere, showing that the God of Israel is the true God, not Heqet. The Egyptians worshiped the god Ra, the sun god and one of the most revered gods in Egypt. So the God of Israel caused the sun to go dark, showing he is the true God and has power over the mightiest of the Egyptian gods. After Pharaoh relents and releases the people, Moses leads them into the desert outside of Egypt, where they live for forty years before entering the promised land. Consider that for a moment. You have people who have been immersed in Egyptian cultur...