What Do the Ten Plagues Symbolize?

The Jewish people always required signs and miracles to believe in God. Whenever miracles ceased to happen their enthusiasm and faith waned. When their faith turned to doubt the people sinned grievously, not trusting in God. Why did Jesus perform miracles? Mainly so that the Jews would believe! We know that even with miracles the Jews had less confidence in the Lord than did the Gentiles.

Signs, wonders and miracles are tools God uses to eliminate doubt and increase faith. Signs and miracles mean things! The Book of Revelation is full of signs. Only the discerning, informed by the Holy Ghost, can piece together the signs for a complete message. That's no accident! God uses signs to divulge knowledge! The Spirit-filled Christian, when reading those signs in Revelation gets a fairly clear picture of the end-of-days. Without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Revelation means little to the casual reader and is just mass confusion.

Likewise, the entire Old Testament is a testimony to the coming Messiah. He's with them in Spirit, but has yet to become the image that we're copied after. This is an important distinction! Jesus was not born in our image, but mankind was born in what God called "our image". We were designed, rather well I say, to resemble the yet born God Man Jesus. The entire Old Testament is about "The Word" and The Word is who put on flesh. All the "Bible Stories" are about Jesus, and just as in Revelation, man can recognize Jesus in Scripture only by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

When the casual reader reads about Moses, that reader sees little more than "Bible Stories": How God dealt with early church patriarchs. However, the inspired reader, if discerning, will soon find out that all the Old Testament stories are "all about Jesus"! With that said, is there information to be gleaned from "the ten plagues"? Let's look at some likely givens:

1. Egypt represents sin and the Jews servitude to the Egyptians as bondage to sin.
2. The Pharaoh represents Satan.
3. Moses is a type of Christ.
4. Aaron would be akin to John the Baptist.
5. The Passover is a representation of the Crucifixion.
6. The wooden door stop and the blood are a picture of the bloodied cross.
7. The death of the firstborn is a picture of Christ on the Cross.
8. The parting of the Red Sea represents Baptism
9. Etc.
10. What is the message of the ten plagues. There's a message there or God wouldn't have went to the extreme of going through all the motions knowing in advance that all the plagues would only harden Pharaoh.

The plagues are termed "miraculous signs and wonders." The purpose of the signs are to impart knowledge.
The plagues were designed to contrast the power of Yahweh with the impotence of Egypt's various gods
Repeated throughout the narrative is the phrase, "you will know that I am Yahweh". Hence, the plaques are to reveal God. God revealed is Immanuel (God With Us). I believe the ten plagues are all about sin, grace, salvation and Jesus!

Firstly, I must admit a preconceived notion! I thought that somehow the plagues of Moses were a picture of the plagues of Revelation. Perhaps they are, but if so, I could find no correlation. However, I put away my bias and looked at Scripture to see what I could find. Here is my "take" on each of the plagues:

1. Change water into blood (Jesus purifying by water and blood-also the Trinity 1 John 5:6-12)
2. Frogs come up from the river (false prophet & unclean spirits-Rev 16:13; vs. Truth of Jesus)
3. Lice from dust (Original sin - disease passed down from Adam; Grace of Jesus)
4. Swarms of flies (Beelzebub [Satan] literally means "Lord of the Flies", Victory in Jesus)
5. Diseased livestock (Improper sacrifices [not fearing God]-firstlings of the flock-Deuteronomy 14:23, Fear of God)
6. Boils from ashes (Uncleanliness [sin]-Lev 13:18-23 & recovery, forgiveness)
7. Grievous hail (Seventh seal broken-Rev 8:7, judgement Rev 11:19)
8. Locusts from the coast (Torment of the unsaved-Rev 9:3-10, salvation)
9. Three days darkness (eternal life-the resurrection-Jesus time in the tomb)
10. Death of firstborn (grace-Jesus death on the cross, crucifixion)

There are many verses which speak of water and blood being purifying. The Holy Ghost represents spiritual cleansing. Hence, I believe the first plague identifies the Trinity of which water and blood is the symbol.

Frogs represent unclean spirits and the false prophets (second plague) . That's why Jesus came! The ministry of Jesus (gospels) was the explain salvation and then demonstrate it. Jesus came to "kill the frogs" so to speak so that we would know the truth and that he is that Truth. 

 

Gnats or lice are the third plague. No matter which, because both represent disease and sin IS THE DISEASE of mankind. Where did disease originate? With Adam who rose up from the dust. Adam is responsible for what's called "original sin". No man is good enough to save himself. As a result we all have sinned and depend on the grace of God to save us. Grace is the antidote for the disease of sin! Grace is Jesus' vicarious death on the Cross!

Beelzebub is another name for Satan and is translated "Lord of the Flies". The fly plague (fourth) represents Satan who soon shall be defeated and bound by Jesus then thrown in the Lake of fire. Hence, the Fly will be destroyed and Jesus will be victorious!

The fifth plague is diseased livestock. Since for a proper sacrifice the firstlings of the livestock; those without disease, were a proper sacrifice. The improper sacrifice of Cain shows that we are to fear God. We think of Jesus as our Savior, but he also will mete out punishment to the wicked and thus must be feared! Proper sacrifice is fearing God and Jesus, who is God, must also be feared, not only by Pharaoh, but anyone who is in rebellion!

Boils from ashes is the sixth plague. Boils represent uncleanliness and the definition of "unclean" is "sin". Boils can be "cured". We can "recover" from boils. That "recovery" from sin spoken of in Leviticus is "forgiveness" in the New Testament.

By coincidence (?) the seventh plague corresponds to the seventh seal in Revelation! "Grievous Hail" represents "judgment" and Jesus will be the judge of mankind.

"Locusts from the Coast" is the eighth plague. Locusts represent many things, but most  prominently  is the "torment of the unsaved". Locusts represent the pangs of hell and Jesus "saves" us from eternal torment!

Three days of darkness, the ninth plague, is a picture of the resurrection. Just as Jesus remained in the tomb three days in the darkness therein, likewise the three days of darkness points toward the tomb and it emptied!

The tenth plague is the death of the first born. This clearly represents God's sacrifice of his own firstborn to a real death on the Cross. Death that he faced so that we don't have to suffer for eternity!

This all is my "take" on the meaning of the plagues. It's not to diminish the need for the Jews to desire freedom from bondage (sin), but all the plagues somehow point toward Jesus! If a person goes to a commentary little will be found about the meaning of each plague, but to me the Holy Spirit has given meaning. Of course, another may get something entirely different from the meaning, but regardless of the individual interpretations, it's obvious that taken as a whole, the plagues were all about Jesus.

I used Scripture to shed light on each of these plagues. Consider "my takes" and critique if you choose and elaborate if you will. I doubt that the Jews had incite enough to understand what the plagues were all about, but I bet Moses and Aaron knew that it was Jesus (The Word) with whom they were guided and Jesus (Incarnate) who was being identified.