instead of sending plagues and murdering the first-born children?
2007-01-03 11:04:14 · 13 answers · asked by Mango 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
> Deities are of the Spirit realm. They are not in the Physical. They can only effect change through a link in the physical.
So what you're saying is God is only omnipotent in the spirit realm
2007-01-03 12:03:37 · update #1
Probably because he is imaginary.
2007-01-03 11:07:26 · answer #1 · answered by Nicole B 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Who can guess at God's true intent? Maybe he wanted the people to get some exercise instead of doing it all Himself.
What are you going to do? He's God. He can do whatever He wants.
As for the final plague, that one was decided by Pharaoh Ramses himself. Moses warned him that the final plague would be one that Ramses himself would announce.
Here's how it happened:
In an act of revenge for the previous plagues, Ramses decided to send in the troops and kill the first born of every Hebrew house. (This had been done before by a previous Pharaoh in the time of Moses' birth, which was why his mother Yoshebel put him in a basket and floated him in a basket onto the Nile River. He escaped being killed and floated to the palace, where he was adopted by the daughter of Ramses' father).
Since Ramses made the decree, God took that ball and ran with it. He sent the Destroyer to kill the firstborn of the Egyptians instead, including Ramses' only son.
The only homes that were ignored were the ones where lamb's blood had been painted over the door's entrance. The Destroyer would pass over those houses and leave the occupants alone. That's where the sacred holiday of Passover comes from.
2007-01-03 11:45:56 · answer #2 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Deities are of the Spirit realm. They are not in the Physical. They can only effect change through a link in the physical. Moses was that link.
In today's world that link would be considered Schizophrenia.
Spirits are barred from interrupting the physical and those that have done so have broken a covenant.
No magic hand could have been made and only through Moses could the Israelites be freed.
2007-01-03 11:24:02 · answer #3 · answered by tian_mon 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dude, the use of the words "Giant Magic Hand" to identify a power of the Divinity shows you possibly lack a fine tuned knowledge of the internal logic present in religion.
2007-01-03 11:12:36 · answer #4 · answered by Sammer (Jim W) 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Either because if there is a god he gets off on seeing death and people suffering at his hands or because it was all just a big scam by moses and his brother to start thier own kingdom and not have to worry about feeding thier families any more and live off all the people.
2007-01-03 11:25:18 · answer #5 · answered by hersheynrey 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
His "giant magic hand" may accidentally include the Pharaoh including the Pyramids.
2007-01-03 11:18:17 · answer #6 · answered by Rallie Florencio C 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No only that, but when Moses asked the pharaoh to let his people go, pharaoh actually didn't mind, and it was God who was making him not to. Just to have an excuse to keep torturing Egyptians. This one sadistic god.
2007-01-03 11:12:19 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
He wanted to destroy Egypt, punish them for their evil, and mock its rulers and gods. Each plague took the form of one of the Egyptian gods and showed the priests of that god were powerless even over that gods avatar.
He says in Exodus, "I will make war on Egypt." Generally in these stories it's important to remeber that G-d presents himself as a King who is fully prepared to act like an ancient King, behaving quite brutally towards people he doesn't like. He also says that later in the bible regarding Jews who don't keep his commandments, "I will make my arrows drunk with blood and nobody will deliver you from my hand," and "I will make it so that the most dainty woman among you, who can't put her foot on the ground without bruizing it, will withold the child and the afterbirth between her legs from her very own husband so she can eat it herself."
When he gets angry, he gets very angry. The point of these stories is to remind believers not to make him angry. (Non-believers too, but how do you get them to listen?)
EDIT: ALso your forgetting the people in the story had largely absorbed Egyptian culture, values, and outlook. In the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua, it's made clear the Hebrews were also worshiping Egyptian gods. Part of that outlook was that Egyptians were superior to them, and that they were rightfully slaves. These were 3rd and 4rth generation slaves.
It was as important for them to see Egypt, its culture, and religion being taken apart piece by piece as it was for them to be taken physically out of Egypt. Otherwise you've just "magically" transported a group of people out of Egypt who think they should get back to Egypt and start working.
BTW. G-d doesn't "Murder." Humans murder because they are taking a life they have no right to take. Since G-d creates the life, sustains it, and exercises ownership over it in a way no human can own anything, he takes life as a matter of his divine sovereignty.
2007-01-03 11:14:56 · answer #8 · answered by 0 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I guess for the same reason that the tooth fairy needs a tooth under your pillow to give you a dollar - that's just the way things work
2007-01-03 11:11:48 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Better Question: why did he allow the jews to be enslaved in the first place?
2007-01-03 11:07:41 · answer #10 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Plagues are a lot more fun.
2007-01-03 11:08:40 · answer #11 · answered by Fish <>< 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋