Wisdom's Corner
God Against Osiris

You learned in the last Wisdom's Corner that God demonstrated how He was more powerful than Hapi, the Egyptian god of the Nile. This was done by God giving Moses and Aaron the power to turn the Nile water into blood. The river stayed this way for seven days. Even all of the small streams and canals connected to the river turned into blood. All of the fish in the river died (Exodus 7:19-25).

While Hapi was the god of the Nile, the Egyptians had a god connected with water. His name was Osiris. He was thought to be the second most important god. According to the Egyptians, he had been murdered by his brother and then brought back to life by his son, Horus, by magic tricks. After this he was king of the blessed dead. When an Egyptian died, he thought he had to appear before Osiris. Osiris would decide if he was innocent of wrongdoing. If he was, then Osiris would let him enter into his kingdom.

The water of the Nile was considered the life-blood of Osiris. By God turning it to real blood, He was demonstrating that He was much more powerful than Osiris. Osiris needed the good water of the Nile to live. With the Nile water now blood, it represented horrible death instead of wonderful life.

The Egyptians also had a goddess named Hatmehyt (that is a hard name to say). She was represented by the symbol of a fish. Many Egyptians wore fish medallions on chains around their necks as good luck charms. But she was shown to have no power. God had killed all the fish of the Nile.

And there was the god who was a guardian of the Nile, Khnum (another hard name to say). He obviously was not able to protect the Nile against the One True God. God had shown His power over three Egyptian gods with this first plague.

The One True God is a mighty God. He is all-powerful. The Egyptians found out the hard way that you should not go against Him. I do not think you want to go against Him either. But the only way to know how to go with Him is to study His word, the Bible.

Until next time, keep reading and studying your Bible. Get the wisdom of the True God. And if any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you.

Mark McWhorter

Copyright 1999

Published by The Old Paths Bible School
(http://www.oldpaths.org)