Why did God bring the plagues to Egypt when He said He loves us?

Wow! That’s an awesome question!

There are actually two reasons. First, the Egyptians were enslaving the Israelites (the Jewish people), who were God’s “chosen people.” God had promised the Israelites their own land through the covenant He made with Abraham. God sent Moses to tell the Egyptian leader, known as Pharaoh, to let the Israelites go free. But, Pharaoh refused so God sent the plagues to show Pharaoh how powerful He is.

Second, the Egyptian hearts were hardened and they refused to believe in the One True God. They chose to believe in a number of different gods. Our God wanted to show them who He is and how powerful He is so the ten plagues that God sent were all specific attacks on ten different Egyptian gods.

It wasn’t that God didn’t love the Egyptian people. He wanted to show them who He was and He did it in a very dramatic way. We know that Pharaoh finally let the Israelites go but, don’t forget, Pharaoh’s heart became hardened again and he went after the Israelites after he let them go.

But, once again, God showed His awesome power and he parted the Red Sea for the Israelites and they were able to escape. The Egyptians, who tried to follow after the Israelites, were all destroyed when God closed the sea in on them.