Pharaoh was told, “By this you will know that I am the LORD” (Exodus 7:17).

The river, which formed the basis of daily life and the national economy, was devastated, as millions of fish died in the river and the water was unusable. The Nile was also believed to be the bloodstream of Osiris, who was reborn each year when the river flooded. The first plague, turning the Nile to blood, was a judgment against Apis, the god of the Nile, Isis, goddess of the Nile, and Khnum, guardian of the Nile. Thus began the challenge to show whose God was more powerful. When Moses approached Pharaoh, demanding that he let the people go, Pharaoh responded by saying, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go” (Exodus 5:2). Events like the annual flooding of the Nile, which fertilized their croplands, were evidences of their gods’ powers and good will. There was a god of the sun, of the river, of childbirth, of crops, etc. The Egyptians, like many pagan cultures, worshiped a wide variety of nature-gods and attributed to their powers the natural phenomena they saw in the world around them. They believed He existed and worshiped Him, but they doubted that He could, or would, break the yoke of their bondage.

The Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt for about 400 years and in that time had lost faith in the God of their fathers.