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| Depiction of Pharaoh Narmer's "mighty arm" |
The Egyptians were fond of imagery that derived from the concept of the human arm. Because of the powerful bicep and forearm muscles, they came to equate the arm with strength. For this reason, the arm served as “one of the first recognizable icons of kingship,”[1] the most familiar of the concepts of “Egyptian royal typology.”[2] Amenophis II, the pharaoh of the Exodus, celebrated his “weight[iness] of arm.”[3] The record of the battle of Shemesh-Edom envisions the Pharaoh “like a fierce-eyed lion, smiting the countries of Lebanon.”[4] Both the Amada and the Elephantine Stelae reference the prowess of Amenophis II, designating his battles as “the day of smiting.”[5]
Exodus 6 records God’s promise to free the sons of Israel from their cruel enslavement to the Egyptians:
6:5 "Furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.
6:6 "Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. (Exodus 6:5-6)
When the sons of Israel heard the message recorded in Exodus 6, they understood the reference to be a declaration of the supremacy of the LORD over the gods of Egypt as well as the pharaoh who paraded himself as deity. The Egyptians would perceive the message as a military challenge that must not go unanswered.
Symbolically, on one side of the battlefield stood the warrior Pharaoh, imbued with the power ofhis deities, the very incarnation of the sun god. When he challenged the LORD to a battle of military might, Pharaoh stretched forth his mighty arm as he had done so often in the past when threatened by enemies or taken with the fancy of subduing foreign lands. The king of Egypt prepared to strike at the God of the Hebrews, counting Him as weak due to the servitude of His people.
But Pharaoh underestimated the power of the LORD; after facing the God of the sons of Israel he learned the error of his ways. When the LORD smote Egypt with ten divine blows dispatched by His mighty, outstretched arm, He struck at the very root of everything that the Egyptians held near and dear, revealing the emptiness of their religious system. Pharaoh proved to be powerless to impede the departure of Moses as he led the people to the land promised to their patriarchal ancestors. The height of the humiliation occurred when the sons of Israel sang of the defeat of Pharaoh after crossing the Red Sea (Ex. 15), a victory hymn similar to the ones previously sung in honor of the conquered king.[6]
The lesson of Exodus 6 is that God is the all-powerful LORD who knows no equal! Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me (Isaiah 46:9)
[1]Ian Shaw, ed., The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University, 2000), 316. “The earliest known instance [is] a sketchy depiction painted on the wall of the late predynastic Tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis in the late fourth millennium B.C.”
[2]Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11, vol. 5 in The Anchor Bible (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 212.
[3]Ibid., 310.
[5]Ibid., 311.
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