Learning something new

It's been awhile since I've read Scripture with the use of a Study Bible (my last two bibles were wide margin ones where I made my own notes), but I am enjoying the study bible that I recently picked up and much of its insightful commentary. For instance, as I'm workign through early Exodus and the plagues that God sends to the Egyptians, the commentators note that several of the plagues were in fact designed to directly confront Egyptian deities. Turning the Nile into blood confronts Hapi, the god of the Nile. Hail in the sky attacks the goddess Nut, god of the sky, and so on. Even the passover, where the Egyptian first borns die, attacks Osiris, the god of death, who will be powerless to reverse its devastating effects. It is interesting that the plagues were not just powerful acts meant to deliver the Israelites, but also symbolic of a battle between God and the gods.