Q How can the plagues in Exodus 5:1-13:16 be understood as a battle between Yahweh the God of Israel and the Egyptian "gods"? What is the message here for us?
Yahweh wanted Moses to bring out people who were being made to work as slaves under the kingdom of the Egyptian gods. This is because Yahweh wanted to create a new nation with His chosen group of people led by Moses. However, this was not easy as there were several obstacles for God to tackle like the domination, the authority and the tyranny of the Egyptian gods. Though God had the power to overrule and show His authority over the Egyptian gods quite easily and quite conveniently, God chose to take the difficult path of making the Egyptian gods and the entire civilization of Egypt to realize and understand the Yahweh was the only true God who was the Creator of the things of the Creation including the Egyptian gods and the other human beings.