Rats!

Anuj*, a friend of ours in India, told us that he was teaching the Bible chronologically (using The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus) to two young men. When he got to the story of Moses and the ten plagues, he illustrated it with a real-life event that happened in India.

“Do you remember the rat plague in Gujurat?” he asked them.

The young men nodded — and shuddered. The news of the horrific incident had been broadcast all over India and drew worldwide attention. In 1994, a plague of rats struck the city of Surat in northwest province of Gujurat, causing an epidemic of rat-borne pneumonia and a hysterical mass exodus of frightened residents.

“The Hindus worshipped rats as a god** and refused to kill any rats,” Anuj said. “They even built shrines where rats could run around freely and feast on fruit and candy. But what happened? The rats ran rampant in the city and threatened the city with diseases. The ‘god’ that they worshipped became a plague!”

The sickening memory of the rat plague in Gujurat made an impression on the two young men. They were awed that, in the Bible, the Egyptians suffered not just one single plague, but ten plagues, each targeting a different Egyptian god or goddess. It was as if the Lord was saying to the Egyptians, "Do you insist on worshipping a frog? Ok, here are a lot of them!!"

The two young men began to realize that the Lord God of the Bible was different from all the gods that the Egyptians — and Hindus — worshipped.

"This is what the LORD says — he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it... he says: I am the LORD, and there is no other." (Isaiah 45:18)

* Name changed for security reasons

** According to Hindu mythology, the rat god accompanies revered Ganesh (the elephant-headed god) in all of his travels.