The parashah of this week (Vaerá, The Torah (Exodus 7:5) recounts the plagues that God sent upon Egypt. The basic idea behind these plagues was to punish the Egyptians for enslaving the Jewish people and not allowing them to leave Egypt. Furthermore, the Torah adds the idea that “Egypt should know that I am God” (Exodus 7:5).
The Egyptians, led by Pharaoh, did not believe in God, and the plagues served to reveal to them God's existence and His power. Rabbi Yitzchak Abarbanel explains that Pharaoh denied 1) God's existence, 2) His Providence (His ability to control everything that happens in this world), and 3) His power to perform miracles that transcend nature. The plagues shattered these three positions: the first three plagues demonstrated God's existence, the second three demonstrated His Providence, and the last four demonstrated His ability to perform supernatural miracles.
In fact, we could say that both lines of reasoning are, in reality, the same: the punishment of Egypt with the plagues consisted of nullifying its rebellion against God.
However, when we meditate on the phrases that come after each plague, we find another idea: to show the Jewish people the greatness of God (as the verse says (Exodus 10:2) “So that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your grandson […] and they may know that I am God.”) Here we see that the plagues had a purpose for the Jewish people as well.
Aren't the first two reasons for the plagues (punishing Egypt and informing Pharaoh) sufficient? To understand this, we must know that the entire universe was created "for the Torah and for the Jewish people." Therefore, even seemingly superfluous details and events that happen to other nations must have a connection to the Jewish people, to the Torah, and, most importantly, must serve a purpose in the service of God.
The Eternal's manifestation to Pharaoh and the people of Israel has a twofold, universal, and sublime purpose: that both Torah keepers (who may know who their Creator is) and non-keepers (who may know who the Creator of heaven and earth is and abandon pagan practices) may come to the feet of the Eternal, just as happened with the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt. In that exodus, more than 600,000 people from all the nations of the earth, who had been enslaved in Egypt, left, and the Eternal spoke to them the same rite and the same instructions. In today's parashah, the Eternal reveals Himself to all (Israel and Egypt), and this act is not limited to a single perspective. The Eternal's purposes are universal for all creation. Simply submitting to His will and His Holy Torah is enough to receive His blessings and be called the People of the Eternal.
Hello Yesid,
There are many levels of Divine manifestation. To Balaam, a non-Jewish prophet (see https://www.tuviaserber.com/la-tora/bamidbar/balak/God also appears to him, but not in the same way as to Moses or the Jewish prophets. In fact, even among the Jewish prophets there are many levels of prophecy, with Moses' being the highest.
Regarding the Gentiles who left Egypt accompanying the Jewish people, our sages explain that they converted. God did not give the Torah to all nations, but to the Jewish people. Within the Torah is a universal message for all nations, the seven prophecies of the sons of Noah, which must be disseminated by the Jewish people to the nations (see https://www.tuviaserber.com/bnei-noaj).
Greetings