Module build error: SyntaxError: Unexpected lodash identifier

Question

Module build error: SyntaxError: Unexpected lodash identifier

I am installing webpack for the first time.

I currently have the following webpack.config.js

:

'use strict';

let path = require('path');
let webpack = require('webpack');
let HtmlWebpackPlugin = require('html-webpack-plugin');

module.exports = {
  entry: [
    'react-hot-loader/patch',
    // activate HMR for React

    'webpack-dev-server/client?http://localhost:8080',
    // bundle the client for webpack-dev-server
    // and connect to the provided endpoint

    'webpack/hot/only-dev-server',
    // bundle the client for hot reloading
    // only- means to only hot reload for successful updates

    './index.js'
    // the entry point of our app
  ],
  output: {
    filename: 'bundle.js',
    // the output bundle

    path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),

    publicPath: '/'
    // necessary for HMR to know where to load the hot update chunks
  },
  devtool: 'inline-source-map',
  devServer: {
    hot: true,
    // enable HMR on the server

    contentBase: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
    // match the output path

    publicPath: '/'
    // match the output `publicPath`
  },
  watch: true,
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.jsx?$/,
        use: [ 'babel-loader', ],
        exclude: /node_modules/
      },
      {
        test: /\.css$/,
        use: [ 'style-loader', 'css-loader?modules', ],
      },
    ],
  },
  plugins: [
    new webpack.HotModuleReplacementPlugin(),
    // enable HMR globally

    new webpack.NamedModulesPlugin(),
    // prints more readable module names in the browser console on HMR updates

    new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
      minify: {
        collapseWhitespace: true
      },
      hash: true,
      template: './views/index.ejs'
    })
  ]
};

When I run webpack-dev-server

I get the following error:

Child html-webpack-plugin for "index.html":
    chunk    {0} index.html 921 bytes [entry] [rendered]
     [./node_modules/html-webpack-plugin/lib/loader.js!./views/index.ejs] ./~/html-webpack-plugin/lib/loader.js!./views/index.ejs 921 bytes {0} [built] [failed] [1 error]

    ERROR in ./~/html-webpack-plugin/lib/loader.js!./views/index.ejs
    Module build failed: SyntaxError: Unexpected identifier
        at Function (native)
        at /var/www/monitor/node_modules/html-webpack-plugin/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:14843:16
        at apply (/var/www/monitor/node_modules/html-webpack-plugin/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:494:27)
        at /var/www/monitor/node_modules/html-webpack-plugin/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:15227:16
        at apply (/var/www/monitor/node_modules/html-webpack-plugin/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:496:27)
        at /var/www/monitor/node_modules/html-webpack-plugin/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:6600:16
        at Function.template (/var/www/monitor/node_modules/html-webpack-plugin/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:14842:20)
        at Object.module.exports (/var/www/monitor/node_modules/html-webpack-plugin/lib/loader.js:32:20)

I am using these versions of the libraries:

"html-webpack-plugin": "^2.28.0",
"lodash": "^4.17.4"

Why am I having problems with the lodash library? Any advice is appreciated.

UPDATE: I also included the index.ejs file

index.ejs:

<!DOCTYPE html>
    <html lang="en">

    <% include head %>

    <body>
        <div id="navbar-app"></div>
        <p> Welcome, more coming soon! </p>
    </body>

   <% include footer %>


       <% include manditory_scripts %>
   <!-- insert component scripts below here -->
   <script src="dist/js/NavBarMain.js"></script>

    </html>