(Exodus 7:14-25)
14. And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.
15. Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water;
and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand.
16. And thou shalt say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness:
and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.
17. Thus saith the LORD, In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.
18. And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river.
19. And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood;
and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.
20. And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
21. And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
22. And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the LORD had said.
23. And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also.
24. And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.
25. And seven days were fulfilled, after that the LORD had smitten the river.
(Exodus 7:14-25)
The first of the ten “plagues” or judgments on Egypt was against the river Nile. Life was and still is possible in Egypt because of the Nile. An otherwise desert area is made fertile by the waters of the Nile. The Nile then, and even now, has a religious significance among the peasants. It represents the blessing of the land by the powers inherent in the natural world. For the Nile to turn to blood would obviously mean that Egypt was cursed, not blessed.
At this point, scholars of a modernistic bent hasten to “inform” us that there is a natural explanation for this and other plagues. From time to time, minute fungi or, in other instances, tiny reddish insects redden the water and make it unfit to drink. At other times, frogs become prolific, and so on. This may be true enough, but if the plagues were no more than familiar natural occurrences, no power could be imputed to Moses and his God. The Egyptians were good observers of natural phenomena; the plagues had to be different in nature and intensity to have any impact on the Egyptians.
Moreover, we are told that the Egyptians had magicians who were able on a limited scale to redden waters also (v. 22). This encouraged Pharaoh in his resistance. How Moses was able to affect all the water in Egypt, Pharaoh did not know. His answer was to retreat into his palace.
Parker wrote:
There is a period in life when we can only see sin in the light of its punishment, that, indeed, is not to see sin at all, but that is the chronic sophism with which all high spiritual teaching has to contend, and to contend almost impotently, because of the deceitfulness of the heart. When we are in the right mind we shall not need
to see hell in order to know what sin really is; we shall know it afar off, because it has shaped itself into overt evil behaviour. We should hate it as a spiritual possibility, if no stain had been made upon the snow of the universe.77
The basic sin of Egypt was to see the world in naturalistic terms; whatever powers or gods there were had to be essentially facets of the natural order. Pharaoh and Egypt were compelled to see that they were face to face with the judgment of the living God. Even Manetho, an Egyptian historian of the third century B. C., admitted that this conflict was a religious war, a fact cited by Josephus in Against Apion; Josephus was hostile to Manetho, and Manetho to the Hebrews. God plainly declares, “against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment” (Ex. 12:12).
Three rods or scepters are referred to in this text. In v. 17, first, we have God’s scepter or rod.
Second, Moses was to meet Pharaoh in the morning near the Nile with his own rod in hand (v.
15). Pharaoh’s presence there was apparently a religious one, and it was here that he and his faith were to be challenged. Third, Aaron’s rod or scepter (v. 19f.) is used to turn all other waters into blood.
The devastation of this plague included the fish in the Nile within Egypt’s borders. That fish higher up later came back into the lower Nile meant a dilution of resources.
Pharaoh was determined that no concession be made. The witness of vv. 24- 25 went unheeded.
There were in all ten plagues: 1) water turned into blood; 2) frogs; 3) lice; 4) flies; 5) murrain, a plague on the livestock; 6) boils; 7) hail; 8) locusts; 9) darkness; and 10) the death of the firstborn. All have a religious significance. Thus, the Nile was the life-line of Egypt, and blood is associated with life. As Cate wrote:
In all of the ancient Near East, there was a common belief that blood was the source of life. This is also true in the Old Testament, which says, “the life of every creature is the blood of it” (Lev. 17:14). The Egyptians considered the Nile to be the source of life; but when it was turned to blood, the real source of life, it
caused death on every hand. The two things that the Egyptians considered to be the source of life had combined to bring death.78
Bishop Hall observed, “Men are sure to be punished most and soonest in that which they make a corrival with God.”79 A humanistic trust in man and the natural order means that God’s judgments will turn these things against man.
Earlier, Moses had given a demonstration of God’s power. Now, “It was no longer a demonstration but became an attack.”80 Gispen makes it clear that this plague refers to blood, not to the Red Nile and its reddish clay silt. The Red Nile phenomenon added to the soil’s fertility and did not kill fish. The Green Nile, caused by some plants, sometimes killed a few fish. This plague differs from both. The fact that the Bible at times uses words figuratively does not justify turning all of it into meaningless figures of speech.81
The purpose of the plagues is stated in v. 17, “In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD.” The Knowledge of God is inescapable knowledge, but how we know Him will vary. We can know Him as either our Redeemer or as our unrelenting Judge.
O.T. Allis observed of the plagues:
The Ten Plagues which were mighty signs and wonders (vii. 3) contain both a natural and a supernatural element. Frogs, lice, flies, murrain, etc., were all natural phenomena or “pests” well known to the Egyptians. But the record makes it plain that the plagues were far more than mere natural phenomena. They came and went at the command of Moses… They were evidences of the sovereign power of the God of Israel over Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and their gods. Those who are tempted to minimize or rationalize these wonders of old should read carefully Moses’ appraisal of them as given in Deuteronomy iv. 34-40.82
In Deuteronomy 4:34-40, we are told that the plagues were the work of God and as supernatural as the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai. It was an act of grace, and the necessary response to God’s saving grace is to obey His law.
Youngblood called attention to the several purposes of the ten plagues. First, they were a judgment on Egypt and her gods (Ex. 7:4; 10:2; 12:12; 18:11). The plagues were in most cases directed against a specific aspect of Egyptian faith. Second, the plagues also had as their purpose the deliverance of Israel (Ex. 7:4; 18:10). Third, they demonstrated that God is the only sovereign and Lord over nature and history (Ex. 7:5; 9:14-15; 10:2; 18:11). Fourth, not all the plagues struck Goshen, where Israel was, and God thereby made it clear that Israel was His Chosen people (Ex. 8:22-23; 11:7; 12:27). Fifth, the plagues were a revelation of God and a declaration of His holy power and name (Ex. 9:6).83
The Nile was worshipped or revered under various names, as Apis, the sacred bull; as Osiris, and so on, by symbols of fertility. The Egyptians’ trust was now a source of potential death.
Bamberger has said of the plagues, “Scholars have sought in vain for an historical kernel to these tales.” It would be more accurate to add that any who find historical confirmation are thereby discredited by these modernistic scholars. Bamberger still admitted, “The story of the plagues has no true parallel in ancient Near Eastern literature.”84
J. C. Connell said of the plagues:
The plagues not only caused great physical affliction: they were a judgment against the gods of Egypt. The Nile was a main object of worship; the frog was sacred as a symbol of fertility; of the cattle, the ram, the goat, and the bull were sacred; the sun-god Ra was eclipsed and proved impotent by the plague of darkness.85
But this was not all. The Nile had been turned into a river of death by the murder of the Hebrew male infants. Now it was a sign of death to Egypt. Wells were sunk by the Egyptians to gain
water not yet polluted by percolation (v. 24), for the Egyptians did not know how long this plague would endure. The Nile had been the grave of innocent babes. Now, by their impenitence, the Egyptians were digging their own graves. They gained some water but no deliverance.