Exodus 7

CHAPTER 7THEME: The renewal of Moses’ commissioncontinued; the Egyptian magicians; the first plaguewater turned into bloodThe battle between the Lord God of Israel and the Egyptian gods had not yet been joined, but we are coming ot it now. God has been preparing the children of Israel, Moses and Aaron, and even old Pharaoh for the engagement. Moses is going to stand before Pharaoh, but Aaron will do the speaking. Was Moses tongue-tied, did he stutter, or did he have some other speech impediment? My personal feeling is that Moses’ problem was psychological. After forty years in the wilderness he may have felt inadequate and fearful. God wanted to make it very clear, however, that He, and not Moses, was going to deliver the children of Israel. By the way, that is one reason it is so difficult for God to move today in our individual lives or in the church. There is always some person or some organization who is taking the credit. When we are always getting in the way to take the credit, the mighty bared arm of God is not revealed. God had to put the human element out of the way because He cannot use the flesh. God, speaking through the apostle Paul, tells us this in Rom_7:18, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” It is difficult for some people to believe that there is no good in man because they rather count on it, especially in a time of emergancy.

But God does not want our flesh. He cannot use it; He will not use it. God has set the flesh aside, and Aaron eill speak for Moses.

Exodus 7:1

THE RENEWAL OF MOSES’ COMMISSIONCONTINUEDThis is one of the finest definitions you will find of a prophet. Moses was going to be a god to Pharaoh. Aaron was going to be the spokesman for Moses. Aaron would be a prophet. A prophet is one who speaks for God, one who has a message from God to the people. A prophet is the opposite of a priest. He comes out from God and goes to the people, but a priest represents the people before God. A preist is not to speak for God and a prophet is not to represent the people. He is to represent God. Aaron is to represent Moses before the people, and Moses is to represent God before both the people and Pharaoh.

Exodus 7:2

What does it mean to harden Pharaoh’s heart? Did God harden Pharaoh’s heart? Yes, but it this way: If Pharaoh were a tenderhearted, sweet fellow who desired to turn to God and was happy to have Moses deliver the children of Israel because Pharaoh wanted to do something for them, then it was mean of God to harden the heart of this wonderful Pharaoh. If that is the way you read it, friends, you are not reading it right. The hardening is a figurative word, which can mean twisting, as with a rope. It means God twisted the heart of Pharaoh. He was going to squeeze out what was in it. God forced him to do the thing he really wanted to do. Pharaoh was like the politicans of today who will not say what they actually mean. they feel one way and speak another way. Pharaoh did not want to let the children of Israel go, and yet he wanted to appear as a benevolent ruler. He wanted to appear as a benevolent ruler. He wanted everyone to think he was a generous man, but in this matter of Israel he was hard. Well, God is going to bring Pharaoh into court and make him admit how he really feels. There are certain men who have to be taken into court before they will do what they have already agreed to do. A Los Angeles contractor told me that he had to take a man to court before the man would honor a contract. He would not fulfill his obligations until the law got after him. That is what God is doing to Pharaoh. God is bringing Pharaoh into court and saying, “You are going to reveal the thing that is actually in your heart. You cannot say one thing and do something else.” God is going to force the king’s hand in this particular matter. By the way, this is exactly what God is going to do with every individual that will someday come into His presence. You will be seen as you really are. There will be no more camouflage. This is a rather frightening thing for some of us, is it not?

Exodus 7:4

In other words, Pharaoh will stand revealed for what he is, and the Lord God of Israel will be revealed for who He is. The Egyptians will know, and the Israelites will have it confirmed, and Moses and Aaron will be justified.

Exodus 7:6

Aaron was three years older than Moses.

Exodus 7:8

Pharaoh is probably going to ask Moses and Aaron, “Where are your credentials? You have come before me and made this excessive demand upon me; now show me your authority.” Aaron’s rod was to be the badge of authority.

Exodus 7:10

THE EGYPTIAN MAGICIANSThere is some question about the word serpent in this passage because there is very little history concerning the snake in Egypt. Actually the word used here is crocodile. During the days of Moses there were many of these creatures living in the Nile River and ponds throughout the land. The rod changed into a crocodile. You will find as we study the plagues that God was dealing with the whole realm of zoology. That is, the gods of Egypt were either animal or bird or insect. Paul wrote about it when he said, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things” (Rom_1:22-23). The Egyptians symbolized everything. They took an abstract idea and put it into the concrete form of an image. They had deities which represented every phase and function of life. They did not miss a thing. They changed monotheism into polytheism. As Sir Wallis Budge has stated it, “They believed in the existence of one great God, self-produced, self-existent, almighty, and eternal.” Unfortunately, they felt “that this Being was too great and mighty to concern Himself with the affairs and destinies of human beings.” Therefore He “permitted the management of this world …to fall into the hands of hordes of ‘gods’ and demons, and good and bad spirits.” This is what the Egyptians believed. This is the very thing Paul found when he went to Athens. He found a monument to the “unknown God.” “For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you” (Act_17:23). If a man worships all of these different gods, he cannot know the living and true God. So the Lord God of Israel attacks the gods of Egypt to show who He is. The Hebrew word tannin translated “serpent” in this chapter is not translated “serpent” anywhere else in the Bible. In the books of Isaiah and Ezekiel it is rendered “dragon.” The word is actually satanic in its meaning, and that is probably why the translators used the word serpent. Regardless of the reason, the fact remains that the Egyptians worshiped the crocodile. It occupied a large place in the worship and religion of Egypt. Sebak was a deity of evil with a crocodile head. Apepi, the perpetual arch enemy of all the solar gods, appeared in the form of a crocodile.

The Egyptians engaged in a magical ritual which was performed in the temple of Amen-Ra in the city of Thebes. Apepi lived in the nethermost part of the heaven and endeavored every day to prevent the rising of the sun-god Ra. He stirred up lightning, thunder, tempests, storms, hurricanes, rain, and tried to obscure the light of the sun by filling the sky with clouds, mists, fog and blackness. The Egyptian ritual was an attempt to destroy Apepi. It was a prominent worship of Egypt and the first thing against which God delivers a blow. Aaron’s rod is changed into a crocodile!

Exodus 7:11

The magicians of Egypt duplicated the miracle of Aaron’s rod. Perhaps it would be better to say they imitated the miracle. Whatever and however they did it, they made a pretty good show of it. Paul, however, has a word to say about it in 2Ti_3:8, “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.” These magicians resisted the living and true God.

Exodus 7:12

It is interesting that the Egyptians worship the crocodile and it is Aaron’s rod that swallows up their crocodiles. This should have impressed Pharaoh, but it did not. Pharaoh hardened his heart and persisted in his set ways.

Exodus 7:14

THE FIRST PLAGUEWATER TURNED TO BLOODThis is another blow at worship in Egypt. The sacred Nile River is turned to blood. The Egyptians depicted the Nile as Hapi, a fat man with the breasts of a woman which indicated the powers of fertility and nourishment. There was a hymn they sang in the temple to this god which went something like this: Thou waterest the fields with Ra created … Thou art the bringer of food …creator of all good things. Thou fillest the storehouses … Thou hast care for the poor and needy. The Nile River was the life-blood of Egypt. But it had to be water to be their “life-blood.” Now that river is blood and becomes death to them. What had been a blessing in Egypt is now a curse. This is God’s judgment.

Exodus 7:22

This plague lasted for seven days. Pharaoh was not convinced this was the hand of God because his magicians were able to duplicate the plague. This is an amazing thing! It was a manifestation of the power of Satan, of course, but they were powerless to change the blood back into pure water.