Good morning and welcome back to another Biblit! Last week we watched God talk to Moses, calm him down, and reassure him that the Lord is in control. This week we continue with Moses’s journey as we begin the famous 10 plagues. This is God’s way of showing His power over Egypt and Pharaoh. Let’s jump into the first plague in this commentary on Exodus chapter 7.
Context
Chapter 7 picks right back up as Moses and Aaron are about to go talk to Pharaoh. I still think it’s interesting the Pharaoh continues to allow their presence, but that’s neither here nor there.
Before they enter, the Lord tells Moses a couple of things. He says that to Pharaoh, Moses will act as God-head and Aaron as a prophet. This is the only time (to my knowledge) that God raises one of His prophets to this level, making Moses God-head and Aaron a prophet.
God also warns Moses that He is going to harden Pharaoh’s heart and that no matter how many miracles He does, Pharaoh will not let Israel go. However, God celebrates this because His power will be known in and around Egypt.
We’re jumping ahead for a second, but we see this promise fulfilled throughout scripture. Many people later in scripture remember the plagues of Egypt, including the Philistines who fear God because of it.
Anyways, back to the moment at hand.
I often wonder what God means when He says He’s going to harden Pharoh’s heart. There is a lot of debate over this, which Paul addresses in Romans 9. Textually, the Bible does not say God actually hardened Pharaoh’s heart until plague 6, so the first 5 were all Pharaoh (plague 7 was also Pharaoh). The second tidbit I found in another commentary is that God is not putting evil in Pharaoh’s heart. God does not tempt us, as James would say. Temptation comes from our own evil desires. By God “hardening” his heart, God is simply allowing Pharaoh’s own evil desires to take control without relinquishing. Paul equates it to God not giving Pharaoh mercy at this moment.
But more on that later, I just wanted to throw that in there real quick as a primer.
So Moses and Aaron go to ask for the Israelites to be freed again. Pharaoh asks them to prove themselves as the Lord predicted and so Aaron throws his staff down which becomes a “serpent.” The word here does not actually mean “snake” like when the Lord did this sign for Moses. It means something like a large river monster or reptile. Many theologians believe it could have been a crocodile. This explains how when Pharaoh’s magicians throw staffs down and turn them into serpents, Aaron’s crocodile can eat them.
We haven’t gotten to the plagues yet, but this miracle sets the scene for the coming doom. The plagues are divided into 3 acts, followed by the climactic 10th plague. Each act consists of a 3 part pattern revolving around a single theme. The first plague in each act always occurs in the morning, the first two plagues are always after a divine warning, and the third is always a surprise. The first and third acts each contain miracles done with Aaron’s staff. Each act has a theme as well.
The first theme is to show that God is superior to Pharaoh and the Egyptian gods.
The fact that Aaron’s rod eats these other snakes is already showing that theme. The Egyptians used the snake as a symbol of power; a lot of Pharaohs had a cobra headpiece to intimidate their enemies and show off their power. The fact that God just ate up the Egyptian snakes is already showing His superiority.
However, Pharoh’s heart is hardened and we move on to the first plague.
As the pattern dictates, Moses comes up to Pharaoh in the morning by the Nile and commands again that the Lord is telling Pharaoh to let His people go. And Moses touches the Nile with his staff and the whole Nile, every ounce of water in all the land, is turned to blood. The stench this left would have been unbearable. Everything in the Nile died. I can’t imagine the horror this would cause; even more so for the Egyptians who revered the Nile as a god because it was their source of life through irrigation.
However, Pharaoh had his magicians perform a similar trick (though I’m not sure how if all the water was blood). I don’t get how, but they did and Pharaoh’s heart was still hardened and didn’t let anyone go free.
Interpretation
Ok. So what exactly are the takeaways here? I’m sure there are dozens, but here are the ones that stuck out to me today.
God is superior to Pharaoh and all of creation. God showcases His power here as He turns Aaron’s staff into a crocodile to eat the other staffs, and also as He turns all the water into blood. Even though Pharaoh’s magicians could fake their tricks, God’s miraculous power was all real and all superior. This is and will always be true.
God uses the plagues and Pharaoh to showcase His power so the nations would know Him. This is a hard one for me to grasp sometimes. Especially since God tells Moses that He will harden Pharaoh’s heart. Could He have given Pharaoh mercy and affected his heart to let Israel go? I think so. But He doesn’t. If we look back a couple chapters, we see Pharaoh challenge God:
“Pharaoh responded, “Who is the Lord that I should obey him by letting Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:2 CSB).
God wants not only Pharaoh but the whole world to know Him. As I said earlier, through the work of these miraculous (and devastating) plagues, the world does know Him. They are recounted numerous times throughout the Psalms, Jethro hears about it later on and worships God, Rahab tells the spies she heard about God and decides to help them, the Philistines as I said earlier fear God, and so many more examples.
God’s power is shown, His name is raised up, and He proves He has the power to save His people and has the love and faithfulness to fulfill His promise to them.
Application
Ok, how am I to think of those things in my own life? It’s really one big idea: God is superior to everything and I am His adopted and beloved child. Romans tells us this is true:
“For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:14-16 CSB).
Through these powerful miracles we see in Exodus, God is showing the world how much He loves His children. He is showing both His children and the world how powerful He is and supreme above any problem or issue the world throws our way.
I want a heart that trusts and leans into the mighty God who is superior over all my problems and will vanquish sin with His outstretched arm. As He freed the Israelites from Egyptian’s bondage, so He frees us from sin’s bondage. Yet we did not receive another spirit of slavery, but rather one of adoption. Adopted into the kingdom of God where He treats us with the same love He has for Christ. That’s insane!