The Contest with Pharaoh: LORD of the Waters

Exodus 7:14–25 ESV

14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. 16 And you shall say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.” But so far, you have not obeyed. 17 Thus says the Lord, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.” ’ ” 19 And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’ ” 20 Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. 21 And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 22 But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. 23 Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. 24 And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile. 25 Seven full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile.

Introduction

The Revelation of the True God in Exodus

The Players

Exodus 7:14–15 ESV

14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent.

The LORD, identified in v16 as the God of the Hebrews is the main person in this book let alone in this plague. He is controlling the entire narrative,

Moses, the one who is drawn from the water, is and we see the order that the LORD has noted in previous chapters. the LORD is going to speak to Moses and Moses will speak to Aaron.

Pharaoh, whom we have encountered at the beginning of this chapter. We see that Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. This means that his inclination was dull. His inclination to heed the LORD was dull or heavy or slow. We see this in the result, that he would not obey.

Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (1. Terms for Hardness of Heart)

Negative Meaning. In the Pentateuch hardness of heart always denotes a negative character trait in humans. It refers to stubbornness that refuses to listen to God or to obey him. This hardness causes people to fail to respond in a positive way to evidence of God’s will as manifested by the plagues on Egypt or to the word of God spoken by *Moses or *Aaron.

The LORD gives the instructions to Moses.

You and Aaron Go to Pharaoh in the morning, meet him as he goes out to the water and stand on the bank of the Nile. Make sure you take the staff that turned into a serpent.

Not sure what Pharaoh went to the Nile for, whether to bathe, whether to take stock of the state of the Nile. The Nile provided what Egypt needed for life and sustenance, or for some other reason. Pharaoh went out on a regular basis, so that his going out there was not something out of the ordinary.

The Game Plan

Exodus 7:16–19 ESV

16 And you shall say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.” But so far, you have not obeyed. 17 Thus says the Lord, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.” ’ ” 19 And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’ ”

The words to say

The LORD is giving Moses the words, just as he said that He would. This is a time to tell Pharaoh what is about to go down.

You will know this name

The LORD, the God of the Hebrews. - Makes me think back to what Pharaoh said when first told by Moses and Aaron that the LORD said ‘Let my people go.’.

Exodus 5:2 ESV

2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

1. The Flex - So this is a flex by the LORD, almost like you are saying you gonna learn. Just so you know who is responsible, just so you know who is causing these things to occur, don’t be fooled by those who are fulfilling my purpose, it is ultimately me the LORD who you are reckoning with and I will not lose.

2. What the LORD wants - Reiterating that He wants Pharaoh to let His people go. There is something to the LORD being the God of the Hebrews, they should serve me, yet you will not let them go and are subjecting them to harsh treatment.

3. It is on you - You will not listen to me. You haven’t listened so these things are on you. We live in this blame culture, in this responsibility culture, where if this happens, even though it is by my hand it is on you. What we see here is that Pharaoh you are responsible for what is about to happen. Because your lack of listening means that you do not truly know me and that you do not believe me.

Then the LORD states what Moses and Aaron are going to do in the encounter with Moses.

The Staff - This staff that has already shown Pharaoh that defeat and chaos are close, this same staff that was used to convince the elders that Moses had an encounter with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, this staff which is an indicator of the power of the LORD, will strike the water. Three things will happen:

The Nile will turn to blood.

The fish in the Nile will die, not a play on words, but they would actually be floating dead

The Nile would stink

Because of these things the water in the Nile would be undrinkable.

Then the instruction that LORD gave to Moses to give to Aaron was to wave the staff and all the watershed areas of the Nile throughout all of Egypt would also be impacted as well. Thus anything that was associated with the Nile was impacted by this plague.

Game Time

Exodus 7:20–22 ESV

20 Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. 21 And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 22 But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

So Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded. the Nile turned to blood, the fish died and the Nile stank.

Let’s talk about the Nile turning to blood.

A majority of the commentators do not believe that the Nile turned to animal or human blood. This would cause a greater ecological impact on Israel and the progression of the plagues go against that as well as the fact that Egypt remained.

What the scholars do believe is that this blood was more about the color, which probably came form sediment and red algae that was present when the Nile flooded and the flood was annually.

Although the reddening of the Nile was not out of the ordinary, this event was, because as verse 20 notes that ‘in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants’ the three things that the LORD said would happen did.

The color of the Nile Changed - The Nile is second only to the Amazon river in size, so for the entirety of the Nile to change color prior to Pharaoh leaving is saying something.

The Fish died - whatever happened caused fish to start floating to the top of the Nile prior to the Pharaoh leaving.

The Nile stank -

This led to the people not being able to drink from the Nile or any water throughout Egypt.

There is another thing that is going on here. This strike was a direct assault on an Egyptian God. The Nile was the life of Egypt. Egypt depended on the inundation or flooding of the Nile to grow crops get water to livestock and live off of. The Nile sustained Egypt and the controlled inundation of the Nile was necessary. Too much inundation and houses were destroyed too little inundation drought may occur. There was a Egyptian deity Napi, who was the god of the inundation of the Nile, determined how much flood would come, providing the correct water level for Egypt to thrive. He was also knows as the god of the fish and birds of the marsh.

The LORD’s impact on the Nile means that Napi has not control. Means that when it comes to the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, the god of the inundation of the Nile is no match. The inundation and fish who are controlled by this god we (Egypt) give offering to and put statues out for to provide for us the correct levels for the Nile, the God of the Hebrews dismantles this god, is more powerful.

As an attempt by Pharaoh to keep his heart hard, he again called the magicians and they could redden the water as well. I see that, that’s cool, but if you really want to impress me, make the whole river red. If you want to impress me remove the reddening of the Nile river. This was not done.

There are people who will believe what they want regardless of what information is presented to them. Truth that corresponds to reality and is coherent does not always mean that a person will listen. In Pharaoh’s case seeing this happen before him, seeing the impacts to his people, observing the massivity of the sign has not impact because he says that someone else can do this as well, regardless of scale. This is what the LORD is dealing, this is whose hardened, heavy, dull, slow heart needs to softened to the point of letting Israel go.

Pharaoh’s heart remained hard.

The Press Conference

Exodus 7:23–25 ESV

23 Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. 24 And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile. 25 Seven full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile.

Pharaoh just left, did not take any questions, did not ask anything. The indication is that he could not do what he intended to do. He observed enough, saw the magicians do there thing and said ‘Meh, I am going inside and continue my day’.

This is while all the people of Egypt are looking for water. Digging new wells, looking for underground sources of water that were not impacted by the plague.

This continued for 7 days.

What we see about the LORD

The righteousness of God - In relation to Himself, God is righteous; i.e., there is no law, either within His own being or of His own making, that is violated by anything in His nature. In relation to His creatures He is also righteous; i.e., there is no action He takes that violates any code of morality or justice.

Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1999), 48.

Along the same vane is the justice of God.

The Moody Handbook of Theology, Revised and Expanded Relative Attributes

Justice. Justice is sometimes taken together with the righteousness of God. The justice of God means that God is entirely correct and just in all His dealings with humanity; moreover, this justice acts in accordance with His law. The justice of God, therefore, is related to man’s sin. Since God’s law reflects God’s standard, then God is righteous and just when He judges man for His violation of God’s revealed law.

I like what the Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch says.

Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (4. Theological Challenges in Understanding God’s Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart)

Thus, it would appear that God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was a reaction to Pharaoh’s continual stubbornness and not God’s immutable will for Pharaoh. Though God had foreknowledge of what would happen to Pharaoh and ultimately chose to confirm Pharaoh’s hardheartedness by continuing to make Pharaoh stubborn, God did not condemn Pharaoh unjustly