Learn from the first plague
The last time we saw Moses by the Nile was when he was drawn out of the water and handed to the Pharaoh’s daughter. Her actions changed his life as she saved the deliverer whom God had raised up. Now Moses is back at the Nile and what he will do, by God’s power, will change the Pharaoh’s life and family. God is about to show His sovereign control over every one of the Egyptian gods and over everything that is important to the people of Egypt.
Moses carried his staff, the symbol of God’s presence, and he said what God had told him to say to Pharoah: “So far you have not obeyed. Thus says the Lord, ‘By this you shall know that I am the Lord.” He told Pharaoh he would strike the Nile with his staff and the river would turn to blood. The fish will die, the Nile will stink, and the people of Egypt will not want to drink it. Often in the Bible God tells his people or his enemies what He is going to do, what sign or wonder they can expect. The signs and wonders are given to confirm His Word, to demonstrate His sovereignty and might and His worthiness to be obeyed and to be believed. We see it in the 10 plagues here. We see it also in the seven signs Jesus performed in the Gospel of John. For example, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” and healed a man born blind. He fed the five thousand with 5 loaves and two fish and said, “I am the bread of life.” He said, “I am the resurrection and the life,” and raised Lazarus from the dead.
Aaron struck the Nile with the staff of God, and that river and every source of water in the land turned to blood, just as God had spoken. Even the water that was sitting in pots or buckets in people’s houses was turned to blood. They couldn’t drink it, wash with it, or bathe with it. The whole land stunk of dead fish and blood. God struck a blow against man’s worship of the creation rather than the Creator while also taking away easy access to something they took for granted they would always have. So-called self-sufficiency? Upended.
The first plague points us to the tenth plague, when the blood of all the firstborn will be shed because of the disobedience of the Pharaoh and his people. We also see a horrific parallel in the third bowl of God’s wrath in the book of Revelations where the first plague in Egypt is magnified to universal proportions. “The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, “Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!” And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!”
The blood of judgment in Egypt was poured out on a nation that had spilled the blood of God’s people for 400 years in their enslavement. And how did the Pharaoh respond? Not a word. He walked into his house, and Moses writes, “he did not even take this to heart.” What a contrast. Moses and Aaron obeyed God, confronted the Pharaoh because of their love for God and their desire to see their people set free to go and serve God. The Pharaoh saw the devastation brought to his people who then had to dig wells to survive for 7 days, and he showed no concern, no remorse, nothing at all.
It is the dividing line in Scripture, isn’t it? We hear the truth of God’s word and we say yes and respond with obedience and walk in faithfulness no matter the cost. Or we hear the truth and ignore His Word and the warnings of more and worse judgment, and we go our own way and live the way that pleases us. But as RC Sproul said, “Sin is cosmic treason.” We can only go our own way until that Day.
The Day every person without Christ will stand before God. They will have nothing to say then, as well.