Exodus 7. Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh

Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh

And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.

• Moses is told that he is the representation of God to Pharaoh in, much like we are to represent Christ to the world.

 ² You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. ³ But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, ⁴ Pharaoh will not listen to you.

• God ‘hardened Pharaoh’s’ heart’ could be that he gave Pharaoh up to his own evil desires. I will talk more about this in later plagues.

Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. 

• Currently the people of Israel are slaves, taskmasters, brickmakers. Here God calls them His hosts (צָבָא tsava), or His armies.

⁵ The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” ⁶ Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them. ⁷ Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

• Moses is starting the second part of his 3 40-year interval life. (40 when left Egypt, 80 when he returns to Pharaoh, 120 when he dies).

• I always thought it was Moses who turns his staff into a snake, but that is only at the burning bush – Aaron does it in front of Pharaoh.
• Interestingly if you look at images of Pharaohs, they are usually pictured with a staff and whip (see above).
  • The staff is called a heqa scepter and can represent Pharaoh as a protector of his people (similar to shepherd).
  • I found this interesting because Egyptians saw shepherds as unclean and an abomination.
  • Also cool duality of Moses and his staff representing the shepherd of Israel vs Pharaoh the shepherd of Egypt.

 ¹¹ Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. 

• Were the magicians using tricks or true demonic power? Also what good was it to make more bloody water? Wouldn’t it be more impressive to turn the water clean?

¹² For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. ¹³ Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

• Snakes or Dragon or Crocodile?? Check out my interesting….visual below
  • When Moses turns his staff into a serpent before God at the burning bush (Exodus 4:3), the Hebrew word used is נָחָשׁ (nachash), a general term for snake;
  • However, when Aaron throws down his staff before Pharaoh (Exodus 7:10), the word changes to תַּנִּין (tannin), which often means a large reptile (crocodile), dragon, or sea monster.

The First Plague: Water Turned to Blood

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, and stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him. Take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. 

• The Nile was like a ‘god’ to the Egyptians, and had many deities associated with it. The first plague brought them all down low.

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.’”

• I always saw the first plague as just the Nile turning to blood – but didn’t think about  “And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and 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.

• There have been some interesting theories on how God could have caused these plagues naturally. For example there is a red algae that can turn the Nile red and cause it to kill the fish. However Exodus says the water became blood (דָּם, dam), not merely red.
• Some chain theories include:
  • Nile becomes polluted so then
  • Fish die so then
  • Frogs flee the river so then
  • Frogs die so then
  • Insects multiply so then
  • Disease spreads….etc.
• However the blood plague affects: the Nile, canals, ponds, reservoirs, and even water stored in containers (Exodus 7:19). That’s far beyond some algae bloom or pollution.

²⁵ Seven full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile.