Ex. 7: Snake Staff, Blood River

So God demonstrates His power through Moses to Aaron. It is Aaron who verbalizes what God puts in Moses. Pr'strange to think about, but what an amazing feeling it must have given Moses. I can't imagine it. God speaks to Moses, and Moses is a conduit to Aaron from God.

God tells our heroes to go back to Pharaoh and ask him to let them go out and worship Him. This wasn't just so that the people of Israel could just get out of bondage, it was so they could worship God in their own freedom. This makes me think that any time spent not in worship is, in a way, a form of bondage. We are bound to ourselves, to our days, to our distractions. Worship frees us from all these extemporaneous things.

God also tells Moses and Aaron that in His judgement, the Egyptians will know He is the LORD. It won't just be them being mad because bad stuff is happening. There will be a recognition that God is powerful, and the one who is really in charge.

Moses and Aaron get in front of Pharaoh, and Aaron throws down the staff. The staff turns into a serpent. Pharaoh has magicians who are able to do the same thing with their staffs. Aaron's staff swallows up the staffs of the magicians. In a sense, the staff of Aaron has to bring itself down to that level in order to destroy that level. That these magicians use this power reveals to me that there is either a supernatural power out there that is not God, a power allowed to work by God, or that God did it himself. I don't recall there being any previous mention or implication of any supernatural power outside of God thus far in the scripture. I may have missed it.

This was not enough for Pharaoh, as God hardened his heart like he promised.

Then God tells Moses to go meet Pharaoh by the Nile for a special object lesson. Moses told Pharaoh that the LORD, the God of the Hebrews (the implication being that God is the one true God) has sent Moses to say to Pharaoh (not ask) to let His people go.

So they go down to the river, and Pharaoh is there, chillin'. Aaron raises his staff over the Nile and turns every drop of water in Egypt into blood. Not just puts blood in it. Turns it to blood. The fish died, the river stank, and the Egyptians pretty much had nothing to drink. Did the Israelites? Did God deliver them from this horror? I also wonder if blood held some special offense in the minds of Egyptians.

Pharaoh's magicians must have found some non-blood to turn into blood, because they pulled the same stunt. This caused Pharaoh's heart to harden. Deception. So Pharaoh's like, "whatever," and goes back inside, paying no attention to his desperate countrymen frantically digging along the bank for fresh water.