7:1.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and
Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.”
“I have made thee a god to Pharaoh” means simply that God had
appointed Moses to be His representative to Pharaoh; and as the prophets
spoke to the people as God’s agents, so had He appointed Aaron to act in
that same capacity as Moses’ agent to the Egyptian king. We should never
forget that God has appointed us to be His messengers to the world, to bring
them the good news of the Gospel. A prophet is one who forth-tells God’s
Word to the people.
7:2.
“Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak
unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.”
What God was about to say to Moses, he in turn was to transmit to
his brother Aaron, who was then to declare it to Pharaoh, “Let my people
go. Send them out of Egypt.” There can be no question that this typifies
God’s command to Satan today, for as noted already, Egypt represents the
world of business and pleasure living in rebellion against God; and Satan,
typified by the Pharaohs, is the prince of this world. The reluctance of
the Egyptian kings to release the Hebrews foreshadows the refusal of Satan
to release the myriads whom he also holds in bondage to his evil will. But
God is greater than Satan, and as He, by the dreadful judgments that
devastated Egypt, secured the release of His people Israel, so will His more
terrible Tribulation judgments desolate Satan’s kingdom, this present evil
world, and culminate in the deliverance of the Tribulation age believers,
and their establishment on the millennial earth.
7:3.
“And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in
the land of Egypt.”
In our study
of 6:12 it was noted that Pharaoh first hardened his own heart against God,
but now God makes the hardening permanent, and in this we find the
typological declaration of the truth declared in Gen 6:3, “My spirit shall
not always strive with man,” and in Proverbs 29:1, “He, who being often
reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without
remedy,” and again in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.” Be warned. If you haven’t yet
accepted Christ as your Savior, do it now: tomorrow may be too late,
continued procrastination carrying you over the invisible line that
separates God’s mercy from His wrath, and sealing your eternal doom.
7:4.
“But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt,
and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of
the land of Egypt by great judgments.”
God foreknew
that the rebellious king would refuse to obey His command, and thus by his
disobedience provide Him with the opportunity to glorify Himself in the
destruction of Pharaoh and all the land of Egypt. Every man is given the
same opportunity. He may glorify God by confessing himself a sinner, and by
trusting in Christ as his Savior, or by refusing to repent, and thereby
enabling God to glorify Himself in the destruction of the rebel. In either
case God is magnified: in the one He is glorified by the display of His
redeeming love and mercy; in the other by the manifestation of His righteous
wrath and judgment.
“... mine
armies” is also translated my hosts: my people: my ranks. The
Israelites were God’s armies, and in a day now imminent will occupy the
place of supremacy over all the millennial nations.
7:5.
“And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine
hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”
That past
destruction of Egypt, and deliverance and promotion of Israel, were but the
foreshadowing of what will be in the fast approaching Tribulation whose
judgments will devastate the whole world, and culminate in the salvation and
exaltation of Israel, as noted in verse 4.
7:6.
“And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, so did they.”
As already
discussed, Moses represents the Law; and Aaron, the Holy Spirit’s
illumination of the spiritual meaning woven into the fabric of the literal
language of Scripture. And as those two men executed God’s will, so also do
the spiritual principles which they represent fulfill the same function in
the life of the obedient believer. The Holy Spirit, unquenched and
ungrieved, enables him to understand God’s Word, and to obey it.
7:7.
“And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old,
when they spake unto Pharaoh.”
Since eight
or any multiple thereof is the number of a new beginning, the mention of
Moses’ age in the present context points to the beginning of a new era in
his life: he was about to begin the great work of leading Israel out of
Egyptian bondage, on a forty year journey that would culminate in the
passing away of that first generation, and the entrance of their children, a
new generation, into the enjoyment of Canaan’s milk and honey.
Aaron’s age
being the same, but with an additional three years added (three being the
number of resurrection), adds the further spiritual instruction that the
Israel he and Moses were to lead out of Egypt, and across the desert to the
border of Canaan, were a people who typified the redeemed of this present
age. We too have been delivered from Satan’s thralldom, and are passing
through the desert of this world, on our way home to heaven.
7:8.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,”
7:9.
“When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then
thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it
shall become a serpent.”
Since Satan is
described as “that old serpent, called the Devil,” Revelation 12:9, God’s
power to do what He will with Satan is demonstrated in His transforming
Aaron’s rod into a serpent. Satan is merely a creature which God has
brought into existence, and which He will ultimately consign to the eternal
torment of the lake of fire. He has no more power than that with which God
has endowed him, nor can he use that given power beyond what God permits.
In Aaron’s
casting down the rod which became a serpent, we may have an oblique reminder
that Satan has also been “cast down” from the exalted position in which God
had originally placed him, see Isaiah 14:12-17.
7:10.
“And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had
commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his
servants, and it became a serpent.”
God did as He
had promised. The rod became a serpent.
7:11.
“Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians
of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.”
It is a
mistake to underestimate the power of Satan. Note, for example, what is
written in Jude 9, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the
devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a
railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”
7:12.
“For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s
rod swallowed up their rods.”
By what
satanic chicanery these rods were seemingly transformed into serpents isn’t
explained, nor has speculation furnished any clue; but since only God can
create anything, it must be concluded that the magicians, by jugglery, gave
the appearance of having created them. Satan is the master of delusion, but
he cannot create life.
God’s
omnipotence is attested by the miracle of Aaron’s rod swallowing up these
others.
7:13.
“And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the
Lord had said.”
This hardening
of Pharaoh’s heart was permitted but not compelled by God; and so is it with
all who rebel against the Almighty. He neither compels men to be saved, nor
does He compel them to continue in sin. Whether a man will be in eternal
bliss in heaven, or in eternal torment in hell and the lake of fire, will be
the result of his own free willed choice.
7:14.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he refuseth to
let the people go.”
7:15.
“Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and
thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod which was
turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand.”
God knows not
only man’s deeds and words, but also his thoughts. He knew exactly where
Pharaoh would be, and what he would be doing in the morning, and He directed
Moses accordingly.
7:16.
“And thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto
thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness:
and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.”
7:17.
“Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I
will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in
the river, and they shall be turned to blood.”
God’s patience
was nearing an end. Up to this point He had simply asked Pharaoh to obey
His commands, but now He was
about to give
warning that continued disobedience would be fraught with dire consequences.
7:18.
“And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and
the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river.”
The whole life
of Egypt was dependent on the Nile, for it consists of a long strip of
fertile land approximately ten to fifteen miles wide on either side of the
river, there being only desert beyond, for there is virtually no rainfall.
The fish constituted a large part of the Egyptians’ food, and the Nile was
their only source of water. In fact the river was one of the gods they
worshiped, so that God’s smiting the river should have taught them that He
alone is God, and that all other so-called gods were but the inventions of
their own deluded minds.
It may be
profitable at this point to note that Egypt represents the world of business
and pleasure; and the Nile, the great river of wealth that “waters” that
rebellious godless world. But the Nile ends in a marshy delta where the
parent stream divides into a multitude of smaller branches that eventually
become lost in the sea, and so is it with the great river of this world’s
wealth: it too leads nowhere, and has to be abandoned when the soul goes out
into the infinite “sea” of eternity: to heaven or hell depending on whether
the individual died as a believer or as an unbeliever.
We might note
in passing that the Euphrates, Babylon’s great river, has much in common
with the Nile, and has an identical ending: it too leads nowhere, being lost
in a myriad of smaller branches as it enters the sea. But the Euphrates
represents the river of false religion which “waters” this unbelieving world
spiritually, the parallel between it and the Nile demonstrating symbolically
that mere Christless religion, like worldly wealth, leads only to eternal
loss.
The dead fish,
and the stinking water are fitting symbols of the world’s godless religious
systems (including apostate Christianity), for it is to be remembered that
the Lord likened men and women to fish in the great sea of humanity; and
believers as those whom He has taken out of that sea in the net of the
Gospel, and has made to be “fishers of men,” see Matthew 4:19 and Mark 1:17
Eternity will reveal all those religious systems for what they are:
spiritually dead and corrupt, the dead fish in the Nile representing men in
their natural state: “dead in trespasses and sins,” Ephesians 2:1, while the
bloody water speaks clearly of the deadliness of mere religion apart from
faith in Christ as Savior, its lethal nature being portrayed in the bloody
Nile water, for as that water was unfit to drink so is mere Christless
religion a deadly thing.
7:19.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch
out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their
rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they
may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of
Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.”
7:20.
“And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and he lifted up the
rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh,
and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river
were turned to blood.”
7:21.
“And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the
Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood
throughout all the land of Egypt.”
As noted
above, the Nile represents the great river of wealth that waters the realm
of the world’s business, so that the turning of the water to blood continues
to announce symbolically that everything connected with the world’s vast
commercial enterprises ends ultimately in death.
The vessels of
wood and stone may represent both the world’s commercial entities, and the
men involved with them; the wood portraying the lowliest; and the stone, the
greatest of both men and enterprises.
7:22.
“And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments; and Pharaoh’s
heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the Lord had said.”
The question
has been asked how the Egyptian magicians could have duplicated the miracle
since the waters had already been turned to blood and all the fish had
died. The very reasonable explanation however, is that they repeated the
miracle after the seven day interval, at the end of which the Lord had
allowed the water to return to its normal color, see verse 25.
“... and
Pharaoh’s heart was hardened” doesn’t mean that God had hardened it, but
that the king himself refused to bow to God’s will
7:23.
“And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to
this also.”
“... neither
did he set his heart to this also” means that he continued to ignore the
warnings God was giving him, each rejection bringing him nearer to that
final fatal moment when he would exhaust God’s patience, and seal his own
doom, as it is written, “He, who being often reproved hardens his neck,
shall be suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy,” Proverbs 29:1.
7:24.
“And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for
they could not drink of the water of the river.”
7:25.
“And seven days were fulfilled, after that the lord had smitten the river.”
This seems to
indicate that after seven days God ended the plague, permitting the Nile to
become water again; and that during the seven days some water was available
in response to their digging wells in the ground adjoining the river.