As we study God’s dealings with Pharaoh, we see that God thinks differently than we often do. He knew the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and yet He was still going to bring various plagues upon the land of Egypt. We learn the true meaning of longsuffering when we study God throughout the Bible. The devil wants to twist things for his own foolish and wicked ends, but God shows us that He is not just concerned with the immediate situation but also wants others to pay attention and avoid the wickedness of others. We are all born with wicked hearts. The natural response of man is to act wickedly. Secular society lies and says that man is inherently good and it is his environment that makes the difference. Society has also changed the meaning of “good” over the years.
In verse 14 the LORD reminded Moses that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. He told him that Pharaoh would refuse to let the people go.
In verse 15 Moses was told to go meet Pharaoh as he was going out to the water in the morning. Moses was to stand at the water’s edge and give the LORD’s warning to Pharaoh. Notice that Moses was to use that same rod that was turned into a serpent, the rod that had swallowed up the magicians rods, and he was to use that rod for another purpose now. He was to take that rod and smite the waters with that rod and the waters would be turned into blood. The LORD told Moses to tell Pharaoh that he would know that He is the LORD through this plague.
Water is a very precious and important commodity for man. We cannot live long without water. Plants need water. The birds need water. The fish also need water. As we see in this account, the fish would die and the river would stink because of the dead fish rotting in it. Water carries oxygen with it. The fish would need that oxygen to live.
The result of this plague would be that the Egyptians would be disgusted with the blood that was in the river. This blood would be in their streams and their ponds and in all their pools of water. There would be no water available to the nation. All their storage facilities would be turned to blood.
In verse 22 we see that Pharaoh again scoffed at what the LORD was doing. He called on his magicians who used their enchantments to mimic what God had done. Had these magicians been able to turn the blood back into water, that would have been something. They actually proved nothing by their actions. However, Pharaoh, who was the leader of the nation and thus supposedly an intelligent man, was duped by the actions of his magicians.
In verse 23 we read that Pharaoh turned and went to his house. We see again how similar his actions were to what our PM and our premiers are doing today. They have their protected homes and environments and they could care less about what happens to the rest of us. We read in verse 24 that the people were digging round about the river looking for water to drink because they could not drink the water from the river. None of this mattered to Pharaoh. Fools cannot think rationally. The morale of the people was being affected by this. The health of the people was affected by this. The economy was also being affected. Pharaoh could not comprehend the damage he was causing to the entire nation by his wickedness. It did not click in his mind. If the economy was destroyed how would he continue to amass his wealth? How would he defend his nation with a depleted army? His work force would be greatly diminished even without the Hebrews there. All the first born would die. All the crops would be destroyed. Egypt would be in quite the mess, but Pharaoh was so blinded by his rebellion that he could not see what he was actually doing.
In verse 25 we see that this bloody situation lasted for seven days. Think of the stubbornness of this man. No water to drink and the people searching to try to find water somewhere. We do not know what Pharaoh did for his water supply during these seven days. There would be no bathing and no washing of clothes during that time. The stench coming from that blood and the dead fish would be quite strong as well.
Wicked people tend to dig in their heels in their wickedness. We are still seeing that in our own country. The wickedness of everything from the funding and developing of this virus in a lab to its release and the lies surrounding that which caused massive panic are very interesting. Dr. Fauci and Dr. Tam and Dr. Rousin and many others continue to stand before the people and lie to them and claim that they are following the science. There was a survey put out recently asking for Manitoban’s opinion on “vaccines” for children under 5 years of age. I suppose they will take the results of that survey and make that their science that they are following. People need to be reminded that these are not “vaccines”. They are, in plain English, poison shots. There is more harm caused from the shots than from the virus. These shots also have long term negative side effects that we will continue to discover over time. Of course the deceivers will not want us to hear of all these adverse side effects. Talk about evil people.
Just as Pharaoh would face his day before God, so will all these deceivers. They too are being given the opportunity to repent and be saved. Those who do not get saved will have all of eternity to regret their stubbornness.
Today is the day of salvation. Those who choose defiance against God are fools. God shows us the result of defying Him, over and over again. Those who are saved need to believe God in all things and not look at the immediate results as a determining factor of obedience. Moses and Aaron needed to trust God and speak His Word as commanded. God knew what He was doing then and He still knows what He is doing now. The wise person trusts in Him for salvation and then walks with Him according to His Word. He blesses those who do so.
Pastor Bartel