| Back to Home Page | Back to Book Index
|
Exodus Chapter
Seven
Exodus 7
Chapter Contents
Moses and Aaron encouraged. (1-7) The rods turned into
serpents, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. (8-13) The river is turned into blood,
The distress of the Egyptians. (14-25)
Commentary on Exodus 7:1-7
(Read Exodus 7:1-7)
God glorifies himself. He makes people know that he is
Jehovah. Israel is made to know it by the performance of his promises to them,
and the Egyptians by the pouring out of his wrath upon them. Moses, as the
ambassador of Jehovah, speaking in his name, laid commands upon Pharaoh,
denounced threatenings against him, and called for judgments upon him. Pharaoh,
proud and great as he was, could not resist. Moses stood not in awe of Pharaoh,
but made him tremble. This seems to be meant in the words, Thou shalt be a god
unto Pharaoh. At length Moses is delivered from his fears. He makes no more
objections, but, being strengthened in faith, goes about his work with courage,
and proceeds in it with perseverance.
Commentary on Exodus 7:8-13
(Read Exodus 7:8-13)
What men dislike, because it opposes their pride and
lusts, they will not be convinced of; but it is easy to cause them to believe
things they wish to be true. God always sends with his word full proofs of its
Divine authority; but when men are bent to disobey, and willing to object, he
often permits a snare to be laid wherein they are entangled. The magicians were
cheats, trying to copy the real miracles of Moses by secret sleights or
jugglings, which to a small extent they succeeded in doing, so as to deceive
the bystanders, but they were at length obliged to confess they could not any
longer imitate the effects of Divine power. None assist more in the destruction
of sinners, than such as resist the truth by amusing men with a counterfeit
resemblance of it. Satan is most to be dreaded when transformed into an angel
of light.
Commentary on Exodus 7:14-25
(Read Exodus 7:14-25)
Here is the first of the ten plagues, the turning of the
water into blood. It was a dreadful plague. The sight of such vast rolling
streams of blood could not but strike horror. Nothing is more common than
water: so wisely has Providence ordered it, and so kindly, that what is so
needful and serviceable to the comfort of human life, should be cheap and
almost every where to be had; but now the Egyptians must either drink blood, or
die for thirst. Egypt was a pleasant land, but the dead fish and blood now
rendered it very unpleasant. It was a righteous plague, and justly sent upon
the Egyptians; for Nile, the river of Egypt, was their idol. That creature
which we idolize, God justly takes from us, or makes bitter to us. They had
stained the river with the blood of the Hebrews' children, and now God made
that river all blood. Never any thirsted after blood, but sooner or later they
had enough of it. It was a significant plague; Egypt had great dependence upon
their river, Zechariah 14:18; so that in smiting the river,
they were warned of the destruction of all the produce of their country. The
love of Christ to his disciples changes all their common mercies into spiritual
blessings; the anger of God towards his enemies, renders their most valued
advantages a curse and a misery to them. Aaron is to summon the plague by
smiting the river with his rod. It was done in the sight of Pharaoh and his
attendants, for God's true miracles were not performed as Satan's lying
wonders; truth seeks no corners. See the almighty power of God. Every creature
is that to us which he makes it to be water or blood. See what changes we may
meet with in the things of this world; what is always vain, may soon become
vexatious. See what mischievous work sin makes. If the things that have been
our comforts prove our crosses, we must thank ourselves. It is sin that turns
our waters into blood. The plague continued seven days; and in all that time
Pharaoh's proud heart would not let him desire Moses to pray for the removal of
it. Thus the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath. No wonder that God's anger is
not turned away, but that his hand is stretched out still.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Exodus》
Exodus 7
Verse 1
[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 — That is, my representative in this affair, as magistrates are called
gods, because they are God's vicegerents. He was authorized to speak and act in
God's name, and endued with a divine power, to do that which is above the
ordinary course of nature.
And Aaron shall be thy prophet — That is, he shall speak from thee to Pharaoh, as prophets do from God to
the children of men. Thou shalt as a god inflict and remove the plagues, and
Aaron as a prophet shall denounce them.
Verse 7
[7] And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years
old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.
Moses was fourscore years old — Joseph, who was to be only a servant to Pharaoh, was preferred at thirty
years old; but Moses, who was to be a god to Pharaoh, was not so dignified till
he was eighty years old. It is fit he should long wait for such an honour, and
be long in preparing for such a service.
Verse 9
[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.
Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod — This Moses ordinarily held in his hand, and delivered it to Aaron upon
occasion, for the execution of his commands.
Verse 10
[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.
And Aaron cast his rod down, and it became a
serpent — This was proper not only to affect Pharaoh
with wonder, but to strike a terror upon him. This first miracle, though it was
not a plague, yet amounted to the threatening of a plague; if it made not
Pharaoh feel, it made him fear; this is God's method of dealing with sinners he
comes upon them gradually.
Verse 11
[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.
Moses had been originally instructed in the
learning of the Egyptians, and was suspected to have improved in magical arts
in his long retirement. The magicians are therefore sent for to vie with him.
The two chief of them were Jannes and Jambres. Their rods became serpents;
probably by the power of evil angels artfully substituting serpents in the room
of the rods, God permitting the delusion to be wrought for wise and holy ends.
But the serpent which Aaron's rod was turned into, swallowed up the others,
which was sufficient to have convinced Pharaoh on which side the right lay.
Verse 13
[13] And
he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had
said.
And he harden'd Pharaoh's heart — That is, permitted it to be hardened.
Verse 20
[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.
The waters that were in the river were turned
into blood — This was a plague justly inflicted upon
the Egyptians; for Nilus the river of Egypt was their idol; they and their land
had so much benefit by that creature, that they served and worshipped it more
than the creator. Also they had stained the river with the blood of the Hebrew
children, and now God made that river all bloody; thus he gave them blood to
drink, for they were worthy, Revelation 16:6. See the power of God. Every
creature is that to us which he makes it to be, water or blood. See the
mutability of all things under the sun, and what changes we may meet with in
them. That which is water to day may be blood to morrow; what is always vain
may soon become vexatious. And see what mischievous work sin makes! It is sin
that turns our waters into blood.
Verse 22
[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.
And the magicians did so — By God's permission with their enchantments; and this served Pharaoh for
an excuse not to set his heart to this also, ( Exodus 7:23,) and a poor excuse it was. Could
they have turned the river of blood into water again, it had been something;
then they had proved their power, and Pharaoh had been obliged to them as his
benefactors.
Verse 25
[25] And
seven days were fulfilled, after that the LORD had smitten the river.
Seven days were fulfilled — Before this plague was removed.
──
John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Exodus》
07 Chapter 7
Verse 1-2
I have made thee a god to Pharaoh.
The moral position in which some men stand to others
God made Moses to be a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron to be a
prophet. There are many good and noble men in the world to-day, who are gods,
the instructors and rulers, of their fellow-creatures.
I. This exalted
moral position is the result of divine allotment. “And the Lord said unto
Moses, see, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh.”
II. This exalted
moral position involves arduous work and terrible responsibility.
1. The true gods of society have something more to do than to amuse
it. The bearing of their efforts has reference to souls, to man’s life in its
relation to the Infinite. A man whose highest aim is to excite the merriment of
society, is too far removed from divinity to be mistaken for a god.
2. The true gods of society find their employment in communicating to
men the messages of God. They come to teach us; to awaken us; to enable us to
fulfil the will of God. Hence their work is arduous and responsible.
III. This exalted
moral position is most efficiently employed in seeking the freedom of men. But for the
slavery of Israel Moses would not have been a god unto Pharaoh. The position is
the outcome of a condition of things it ought to remove. It is not for
self-aggrandizement. It is to give men the freedom of a Divine salvation. (J.
S. Exell, M. A.)
Verse 3-4
I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My
wonders.
The struggle between God’s will and Pharaoh’s
The text brings before us the two great results which God
forewarned Moses would rise from the struggle between His will and Pharaoh’s.
On the one hand, the tyranny was to be gradually overthrown by the sublime
manifestations of the power of the Lord; on the other, the heart of Pharaoh himself
was to be gradually hardened in the conflict with the Lord.
I. Why was the
overthrow of Pharaoh’s tyranny through the miracles of Moses so gradual? Why
did not God, by one overwhelming miracle, crush for ever the power of the king?
1. It was not God’s purpose to terrify Pharaoh into submission. He
treats men as voluntary creatures, and endeavours, by appealing to all that is highest in their
natures, to lead them into submission.
2. In his determination to keep Israel in slavery, Pharaoh had two
supports--his confidence in his own power, and the flatteries of the magicians.
Through both these sources the miracles appealed to the very heart of the man.
3. The miracles appealed to Pharaoh through the noblest thing he had
left--his own sense of religion. When the sacred river became blood, and the
light turned to darkness, and the lightning gleamed before him, he must have
felt that the hidden God of nature was speaking to him. Not until he had been
warned and appealed to in the most powerful manner did the final judgment come.
II. We are told
that the heart of Pharaoh was hardened by the miracles which overthrew his
purpose. What does this mean? One of the most terrible facts in the world is
the battle between God’s will and man’s. In Pharaoh we see an iron will
manifesting itself in tremendous resistance, the results of which were the
hardening and the overthrow. There are three possible explanations of the
hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.
1. It may be attributed entirely to the Divine sovereignty. But this explanation
is opposed to the letter of Scripture. We read that Pharaoh hardened his heart.
2. We may attribute it wholly to Pharaoh himself. But the Bible says
distinctly, “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”
3. We may combine the two statements, and thus we shall get at the
truth. It is true that the Lord hardened Pharaoh, and true also that Pharaoh
hardened himself. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)
Hardening of conscience
It is a very terrible thing to let conscience begin to grow hard,
for it soon chills into northern iron and steel. It is like the freezing of a
pond. The first film of ice is scarcely perceptible; keep the water stirring
and you will prevent the frost from hardening it; but once let it film over and
remain quiet, the glaze thickens over the surface, and it thickens still, and
at last it is so
firm that a waggon might be drawn over the solid ice. So with conscience, it
films over gradually, until at last it becomes hard and unfeeling, and is not
crushed even with ponderous loads of iniquity. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Seven characteristics of Pharaoh
I. Ignorant (Exodus 5:2).
II. Disobedient (Exodus 5:2).
III. Unbelieving (Exodus 5:9).
IV. Foolish (Exodus 8:10).
V. Hardened (Exodus 8:15).
VI. Privileged (Exodus 9:1).
VII. Lost (Exodus 14:26-28). (C. Inglis.)
Judicial hardness of heart inflicted by God
I. I shall give
some general observations from the story; for in the story of Pharaoh we have
the exact platform of a hard heart.
1. Between the hard heart and God there is an actual contest who
shall have the better. The parties contesting are God and Pharaoh.
2. The sin that hardened Pharaoh, and put him upon this contest, was
covetousness and interest of State.
3. This contest on Pharaoh’s part is managed with slightings and
contempt of God; on God’s part, with mercy and condescension.
4. The first plague on Pharaoh’s heart is delusion. Moses worketh
miracles, turneth Aaron’s rod into a serpent, rivers into blood, bringeth
frogs, and the magicians still do the same; God permitteth these magical
impostures, to leave Pharaoh in his wilful error.
5. God was not wanting to give Pharaoh sufficient means of
conviction. The magicians turned their rods into serpents, but “Aaron’s rod
swallowed up their rods” (Exodus 7:12); which showeth God’s
super-eminent power.
6. Observe, in one of the plagues Israel might have stolen away,
whether Pharaoh would or no (Exodus 10:22-23): but God had more
miracles to be done. When He hath to do with a hard heart, He will not steal
out of the field, but go away with honour and triumph. This was to be a public
instance, and for intimation to the world (1 Samuel 6:6). The Philistines took
warning by it, and it will be our condemnation if we do not.
7. In all these plagues I observe that Pharaoh now and then had his
devout pangs. In a hard heart there may be some relentings, but no true repentance.
8. In process of time his hardness turns into rage and downright
malice (Exodus 10:28). Men first slight the
truth, and then are hardened against it, and then come to persecute it. A
river, when it hath been long kept up, swelleth and beareth down the bank and
rampire; so do wicked men rage when their consciences cannot withstand the
light, and their hearts will not yield to it.
9. At length Pharaoh is willing to let them go. After much ado God
may get something from a hard heart; but it is no sooner given but retracted;
like fire struck out of a flint, it is hardly got, and quickly gone (Hosea 6:4).
10. The last news that we hear of hardening Pharaoh’s heart was a
little before his destruction (Exodus 14:8). Hardness of heart will not
leave us till it hath wrought our full and final destruction. Never any were
hardened but to their own ruin.
II. How God
hardens.
1. Negatively.
2. Affirmatively.
A hardened heart
God hardened Pharaoh’s heart by submitting to him those truths,
arguments, and evidences which he ought to have accepted, but the rejection of
which recoiled upon himself, and hardened the heart they did not convince.
Everybody knows, in the present day, that if you listen, Sunday after Sunday,
to great truths, and, Sunday after Sunday, reject them, you grow in your
capacity of repulsion and ability to reject them, and the more hardened you
become; and thus, the preaching of the gospel that was meant to melt, will be
the occasion of hardening your heart--not because God hates you, but because
you reject the gospel. The sun itself melts some substances, whilst, from the
nature of the substances, it hardens others. You must not think that God stands
in the way of your salvation. There is nothing between the greatest sinner and
instant salvation, but his own unwillingness to lean on the Saviour, and be
saved. (J. Cumming, D. D.)
The punishment of unbelief
The gospel is “the savour of life unto life, and of death
unto death,” as one and the same savour is to some creatures refreshing, to
others poisonous. But that the gospel is unto death, is not a part of its
original intention, but a consequence of perverse unbelief; but when this takes
place, that it is unto death comes as a punishment from God. Thus the
expression “hardening” presupposes an earlier condition, when the heart was
susceptible, but which ceased in consequence of the misuse, of Divine
revelations and gifts. As Pharaoh hardens himself, so God hardens him at the
same time. (Otto Von Gerlach, D. D.)
Heart-hardening
1. Both the expressions employed and the facts themselves lead to the
conclusion, that hardening can only take place where there is a conflict
between human freedom and Divine grace.
2. Again, it follows from the notion of hardening, that it can only
result from a conscious and obstinate resistance to the will of God. It cannot
take place where there is either ignorance or error. So long as a man has not
been fully convinced that he is resisting the power and will of God, there
remains a possibility that as soon as the conviction of this is brought home to
his mind, his heart may be changed, and so long as there is still a possibility
of his conversion, he cannot be said to be really hardened. The commencement of
hardening is really hardening itself, for it contains the whole process of
hardening potentially within itself. This furnishes us with two new criteria of
hardening;
Lessons
1. First and foremost, we learn the insufficiency of even the most
astounding miracles to subdue the rebellious will, to change the heart, or to
subject a man unto God. Our blessed Lord Himself has said of a somewhat
analogous case, that men would not believe even though one rose from the dead.
And His statement has been only too amply verified in the history of the world
since His own resurrection. Religion is matter of the heart, and no intellectual
conviction, without the agency of the Holy Spirit, affects the inmost springs
of our lives.
2. A more terrible exhibition of the daring of human pride, the
confidence of worldly power, and the deceitfulness of sin, than that presented
by the history of this Pharaoh can scarcely be conceived. And yet the lesson
seems to have been overlooked by too many! Not only sacred history, but
possibly our own experience, may furnish instances of similar tendencies; and
in the depths of his own soul each believer must have felt his danger in this
respect, for “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”
3. Lastly, resistance to God must assuredly end in fearful judgment.
Each conviction suppressed, each admonition stifled, each loving offer
rejected, tends towards increasing spiritual insensibility, and that in which
it ends. It is wisdom and safety to watch for the blessed influences of God’s
Spirit, and to throw open our hearts to the sunlight of His grace. (A.
Edersheim, D. D.)
Providence penal
In accordance with a vow a Hindu once bandaged up his eyes so
tightly that not a single ray of light could enter them. So he continued for years. At last,
when his vow was completed, he threw off his bandage, but only to find that
through disuse he had completely lost his sight. In one sense, he had deprived
himself of sight; in another, God had deprived him of it. So it was with
Pharaoh’s spiritual sight. Then comes the warning of consequences. It is very
pleasant to go floating down the river toward the rapids. The current is so
gentle that one can easily regain the bank. But remain in that current, in
spite of all warnings, just one moment too long, and you and your boat will go
over the falls. (S. S. Times.)
Verse 5
The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.
A knowledge of God
I. That the worst
of men will one day have to recognize the reality of the Divine existence. “And
the Egyptians shall know,” etc.
1. Men of bad moral character shall know this.
2. Men of sceptical dispositions shall know this.
II. That they will
be brought to a recognition of the Divine existence by severe judgments.
1. Some men will listen to the voice of reason. The Egyptians would
not.
2. Such will learn the existence of God by judgment.
III. That the
existence of God is a guarantee for the safety of the good. “And bring out,”
etc., from moral and temporal bondage into Canaan, of peace and quiet. (J.
S. Exell, M. A.)
The plagues
1. These plagues are arranged in regular order, and gradually advance from
the external to the internal, and from the mediate to the immediate hand of
God. They are in number ten, which is one of the numbers denoting perfection.
They are divided first into nine and one, the last one standing clearly apart
from all the others in the awful shriek of woe which it draws forth from every
Egyptian home. The nine are arranged in threes. In the first of each three the
warning is given to Pharaoh in the morning (Exodus 7:15; Exodus 8:20; Exodus 9:13). In the first and second of
each three the plague is announced beforehand (Exodus 8:1; Exodus 9:1; Exodus 10:1); in the third not (Exodus 8:16; Exodus 9:8; Exodus 10:21). At the third the magicians
of Pharaoh acknowledge the finger of God (Exodus 8:19), at the sixth they cannot stand
before Moses (Exodus 9:11), and at the ninth Pharaoh
refuses to see the face of Moses any more (Exodus 10:28). In the first three Aaron
uses the rod, in the second three it is not mentioned, in the third three Moses
uses it, though in the last of them only his hand is mentioned. All these marks
of order lie on the face of the narrative, and point to a deeper order of
nature and reason out of which they spring.
2. The plagues were characterized by increasing severity, a method of
procedure to which we see an analogy in the warnings which the providential
government of the world often puts before the sinner.
3. These plagues were of a miraculous character. As such the
historian obviously intends us to regard them, and they are elsewhere spoken of
as the “wonders” which God wrought in the land of Ham (Psalms 105:27), as His miracles in Egypt
(Psalms 106:7), and as His signs and
prodigies which He sent into the midst of Egypt (Psalms 135:9). It is only under this
aspect that we can accept the narrative as historical.
4. That the immediate design of these inflictions was the delivering
of the Israelites from their cruel bondage lies on the surface of the
narrative, but with this other ends were contemplated. The manifestation of
God’s own glory was here, as in all His works, the highest object in view, and
this required that the powers of Egyptian idolatry, with which the interest of
Satan was at that time peculiarly identified, should be brought into the
conflict and manifestly confounded. For this reason it was that nearly every
miracle performed by Moses had relation to some object of idolatrous worship
among the Egyptians (see Exodus 12:12). For this reason, also, it
was that the first wonders wrought had such distinct reference to the exploits
of the magicians, who were the wonder-workers connected with that gigantic
system of idolatry, and the main instruments of its support and credit in the
world. They were thus naturally drawn, as well as Pharaoh, into the contest,
and became, along with him, the visible heads and representatives of the
“spiritual wickedness” of Egypt. And since they refused to own the supremacy
and accede to the demands of Jehovah, or witnessing that first, and as it may
be called harmless, triumph of His power over theirs--since they resolved, as
the adversaries of God’s and the instruments of Satan’s interest in the
world, to prolong the contest, there remained no alternative but to visit the
land with a series of judgments, such as might clearly prove the utter
impotence of its fancied deities to protect their votaries from the might and
vengeance of the living God. (A. Nevin, D. D.)
The variety of the plagues
The diversity and various sorts of those plagues--each sorer than
other. The first and second were upon the water, the third and fourth were upon
the earth, the five next were upon the air, and the tenth falls upon the
firstborn of men, insomuch that their punishment was absolute, not only as to
the number of the plagues, which was a number of perfection, but more
especially in respect of their nature, matter, and manner, all various and
exquisite. For--
I. They were
plagued by all kind of creatures.
1. By all the elements; as water, earth, air and fire.
2. By sundry animals; as frogs, lice, caterpillars, flies, and
locusts.
3. By men; as Moses and Aaron were instruments in God’s hand.
4. By the angels who ministered those plagues, both the evil angels (Psalms 78:44), whom He sent among them,
and the good that were employed in destroying their firstborn (Exodus 12:3, etc.), yea, by the very
stars, who all combined against them--with the sun and moon--in suspending
their light from that land--during the three days darkness--as all ashamed to
look upon such sinful inhabitants thereof, etc.
II. They were
plagued in all things wherein they most delighted.
1. In all manner of their luscious and delicious fruit, by its being
universally blasted or devoured, etc.
2. In their goodliest cattle--some of which they worshipped--all
destroyed by murrain, etc.
3. In their River Nilus, which they adored, and for which end, it is
supposed, Pharaoh was going down to pay his homage to that idol, when God bade
Moses go meet him in the morning (Exodus 7:15). This is intimated in Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 29:9, where they are twitted
twice for idolizing it, but God made it loathsome to them (verse 18).
4. In the fish, which was their daily and delicate diet (Numbers 11:5), for the flesh of many
beasts they, out of superstition, would not eat of, as abominable (Exodus 8:26). All the fish died when
their water was turned into blood (verse 21).
5. In their bodies, wherein they greatly prided themselves, but the
boils God smote them which spoiled all their beauties in their wellbuilt
bodies.
6. In their children, when in every house there was a dead corpse,
and that not of a slave or servant, but of their firstborn. All these were the
idols of Egypt (Exodus 12:12; Zephaniah 2:11).
III. They were
plagued in all their senses.
1. In their seeing; for they lost all sight when the plague of
darkness took away their light for three days, unless it were horrible sights
mentioned in Apocrypha (Wisdom of Solomon 17:6-7). However, their
comfort of seeing they lost.
2. In their hearing. Oh, what a consternation! Dread and terror
seized upon them when God uttered His terrible voice in those frightful
thunders in the plague of hail, when fire ran along upon the ground, yet did
not melt the hailstones (Exodus 9:23). This must be supernatural,
and therefore the more dreadful, which might make them think that God was come
to rain hell-fire out of heaven upon them as He had done, before this, upon
wicked Sodom (Genesis 19:1-38.). How did this voice of
the Lord break the cedars, etc. (Psalms 29:5-6, etc.), yea, every tree of
the field (Exodus 9:25).
3. In their smelling, both by the stench of the frogs (Exodus 8:14), which might mind them of
their sin that made them stink before God, and likewise by the stinking rotten
matter that ran out of those ulcers wherewith they were smitten (Exodus 9:9-11). As they had oppressed
God’s people with furnace work in making brick, so the ashes of that furnace
became burning boils that break forth into putrid running sores, etc.
4. In their tasting, both by the waters turned into blood, because in
them they had shed the blood of the male Hebrew children. These bloody men had
blood to drink, for they were worthy (Revelation 16:6). Their River Nilus they
used to boast of to the Grecians, saying, in mockery to them, “If God should
forget to rain, they might chance to perish for it.” The rain, they thought,
was of God, but not their river (Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 29:9), therefore, to confute them
in their confidence, as God threatens to dry it up (Isaiah 19:5-6), so here to bereave them
of all the comfortable use of it; they now loathed to drink of it (verses
18-20). God cursed their blessings (Malachi 2:2), and also by their thirst
thereby procured. Drinking such bloody water did rather torture their taste
than please their palate, or quench their thirst.
5. In their touching or feeling, by their dolorous shooting pangs in
their body, when the sin of their souls broke forth into sores of their bodies,
which pained them so, that, as they could not now sleep in a whole skin, so
they gnawed their own tongues for pain. This was superadded to the bitings of
flies, wasps, flying-serpents, etc., whereby some might be stung to death (Psalms 78:45), and the magicians
themselves, who had so insolently imitated Moses, the devil being God’s ape,
were branded with those boils to detect their contumacy. Besides, also, the
frogs ravaging upon their bodies so irresistibly, etc., must needs be very
offensive to their sense of touching.
IV. Lastly, as if
all this had been too little to fill up the measure of their plagues and
punishments, Pharaoh and all his forces, that hitherto had escaped, were all
drawn blindfold into the noose, by fair way, weather, etc., and then were
drowned in the Red Sea (Exodus 14:8-9; Exodus 14:21; Exodus 14:24; Exodus 14:28). (C. Ness.)
Verse 6
So did they.
Obedience to God
I. It must be
rendered by the servants of God. “Moses and Aaron.” All men who are called to
moral service by God must obey Him.
1. Because He gives them their commands.
2. Because He gives them the power to do so.
3. Because He rewards obedience.
II. It must be
co-extensive with their mission.
1. It must be entire.
2. It must be cheerful.
3. It must be holy.
III. It will render
their mission effective--
1. Because it will lead to the best mode of service.
2. Because God will delight to honour it. The Divine commands:
Verse 7
Fourscore years old.
Age of Moses and Aaron
Their ages would have an important bearing toward the work of
these two men.
I. Their ages
would indicate that they were not likely to be misled by the enthusiasm of
youth. The world is slow to take young men into its confidence. It soon smiles
at their visions, and laughs at their enthusiastic hopes.
II. Their ages
would be likely to command the respect of those with whom they had to do. The
world wants men of tried energy and long experience to achieve its moral
emancipation; men in whom hot passion has calmed into a settled force.
III. Their ages
would be an incentive to fidelity, as they had spent the younger part of life,
and would be
forcefully reminded of the future. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Delay in entering upon work of life
Let us learn not to be impatient for the discovery of our true
lifework. Moses was eighty years old before he entered upon that noble career
by which he became the emancipator and educator of his nation. Two-thirds of
his days were gone before he really touched that which was his great,
distinctive, and peculiar labour, and his enterprise was all the more
gloriously accomplished by reason of the delay. Nor is this a solitary
instance. The Lord Jesus Himself lived thirty years, during most of which He
was in training for a public ministry, which lasted only two-and-forty months.
John Knox never entered a pulpit until he was over forty years of age; and much
of the fire and energy of his preaching was owing to the fact that the flame
had been so long pent up within his breast. Havelock was a dreary while a mere
lieutenant, held back by the iniquitous system of purchase, which was so long
in vogue in the English army; but, as it happened, that was only a life-long
apprenticeship, by which he was enabled all the more efficiently to become, at length, the
saviour of the Indian Empire. So let no one chafe and fret over the delay which
seems evermore to keep him from doing anything to purpose for the world and his
Lord. The opportunity will come in its own season. It does come, sooner or
later, to every man; and it is well if, when at length he hears the voice
calling, “Moses! Moses!” he is ready with the answer, “Here am I.” For while I
would comfort you with the assurance that the hour will come, I do not mean
that you should be idle until it strikes. No; for if you adopt such a plan, the
certainty is that you will not hear its stroke, or that you will not be ready
to begin at its call. The true principle is to do with your might that which is
lying at your
hand day by day, in the firm conviction that you are thereby training yourself
into fitness for your future vocation. (W. H. Taylor, D. D.)
Verse 11-12
They also did in like manner with their enchantments.
Moses and the magicians
I. Moses divinely
warned of Pharaoh’s demand for a supernatural credential. When men profess to
bring a message from God, they should be prepared to substantiate it by
satisfactory evidence.
II. Moses divinely
sustained in meeting the demand.
1. God will never forsake those who go forth to implicitly work His
will.
2. God often permits His enemies to temporarily triumph.
III. Moses commanded
to appeal again to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:14-17).
1. God’s knowledge of the human heart.
2. God’s knowledge of the purposes and plans of men.
3. God’s recognition of free agency, and its correlative
responsibility.
4. God deals with men on the basis of their moral freedom, and
according to their constitutional nature.
Lessons:
1. Here we have a type of the conflict of ages.
2. The side to which we lean, and for which we fight, shows the party
to which we really belong. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
Lessons
1. Miracles from God will not persuade wicked hearts to believe.
2. Unbelieving sinners are apt to call in all instruments of Satan to
gainsay God.
3. Providence hath of old suffered wisdom to be abused to sorcery and
pernicious acts (Exodus 7:11).
4. God hath suffered creatures by Satan’s help to do some like things
to His miracles.
5. Under God’s permission Satan may work strange changes in
creatures, but no miracles.
6. God’s true miracles devour all lying wonders of Satan (Exodus 7:12).
7. Wicked hearts harden themselves by lying wonders against God, and
therefore are hardened by Him.
8. The fruit of such hardening is rebellion against God’s word and
will.
9. God’s word is made good in all the disobedience of the wicked
foretold (Exodus 7:13). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Man’s effort to repudiate the message of God by an imitation of
its miraculous credentials
I. That man has a
right to expect that any special revelation from God should be accompanied by
infallible and unimpeachable credentials. (Exodus 7:9).
1. We require these credentials to vindicate the authority of the
speaker. The Bible contains the evidences of its Divine origin on its own
pages, for on every page we see the miracle repeated, the rod is turned into a
serpent. And the miracles which the book contains, and the miracle which it is
in itself, are sufficient token to the honest mind that it comes from God. This
evidence is equal to the case. It leaves disobedience without excuse.
2. We require these credentials to vindicate the credibility of the
speaker. God would never give men power to work a miracle to authenticate a
lie. The miracle not only demonstrated the authority of these men, but also the
unimpeachable honesty and verity of their statements. And so men take the Bible
to-day; they perhaps say that in general terms the hook has come from God, and
has His authority, and yet how many question the verity of its corn tents. They
call one part of the message a myth, another part a fable, until, indeed, there
is very little remaining as true.
3. That God anticipates these requests on the part of man, and
provides His messengers with the needed credentials. Any one who rejects the
claims of the Bible, rejects the highest proof, the most reliable evidence;
hence his condemnation will be awful as that of the rebellious king.
4. The spirit in which these credentials should be investigated and
received--
II. That men have
recourse to many devices to weaken and nullify the credentials which are
presented to them in token and support of a Divine message and claim. “Then Pharaoh
also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they
also did in like manner with their enchantments.”
1. We find that men in the investigation of a Divine message are not
satisfied with the evidence they themselves propose. A sceptical mind will not
yield even when it has attained evidence for the truth of its own seeking. It
is most criminal in its unbelief.
2. We find that men in the investigation of a Divine message often
seek others to supply them with sceptical arguments they are not clever enough
to produce themselves.
3. We find that men endeavour to confirm their comrades in scepticism
by imitating the credentials of the messengers of God. But in vain. The
truth-seeker can distinguish between the productions of the two; he never
mistakes the enchantment of the Egyptian for the miracle of Moses.
4. That the men who endeavour to confirm their comrades in scepticism
respecting the Divine credentials are subject to the truth. The rods of the
Egyptian magicians were swallowed up by Aaron’s rod.
III. That the men
who reject the credentials of Divine messengers commence a conflict which will
be productive of great woe and of final overthrow to them. “And He hardened
Pharaoh’s heart that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.”
Lessons:
1. That the messengers of God can always produce Divine credentials.
2. That Divine credentials are often rejected by men of high social
position.
3. That a continued rejection of Divine credentials will end in
destruction.
4. That the servants of God are often perplexed by the conduct of men
in rejecting Divine claims. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Imitation of the good
The mode in which the magicians “withstood Moses” (see 2 Timothy 3:1-9) was simply by
imitating, so far as they were able, whatever he did. From this we learn the
solemn truth that the most Satanic resistance to God’s testimony in the world
is offered by those who, though they imitate the effects of the truth, have but
“the form of godliness,” and “deny the power thereof.” Persons of this class
can do the same things, adopt the same habits and forms, use the same
phraseology, profess the same opinions, as others. How needful to understand
this! How important to remember that “as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses,”
so do those self-loving, world-seeking, pleasure-hunting professors “resist the
truth!” They would not be without “a form of godliness”; but while adopting
“the form,” because it is customary, they hate “the power,” because it involves
self-denial. “The power” of godliness involves the recognition of God’s claims,
the implanting of His kingdom in the heart, and the consequent exhibition
thereof in the whole life and character; but the formalist knows nothing of
this, nor does he desire to know it. He does not want his lusts subdued, his
pleasures interfered with, his passions curbed, his affections governed, his
heart purified. He wants just as much religion as will enable him “ to make the
best of both worlds.” (A. Nevin, D. D.)
Egyptian magicians
They must have possessed a knowledge of nature beyond that of
their countrymen, who had sufficient experience of the utility of such
knowledge to reverence teachers endued with any rare portion of it. The magicians
must have considered this knowledge as Divine; and have come more and more to
regard the different powers of nature and the different objects in which these
powers were exhibited, as themselves Divine. They will have been politicians as
well as naturalists, ready to employ their lore and the mastery which it gave
them over the things of the earth, to uphold the authority of the monarch, or
to promote his plans. They will therefore have fallen into a scheme of trick
and dissimulation, which would have been ineffectual and impossible if there
had not been some truths lying at the root of it; and some real assurance in
their own minds both of those truths and of their own capacities. It is this
mixture of faith with insincerity--of actual knowledge with the assumption of
knowledge, of genuine power with the desire to make the power felt and
worshipped, a readiness therefore to abuse it to low grovelling purposes--which
we have to recognize in the impostures of all subsequent ages, and to which we
are here introduced in one of its primitive manifestations. It was most natural
for a politic monarch to wish that a body of strangers, who were doing little
good in a certain portion of his land, should be made slaves, and so become
agents in carrying out what seemed to him magnificent projects. It was most
natural that a body of politic priests--disliking these strangers, for the
traditions and customs which separated them from their influence--should
readily co-operate with him in that plan, or should be the first suggesters of
it. It is equally natural that his Egyptian subjects should sympathize with the design, and
should feel that they were raised in the degradation of another race. But it
was impossible that king, priests, and people, should effect this seemingly
sage and national purpose, without forging new chains for themselves, without
losing some perceptions of a moral order in the world and a moral Ruler of it,
which had been implied in their government and worship, and which Joseph’s
arrangements had drawn out; it was impossible but that with the loss of this
feeling, they should sink further and further into natural and animal worship.
(F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
Aaron’s rod swallowed up
their rods.
The power of Aaron’s rod
I. Let us turn
aside to see this great sight--the Divine triumphant over the diabolical: the
spiritual subduing the natural--Aaron’s rod swallowing all its rivals.
1. Let us take the case of the awakened sinner. That man was, a few
days ago, as worldly, as carnal, as stolid, as he well could be. If any one
should propose to make that man heavenly-minded, the common observer would say,
“Impossible! As in old Roman walls, the cement has become so strong, that the
stone is no longer a separate piece, but has become a part of the wall itself--so
this man is cemented to the world, he cannot lie separated from it. You must
break him in pieces with the hammer of death; you cannot separate him in any
other way from the cares of life.” Ah, but Aaron’s rod shall swallow up this
rod. The man listens to the Word; the truth comes with power into his soul; the
Holy Ghost has entered him; and the next day, though he goes to his business,
he finds no true contentment in it, for he pants after the living God. Now, his
spirit pleads its needs, and outstrips the body in the contest for its warmest
love. He spurns the trifles of a day: he seeks the jewels of eternity. Grace
has won the day, and the worldling seeks the world to come.
2. The same fact, with equal distinctness, is to be observed in the
individual when he becomes a believer in Jesus Christ; his faith destroys all
other confidences.
3. The same fact is very manifest after faith in all who truly love
the Saviour. They who love Christ aright, love no one in comparison with Him.
4. You will notice this in the man who makes his delight in the Lord
Jesus. He who makes his delight in Christ after a true sort, will discover that
this delight swallows up all other delights.
5. Yet more is it so in a man who is devoted to God’s service. The
service of God swallows up everything else when the man is truly God’s servant.
When a man gets fully possessed with an enthusiastic love for Jesus,
difficulties to him become only things to be surmounted, dangers become
honours, sacrifices pleasures, sufferings delights, weariness rest.
II. We now draw an
inference. If it be so, that wherever true religion--the finger of God--comes
into a man, it becomes a consuming passion, till the zeal of God’s house eats
the man up. Then there are many persons who profess religion, who cannot have
found the right thing. Those who are mean, miserly, and miserable in the cause
of Christ, whose only expenditure is upon self, and whose main object is gain,
what can we say of them? Why, that they look upon religion as some great
farmers do upon their little off-hand farms. They think it is well to have a
little religion; they can turn to it for amusement sometimes, just to ease them
a little of their cares; besides, it may be very well, after having had all in
this world, to try to get something in the next. They are moral and decent in
all ways; they can pray very nicely in prayer-meetings, yet they never dream of
consecrating their secular employments unto God. Aaron’s rod, in their case,
has never swallowed up their rods.
III. Now, I will
give some reasons why i put the service of God so prominent, and think that
Aaron’s rod ought to swallow up all other rods. What does the great gospel
revelation discover to us? Does it not show us an awful danger, and one only
way of escape from it? Does not our religion also reveal to us the joyous
reward of another world? It opens to us yonder pearly gates, and bids us gaze
on angels and glorified spirits. By hell, and by heaven, therefore, I do
entreat you, let Aaron’s rod swallow up all other rods; and let love and faith
in Jesus be the master passion of your soul. Moreover, do we not learn in our
holy faith of a love unexampled? Where was there love such as that which
brought the Prince of Glory down to the gates of death, and made Him pass the
portals amid shame and scoffing? Shall such love as this have half our hearts?
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verses 14-25
They shall be turned to blood.
The river which was turned into blood
I. The river. Has
received various names. “The river of Egypt” (Genesis 15:18); Sihor (Job 13:3); Shihor (1 Chronicles 13:5). Diodorus Siculus
says: The Nile was first called Egypt. Best and longest known by the term Nile,
which is derived from the Arabic words Nil, which means “blue,” and Nileh,
which means “indigo.” Designated, therefore, “the dark blue river,” on
account of its waters assuming at times that appearance.
1. Its sources. These are three “branches.” The White River, which is
the western branch, and takes its rise in the Mountains of the Moon; the Blue
River, which is the central branch, and rises in the highlands of the Galla
country, south of Abyssinia; the Black River, which is the eastern branch, and
rises in the Mountains of Laska. These three required to make the Nile what it
is. Owes its abundance and majesty to each of them. Learn the necessity and the
advantage of combined efforts in doing good.
2. Its course.
Referring here not to the flow of the three rivers just named and their various
tributaries; but coming down to the confluence of the last of these, the Nile
runs in a directly northern course to a distance of 1,150 miles. During all
this way it receives no permanent streams, although in the rainy season it is
often swollen by torrents from the mountains which lie between it and the Red
Sea Fifteen miles below Cairo it divides into two arms. One of these runs into
the Mediterranean Sea below Rosetta, the other flows into it near Damietta. The
whole extent of the river from its farthest source is 3,300 miles. Has been
pursuing this course for the last 6,000 years. As deep and broad as ever. Why?
For the same reason that the rays of the sun are as numerous and powerful as at
first. He who has supplied the sun with light has supplied the Nile with water.
How thankful we should be to Him.
3. Its uses. It has helped to form the clouds. The sun has visited it
every day; has received from it some of the human family in various forms.
Above all it has been, and continues to be, the life of Egypt.
II. The river
changed. As at the marriage-feast of Cana in Galilee, the waters in the
water-pots blushed into wine, because the Lord willed the transformation; so
the waters of the Nile blushed into blood for the same reason. The locomotive
in the hands of the driver, the ship and the pilot, the horse and the rider;
all the elements of nature much more under God. He can do with every one of
them just as He pleases. This, great comfort to all that love Him. They are
safe, for nothing can harm them, contrary to His mind respecting them. This
should deeply impress those who do not love Him. May be conquered at any moment
by the lightning, the wind, or the water.
III. The river
changed for three reasons.
1. It was changed on account of idolatry. The Egyptians reverenced
the Nile; boasted that it made them independent of the rain; believed that all
their gods, particularly Vulcan, were born on its banks. In honour of it
observed rites, ceremonies, and celebrated festivals.
2. It was changed that the priests of Egypt might be deeply
impressed. Nothing which the priests more abhorred than blood. If the slightest
stain of blood had been on their persons, even on their sandals or garments,
they would have thought themselves deeply polluted. How terrified they must
have been when they saw that “there was blood throughout all the land of
Egypt.” God meant this, that they might begin to think of Him, and turn from
their dumb idols to Him. Events, as well as words, are teachers. May we listen
at all times to truth.
3. It was changed to show that God is all-powerful. (A. McAuslane,
D. D.)
The river turned into blood; or, man’s chief pleasure and pride
made the medium of Divine retribution
I. That Divine
retributions are sent when other and merciful measures have failed to
accomplish the purpose of God in man.
II. Divine
retributions often consist in making the source of man’s truest pleasure the
cause of his greatest misery.
1. Sometimes the religious notions of men are made the medium of
retributive pain.
2. Sometimes the commercial enterprises of men are made the medium of
retributive pain. He who might have been prosperous, had he obeyed the behest
of God, is ruined by his folly.
3. Sometimes all the spheres of a man’s life are made the medium of
retributive pain. If a man gets wrong with God, it affects the entirety of his
life. Moral questions penetrate into every realm and department of being, and
affect the whole of them, either gladly or wofully, all being dependant upon
the attitude of the soul toward the Eternal. Hence it is wise for men to obey the
command of God if they would be prosperous.
4. Thus we see how easily and completely God can make human life a
retribution to the evil doer. He can turn our glory into shame.
III. That the Divine
retributions are extensive in their effect, and are operative before the
impotent presence of the socially great. “And Moses and Aaron did,” etc.
1. This Divine retribution extended throughout all the land of Egypt.
2. This Divine retribution, in the act of infliction, was witnessed
by Pharaoh, and he was unable to prevent it.
IV. That the Divine
retributions are not always effectual to the subjugation of the wicked heart. “And the
magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments,” etc. “And Pharaoh turned,”
etc.
1. The hardihood of a.disobedient soul.
2. The resistance of a tyrannic will.
3. The effort of men to mitigate the retribution of God. “All the
Egyptians digged,” etc. Vain effort.
V. That the Divine
retribution sometimes evokes presumptive conduct on the part of the wicked.
Lessons:
1. That Divine retributions are often merited by men.
2. That God can soon turn our joy into pain.
3. That obedience is the wisdom of man. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Opportunity in Christian service
I. That there are
favourable times at which to approach men with the messages of God. “Get thee
unto Pharaoh in the morning.”
II. That there are
favourable places in which to approach men with the messages of God. “And thou
shalt stand,” etc.
III. That the
servants of God are often Divinely instructed as to the best opportunity of
christian service. “Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning.” By a deep
conviction, by a holy impression, and by keen moral vision, God unfolds to good
men the most favourable opportunity in which to declare His message to the
wicked. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The river changed into blood
I. That God can
change the scene of life into death.
II. That God can
change useful things into useless. All life dependent on His will.
III. That God can
change beautiful things into loathsome. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Superstitions respecting the Nile
One of its names was Hapi, or Apis, which is the same as
the sacred bull. There is extant a hymn to the Nile, written about the time of
the Exodus, beginning thus--“Hail, O Nile, thou comest forth over this ]and,
thou comest in peace, giving life to Egypt, O hidden God!” Plutarch, following
the jargon of the priests, calls the Nile “the Father and Saviour of Egypt”
(Symp. 8, 8); and affirms, “There is nothing so much honoured among the
Egyptians as the river Nile.” Even the fish and reptiles which it nourished,
and the very reeds and flowers which grew in it, were held sacred. About
midsummer every year a great festival was celebrated throughout the country in
honour of the Nile. Men and women assembled from all parts of the country in
the towns of their respective Nomes; grand festivities were proclaimed, and the
religious solemnities which then took place were accompanied with feasting,
dancing, and a general rejoicing. A wooden image of the river god was carried
by the priests through the villages in solemn procession, appropriate hymns
were sung, and the blessings
of the anticipated inundation were invoked. By the miraculous change of the
waters into blood, a practical rebuke was given to these superstitions. This
sacred and beautiful river, the benefactor and preserver of their country, this
birthplace of their chief gods, this abode of their lesser deities, this source
of all their prosperity, this centre of all their devotion, is turned to blood:
the waters stink; the canals and pools, the vessels of wood and vessels of
stone, which were replenished from the river, all are alike polluted. (T. S.
Millington.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》