Exodus 7--The First Plague: Water Turned to Blood

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

8 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’” 10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. 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.

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. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. 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.’”

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.

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

---

God once again reminds Moses of his role and his brother's role and that it is simply Moses' job to speak the words that God puts in his mouth to his brother Aaron so that Aaron can act as his prophet and tell the king and the people the message that God has given.  If the king or the people reject the words from Moses and Aaron, they are not rejecting Moses and Aaron, but rejecting God.

In fact, God tells Moses once more that He is intentionally going to harden Pharaoh's heart and He will do great and miraculous signs and wonders that will be great acts of judgment against Egypt--probably the largest and most prosperous empire at that time.  Why?  Because it is important to God for the Egyptians to know that He is the Lord and Savior of His people.

In passing the text mentions "Now Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83 years old when they spoke to Pharaoh."  Last time we talked about Moses' age, he was "only" 40 years old when he was fleeing from a Pharaoh into the land of Midian because he had murdered one of the Egyptian taskmasters that was beating a Hebrew slave.  God had to use Moses' 40 years in the wilderness to prepare him for this time that he would speak to Pharaoh but also for the next 40 years of his life when he would lead the people of the LORD out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Promised Land of Canaan.

Remember the signs that God had given Moses to validate his message at the burning bush?  It seems that originally those signs were given to him to convince the Hebrews, but now God is going to use those signs to authenticate His power and message with Pharaoh, first by having Moses' staff turn into a snake and when that does not work God would use Moses to bring about the first plague.  He would not simply turn a little water from the Nile River into blood like He did for the Israelites, but the whole Nile River--possibly the longest river in the world and definitely the longest river in the known world at that time which was the source of life for everything in the Nile delta area--would be turned to blood.  It's not just that the river was big or that it was important to life there in Egypt.  The river was actually considered divine and was worshiped.  Specifically, this plague was meant to show that the LORD was more powerful than the Egyptian god Hapi--The god of the Nile.  But the plague didn't just affect the river, it affected all of the fresh water in Egypt as Moses and Aaron are commanded Moses to tell Aaron to "​Take your staff and stretch out your hand ​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.’”  Imagine having no fresh water in the entire empire for seven days. and for the blood in the rivers to kill all the freshwater fish and the combination of the blood and dead fish would stink for a full week and people would be without their largest source of food or water and without water to water their crops.

Why the magicians of Egypt would even want to try to duplicate this miracle, I don't know, but, somehow, God allowed them to perform a cheap imitation of this miracle so that Pharaoh was not impressed and hardened his heart once more.

I'm sure there was much death that occurred during these seven days as men, women, children and animals all died because of the rebellion of Pharaoh and that much damage was probably done to the empire that became great because it had been able to feed most of the known world during the time of famine due to Joseph's faithful execution of the plan that God had given to him.  In a few short days, I'd imagine most of that prosperity disappeared and the people that once worshiped their king, Pharaoh, as a god would probably be secretly questioning his wisdom and judgment in fighting a battle against the God of the Hebrews that had such power.  Even if the heart of Pharaoh was not moved, I'd imagine the hearts of some of the people were, and we certainly will see a shift in the hearts of the people of the LORD.