COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 121 - A RED RIVER OF DEATH

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

After Moses and Aaron had done all that God commanded of them before Pharaoh, and their snake had eaten the snakes of all of Pharaoh’s magicians; Pharaoh still would not let the people go.  

So God told Moses to go out to Pharaoh in the morning as he stood by the Nile River with his staff in his hand.  Say to him again that The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you:  "Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness.  But until now you have not listened.  This is what the LORD says:  By this you will know that I am the LORD:  With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.  The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink, the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.”

Then God told Moses to take his staff and stretch out his hand over the waters of Egypt – over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs – and they will turn to blood.  Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone. 

Moses and Aaron did just as God commanded.  When Moses raised the staff in Pharaoh’s presence and struck the water of the Nile all of the water changed to blood.  The fish in the Nile died.  The river smelled.  The people could not drink the water.  Blood was everywhere in Egypt. 

Once again Pharaoh called his magicians and they did the same thing with their secret demonic arts.  Pharaoh still refused to listen to Moses and Aaron, just as God had predicted would happen.  Instead of taking all of this to heart, Pharaoh simply turned and went into his palace. 

All of the Egyptians dug wells along the banks of the Nile since they had no drinking water from the river. 

This changing of the water to blood was the first of ten plagues.  It was a horrible plague!  Imagine having no water to drink and being surrounded by stinking blood and the smell of dead fish.  The dead fish also affected the food supply.  

I think it is a bit comical that Pharaoh even asked the magicians to imitate this!  Why bring on more?  But we all know that the magic used by the magicians was just that; an imitation of the real thing.  So like the usual method of operation for Satan and his demons.  They can never do what God can do; they can only produce a counterfeit; something that appears to be the same that isn’t the same at all.  They were only capable of creating illusions.  

I doubt these tricks seemed too amusing to the people standing by with no water and no fish to eat, smelling the stinking river for seven days in a row.  I can just hear their comments now:  “If these guys are really magicians, then why are they not turning the water BACK to water?  Why are we having to endure this plague of the blood for so long that we are going to be forced to dig new wells in spite of the fact that we are located conveniently next to what used to be a very clean river and a good water supply!”

There are a lot of lessons to be learned from the blood of the Nile River, there was more to this story than being thirsty and hungry.  The main lesson being, the fear of God and the fact that God IS the ONE and only God.  The Egyptians had idolized the Nile. They worshiped it!   They used the river to enforce their pagan beliefs for their pagan gods. 

They had used this same river to drown the Hebrew babies.  Now the  same river that had been the scene of so many deaths looked the part it had played.  It was not a god at all; it was a stinking, bloody river in which innocent babies had been murdered.  

The truth eventually shows itself.  The counterfeit falsehoods of Satan can only stand for awhile.  Eventually God Almighty comes and sets the record straight.  Take note America.  Take note all you other countries in the earth that agree to murder unborn babies and sell their body parts for profit.  You twist the truth to fit your idols; yourselves.  Eventually God Almighty will set the record straight!  It is just a matter of time.  The truth of your idolatry (bowing to the almighty dollar) will show forth and the whole world will know who you really are.  

In Egypt, the land knew that the King who had murdered innocent little babies was now the King who had to dwell by a bloody stinking river with no water or no fish.  He was surrounded for seven days with the evidence of what he had done – death.  He could not escape.  Blood was on his hands and in his river.  The air he breathed smelled of death, the thirst in his throat felt of death, everything everywhere spoke of death.  How do you think it felt to him to be living in the same horrible circumstances that he had created for others in order to live in a luxurious palace and enjoy the life of a King?  

The people’s eyes must surely be opening to who their King really was, but he did not budge from his stubborn decision not to let God’s people go!  No, Pharaoh like so many others living today, never wanted to change his ways.  He wanted to remain the greedy murderer that ruled the land forever.  He was not even sorry for his sins.  This all sounds painfully familiar, as if it might not JUST apply to Pharaoh. 

The plague of the blood lasted for seven days and Pharaoh did not change his mind.