(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.
