Exodus 7 (Moses Before Pharaoh / Aaron vs The Magicians / The First Plague: Waters Become Blood)

Moses Before Pharaoh and the Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart

All right, well let's pray and then we'll get into Exodus chapter 7. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening. We thank you for the beautiful day that you gave to us. We thank you for each one who's come out.

And Lord, we want to remember those who are sick, in particular Linda, Lord. We just ask that your grace would be upon her and in Arthur. And Father, we just pray that tonight you would open our hearts and minds to receive something from your word.

We pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Exodus 7.

I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron, your brother, shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you. You shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay my hand on Egypt and bring my armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the children of.

Among them. And Moses and Aaron did so, just as the Lord commanded them, so they did. And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh, who spoke to.

Moses and Aaron. When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, Show a miracle for yourselves, then you shall say to Aaron, Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and let it become a serpent.

So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, just as the Lord commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.

But every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rod, and Pharaoh's heart grew hard, and he did not heed them as the Lord had said.

So the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hard, he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning, when he goes out to the water, and you shall stand by the river's bank to meet him, and the rod which was turned to a serpent, you shall take in your hand, and you shall say to him, The Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.

But indeed until now you would not hear. Thus says the Lord, by this you shall know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will strike the waters which are in the river with the rod that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood, and the fish that are in the river shall die, the river shall stink, and the Egyptians will loathe to drink the water of the river.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, say to Pharaoh, take your rod, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their streams, over their rivers, over their ponds, and over all their pools of water, that they may become blood.

And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt,.

Both in buckets of wood and pitchers of stone. And he did so, just as the Lord commanded. So he lifted up the rod and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his serpents.

Then the river returned to the land. The fish that were in the river died, the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river. So there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

Then the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments, and Pharaoh's heart grew hard, and he did not heal them, as the Lord had said. And Pharaoh turned and went into his house. Neither was his heart moving.

So all the Egyptians dug all around the river for water to drink, because they could not drink the water of the river. And seven days passed after the Lord had struck the river.

Exodus 6, the Covenant, and Moses’ Unc uncircumcised lips

Okay, last time in chapter six, we remember God had renewed the covenant that he had made between him and Abraham. Then we saw after that, there was the genealogy, which gave details about Moses and Aaron and their family.

And then God spoke to Moses saying, speak to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say to you. And chapter six ended with verse 30, which says, but Moses said before the Lord, behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh heed me?

And what did we conclude that that meant? That Moses was a man of uncircumcised lips, remember? Yeah, he was not eloquent. He couldn't speak as well as he wanted to, to face off with the king of Egypt, who was probably the most powerful man on earth at the time.

He didn't feel like he was up to the job. So what did the Lord do? He said, well, your brother, Aaron, he can speak well. So Aaron will be your prophet. And that's how Exodus seven begins. It says, so the Lord said to Moses, see, I have made you as God to Pharaoh and Aaron, your brother shall be your prophet.

You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron, your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of the land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.

And then the Lord goes on to tell him, but Pharaoh's not going to listen. Okay. Aaron's going to speak for you, but not going to listen. Now, if you would turn to Romans chapter nine, Romans chapter nine, and we're going to see what God is doing or what he is about to do.

I think we can see already that God is planning to put his power on display. And in order for that to happen, in order for the Lord to have opportunity to send the plagues, obviously Pharaoh's heart has to be hardened.

Pharaoh has to say no to this request. And we'll look at that in a moment. What does it mean that Pharaoh hardened his heart? You know, sometimes we use phrases and you assume that everyone knows what that means.

And probably just about everybody does know what it means, but sometimes it's helpful to define it. So look at Romans 9, 13, as it is written. So apostle Paul writing to the church at Rome says, as it is written, Jacob, I have loved, but Esau, I have hated.

And who knows where that's a quote from? Okay. Malachi chapter one. And in Malachi one, he's talking about the nations of Israel and then Edom, which came from Esau. So the point there, Israel was a chosen nation.

Esau or Edom was not a chosen nation. And what's the response that some people have when they see God choosing one and not another, what do they say? Yeah, that's with the voice that really helps. That's not fair.

Okay. Verse 14. Okay, fine. Paul anticipates that. And he says, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy.

And I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but God who shows mercy. The point is God can do whatever he wants. God is God. God does all his, all his pleasure.

So no, no nation deserves to be chosen by God, right? It's an act of grace. It's an act of mercy. Paul then turns to the Exodus account, and this is the tie in between Exodus seven, and then Romans nine, look at verse 17 for the scripture says to Pharaoh for this very purpose, I have raised you up that I may show my power in you.

And that my name may be declared in all the earth. And that's a quote from Exodus chapter nine, verse 16. So what does that tell us? That God, listen now and see what your reaction is that God raised Pharaoh up just so he could tear Pharaoh down.

Does that rub you the wrong way? No. Okay. So God's name would be magnified in all the earth because of the plagues in tearing Pharaoh down. And God does that. He will raise a nation up to tear the nation down.

Now, is that God's desire to tear men down or to tear a nation down? Now it's of their own doing. And we're going to see that this isn't God, um, wanting to do it or making anyone do anything. And again, someone will think to themselves, you know, maybe that doesn't quite sound right, or it doesn't seem fair.

And if that's what you think, going back to that statement, is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Now I could be wrong. Okay. But there's no unrighteousness with God. So just as Jacob or Israel was the chosen nation and Eden wasn't Israel as a people are chosen by God.

They're vessels of mercy and grace. Egypt isn't. I mean, that's, that's the bottom line. Now, this is what the objection is where it doesn't seem fair. What does the scripture say? All have sinned and have come short of the glory of God.

Therefore, because of that, nobody is deserving. You know, it's not a matter of fairness. If you want to talk about justice, what does everybody deserve? Yeah. Right. Destruction. Nobody would deserve grace because grace is one definition of grace is unmerited favor.

So, uh, you don't deserve it. Look at Romans nine, 18. Therefore, speaking of God, he has mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills. He hardens. And who did God harden? Pharaoh. All right. Now turn to John chapter 12.

The Sovereignty of God, Human Responsibility, and Hardening

Hey, listen, if you hear some of these things and maybe you have a different perspective or you want to ask a question, you know, feel free to raise your hand and speak up. That's fine. So John chapter 12.

And as I've said before, there's nothing, uh, unfair or the better word is unjust. There's nothing unjust about God hardening Pharaoh's heart or God judging Pharaoh. Pharaoh did exactly what Pharaoh wanted to do.

Pharaoh was a sinner. He was guilty. It's not as if Pharaoh really wanted to do the right thing, but God stepped in and hardened his heart and Pharaoh would have done good. It's just that God, no, that's not the case at all.

So if God forced somebody to do something wrong, that, that would be inconsistent with God's nature. So I think that's what some people hear in all of this, but that's definitely not what we're saying.

Yeah. And you say, well, you're saved because you believed, right? And Pharaoh didn't believe. Okay. Then you get a, well, why did you believe? You know? And, and there's certain people that are placed in situations where they hear the gospel.

There's some people who have never heard the gospel. So, right. I mean, that's a deeper question that we don't have time for, but you're right. This is hard. It is difficult. All right. Look at John 1237.

Um, and if you thought that's difficult, yes. Oh, sorry. Yes.

I didn't have a question. I just wanted to make a statement. Sure. Um, can't think straight now. Uh, God knows the beginning of end of everybody. That's true. So we have a free will, but God knows what we're going to do.

It's not that he forced it on us. He gave us the free will, but he knows the beginning and end of everything.

Right. Yeah. I'm not going to argue with that. Certainly. All right. So John chapter 12 verse 37, and you know, I'm emphasizing this because, um, the sovereignty of God goes straight through. We've seen it again and again in Genesis and we're seeing it again in Exodus.

Um, John 1237, that's where we will start says, but although he had done so many signs before them, uh, that is Jesus. They did not believe him that the word of Isaiah, the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed.

Therefore, what does it say? They could not believe because Isaiah said again, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts less. They should see with their eyes less. They should understand with their hearts in turn so that I should heal them.

Pharaoh’s Magicians, Satanic Power, and Whether Their Signs Were Real

Uh, so the point is there is a point of no return. And I think Pharaoh had reached that point in hardening his heart to where God then hardened it and Pharaoh just wasn't going to listen. Okay. So people have the opportunity to do right.

Pharaoh had the opportunity to do that, which was right to respond to God's word. But if a person persists in doing evil, they get to a point, at least based on what we just read, where they cannot believe they will harden their heart, harden their heart.

And at some point, God may step in and harden their heart for them. So you think of somebody maybe who's in a church and they hear the preaching of the gospel week after week, month after month, year after year, and they just reject it, but they keep hearing it and hearing it every week or year that passes their heart gets harder and harder and harder.

So, but with all that said, as far as I know, anyone who's still breathing has a chance as far as I know. Okay. If God sees that someone crossed the line, well, that's his, that's what he sees. But as far as I know, and I think that's the way we need to approach it, as long as somebody is still alive, we need to treat them as someone who may receive the gospel.

So with, with that said, now that Pharaoh he's hardened his heart, what is he going to do when he sees the miracles? Well, he's going to harden his heart some more, right? All right. Turn back to Exodus chapter seven.

All right. Any more comments or questions?

Oh, Pharaoh considered him a God, but he himself considered him a God. And with that kind of an attitude, there were no other gods except him. Now they did worship a multitude of gods, but he was considered a God period.

Right. Yeah. And you know,.

Okay, Russ. Well, I was just going to say, you know, Pharaoh seeing these supernatural acts done by Moses or done by God through Moses. And sometimes people will say, you've probably heard people say things like, well, if I saw a miracle, then I would believe, or if God would just show me this, or if God would just do this, then I would believe.

But is that true? No. I mean, here's a man who sees clear miracle signs and wonders right before him. And you're going to see later on it. His heart is not moved at all. Right. Yeah. So if a person hardens their heart and refuses to believe in a God that let's face it, they already know exists.

Uh, they refuse to do what God says. Um, and they have the law of God written in their heart. Seeing a miracle.

Isn't going to change anything. Yes. We realized that Israel is the chosen Mason and Esau is not. But you have, when we go to the book of Revelation, we see that only a third of the Jews survive. I mean, that's a harsh judgment.

Yeah. Worse than the Holocaust. Right. Yeah. So the Lord saves who he will. I heard Irwin Lutzer one time on the radio say, God's going to come down and put his arm around your shoulder and say, see what I did for this one.

And what a concept that is. Yeah. Yeah. That's. And of course, in the end times,.

There's going to be judgment, supernatural things going on everywhere. And what's the reaction of the people who see it, right. It makes them grow in their hatred of God. I did the math. I'm crazy.

Yeah. But during the tribulation, it starts out saying that a quarter of the population now dies. And then further on, it says a third. If you do the math, that's half the population of the world. Right.

Yeah. That's a huge number. Amen. So what I did was say, okay, let's say at that time, there's 8 million people. It comes down to 4 million left. That means that one in two.

Survive. Yeah. So we understand that. Okay. Unbelievers, they're not moved by miracles. Um, what did Jesus say? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, right? But even with the children of Israel, right.

As a chosen people, God's chosen nation. What did they see? They saw the parting of the red sea. I mean, they knew God existed obviously. And they saw the miracles that Moses wrought. They went through the midst of the sea yet they all died in the wilderness because they did what they lacked faith.

Yeah. So what does that tell you? It proves that lacking faith isn't a matter of believing that God exists. The Israelites believed he existed. So I would argue that not only did they know that God existed, every person on earth in their heart knows that there's something more.

They know that there is a God, but the question is, is not, do they believe in him? The question is, do they love him? Do they trust him? Because if they love him and trust him, it's going to work itself out in faith and obedience.

Uh, was Abraham perfect? Uh, no, God told him to go to the land that I will show you. And he went, wasn't perfect, but he, he went, was Moses perfect? No, but God said, go to Pharaoh and tell Pharaoh all that I tell you.

And he kind of resisted a little bit, but, but he went look at verse three, again, Exodus seven, verse three, the Lord says, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

The Pharaoh will not heed you so that I may lay my hand on Egypt and bring my armies and my people, the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.

When I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them, then Moses and Aaron did so just as the Lord commanded them. So they did. And Moses was 80 years old in Aaron, 83 years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.

So if you think of Moses life, I think we mentioned this once already, but you can take the life of Moses and break it up into three sections, right? So the first 40 years of Moses life, he was the Prince in Egypt, the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter.

So he lived in comfort and, and a privileged status for the first 40 years. And then what made him leave? Right. He saw the Egyptian beating the Hebrew. He kills the Egyptian, hides them in the sand. It's discovered.

So Moses has to flee into the wilderness of Midian. And he spends the next 40 years as a shepherd out in the middle of nowhere. And then he encounters God at the burning bush. God tells him to go back.

And he spends the last 40 years at his ministry, as the deliverer of the children of Israel. So 40, 40, 40, which means he died at age 120. And he could have kept on going because he was still, still strong, but God decided to take him at age 120.

Okay. Now we get into the account where Moses and Aaron face off with Pharaoh's magicians. This to me is kind of the most interesting part of the chapter and it kind of provoked some questions that I really wasn't sure where I stood.

And I'll give you a chance in a few minutes to give your thoughts on this, but here's the question we're going to consider Pharaoh's men, right? They're throwing down the staff. Moses does turns into a serpent and then Pharaoh's men basically do the same thing.

So the question is, did Pharaoh's magicians have the ability to perform legitimate miracles? Yes or no? And then if they did have that ability, where did it come from? Well, because we know where Moses got that ability from the Lord.

So where would they get that ability? Okay. No hands yet. You're going to have to wait. I'll give you a chance to answer it so you can think about it for a few minutes. All right. Look at verses eight through 13.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, when Pharaoh speaks to you saying show a miracle for yourself, then you shall say to Aaron, take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh and let it become a serpent.

So Moses and Aaron went into Pharaoh and they did so just as the Lord commanded and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants and it became a serpent. But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers and the magicians of Egypt.

And they also did in like manner with their enchantments. You know, this is somewhat problematic. I think the fact that they are able to do this in verse 12 for every man threw down his rod and they became serpents.

The Aaron's rod, this is the good part. Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods and Pharaoh's heart. What did it do? It grew hard and he did not heed them as the Lord had said. So here's the question. And again, in a moment, I'll let you raise your hand.

But we're Pharaoh's men working miracles. No. All right. We got an answer already. And if so, where do they get the power? We already saw back in chapter three that Moses, the fact that he could throw down his rod, turn into a serpent, put his hand in his coat or his cloak and pull it out and it's leprous and he heals it.

Right.

So that all comes from God. Two opposing, two opposing. Theirs was secret sorcery and witchcraft. We know or we feel anyways that witchcraft is not from God. It's from Satan. Okay. Do we all,.

Okay. Do we all agree with that? That the magicians were not working miracles by the power of God. We all agree with that. All right. That's, that's a given, I think. All right. Now just think about the word magician.

When we think of the word magician, we think of some guy in a top hat who goes to kids' birthday parties or something, you know, and they pull the rabbit out of the hat and we're talking about different things, but magicians, they perform tricks, right?

When you're five, you believe it's real, but when you're 55 or 35, you don't hopefully believe it's real. You know, when David Copperfield made the statue of liberty disappear, he didn't really make it disappear.

It was all an illusion. So these magicians, was this real? Was it a trick? Was it an illusion? One more verse. Second Thessalonians chapter two, verse nine. It says the coming of the lawless one who we would identify as the anti-Christ says the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all powers, signs, and lying wonders.

So Jim's already answered who else wants to take a, it's okay. What do you think? Were these legitimate miracles? And if so, where did the power come from or were they not legitimate? Okay. I saw Mark.

In Matthew 24, 24, there shall arise false Christ and false prophets and show great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive even the elect. Satan powers on display.

Okay. All right.

All right. So you are saying you believe that they, they were legitimate supernatural acts. Okay. Okay. Uh, the false prophet, is it in revelation 13, he's able to make fire come down from heaven. Now, I mean, the question is how does he do it?

Okay. Satan. Um, all right. Any other, any other hands, Linda? Yeah. All right. Hold that thought. Don't get it. Yeah. Okay. That's a good point. Anyone else?

Yes. Yes. Yes. What? It was legitimate. Legitimate. Okay.

All right. Who says they're legitimate? What do you mean by legitimate? That there, yes, that the, that Pharaoh's magicians were performing real miracles, like supernatural acts. Who says that's what it was of the devil, not of God, of the devil, who says they are not legitimate miracles.

They're more like tricks. None. Didn't you say that? Didn't you just say that you changed your mind already?

Well, I'm just looking at the footnotes. And if you don't mind, I'll read a little bit of it. Um, whether by optical illusion, sleight of hand or learn physical manipulation of a snake, all sufficiently skillful enough to totally fool Pharaoh and his servants or by evil supernaturalism.

The evaluation given in the inspired record is simple. They also did in the light, in light manner. Okay. However, the turning of rods in the snakes and later turning water into blood and calling forth frogs were not saying as trying to create lice from inanimate dust.

At the point, the magicians had no option, but to confess their failure. Yeah. So they reached a point where they just couldn't. So you're saying you believe that.

They're tricks. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Okay. So me and Jim are the only ones here who think that they're tricks. Okay. That's fine. You want to disagree? That's fine. Maybe you're right. Um, so I tend to think that they're tricks.

I think if Satan has the ability to perform miracles, that is extremely problematic because the whole purpose of miracles is to confirm the word, right? So if Satan has a false prophet and he's preaching heresy and then he works a miracle, that's God's system of confirming the word that the word he's saying is true.

So I, I cannot accept that for that simple reason. Okay. Again, if you want to disagree, that's fine. But I do not believe that Satan, can he do supernatural things? Well, yeah, he's a supernatural, uh, person, but I do not believe he can perform miracles in this world.

Um, uh, Larry, well, I was just gonna say, well, what about Joe? You know, I mean, he caused all kinds of havoc to Joe. And I mean, they were supernatural. And he does have great power, but not all. Was there anything that defied nature.

That happened to Job though? Oh, I think you're different. You're right. He did. And God gave him the authority to do it. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I can see both sides, but that's, that's my story.

I'm sticking to it. Okay. Mark, how can the snake eat the snake? If it wasn't a snake,.

God's snake can do whatever. Okay. It's the, no. Why? Well, why not? The, the snake from, from the rod of Aaron or Moses ate the others. He, he can, he can do anything. It's, it's God's.

Rod. The magicians threw the rod down and it turned into a snake and the snake ate the snake.

I don't see a problem with that.

Yeah. Aaron's rod also blooded flowers. Yeah. Well, that's a legitimate miracle from God.

All right. Megan has something. I was going to say, someone told me once that they have theory or nuggets. And I thought about, yeah, the magician's staffs, they were snakes to begin with. They paralyzed the snakes and they did something like David, something like it makes him like go stiff for a moment.

And all of a sudden it's like, Oh, this was a staff. No, it's.

Not. So yeah. I think I saw a movie where they were, well, nevermind. Larry. No. Okay. So, three things are mentioned here. Wise men, right? A Pharaoh brings in wise men, sorcerers and magicians. So wise men are just wise men.

They knew anything and everything about all sorts of stuff. Right? So the sorcerers were basically those who practiced demonic religion. Okay. They practiced a witchcraft and divination contacting the dead, which is really contacting demons.

If they're in contact with anything at all, the magicians though, it is said that they were astrologers. They were believed to have a cult knowledge and many commentators believe sort of like what Megan said, that they, with their enchantments, they had the ability to charm snakes.

So that would have been the idea. They could make a snake turn rigid and then throw it down. I'm not saying that is what happened. But it's a possibility. All right, Jim.

In verse 12 it says, well, in verse 11, Pharaoh also called wise men and sorcerers to the magicians of Egypt. They did. They also did in like manner with enchantments. Verse 12, for every man threw down his rod and they became servants.

It doesn't say anything about them. Like, you know, everybody's seen pictures of live snakes and how they slither. It doesn't say anything like that. It just says that they threw them down and it doesn't describe if they started moving, they started attacking Aaron's rod or now the snakes.

So the theory about, or the answer I think is that they did know how to give them some sort of thing that,.

You know, you can't get active. All right. Well, we can disagree on this. We're still friends, right? I hope so. So I tend to think they're tricks, but whatever. Um, because in this chapter, uh, in the next chapter two, the magicians, what are they doing every step of the way, at least for a little while they're copying the plagues.

Okay. So it isn't until, as you said, the lice, you know, creating lice from nothing basically, or from dust it's at that point where they say, okay, we can't do this. And then they recognize, they say, this is done by the finger of God.

The First Plague: Waters Become Blood

All right. So now we come to the first plague verse 15. We're going to wrap this up. It says, uh, the Lord says, go to Pharaoh in the morning when he goes out to the water and you shall stand by the river's bank to meet him.

And the rod, which was turned to a serpent, you shall take in your hand and you shall say to him, the Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me to you saying, let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness.

But indeed until now you would not hear. Thus says the Lord by this, you shall know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will strike the waters, which are in the river with the rod that is in my hand and they shall be turned to blood.

So Moses does this, but then in verse 22, the magicians of Egypt do something similar, which is completely ridiculous. Why would they want to turn more water into blood? Yeah. Yeah. If they really had the power or an equal power to God, they would reverse the curse.

They would reverse the plague, not turn the, Hey, the good water we have left. Let's turn that into blood too. I mean, that makes no sense whatsoever. Then verse 23 says, and Pharaoh turned and went into his house.

Neither was his heart moved by this.