The First Plague Promised

Pharaoh saw the superior power of Moses and Aaron and thus the superior power of their God when the serpent formed from their staff swallowed up the serpents produced by the Egyptian magicians (Ex. 7:1–12). Yet that did not lead the king to relent and to free the Israelites, but he hardened his heart (v. 13). He would have to see more signs to release Israel from bondage.

In today’s passage, the first of these signs, also known as plagues, is promised. The Lord tells Moses that he and Aaron are to go to meet Pharaoh at the Nile River in the morning (vv. 14–15). Apparently the Egyptian king follows a morning ritual of going to the river, possibly to bathe as his daughter did (see 2:5). It could also be that Pharaoh comes to the water to worship the Egyptian god Hapi, who was closely associated with the Nile and its fertility. In fact, there was little distinction made between the god and the river in the pantheistic religion of ancient Egypt. To worship the god was to worship the river and vice versa.

We understand the significance of a plague involving the river when we consider the nature of the sign and the importance of the Nile in Egypt. Ancient Egyptians regarded the Nile as the source of life. Its annual flooding enriched the soil, making Egypt one of the chief sources of grain in the ancient Near East. Centuries after Moses, the Roman Empire would rely heavily on its control of Egypt to feed Roman citizens. The river was also an important conduit of trade. Thus, the Egyptians trusted wholeheartedly in the river for their well-being. In the days of Moses, however, they would learn that their trust was misplaced, for the first plague sent by the Lord on Egypt would turn the water of the Nile to blood, bringing death (7:16–19). The Egyptians would learn that the God of Israel, not the Nile and its deities, is sovereign over life and death. John Calvin aptly comments, “There was a reason for commencing with this miracle, that the Egyptians might know that there was no safeguard for them in the resources upon which they prided themselves the most.”

God tells Moses that the waters of the Nile will turn to blood when Aaron stretches his staff out over the river (v. 19). This staff will be the instrument of the Lord’s power not because of any magic in the staff itself but because God has chosen it to represent His authority and might. The staff points beyond itself to the omnipotent Creator, who will turn the Nile’s waters of life into waters of death.