The LORD, My God Turns Blessings to Curses for His Enemies

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Hymns: 27 Now Thank We All Our God 41 Before Jehovah’s Awful Throne 45 We Gather Together 

The LORD, my God turns blessings to curses for His enemies

(Exodus 7:15-25)

15 Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand. 16 And thou shalt say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear. 17 Thus saith the LORD, In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. 18 And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river. 19 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone. 20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. 21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 22 And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the LORD had said. 23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also. 24 And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river. 25 And seven days were fulfilled, after that the LORD had smitten the river.

Exodus 7:15-25 (KJV)

OUTLINE

  • Warning of Spurning God’s Blessing (v15-18)
  • His Enemies Cursed (v19-21)
  • His Enemies’ Futile Resistance (v22-25)

INTRODUCTION

Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness looking after sheep to learn submission to God. Moses was mightily used of God because he was a vessel totally consecrated for God’s glory. It was the will of God that Israel will leave Egypt en-route to Promised Land. Israel is to reflect the God whom they served.

In Exodus 7:1, the LORD said to Moses that He has made him a god (small g) unto Pharaoh. This is because of the powers to perform miracles that God allowed Moses to do as God’s ambassador. We saw last week it is to authenticate his calling so that Pharaoh might realize that it is the living and true God that he is defying when refused to let the Hebrew slaves leave Egypt. Seeing miracles does not lead one to faith. Human ingenuity sought to undermine God’s authority. Will they succeed? No. Psalm 2 is a good description of God’s heart.

“1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. 6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. 7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. 10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” Psalm 2:1-12 (KJV)

We are God’s creation and the very breath we have comes from Him who sustains us. Do we not realize our frailty and submit ourselves under God? This passage tells us how man who rebels against God cannot succeed but will be humbled. When we refuse to submit to God and His will, we face the wrath of His sore displeasure.

(1) Warning of Spurning God’s Blessing (v15-18)

How is life in Ancient Egypt? It revolves around the river. The Life-Time Books on Ancient Egypt in the series of books GREAT AGES OF MAN – A History of World Cultures writes this of the frailty of life in Ancient Egypt – “Ancient Egypt, an arid waste desert extending over thousands of square miles, left man almost nowhere to live but along a thin strip of land watered by the Nile. As the river flowed from the south to north, from the steep cliffs near Aswan to the Delta beyond Cairo, the verdant strip on each bank varied greatly. In some places it spread over no more than a mile; in other places it covered about 13 miles. In the Delta, a triangular network of river branches, fertile fields, vineyards and orchards extended some 150 miles in width – but even this was a mere strand set against the vast desert beyond. To the peasants in the field, the forbidding, inhospitable expanse of sand and rock that reached up to the very edge of their villages was a fearful place, lonely, and threatening. The desert was considered as the home of the dead, a place for burial. Only with the Nile could they sense the continuity of life….In Egypt, a land virtually without rain, irrigation alone made possible for crops to grow and men to live. One of the earliest official positions in Lower Egypt was that of “canal digger”, and one measure of a pharaoh’s administration was how much land his engineers could open up to the floodwaters of the Nile. To spread the supply of water, Egyptians caught the flood in immense basins dug out of the earth, and devised primitive but ingenious water-raising mechanisms to get it to where it was needed.”[1]

The river was God’s providence for Egypt. Although they were a heathen community who knew not God and worship all sorts of idols, God nevertheless blessed them with life from the Nile River. God wanted to convey the message to the Egyptians that it is God who is in-charge of His creation and not Pharaoh.

How did Egypt become a nation?

“Some…thousand years before the birth of Christ, civilization was emerging in scattered areas of the Near East. Man the hunter had become man the settler. He had cease to depend on the fortune of the chase for his food and now fed himself by herding flocks and raising crops instead. Then suddenly, within a few centuries between 3200 to 3000 B.C., the scattered tribes living along the Nile were united under one head, ruled by a formal government. The man who was tribal leader of Upper Egypt (tradition calls him Menes) founded the first of Egypt’s 30 dynasties, extended northwards and united the country. Menes founded the city of Memphis, 20 miles of the apex of the Delta, near where the regions of Lower and Upper Egypt meet, and established it as his capital. The city was destined to become the greatest in the land. Menes and his immediate successors – some 18 kings of two successive dynasties that spanned about 400 years – ruled from here, built tombs for their after-life and knit together two disparate parts of the kingdom, Lower and Upper Egypt.”[2]

The Pathway to Power

With the rise of the Third Dynasty, about 2700 B.C., the era known as the Old Kingdom emerged. During the 500 years that followed, Egypt was peaceful and prosperous, with a pride that bordered on cockiness and with a feeling of complete security. The god-king was supreme. All other Egyptians were his servants – the nobles who staffed his administration as well as the masses who built the canals and dikes that enabled his land to bear crops. The nobility devoted its brains and the peasantry its brawn to raising a mighty, eternal home for the god-king. This was the age that produced the pyramids, the first great structures in stones.”[3]

Hebrew slaves were Pharaoh’s builders. God’s instruction to Moses of turning the waters Nile River to blood meant the end of life for the Egyptian community. It was meant to let Pharaoh know it is the living and true God that rules the heaven and the earth. Egypt must learn not to spurn the providence of the Almighty God.

 15 Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand. God commanded Moses to go to Pharaoh for he shall be going for a ride on his boat on the river. You shall stand to call upon him by the brink of the river.

God commanded Moses to go to Pharaoh when “he goes out unto the water.”

“For pharaohs and peasants alike, the Nile was the main thoroughfare for travel. Because Egypt sprang up along the shores of the Nile, all its cities and towns were easily accessible by boat. Skilled shipwrights developed craft ideally suited to the river. Rigged with broad sails, they could take advantage of the lightest breeze.”[4]

It is God who sent the breeze and it is God who gave the river. This was the lesson to be impressed in Pharaoh’s heart. The river also provided food – Numbers 11:5 “We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick.” Indeed, it is God’s curse upon Egypt – Psalm 105:29 “He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish.” An important source of food supply was cut off. It is also by the water of the river that the crops can be irrigated.

 The commentator Matthew Henry said observed well, “It was a righteous plague, and justly inflicted upon the Egyptians. For, Nile, the river of Egypt, was their idol; they and their land derived so much benefit from it that they served and worshipped it more than the Creator. The true fountain of the Nile being unknown to them, they paid all their devotions to its streams: here therefore God punished them, and turned that into blood which they had turned into a god….They had stained the river with the blood of the Hebrews’ children, and now God made that river all bloody.”

16 And thou shalt say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.

Israel was to leave Egypt so that they may worship the living and true God, away from the idolatrous influence of the Egyptians. This physical separation will help Israel to worship God in God’s way. God will instruct Moses in the wilderness to set up the Tabernacle for the worship of the living and true God.

17 Thus saith the LORD, In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. 18 And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river.

The purpose of the plague is to ascertain the power of the living and true God and His sovereign dominion over Egypt. The rod in Moses’ hand was the instrument that God will use to turn the water to blood.

In the millennium, Christ Himself will ensure that all the nations of the world submit to His rule – Zechariah 14:18-19 “And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.”

(2) His Enemies Cursed (v19-21)

19 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.

The time for judgment has come. God’s patience has been reached. The Pharaoh has to experience that he is not in control of the world.

20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. 21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

This was a great calamity. For the Egyptian lost their source of drinking water and supply for the irrigation of their crops and the supply of fish for food from the Nile.

God’s patience has a limit. When man’s iniquity is full, when God gave time for repentance with not fruit of repentance, judgment will surely come – Proverbs 1:22-31 speaks of the calamity of the foolish who reject God, “How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.”

(3) His Enemies’ Futile Resistance (v22-25)

22 And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the LORD had said. 23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also. 24 And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river. 25 And seven days were fulfilled, after that the LORD had smitten the river.

The magicians will not submit themselves to the power of God but did try their enchantments to mimic this plague. Instead of turning the water to blood, the magicians could have turned the blood back to water to show forth their superior power but they could not.

The Egyptians having their water supply cut off had to dig for water but could not find fresh water. Truly, it is futile to struggle against God. We have but to submit ourselves and find safety. Their resistance has incurred the wrath of God.

CONCLUSION

Let us realized that we are not the masters over our lives but God is. He is the potter and we are the clay. It is His prerogative to make us according to His good pleasure. Pharaoh was vested with great powers humanly speaking but was thoroughly defeated by God’s ambassadors Moses and Aaron – Man must submit and subject themselves to the Almighty Creator God. It is a lesson for all of us.

Even the most powerful man on earth failed fighting God. May we realize our humble and puny position before God and humble ourselves before Him! The day is soon coming when the world will have to pay homage to their Creator Jesus Christ – Philippians 2:9-11 “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Jesus Christ, God’s Son is God’s only plan to save men from their sins. May God help us to serve Him to give this message of salvation to a dying, yet rebellious world! Amen.

[1] Ancient Egypt, Great Ages of Man, Lionel Casson, Time-Life International, 38-39.

[2] Ibid., 51.

[3] Ibid., 51.

[4] Ibid., 43.