THE children of Israel were sorely downcast when they found, that, instead of obtaining liberty, their bonds were increased. Moses also was so distressed that he said to the Lord, “Why is it that Thou hast sent me?”
The trial of faith is always hard to bear. But the Lord sustains His own. He is very pitiful and of tender mercy. He answered Moses, “Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh!” The hopelessness of Israel became the moment for the Lord to show His power. And more, for beyond the promise of His power, the Lord revealed His name to His people as Jehovah. When God gives His people to know Him by a special name He gives them all that that name covers. Think how much the name of “mother” contains for a child. What love, what service, what kindness! The name of friend also covers many beautiful acts and thoughts of love, but not so many as that of mother.
God gave His servant Abraham to know Him as the “Almighty” God. With such a name Abraham could trust God for everything, for with the Almighty all things are possible. And Abraham did trust God indeed. Weak in himself he was strong in faith, giving glory to God. At the time of which we speak, when Israel so deeply needed comfort, God gave them to know Himself as the Unchanging One. Jehovah is the One who was, who is, and who is to come. He is the Eternal God who from everlasting to everlasting is the same for His people. How it would build up Israel’s confidence in God to look beyond their present trial, and to rest in His unchanging character. In our days God has revealed Himself to His people as Father, and in that name He gives us even stronger consolation than the little child finds in the sweet name of mother. God will make Himself known upon earth by-and-bye in His name of the Most High— the One who possesses all things.
Moses spake to the children of Israel that which God had spoken unto him, but such was their misery and their bitterness, because their circumstances had become worse than before, that “they hearkened not” to the utterances of their Unchangeable God.
It is not unfrequently the case still, that persons are so tried with the oppression of Satan, and are in such anguish of spirit and under such cruel bondage of soul, that they do not even listen to the welcome word which God sends them. They are so overwhelmed with their misery that they do not hearken to God’s grace.
At God’s bidding Moses and Aaron now present themselves to Pharaoh, with signs and wonders. As we have seen, Pharaoh did not know the name of the God of the Hebrews, hence God sends him signs of His power.
Aaron casts down the rod of God, and it becomes a serpent before the king and his servants. The serpent, in at least one form, was considered sacred by the Egyptians, who held in reverence and worshipped various kinds of beasts, birds, and reptiles. Then Pharaoh calls in the aid of the wonder-working wise men of Egypt. These were of the priestly caste, and were learned in various kinds of knowledge, combined with which they wrought magic, by means of Satan’s power. They imitated God’s power. As Aaron had done with his rod, so did they with theirs—they cast them down and forthwith the rods became serpents. Then Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods, expressing thereby that whatever Satan’s power may be, God’s is greater. We do not wisely to make light of the enemy’s power, but we are without faith if we think it greater than God’s.
Pharaoh trusts in what his magicians could do. He did not take the warning God sent him. And thus he arrayed his will against Jehovah’s, and his gods against the God of Israel, but only to bring down upon himself and his land those terrible wonders which we know as
THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT.
Israel had just been gathering the wheat stubble to make their bricks, which shows us the time of the year the events before us took place. It was now about the time of the rising of the waters of the Nile. That is, it was about our springtime. This is the great event of the year in Egypt. Upon the greatness or smallness of the rise of the Nile depends the fineness or the poverty of the harvest. If the waters rise to a high flood, their overflowing’s fill up the various channels, lakes, and ponds, and thus bring their wealth of grain and fish to the people. Egypt, you know, is a land where rain scarcely ever falls. So important is the height of the rise of the river to the welfare of the country, that careful records of it are always made, and to this day we may see the marks made upon the rocks thousands of years ago, showing its height in those times.
When the waters of the Nile first begin to rise they are of a green color. The Green Nile, as the river is there called, lasts for some short time, perhaps three or four days, after which the waters turn to a red color. It is the Red Nile which overflows into the channels and fills the ponds of which we have spoken.
The Egyptians had a god of the Nile, and the rise of the water was accompanied by religious ceremonies. Nu, the water god, was one of their great deities. You can see him here pictured with the water flowing in a river out of his mouth, and the Green Nile and the Red Nile pouring out their streams upon the earth.
On the morning of which the Bible tells us, Pharaoh comes to the river’s brink in his pomp, no doubt to do homage to his god and also to inspect the condition of the river, and while thus engaged God sends him by Moses this message “The Lord God of the Hebrews” says, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou would’st not hear. Thus saith Jehovah. In this shalt thou know that I am Jehovah: 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. 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.”
Now not only did the Egyptians worship their river, they loved it. Its sweet waters, its fruit giving streams, the fish it produced, were all dear to them.
The word had gone forth. Aaron stretched forth the rod of God’s righteousness over the waters of Egypt!—upon the “Niles”—that is, the branches of the river leading to the sea, and between and upon the sides of which Israel dwelt. For in those days the Delta of the Nile was interlaced with a multitude of canals, which Ramases had dug, carrying the fruitful waters to every part of the well-populated district. The rod of God was also stretched out over the elegant flower-surrounded lakes, and the pools of the gardens well stocked with fish. It was stretched out also over the water in the porous cooling earthen jars belonging to the peasants, and in the vessels of gold of the palaces.
So the river and its waters became blood. The fish died; the waters stank; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. The rod of God’s righteousness had wrought judgment and death everywhere over the proud and resisting land.
We can but feebly conceive what the horror and terror of this plague was. The god of the Egyptians was degraded; the river of delight was turned into death and corruption, and for seven days they had to dig into the sand and to drink of the saltish waters of the wells, while the Red Nile rolled on to the sea.
Pharaoh, as a king, would feel personally but little of the severity of the suffering. He called his priests to his help, and they imitated the power of Jehovah. They found water and turned what they found into blood, and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. They could not change God’s judgments, they could only copy them. They could not reverse His decree. Man can bring in death, we know, but God brings in life. When the due time appointed by God had come to an end—the perfect period—the seven days of His wrath, the Nile once more received its sweetness. But the blood-water left upon the fields caused the land to stink under the cloudless sky. H. F. W.