And so it begins. The Lord sends Aaron and Moses before Pharaoh to command him to let His people go, to speak all the words of the Lord to Pharaoh, and God says up front that Pharaoh ain't gonna listen and he ain't gonna cooperate. And God is going to send down all manner of plagues and judgment. Egypt will know God is GOD by the time this is done. (It's a shame they didn't pass on that knowledge to their descendants, isn't it? Egypt is always a proverbial thorn in Israel's side. Kind of similar to the "camaraderie" the United States and Britain enjoyed until the 20th century...)
First plague: water turns to blood. This, I think, would be scary. You live in a oasis that runs along the banks of a river, your only source for water, and it turns to blood. Stinking, putrifying blood. In the heat of the desert. You know what I find interesting? It doesn't say anywhere that the Nile ever turned back. It says seven full days pass after this encounter, but that is just referring until the next encounter. For all intents and purposes, it seems the Nile remained blood for quite some time, if not the duration of the plagues. Good thing we're rereading that right now so I can go through and check again. But, I imagine that the Egyptians were digging along the Nile for water throughout the plagues.
Another interesting thing: it says Pharaoh's magicians did a similar thing by the "secret arts", turning water to blood. However, I wonder, what water did they use? Because Moses and Aaron has already turned the entire Nile to blood, and in God's command He said He would not only turn the Nile but also water in the canals, the ponds, pools, and even in their clay and stone vessels. What was left for the magicians to turn? It seems trickery was at work there, some "slight of hand" and that Pharaoh willingly believed it because of his stubbornness more than anything.
One last interesting thing: it says seven full days pass after the Nile turns to blood. In one sense, this isn't a lot of time. You get a week before the next catastrophe strikes. That's not a lot of time. That's not a great deal of time to recover. Can you imagine a catastrophe hitting you every week, every seven days? It wouldn't be many weeks before you started flipping out. Definitely not before I started flipping out. But, here's the paradox: it's also quite a bit of time. How so? There are many naysayers to the Divine in the plagues and exodus in the Bible that try to explain these events through natural causes. There are many explanations to the water turning to blood: perhaps there was an earthquake that released a gas that when it hit the water caused it to turn blood red and contaminate it. If something like this happened, then it would be logical that not only would the fish in the water die, but then shortly after the frogs and insects associated with the water would start to seek other shelter, away from the river. This, then, would explain the next few plagues of frogs, gnats, and flies. However, wouldn't the frogs, gnats, and flies have been abandoning the river before the seventh day? Wouldn't the frogs, at least, have been plaguing the shoreline and beyond within a day or two? Seven days is a long time to wait to hover around, again, putrefying blood. The Bible does report that the river stank. That separation of time says to me that the frogs were sent by God, not as a logical, biological, natural result. God is behind the plagues, it is His hand that moves across the land. Remember, the Egyptians will know that He is GOD by the time He is done.
Tomorrow's Reading: Exodus 8:1-9:7
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