Exodus 7:14-25

¹⁴ So the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to send out the people. ¹⁵ Go to Pharaoh in the morning, see, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a snake. ¹⁶ And you will say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Send away my people, so that they may serve me in the desert. But so far, you have not obeyed.” ¹⁷ Now the LORD says, “By this you shall know that I am the LORD: see, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood. ¹⁸ The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will get tired of drinking water from the Nile.”’” ¹⁹ And the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the water sources of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood all the way through the land of Egypt, even in containers made of wood and in containers made of stone.’” ²⁰ Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded. While Pharaoh and his servants looked on, he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. ²¹ And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood all the way through the land of Egypt. ²² But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said. ²³ Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. ²⁴ And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, because they could not drink the water of the Nile. ²⁵ Seven full days passed after the LORD had struck the Nile.

where we live

The first plague hit the Egyptians where they lived – where they were most sensitive. The Nile was a deity for them. They depended on it so much that they took notice when it was threatened. Anyone who experiences a time when their water supply is cut off knows how inconvenient that can be. Imagine going to your water source and discovering blood instead. A whole week of this and people were probably on edge. But Pharaoh was not to be moved by this. His heart was hardened, or heavy. Even when the signs are obvious that God wants change, he is not going to budge.

A battle of the deities is going on, and the battlefield is Pharaoh’s heavy heart. The LORD is going to go from god to god, showing his power over all the powers the Egyptians revered. He will show himself in control of their realms. He will show his sovereignty over every element of the lives of the Egyptians.

He is just as sovereign over our lives as well. Sometimes crises come into our lives as a way of getting us to take our eyes off “normal” and put them back on our God. We have a choice during those times. We can refuse to pay attention to them, turning and going back into our house. Or we can go to God and ask why.

LORD, give us the wisdom to watch closely when the circumstances of life hit us where we live. May we have the courage to change when you challenge us to do so.