There’s a children’s song I learned of a few years ago that wonderfully describes who God is. Many of you who have grown up in the Church probably already know this song. It’s called My God is So Big and it’s main line says, “My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do. The mountains are His, the valleys are His, the stars are His handiwork to. My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.”
This song, as simple as it is, wonderfully describes the moment we’re in right now in Exodus. Today we’ll see God begin to bring the plagues against Egypt. As He does so all of Israel and all of Egypt will learn that God is big, and mighty, and strong, and that there’s nothing God cannot do.
Today we begin the plagues. There is much to see in them, and Lord willing, we will see much as we go through them. But before we begin, you should know that there is an order to them.[1] Before the final and most devastating plague of all, the first nine plagues are organized and carried out in three sets of three. In each set of three the first plague begins with Moses meeting Pharaoh in the morning (plague 1, 4, and 7), the second plague begins with Moses coming into Pharaoh’s palace (plague 2, 5, and 8), and the third plague begins with no warning at all (plague 3, 6, and 9). This order reveals not only the presence of order in God’s attack against Egypt, but it serves to highlight the last plague which stands in the place of prominence and singular horror.
Today we’ll work through the first two plagues. See first…
Plague 1: A Bloody Nile (7:14-25)
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh's heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water, and stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him. Take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.” But so far, you have not obeyed. Thus says the Lord, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood. The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.”’” And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters 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 throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’” Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. 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 throughout all the land of Egypt. 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. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile. Seven full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile.”
The first plague is all about the humiliation of the Nile.[2] Why is this where God begins? God could begin here because when you attack a city and your aim is to destabilize it, a smart beginning is to cut off or pollute their water supply. This tactic was used a lot in the ancient world, but I don’t think this is why God begins here. God begins here because for Egypt, the Nile is where all of life began. It was widely understood in the ancient world that the glory of Egypt was a gift of the Nile.[3] The Nile meant everything to them. It was their mode of transportation, their water supply, their food supply, their source of irrigation, and more. The Nile was such a supreme reality for the Egyptians that they came to believe the Nile was a god itself. They named this god Hapi, wrote hymns to Hapi, and worshiped and praised Hapi for being the source of their existence. Thus, God begins attacking Egypt by striking at this god, spilling its blood.[4]
It begins in v14, actually in the same place v13 ended, the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. This serves not only to remind us as readers of Pharaoh’s sinful stubborn state, but it serves to remind Moses that he’ll continue to encounter rejection and refusal from Pharaoh. But regardless, God calls Moses to go out and meet Pharaoh in the morning as he is in the Nile River. We’re not told why he is in the Nile, whether he is out for a morning stroll, worshipping Hapi, or bathing as we saw his daughter bathing back in chapter 2. In v15-18 God gives Moses a message for Pharaoh. Moses is to stand on the banks, staff in hand, and say to Pharaoh, that God still demands he let the people go, but because he has not obeyed so far, God will strike the Nile and turn it all to blood. By this, God says, Pharaoh will know that the Lord is God. When this occurs Moses is to tell Pharaoh three things will happen: the fish will die, the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will weary of drinking from the Nile.
Then God gives Moses a message for Aaron in v19, instructing him to carry this out. He is to take his staff, stretch it over the waters of Egypt…so that they all become blood. When he does this, notice what happens in v19? God says “there shall be blood” in all of Egypt even in the vessels and jars of wood and stone.
In v20-21 we see all of this take place. Moses spoke to Pharaoh as God commanded, Aaron stretched out his staff as God commanded and all the water in the Nile became blood. But did it? Perhaps there is another more scientific explanation here as to why the river turned red. Maybe there was a lot of sediment in the riverbed that time of year and it got stirred up and gave the appearance of being red, as if it were like blood.[5] Maybe there had been a lot of rain recently, and it had washed loads of red soil into the Nile, giving it a red appearance. Or maybe there was a red-tide event in the Nile where red algae blossomed giving it the look of being like blood. You should know many scholars would have us believe that there really is a natural explanation to all of this, and I could not disagree more.[6] v17, v19, and v20 do not say the waters were turned into something that looked like blood, or resembled the redness of blood, no, the text is clear, the Nile became blood. Whatever scientific difficulties arise from this occurring, we must not miss that the miraculous happened here!
What was God saying in this action? Well, see the results of it in v21. All the fish died so the Nile could no longer provide food for Egypt. It stank to all of Egypt, and the stench was so bad no one could drink it any longer, so the Nile could no longer provide drink for Egypt. To the Egyptians this would’ve been disturbing to say the least. Their god Hapi could no longer provide for them, why? Because God proved the stronger.
Yet, before we rejoice in this see v22. The magicians of Pharaoh, by their demonic secret arts, were able to turn water into blood too. But wait a minute, how did they get water at this point if all the water in Egypt, which comes from the Nile, had already turned to blood? The answer is in v24. There we see that the people were able to get clean water through digging down for it. So presumably, this is where the magicians got it. But when they turned that water into blood, Pharaoh comforted himself with the thought that whatever happened, it certainly wasn’t that big of a deal because his own magicians could duplicate it. So what does he do? v23 shows us, “He didn’t even take it to heart.” And the Nile stayed this way for seven whole days according to v25. Again, that seven is a biblical number often meaning completion, that the river stayed blood for seven full days means God gave a full defeat to their god Hapi.[7]
That’s the first plague, now see…
Plague 2: Egypt Befrogged (8:1-15)
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants.”’” And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’” So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” Moses said to Pharaoh, “Be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.” And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God. The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile.” So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the Lord about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.”
What do we see as this begins? Contrary to the first, as the second plague begins Moses doesn’t visit Pharaoh in the morning, he walks straight into the palace. But like the first, here in the second plague we see that God gives Moses a message to give to Pharaoh in v1-4, and gives Moses a message for Aaron in v5.
The message for Pharaoh is the same command, followed by a warning. “Let my people go, that they may serve (worship) me.” If Pharaoh doesn’t, see the warning? Egypt will be befrogged. This is the second plague, that Egypt will be swarm with frogs and the swarming will be comprehensive. This word swarm is the same word used back in Genesis 1:20 at creation when God said, “Let the waters swarm with living creatures.” Back then it was good for this to happen, but now? I’m sure the kids of Egypt laughed at this at first, but after a while, frogs were simply everywhere. See v3? Frogs got into all the nooks and crannies of Egypt. Into their homes, bedrooms, beds, servants homes, ovens, and kneading bowls. In other words, there wasn’t a place in Egypt where frogs were not.
Did you notice the detail given in v4? This time Pharaoh himself will be affected. In the first plague Pharaoh wasn’t really impacted at all, he could’ve just sent servants out to dig up fresh water for him. But this time? Frogs will be all over Egypt, including his own palace too. The sheer immensity of this is disgusting. No one will escape this. You wake up with frogs jumping all over you, you look around and see frogs all over your room, you stand up and step on more frogs, you try to ignore them but they’ve filled the pantries, filled the bowls and even filled the ovens. Frogs are everywhere.
But, why frogs? Perhaps you think, frogs aren’t that bad. They’re just little hoppy things, right? Sure some of them are, but even I’ve seen frogs as big as my hand before, and those were hideous. Multiply that by the thousands and you get the idea. Was God doing this to simply disgust all of Egypt? No. He is up to far more. Just as before, God is striking another Egyptian deity, this time one of their gods named Hekhet, who was held to be the goddess of power and fertility, who just so happened to be depicted as having the head of a frog.[8] Here God is about to overwhelm Hekhet, to such an extent that she will be rendered powerless before Him.
In v5 we see the message God gives Moses for Aaron. Here Aaron is told what to do. As before he is told to stretch out his hand and staff over all Egypt, that frogs may come up onto all the land. The Hebrew here in v5 is humorous. It literally reads, “Stretch out your hand with your rod…and bring forth the frogs…”[9] So, Aaron does so, and the frogs come. And just as Pharaoh and all his armies will soon be covered by the waters of the Red Sea (Ex. 14:28), so too all of Egypt is covered with frogs.
But once again the magicians did the same in v7. Yet, even though they were able to duplicate this wonder Pharaoh responds in v8 with a new resolve. He surprises us here by begging for relief, asking Moses and Aaron to pray for him, that God would take away the frogs. It certainly must have proven a sore trial for Pharaoh that he would end up asking for prayer. And here right before our eyes, in the OT of all places, is an example of God’s people praying for their enemies. How deep would the temptation be for Moses and Aaron to refuse this request, knowing all Pharaoh had done against them? But pray for Pharaoh they do. Perhaps that played into Moses’ question in v9. There Moses asks Pharaoh when he would like them to pray and ask for the frogs to be removed. At first glance it might seem a strange thing to ask Pharaoh, but think of how brilliant it was. Moses was not just being polite, no. I think Moses wanted Pharaoh to not have a single excuse this time. By asking Pharaoh to name the date of his prayer, Pharaoh would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the removal of the frogs was not due to anything else than God Himself.[10]
So Pharaoh answered “Tomorrow” and that’s when Moses prayed, and that’s when all the frogs died, and we’re to understand that the end of the plague was just as divine as the start of it.[11] So the Egyptians gathered them all up into piles, and none were left in the places they had gone to, and these piles stunk. How ironic, within a very short time Egypt went from feeling as if Israel was a stench to them, to having the Nile be a stench to them, to now having piles and piles of frogs that are a stench to them.[12] Once again, God has made a thorough defeat of their god Hekhet just as He had of Hapi.
But once again, look at v15. When Pharaoh felt relief it didn’t make him thankful it made him even harder against the Lord, and he broke his promise to let the people go. This was the first time he reneged on his word, but it would not be the last.[13]
Conclusion:
We began with the children’s song today, “My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.” And we’ve seen God’s big strong might in the passage today. How he came and warred with the gods of Egypt, proving that He alone is God.
Church, if nothing else, this teaches us not to trust in other gods because they cannot save us. Sure, you might not bow down before an idol in your living room, but idols abound in our culture: money, power, sex, health, fame, comfort, peace, success, and self.
You know what God will to all these idols in the end? He’ll do, to our idols, the same thing He did to the gods of Egypt. In Revelation 16 (v3-7, v13-14) we witness God pouring out seven bowls of wrath and the language He uses there is very similar to what we’ve seen today. As Moses and Aaron said to Pharaoh, “there shall be blood” and “bring forth the frogs” so too in the end God will war against the wicked, resulting in a bloody scene and slaying unclean spirits that look like frogs. Lesson? Only the Lord, He is God. Before God, every knee will bow.
But, before that final day…Church, where do we look to see the power of God? Answer: we look to the gospel. Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation, to everyone who believes…”
Sin certainly troubles us greatly, but God is stronger still. In Christ crucified the power of sin is broken. In Christ the penalty of sin is removed, and one day at the return of Christ, the very presence of sin will be destroyed.
[1] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, vol. 1 (New York, NY: Norton, 2019) 243.
[2] Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus – NAC (Brentwood, TN: B&H Publishing, 2006) 197.
[3] John D. Currid, Exodus 1-18 - EP Study Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: EP Books, 2014) 157-158.
[4] Currid, 158.
[5] John I. Durham, Exodus - WBC (Waco TX: Word Books, 1987) 97. See Stuart also, 201.
[6] Philip Graham Ryken, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory – Preaching the Word Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015) 195.
[7] Currid, 164.
[8] Currid, 165-166.
[9] Currid, 167.
[10] Stuart, 208.
[11] Ryken, 208.
[12] Victor P. Hamilton, Exodus: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2023) 133.
[13] Ryken, 209.
