The Bible Study podcast, episode 30.

Today we go back to the book of Exodus and look at the 10 plagues.

In the last two episodes, we started looking at the life of Moses, especially Exodus chapters

1 through 4, which deal with

Moses' birth, his exile from Egypt, and then his calling from God in the burning bush and all the

excuses that he put up with. In this particular episode, I want to look at how God used Moses and

Aaron to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. And so we're going to pick up this story starting in

Exodus 7. And I'm not going to read all of this because this particular story covers several

chapters. So starting in chapter 7, verse 8, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, when Pharaoh says to you,

perform a miracle, then say to Aaron, take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake. So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their secret arts. Each one threw down his staff, and it became a. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is unyielding. He refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake, then say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you, let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. This is what the Lord says. By this you will know that I am the Lord. With the staff that is in my hand, I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed

into blood.

The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink. The Egyptians will not be able to drink its water. The Lord said to Moses, tell Aaron, take your staff, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs, and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars. Moses and Aaron did, just as the Lord had commanded, he raised his staff, and the presence of Pharaoh and his officials, and struck the waters of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. The fish of the Nile died, and the river

smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt. But the Egyptian magicians did the same thing by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard, and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians

dug along the Nile to get drinking water because they could not drink the water of the river.

The first thing that I find interesting in these passages, besides the fact that it's not going

very well, is that in the first two plagues and also the sign of the staff becoming a snake,

the magicians could do the same thing,

and so Pharaoh's not impressed.

This is a parlor trick he's thinking.

And so he doesn't change his mind.

And that ends then with the third plague.

Skipping over the plague of frogs in the next chapter in chapter 8, starting in verse 16,

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