The Egyptians worshiped the Nile River
The Egyptians worshiped the Nile River. They derived so much benefit from it that they looked upon it as divine. To show His sovereignty and superiority over the Egyptians and their gods, the Lord sent this first plague to taint the waters of Egypt, turning the Nile into blood. It must be emphatically stated at this point that this was not a discoloration from the red clays of the Ethiopian highlands that sometimes washed into the Nile, turning it a reddish color. The term used in the text for blood is never used for a color, but for the actual substance of blood. This was a supernatural act of God, a miracle. God had said that He would enable Moses to perform great miracles that would only harden Pharaoh’s heart. If it had been merely discoloration from a natural occurrence, it would not have been a miracle.
The plagues are grouped in threes. However the tenth, being separate, was a cataclysmic act that would finally free Israel from Egypt’s bonds. Before each set of three, Moses gives a warning to Pharaoh in the morning. Subsequently, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. He will not allow even the pain and suffering of his own people to break his pride, to humble him before God, to motivate him to let Israel go.
It is significant that the very thing the Egyptians had raised as an idol—the river Nile—would become a source of dread, bitterness, and sorrow to them. God would turn their god against them, as He so often does. The very thing we raise up in His place will be the source of our greatest sorrow and the means of our judgment. The Egyptians had formerly stained the Nile with the blood of Hebrew children, no doubt under the pretense of offering sacrifices to their god. And now God would turn that very same river into a bloody curse upon them. Until God removed His hand, they would no longer drink from its fountains, eat its provision, or enjoy its beauty. It would become death to them.
And so it is with everyone who worships created things instead of the Creator. That which we worship as an idol in the place of the one, true God will become death to us, a stinking, dreadful scourge that will leave us bitter and empty.
Are you putting anything in the place of God? You might not be guilty of blatant idolatry, but you might be prizing something other than God. What might that be? Your job? A relationship? Your talents and abilities? Your children? Your wealth? Your health? Your looks? Examine yourself today.
(1998). Tabletalk Magazine, February 1998: Te Absolvum, 26.
