Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 7:8
And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
8 13 (P). Moses and Aaron are provided by God with a wonder, which, if the Pharaoh asks for a credential of their mission, they may perform before him. Aaron performs it: but the Egyptian magicians imitate it; and the Pharaoh refuses to listen to them. In Exo 4:1-5 (J) Moses is empowered to perform a similar wonder before the Israelites.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron,…. After he had given them their commission, and instructions to go to Pharaoh, and a little before they went in to him:
saying, as follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The negotiations of Moses and Aaron as messengers of Jehovah with the king of Egypt, concerning the departure of Israel from his land, commenced with a sign, by which the messengers of God attested their divine mission in the presence of Pharaoh (Exo 7:8-13), and concluded with the announcement of the last blow that God would inflict upon the hardened king (Exo 11:1-10). The centre of these negotiations, or rather the main point of this lengthened section, which is closely connected throughout, and formally rounded off by Exo 11:9-10 into an inward unity, is found in the nine plagues which the messengers of Jehovah brought upon Pharaoh and his kingdom at the command of Jehovah, to bend the defiant spirit of the king, and induce him to let Israel go out of the land and serve their God. If we carefully examine the account of these nine penal miracles, we shall find that they are arranged in three groups of three plagues each. For the first and second, the fourth and fifth, and the seventh and eighth were announced beforehand by Moses to the king (Exo 7:15; Exo 8:1, Exo 8:20; Exo 9:1, Exo 9:13; Exo 10:1), whilst the third, sixth, and ninth were sent without any such announcement (Exo 8:16; Exo 9:8; Exo 10:21). Again, the first, fourth, and seventh were announced to Pharaoh in the morning, and the first and fourth by the side of the Nile (Exo 7:15; Exo 8:20), both of them being connected with the overflowing of the river; whilst the place of announcement is not mentioned in the case of the seventh (the hail, Exo 9:13), because hail, as coming from heaven, was not connected with any particular locality. This grouping is not a merely external arrangement, adopted by the writer for the sake of greater distinctness, but is founded in the facts themselves, and the effect which God intended the plagues to produce, as we may gather from these circumstances – that the Egyptian magicians, who had imitated the first plagues, were put to shame with their arts by the third, and were compelled to see in it the finger of God (Exo 8:19), – that they were smitten themselves by the sixth, and were unable to stand before Moses (Exo 9:11), – and that after the ninth, Pharaoh broke off all further negotiation with Moses and Aaron (Exo 10:28-29). The last plague, commonly known as the tenth, which Moses also announced to the king before his departure (Exo 11:4.), differed from the nine former ones both in purpose and form. It was the first beginning of the judgment that was coming upon the hardened king, and was inflicted directly by God Himself, for Jehovah “went out through the midst of Egypt, and smote the first-born of the Egyptians both of man and beast” (Exo 11:4; Exo 12:29); whereas seven of the previous plagues were brought by Moses and Aaron, and of the two that are not expressly said to have been brought by them, one, that of the dog-flies, was simply sent by Jehovah (Exo 8:21, Exo 8:24), and the other, the murrain of beasts, simply came from His hand (Exo 9:3, Exo 9:6). The last blow ( Exo 11:1), which brought about the release of Israel, was also distinguished from the nine plagues, as the direct judgment of God, by the fact that it was not effected through the medium of any natural occurrence, as was the case with all the others, which were based upon the natural phenomena of Egypt, and became signs and wonders through their vast excess above the natural measure of such natural occurrences and their supernatural accumulation, blow after blow following one another in less than a year, and also through the peculiar circumstances under which they were brought about. In this respect also the triple division is unmistakeable. The first three plagues covered the whole land, and fell upon the Israelites as well as the Egyptians; with the fourth the separation commenced between Egyptians and Israelites, so that only the Egyptians suffered from the last six, the Israelites in Goshen being entirely exempted. The last three, again, were distinguished from the others by the fact, that they were far more dreadful than any of the previous ones, and bore visible marks of being the forerunners of the judgment which would inevitably fall upon Pharaoh, if he continued his opposition to the will of the Almighty God.
In this graduated series of plagues, the judgment of hardening was inflicted upon Pharaoh in the manner explained above. In the first three plagues God showed him, that He, the God of Israel, was Jehovah (Exo 7:17), i.e., that He ruled as Lord and King over the occurrences and powers of nature, which the Egyptians for the most part honoured as divine; and before His power the magicians of Egypt with their secret arts were put to shame. These three wonders made no impression upon the king. The plague of frogs, indeed, became so troublesome to him, that he begged Moses and Aaron to intercede with their God to deliver him from them, and promised to let the people go (Exo 8:8). But as soon as they were taken away, he hardened his heart, and would not listen to the messengers of God. Of the three following plagues, the first (i.e., the fourth in the entire series), viz., the plague of swarming creatures or dog-flies, with which the distinction between the Egyptians and Israelites commenced, proving to Pharaoh that the God of Israel was Jehovah in the midst of the land (Exo 8:22), made such an impression upon the hardened king, that he promised to allow the Israelites to sacrifice to their God, first of all in the land, and when Moses refused this condition, even outside the land, if they would not go far away, and Moses and Aaron would pray to God for him, that this plague might be taken away by God from him and from his people (Exo 8:25.). But this concession was only forced out of him by suffering; so that as soon as the plague ceased he withdrew it again, and his hard heart was not changed by the two following plagues. Hence still heavier plagues were sent, and he had to learn from the last three that there was no god in the whole earth like Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews (Heb 9:14). The terrible character of these last plagues so affected the proud heart of Pharaoh, that twice he acknowledged he had sinned (Exo 9:27; Exo 10:16), and gave a promise that he would let the Israelites go, restricting his promise first of all to the men, and then including their families also (Exo 10:11, Exo 10:24). But when this plague was withdrawn, he resumed his old sinful defiance once more (Exo 9:34-35; Exo 10:20), and finally was altogether hardened, and so enraged at Moses persisting in his demand that they should take their flocks as well, that he drove away the messengers of Jehovah and broke off all further negotiations, with the threat that he would kill them if ever they came into his presence again (Exo 10:28-29).
Exo 7:8-13 Attestation of the Divine Mission of Moses and Aaron. – By Jehovah ‘s directions Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, and proved by a miracle ( Exo 4:21) that they were the messengers of the God of the Hebrews. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh, and it became a serpent. Aaron’s staff as no other than the wondrous staff of Moses (Exo 4:2-4). This is perfectly obvious from a comparison of Exo 7:15 and Exo 7:17 with Exo 7:19 and Exo 7:20. If Moses was directed, according to Exo 7:15., to go before Pharaoh with his rod which had been turned into a serpent, and to announce to him that he would smite the water of the Nile with the staff in his hand and turn it into blood, and then, according to Exo 7:19., this miracle was carried out by Aaron taking his staff and stretching out his hand over the waters of Egypt, the staff which Aaron held over the water cannot have been any other than the staff of Moses which had been turned into a serpent. Consequently we must also understand by the staff of Aaron, which was thrown down before Pharaoh and became a serpent, the same wondrous staff of Moses, and attribute the expression “thy (i.e., Aaron’s) staff” to the brevity of the account, i.e., to the fact that the writer restricted himself to the leading facts, and passed over such subordinate incidents as that Moses gave his staff to Aaron for him to work the miracle. For the same reason he has not even mentioned that Moses spoke to Pharaoh by Aaron, or what he said, although in Exo 7:13 he states that Pharaoh did not hearken unto them, i.e., to their message or their words. The serpent, into which the staff was changed, is not called here, as in Exo 7:15 and Exo 4:3, but (lxx , dragon), a general term for snake-like animals. This difference does not show that there were two distinct records, but may be explained on the ground that the miracle performed before Pharaoh had a different signification from that which attested the divine mission of Moses in the presence of his people. The miraculous sign mentioned here is distinctly related to the art of snake-charming, which was carried to such an extent by the Psylli in ancient Egypt (cf. Bochart, and Hengstenberg, Egypt and Moses, pp. 98ff. transl.). It is probable that the Israelites in Egypt gave the name (Eng. ver. dragon), which occurs in Deu 32:33 and Psa 91:13 as a parallel to (Eng. ver. asp), to the snake with which the Egyptian charmers generally performed their tricks, the Hayeh of the Arabs. What the magi and conjurers of Egypt boasted that they could perform by their secret or magical arts, Moses was to effect in reality in Pharaoh’s presence, and thus manifest himself to the king as Elohim (Exo 7:1), i.e., as endowed with divine authority and power. All that is related of the Psylli of modern times is, that they understand the art of turning snakes into sticks, or of compelling them to become rigid and apparently dead (for examples see Hengstenberg); but who can tell what the ancient Psylli may have been able to effect, or may have pretended to effect, at a time when the demoniacal power of heathenism existed in its unbroken force? The magicians summoned by Pharaoh also turned their sticks into snakes (Exo 7:12); a fact which naturally excites the suspicion that the sticks themselves were only rigid snakes, though, with our very limited acquaintance with the dark domain of heathen conjuring, the possibility of their working “lying wonders after the working of Satan,” i.e., supernatural things (2Th 2:9), cannot be absolutely denied. The words, “They also, the chartummim of Egypt, did in like manner with their enchantments,” are undoubtedly based upon the assumption, that the conjurers of Egypt not only pretended to possess the art of turning snakes into sticks, but of turning sticks into snakes as well, so that in the persons of the conjurers Pharaoh summoned the might of the gods of Egypt to oppose the might of Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews. For these magicians, whom the Apostle Paul calls Jannes and Jambres, according to the Jewish tradition (2Ti 3:8), were not common jugglers, but “wise men,” men educated in human and divine wisdom, and , , belonging to the priestly caste (Gen 41:8); so that the power of their gods was manifested in their secret arts ( from to conceal, to act secretly, like in Exo 7:22 from ), and in the defeat of their enchantments by Moses the gods of Egypt were overcome by Jehovah (Exo 12:12). The supremacy of Jehovah over the demoniacal powers of Egypt manifested itself in the very first miraculous sign, in the fact that Aaron’s staff swallowed those of the magicians; though this miracle made no impression upon Pharaoh (Exo 7:13).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Magicians of Egypt. | B. C. 1491. |
8 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 9 When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Show a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent. 10 And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. 12 For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. 13 And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
The first time that Moses made his application to Pharaoh, he produced his instructions only; now he is directed to produce his credentials, and does accordingly. 1. It is taken for granted that Pharaoh would challenge these demandants to work a miracle, that, by a performance evidently above the power of nature, they might prove their commission from the God of nature. Pharaoh will say, Show a miracle; not with any desire to be convinced, but with the hope that none will be wrought, and then he would have some colour for his infidelity. 2. Orders are therefore given to turn the rod into a serpent, according to the instructions, ch. iv. 3. The same rod that was to give the signal of the other miracles is now itself the subject of a miracle, to put a reputation upon it. Aaron cast his rod to the ground, and instantly it became a serpent, v. 10. This was proper, not only to affect Pharaoh with wonder, but to strike a terror upon him. Serpents are hurtful dreadful animals; the very sight of one, thus miraculously produced, might have softened his heart into a fear of that God by whose power it was produced. This first miracle, though it was not a plague, yet amounted to the threatening of a plague. If it made not Pharaoh feel, it made him fear; and this is God’s method of dealing with sinners–he comes upon them gradually. 3. This miracle, though too plain to be denied, is enervated, and the conviction of it taken off, by the magicians’ imitation of it, Exo 7:11; Exo 7:12. Moses had been originally instructed in the learning of the Egyptians, and was suspected to have improved himself in magical arts in his long retirement; the magicians are therefore sent for, to vie with him. And some think those of that profession had a particular spite against the Hebrews ever since Joseph put them all to shame, by interpreting a dream which they could make nothing of, in remembrance of which slur put on their predecessors these magicians withstood Moses, as it is explained, 2 Tim. iii. 8. Their rods became serpents, real serpents; some think, by the power of God, beyond their intention or expectation, for the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart; others think, by the power of evil angels, artfully substituting serpents in the room of the rods, God permitting the delusion to be wrought for wise and holy ends, that those might believe a lie who received not the truth: and herein the Lord was righteous. Yet this might have helped to frighten Pharaoh into a compliance with the demands of Moses, that he might be freed from these dreadful unaccountable phenomena, with which he saw himself on all sides surrounded. But to the seed of the serpent these serpents were no amazement. Note, God suffers the lying spirit to do strange things, that the faith of some may be tried and manifested (Deu 13:3; 1Co 11:19), that the infidelity of others may be confirmed, and that he who is filthy may be filthy still, 2 Cor. iv. 4. 4. Yet, in this contest, Moses plainly gains the victory. The serpent which Aaron’s rod was turned into swallowed up the others, which was sufficient to have convinced Pharaoh on which side the right lay. Note, Great is the truth, and will prevail. The cause of God will undoubtedly triumph at last over all competition and contradiction, and will reign alone, Dan. ii. 44. But Pharaoh was not wrought upon by this. The magicians having produced serpents, he had this to say, that the case between them and Moses was disputable; and the very appearance of an opposition to truth, and the least head made against it, serve those for a justification of their infidelity who are prejudiced against the light and love of it.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 8-13:
Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh as Jehovah’s representatives. They did not produce evidence of Divine power until challenged to do so.
The “rod” is described alternately as “Aaron’s” and “Moses’ ” rod. At times it appears to have been placed in Aaron’s hand, as the official spokesman. At times it was in Moses’ hand. On this instance, it was in Aaron’s hand.
“Serpent” tannin, “howler,” occurs only in this instance in the Scriptures. In verse 15, it is nachash, the term used in Genesis 3, and Ex 4:3. Both terms appear to be synonymous.
At Pharaoh’s demand for a sign, Aaron threw down his “rod,”
and it became a serpent. Pharaoh then tested this sign with one of his own.
“Wise men” chakkim, denotes skillful men, educated in human and supernatural wisdom.
“Sorcerers” kashaph, denotes those who use witchcraft.
“Magicians’ chartummim, scribes or bearers of sacred words.
These men were able to produce demonstrations of supernatural power with their “enchantments” lehatim, “flashings,” or secret, hidden arts. Some expositors say that these “magicians” had beforehand secretly charmed snakes to become stiff and immobile to look like rods. Then when they appeared before Pharaoh, they merely broke the “spell,” and what appeared to be rods were in reality snakes. This view discounts the power of Satan and demonic forces.
Paul explains this supernatural power behind the Gentiles’ gods as being that of demons, 1Co 10:20. He further testifies of Satan’s beauty and power, 2Co 11:14, 15. There appears to be no valid reason to doubt that the efforts of Egypt’s magicians were successful in duplicating some of the miracles which Aaron and Moses produced by the power of Jehovah.
The magicians duplicated Aaron’s sign by producing serpents from their rods. This demonstrated the power of their “gods.” But Jehovah showed his superiority over Egypt’s gods, by having Aaron’s rod devour those of the Egyptians.
“Hardened” is not active voice; “his heart” is not accusative, but nominative. This denotes that the miracle made no impression on Pharaoh because his heart was too hard. He did not see what Moses and Aaron had done as any greater than what his own magicians were able to do.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
8. And the Lord spake. No wonder that Moses often repeats the same thing, because he wrote for persons of rude and dull minds. But it behooves us, lest we should be disgusted by his simple and popular style, diligently to examine how little we are inclined to be acute and earnest in our consideration of the works of God. No doubt there is here related what we have already heard respecting the change of the rod into a serpent, except that he now tells us that the miracle which had before been performed in the wilderness of Midian, and afterwards in Egypt, in the sight of the people, was likewise performed once more before Pharaoh. Moreover, we gather from hence that at the request of Pharaoh the servants of God had proved and testified their vocation; and therefore that his pertinacity was the less excusable, since he despised the power of God so manifestly shewn forth. For this is usual with unbelievers, to demand proofs of God’s power, which they may still discredit, — not that they professedly scorn God, but because their secret impiety urges them to seek after subterfuges. The message is disagreeable and full of what is annoying to the proud king; and because he does not dare directly to refuse God, he invents a plausible pretext for his refusal, by asking for a miracle; and when this is performed, he seeks still deeper lurking places, as we shall very soon perceive. Since, therefore, it was certain that he would not pay a willing obedience to the divine command, and would not yield before he had been miraculously convinced, God furnishes His servants with a notable and sure testimony of His power. Moreover, the change of the crook, or shepherd’s staff, into a serpent had this object, namely, that the mean and rustic guise of Moses should not be despised. For (since kings are wont to exalt themselves very highly) Pharaoh might have laughed at the audacity of Moses and Aaron, who, forgetful, as it seemed, of their condition, put themselves into conflict with the whole power of Egypt; but Pharaoh knew, although they were not to be dreaded for their splendid appearance, and had nothing magnificent about them, that they were still not destitute of sure and strong help, when he saw the serpent come forth from the rod. In a word, God bore witness that His power is hidden beneath the infirmity of His servants, so that at every season He might render formidable to the greatest monarchs those who otherwise are like earthen vessels. It is not clear to me why Aaron was commanded to cast down the rod rather than Moses, unless, perhaps, because God would designedly humble the pride of the arrogant king, when He did not deign to exert His power by the hand of His superior servant, but only employed the inferior one. Therefore, with reference to this ministration, the rod of God and of Moses is now called the rod of Aaron. Thus Paul boasts of his gospel, the office of preaching which he knew to be committed to him. (Rom 16:25, and 2Ti 2:8.)
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Exo. 7:9. Miracle] A splendid or conspicuous deed: Sept. sign or wonder; vulg. sign. Serpent] Prob. of a large species; and in Exo. 7:10; Exo. 7:12. called tannin (lit. extended); but Exo. 5:15. n-ch sh.
II. Sorcerers] Whisperers, mutterers, practisers of magic. Magicians] Sacred scribes, skilled in sacred writings (hieroglyphics).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Exo. 7:8-13
MANS EFFORT TO REPUDIATE THE MESSAGE OF GOD BY AN IMITATION OF ITS MIRACULOUS CREDENTIALS
I. That man has a right to expect that any special revelation from God should be accompanied by infallible and unimpeachable credentials. When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you; then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent. When men come and present Divine messages to us, we have a right to expect that they will produce something more than their own mere word for the divinity of their mission; they make great demands upon our conduct, they appeal to us in the supreme realm of our life, and the greatest results are dependant upon the manner in which we welcome them, hence we may expect substantial proof that they are sent from God. God never expects men to credit any mission that is not authenticated by sufficient evidence, he does not require that they should do such violence to their intellectual manhood. Hence when any claims are presented as from heaven, we are justified in demanding sufficient proof of their holy origin.
1. We require these credentials to vindicate the authority of the speaker. Who were Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh? They had no human accidents connected with them to gain his attention and obedience. Socially they were greatly inferior to him. Probably they were almost unknown to him. They had no armies to enforce their request. Their request was great, and of importance to his nation. He might regard these two men as enthusiasts or imposters. It is natural that he should immediately seek to know by what authority they were sent to him. He would have acted the part of a lunatic had he not done so, as no wise man will heed all the claims which are urged upon him by those by whom he may be surrounded. Hence Moses and Aaron wrought a miracle before him, to convince him of the divinity of their remarkable mission. And this was evidence sufficient to the belief required, and the conduct solicited. Now humanity has a Divine message sent to it, not brought in exactly the same method as was that to Pharaoh; it is contained in a remarkable book, the Bible, it asks men, not to give up their slaves, but their sins, and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. This book has been given to the world, and requires the worlds credence and obedience. We at once require to know by what authority this volume comes, why it makes a greater claim to attention than any other, and what right it has to control our actions These questions are natural, and they are wise. No sensible man would receive the book, as it requires, without making them. We search this book and find that as Moses and Aaron carried their Divine credentials in their hand, so it contains the evidences of its Divine origin on its own pages, for on every page we see the miracle repeated, the rod is turned into a serpent. And the miracles which the book contains, and the miracle which it is in itself, are sufficient token to the honest mind that it comes from God. This evidence is equal to the case It leaves disobedience without excuse. It is adequate to its Divine authority.
2. We require these credentials to vindicate the credibility of the speaker. Pharaoh might even believe that Moses and Aaron were divinely sent to him; but the question would arise in his mind, whether they were uttering their message without falsehood or mistake. Were they not making too great a demand upon him, had not these Israelitish slaves been of great service to his nation, and was it likely that God would require their freedom? No doubt much objection to the statement of these two men would arise to his mental vision, and therefore he required it to be certified that they were speaking the truth. And we conceive that the miracle they wrought would cover the whole case, the entirety of his request. Because God would never give men power to work a miracle to authenticate a lie. The miracle not only demonstrated the authority of these men, but also the unimpeachable honesty and verity of their statements. And so men take the Bible to-day, they perhaps say that in general terms the book has come from God, and has His authority, and yet how many question the verity of much of its contents. They call one part of the message a myth, another part a fable, until, indeed, there is very little remaining as true. We need scarcely say that this method of criticism is contradictory, for if men once admit the Divine authority of the book, they cannot but accept its contents as veritable, for the same miracle that demonstrates its heavenly origin, likewise demonstrates its moral truthfulness, that the Bible is not merely from God, but that it speaks the word of God. Of this the world has sufficient evidence.
3. That God anticipates these requests on the part of man, and provides his messengers with the needed credentials. The Divine. Being did not send Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh without the credentials necessary to sustain their authority, and their veracity. We may reverently say that He could not rightfully have done so, as it would have left unbelief on the part of the king quite excusable, and it would have exposed these men of God to certain and needless scorn. And so in reference to the Bible, which is Gods message to the race, its Divine Author has condescendingly anticipated the mental and moral requirements of man in accepting it. He did not send it forth without sufficient credentials to commend itself to human reason. He did not permit it to appeal to men as other books have done; it differed from them in contents and claims, and therefore needed a correspondingly higher vindication. Had any man gone to Pharaoh on the ordinary business of life, he would have needed no miracle to commend him to that monarch. But when Moses and Aaron go to him with a Divine command, their different and higher position requires the higher credential. And so with the Bible, it does not merely come to men with a message about the common affairs of human life, it speaks about the duties and destinies of their soul, and needs a vindication equal to its dignified claims. The revelations of God do not do violence to the mental habitudes of man. The Being who has made man, conforms to the mental laws under which He has placed him, one of which is that he cannot believe a statement without sufficient evidence. Hence, prior to any cry on the part of man for evidence of the Divine origin of the Bible, God provided and made it clear to all who sought it. They were there in all their possibility, only awaiting the interrogation of the human mind, upon which the rod would be transformed into a serpent, and demonstrate beyond doubt the divinity of the book. Hence it is the way of God to win the credence of men to his book by convincing evidence, not by arbitrary command, and any man who rejects the claims of the Bible rejects the highest proof, the most reliable evidence, hence his condemnation will be awful as that of the rebellious king.
4. The spirit in which these credentials should be investigated and received How did Pharaoh receive the credentials which were presented to him by Moses and Aaron in reference to the divinity of their mission; he received them with unbelieving heart. He was antecedently prepared to denounce them as untrue, and to reject them. He did not come to the investigation of them with unprejudiced mind, but with a bias against them. And no doubt his moral conduct induced within him this mental bias; he did not wish to give up his profitable slaves, hence he tried to disprove the credentials of these holy men. And in this we have a pattern of the way in which multitudes approach the investigation of the Divine credentials of the Bible, they have no wish to find them true, rather, the moral character and habit of their life awaken within them a desire to find them false. Hence we believe that much of the scepticism of men in reference to the Bible as a divine revelation arises from moral considerations rather than mental. The probabilities are that if Pharaoh had had no slaves, supposing Moses and Aaron to have been sent to him, he would have believed their miracle. And if men had no sins to charm them they would welcome the Bible as the Word of God. They are not disposed to give up their sins, and so they are not inclined to receive the truth sent to them.
(1) These credentials should be thoughtfully received.
(2) These credentials should be devoutly received.
(3) Never receive them in sceptical mood. 4 We must remember that the messengers of God can only offer the credentials divinely permitted to them. Moses and Aaron could not work any miracle they liked to the astonished gaze of the Egyptian king; they could only cast down the rod as God had told them to do. Men cannot decide upon, nor can they make of their own device or ingenuity, the credentials of their heaven-given mission. Nor does the Bible, in its credentials, conform to all the arbitrary and vain requests of the sceptical mind, it does not work one miracle after another only to awaken yet further demands, and continued incredulity. Its credentials are divinely arranged. They are the outcome of the will and permission of God. They are clear as a fact. They are emphatic as a claim. They can be investigated by men. The credentials of the Bible are such as God has permitted. The minister of the gospel has no right to present or enforce any other in his sacred embassy. If the legitimate credentials of truth will not gain the credence of men, we may rely upon it that no others will.
II. That men have recourse to many devices to weaken and nullify the credentials which are presented to them in token and support of a Divine message and claim. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
1. We find that men in the investigation of a Divine message are not satisfied with the evidence they themselves propose. It would appear from the Divine statement and prediction made to Moses and Aaron, although we do not find the definite words used by Pharaoh, that the king wanted a miracle to confirm their request; and yet when it was wrought he rejected and refused to believe it. And this is just what men do in reference to the Divine credentials of the Bible; they enquire for certain evidences of its Divine authority, and when presented, they disbelieve and reject them. Men ask us to show them the internal harmony of the Bible, although it is written by so many men of varied mental type, and when we shew it them in incident after incident, they commence at once to weaken our evidence by suppositions of collusion between the authors, or of plagiarism. It is little use complying with their request for credentials, they seek them not to believe, but to cavil. A sceptical mind will not yield even when it has attained evidence for the truth of its own seeking. It is most criminal in its unbelief.
2. We find that men in the investigation of a Divine message often seek others to supply them with sceptical arguments they are not clever enough to produce themselves. It would appear that Pharaoh was not able of himself to refute the miraculous logic and credential of Moses and Aaron. Kings are not always gifted with the logical faculty, they are not generally remarkable for brain-power; nor are they in need of much, as the abilities of others are readily at their command. If a king wants an argument to disprove a divine message, there are always plenty of logicians in the realm ready to furnish him with it. And some men have the happy art of making logic prove anything to suit the craving of regal desires. Hence as Pharaoh could not refute the miraculous evidence of these two holy men, he sent for the wise men and sorcerers, and it would seem that the magicians of Egypt in some way imitated the miracle of the transformed rod. And so it is in reference to the credentials of the Bible; when one man cannot disprove them, he will get some one else to help him, and perhaps the two together may succeed in hardening each other in their sin. How one man may confirm another in scepticism to the rejection of the plain message of God. But though hand join in hand, he wicked shall not go unpunished. It is a pity that men of good mental ability should aid men of inferior brain in their sceptical effort; they might find better employment for their genius
3. We find that men endeavour to confirm their comrades in scepticism by imitating the credentials of the messengers of God. Moses and Aaron had turned their rods into serpents; when the magicians of Egypt were called they to all appearances did the same. Very likely they did it by cunning trickery with their enchantments, and they may have been assisted by the devil. He is a willing ally to all who wish to refute the credentials of heavenly messengers. And has it not been so with the Bible? Men have cast down their own rods, and they have produced their own books, and apparently there has been but little difference between the human production and the divine. The Bible is very much like all other books, is printed with the same type, on like paper, in the same language, and is bound in the same material, and it is only on looking inside and reading the contents that we can announce the difference. Mans genius endeavours to rival Gods power. But in vain. The truth-seeker can distinguish between the productions of the two; he never mistakes the enchantment of the Egyptian for the miracle of Moses.
4. That the men who endeavour to confirm their comrades in scepticism respecting the Divine credentials are subject to the truth. The rods of the Egyptian magicians were swallowed up by Aarons rod. And so in reference to the Bible. All who reject its claims will one day be swallowed up by the retribution it proclaims. Truth has power over error. Pharaoh would not attach much significance to the fact that Aarons rod swallowed up the rest; he would merely attach importance to the fact that his own conjurors had done the same as had Moses and Aaron. In the arguments of life men will only allow their minds to be impressed by those the most favourable to their case.
III. That the men who reject the credentials of Divine messengers commence a conflict which will be productive of great woe and of final overthrow to them. And he hardened Pharaohs heart that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said. This was notably the case with the king of Egypt. The plagues which follow are but the outcome of this rejection of the Divine message; and the destruction of Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea was but the end of the struggle, the victory of an alarming Providence. And men who oppose the credentials of the Bible, who cultivate a sceptical habit of mind in reference thereto, and who seek others to confirm them in their rejection of the truth of God, commence a conflict which will be most destructive in its issue. The. truth must conquer, and if men will not accept its credentials, they must fall beneath its power. It is vain for man, however he may be aided by human art or cunning, to contend with the messenger of heaven. LESSONS:
1. That the messengers of God can always produce Divine credentials.
2. That Divine credentials are often rejected by men of high social position.
3. That a continued rejection of Divine credentials will end in destruction.
4. That the servants of God are often perplexed by the conduct of men in rejecting Divine claims.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exo. 7:8-9. After God has won His servants to willing obedience, He commands them to duty.
God forewarned His servants that worldly men would investigate their authority.
Wicked men generally expect the ministers of God to work miracles before they believe the truth.
One instrument may God set over another to do his purpose.
A miracle has always been regarded as the evidence of a revelation from on high. It is not itself the revelation, but the evidence of it. The wax upon the deed, and the seal of one of the parties, is not the deed; but it is the evidence that that deed is accepted and identified by the party whose seal is attached to it.Dr. Cumming.
Exo. 7:10. When God enjoineth his servants to work wonders, He is sure to effect them.
Dead sticks become dragons at the word of God, to awaken sinners.
God by His word and work leave sinners without excuse.
The poorest workers animated by God, dare face oppressing kings.
It is only safe for the servants of God to do as he commands them.
Small actions in obedience are ordered by God to great issues, though despicable to men.
Not a word of God shall fail, but the very nature of creatures shall change to verify the same.
Gods miracles are in truth, to confirm His authority among men.
Exo. 7:11-13. Miracles from God will not persuade wicked hearts to believe.
Unbelieving sinners are apt to call in all instruments of Satan to gainsay God.
Providence has of old suffered wisdom to be abased to pernicious acts.
Under Gods permission Satan may work strange changes in creatures; but not miracles.
Gods true miracles devour all the lying wonders of Satan.
Christ hath swallowed up death in victory.
UNWORTHY IMITATIONS OF THE GOOD
Exo. 7:11. They also did in like manner with their enchantments. There is a great deal of imitation in the world. It is found in all spheres of life and employment. It especially obtains in the moral realm of life. And in some cases it may be commendable, the effort of a true soul to emulate the character and zeal of some godly neighbour whose life inspires with holy aspirations after something better. But in many cases it is a mockery, sometimes the homage which vice pays to virtue, and not unfrequently the daring effort of the natural mind to rival its divine results. In the incident before us the imitation of the work of Moses and Aaron by these Egyptian magicians was inspired by this latter motive.
I. This imitation of the good was by men of high social rank. The miracle wrought by Moses and Aaron was not imitated by the lower orders of Egyptian society, but by men in the highest rank of the nation, and in the presence of their king. And so it sometimes happens that men of intellect and learning, that men of high social standing, that men in important occupations, find it necessary and remunerative to imitate the actions of the good to serve their own impious purpose. It is probable that had those magicians refused, or had they announced themselves unable to imitate the miracle of the two servants of God, they would have been displaced in their art, and banished from the presence of the king. It is ill to be employed in a bad occupation. A man who is a sorcerer by profession, may at any moment be called to compete with divine phenomena, and to involve himself in conflict with God. A mans known character has much to do with his temptations. Some men are too pure to be asked to do an unholy deed.
II. This imitation of the good occurred at a most solemn crisis. It occurred at a crisis in the life of Pharaoh. If he had now felt the reality of the appeal of Moses and Aaron, had he recognized it as from God, and yielded to it, his life and futurity might have been very different from what it was, And men who give themselves up to an unworthy imitation of the good, often cause those who trust to them to miss the most favourable opportunity of moral welfare. It was also a crisis of great importance to the entire nation as the after history abundantly demonstrates.
III. This imitation of the good was productive of dire result. It caused Pharaoh to discredit the message of Moses and Aaron; still to retain his slaves; and it was instrumental in the hardening of his heart. And so those who seek to imitate the good in order to nullify the claims of God upon men, bring woe upon all who credit their agency.
IV. The imitation of the good is always discernable. The rods of the magicians were swallowed up by the rod of Moses and Aaron. The imitation is not so good, so true, so beautiful, so spontaneous as the reality, hence all intelligent and conscientious men are able to detect it, and need not be deceived by it. If men are deceived by it, it is because they wish to be.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Serpents! Exo. 7:9. Among the Egyptians and also the Phnicians, the serpent was an emblem of Divine wisdom and power, and as such it was reverenced. The asp was sacred to Neph, and is often represented upon the head of that deity. The asp is represented in the tombs of Thebes guarding the winepresses and granaries of Egypt. Herodotus speaks of a species of snake in the same neighbourhood with two horns upon its head, and says, when it dies it is buried in the temple of Jupiter, to whom it is said to belong. The transformation of Aarons rod into a serpent, and the swallowing up of all the other serpents by it was therefore calculated to impress the Egyptians with the greatness and supremacy of the God of Israel. But Pharaoh did not concern himself about the Rod of Moses, and it was enough for him that his sorcerers had been able to imitate the miracle.
To steal the livery of the court of heaven
To serve the devil in.
Pollok.
Truth-Light! Exo. 7:9. When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes the cynic, he asked whether there was any favour or gift, which the Grecian philosopher would wish to receive at his hands. To this, the philosopher curtly responded that he wished for nothing, but that the monarch should stand from between him and the sun. A very similar answer might with more justice and propriety be given by devout Christians to the scepticplacing himself between the Bible and man, and seeking to hide the truth behind error: Let me see the Sun of Revelation, for his beams alone have given light and life and warmth. The credentials of the Divinity of the Bible are as full of moral and spiritual light and life and warmth as
Yon dazzling sun, at noontide hour,
Forth from his flaming vase,
Flinging oer earth the golden shower,
Till vale and mountain blaze.
Moses and Aaron! Exo. 7:10. The history of Moses and Aaron, appearing thus together at the Court of Pharaoh, may have given rise to the traditions of the Greeks and Romans, in which Jupiter and Mercuryboth of them Egyptian deities worshipped as Hammon and Thothare described visiting the earth in a similar relationship. The latter was repreented with the caduceus, a rod twisted abouts with serpents, and was the god of speech or eloquence
That with the strong rein of commanding words,
Doth manage, guide, and master theminence
Of mens affections, more than all their swords.
Daniel.
Bible! Exo. 7:10. Suppose that you have been sick for years and years, and all medical treatment had failed in your case, and some skilful one should come along and examine the symptoms of your disease, and write a prescription, saying: I am going into a far country, and you will never see me again. But do not lose this prescription; for if you take the medicine which it prescribes all will be well. Would you not preserve the document? Would you not be careful to have it made up in the right shape, and to take it as ordered? But suppose you had misgivings; and at the time of receiving the prescription inquired as to the physicians credentials. He would take you to one patient after anotherall of whom were in the enjoyment of good healthand all of whom acknowledged their indebtedness to the prescription and its prescriber. When we question the efficiency of Gods remedy for sin, He takes us to the crowd of credentials in the Word of God. You may be justified in demanding the proofs, but not in refusing to accept the evidence, which is adequate to the Divine authority. Here
Thy goodness, glory, wisdom, strength and power
Shine clear as stars in frosty skies.
Prejudgment! Exo. 7:11. A gentleman was one day stoutly asserting that there were no goldfields except in Mexico and Peru. A nugget dug up in California was presented to him as evidence against his positive assertion. He was not in the least disconcerted, but persisted that the metal was not gold. It cannot be gold, because gold comes only from Mexico and Peru. He had fixed in his mind that gold existed only in those countries; and from it, he would not swerve. So with a certain class of sceptics. They have, to borrow Newtons figure, placed an extinguisher upon the candle of their judgment; so that when the light of convincing evidence is placed before them, all is in vain. They are not honest doubters, like Lord Lyttleton, the historian, and his friend Gilbert West. Agreeing to write something in favour of infidelity, they determined to study through the sacred records. Being honest in their studies, these ended in conviction. Both took up their pens and became its champions. How different the malevolent spirit of Straussthe mocking tone of Darwin and Spencer. These act the part of the owlet atheism, who
Sailing on obscure wings across the moon,
Drops his blue-fringed lids and shuts them close,
And, hooting at the glorious sun in heaven,
Cries out: Where is it?
Coleridge.
Adaptability! Exo. 7:11. We say: If the cap fits, wear it. Hence admirably does the Bible fit our case! It is so framed as to be adapted to us entirely. Thus when a Dutch farmer in South Africa told a poor Hottentot that the Bible was not meant for such creatures as blacks, the simple minded native replied that he was sure that it was. Why are you sure, jeeringly inquired the selfish white man? Because it fits me exactly. And how so? Opening his Bible the humble soul placed his finger on the description of what a sinner is, and exclaimed: There! sinners! thats my name. A similar illustration of the perfect adaptation of the Bible to all cases is furnished of a missionary, who records that, after reading the first chapter of Romans to a heathen congregation, they gathered round him saying that he himself had written that part for them. And from Dr. Dean of China we learn that, after conversing with a very intelligent Chinaman upon our Bible as being of great antiquity, he gave his listener a copy to take away for perusal. But not long after the inquirer returned, and with a look of triumph and accusation exclaimed, You told me that your book was very ancient, but that chapter (pointing to Romans 1) you have written with your own hand since you lived among us Chinese. Thus conscience does her work
And to the mind holds up reflections glass
The mind, which starting, heaves the heartfelt groan,
And hates that form she knows to be her own.
Churchill.
Magicians! Exo. 7:11. Pliny the historian speaks of the magicians of Egypt, and numbers Moses among them. In one of Lucians stories he introduces a man of Memphisa person of amazing wisdomand a real adept in all the learning of the Egyptians. It was reputed that he had lived no less than three and twenty years in a cave underground, and during that time was instructed by Isis herself in magic. There were jugglers in those days, as there are now. It is a common trick with them to produce living serpents from the cornices, or other parts of the rooms, which by handling they cause to become stiff and lifelessrestoring them again to animation at their pleasure. Witchcraft and sorcery were, however, possible crimes, and prevailed among the Gentiles, so that it is possible that these wizards looked upon Moses as an adept in the black art greater and more skilful than themselves:-
You have by Fortune and your own skills favours,
Gone slightly oer low steps, and now are mounted,
Where powers are your retainers more than us.
Shakspeare.
Imitation! Exo. 7:11. Folly is as living as wisdom, and the human mind produces its fantasies from age to age as naturally and rifely as the earth produces its thistles. So that we find ourselves often perplexed with fragments of exploded notions, which keep buzzing in our ears like the sounds of insects on a summers evening, and it is hard to get rid of them. Yet just as Aarons rod swallowed up the rods of the Egptian magicians, so does wisdom in the end devour the multiform and multiplied developments of folly, as imitations of Divine truth. Lo they are no more:
They pass away, like wax in the fierce flame,
Or to the thick mists that frown upon the sun,
Which he but glances at, and they are gone.
Borov.
Human Theories! Exo. 7:12. The wizards of Pharaohs court produced what to all appearance were serpentsas grand and graceful as that of Moses. The speculations of Tyndal are in a sense grand and gracefulgrand and graceful as those cumulous clouds that are piled above a mountain range in the far West. There is hardly anything in nature, art, or imagination, that may not be found among them. They assume the appearance of mountains and rockspeaks and precipices. Castles and cities spring up as if by magic on the aerial plainstorrents and waterfalls pour down their sublime heightsfar perspectives of unknown shores open up through vistas within the withdrawing portals. The Genesis and apocalypse of scepticism resembleand at first sight appear to be as real as the Genesis and Apocalypse of Revelation. Even the very bodies seems to have the same brilliant and varied hues and stripes. Thus mans genius has endeavoured to rival Gods power; but in vain. The magnificent spectacle melts before the mighty influence of the sun. The gorgeous day-dreams of the students of scepticism vanish like the rods of the soothsayers before that of Aaron. Of that apparently solid mass of gorgeous splendour not a vestige remains; and the Word of God stands alone as the rod of Moses stood.
It standeth, and will stand,
Without eer change or age,
The Word of Majesty and Light,
The Churchs heritage.
Bonar.
Biblical Evidences! Exo. 7:12. On board the ship which carried the great Napoleon to his campaign in Egypt there were French savants, who had convinced themselves, and thought they could convince others that there is no God. The great commander found them discoursing boastfully on their favourite theme, and, calling them upon deck, while the heavens above were bright with innumerable stars, he said to them: Tell me who made these? Napoleon was no philosopher, and it may be said, no metaphysician, no theologian. But he was a man of great common sense. He knew well enough that none of the boasters, whom he was so effectually rebuking, could place those stars in the firmament. They might send up rockets to imitate the stars, but the mimic pageant would fade, leaving the stars still to shine. Just so with the firmament of the Bible. It is crowded with the stars of truthmiraclescredentials of Divine creation. Atheists may send up rockets and Roman candles, as if to rival and outshine them, but in vain. All human miraculous imitations explode and disappear; while the stars of Truth abide. O ever stedfast stars!
Unchanging in their light,
Unfaltering in their race,
Unswerving in their round.
Calls! Exo. 7:13. Did you ever try to awaken a sleeper? At first perhaps you spoke softlythen as you failed to arouse him, you called louderand when calling was all in vain, you seized and shook the sleeper to attain your object. God calls many times to men. At first His voice is gentle, but when they refuse to listen His appeals becomes more startling painful. Pharaoh had thus been urged by Jehovah softly and gently; now He is speak-in louder and more urgent tones. So that the ruin, which advanced upon him with successive strokes, and which finally destroyed him, was nothing more than he had merited a thousand times over before God hardened him, and he himself became
The man whom Fortune and the Fates betray,
Predestined to precipitate decay.
Theognis.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
THE TEN PLAGUES, Exo 7:8 to Exo 12:30.
Moses and Aaron now stand before Pharaoh as ministers of judgment, and the conflict opens between Jehovah and the gods of Egypt. The first contest between the messengers of Jehovah and the magicians, or enchanters, who are regarded as the servants of the false gods, given in Exo 7:8-13, is properly the opening scene of the struggle, and is therefore here included in the section with it. Several general observations on the whole subject are most conveniently introduced here for future reference.
(1.) The great and worthy object of these “signs and wonders” is throughout to be carefully held before the mind. There were several secondary purposes met, but the chief aim was, not to inflict retribution upon Egypt, although they did this as judgments, nor to give Israel independence, though they effected this by crushing the oppressor, but to teach the world the nature of God. It was a series of most solemn lessons in the fundamental truths of religion in God’s attributes and government. With perfect distinctness and reiterated emphasis is this declared from the very beginning: “ I am JEHOVAH Ye shall know the Egyptians shall know that I am JEHOVAH.” Events were to burn into the national consciousness of Israel, and into the memory of the world, the great truths revealed in the Memorial Name; and the faith of Israel, the sin of Pharaoh, and the might and splendour of Egyptian heathenism, were the divinely chosen instruments to accomplish this work. The rich Nile-land teemed with gods, and was the mother country of the idolatries that, centuries afterward, covered the Mediterranean islands and peninsulas, and filled the classic literature with such manifold forms of beauty. The gods of Greece were born in Egypt, and the Sibyls of Delphos and Cumaea descended from the sorcerers who contended with Moses. In no other land has idolatry ever reared such grand and massive structures as in Egypt. The immense ram-headed Ammun and hawk-headed Ra, the placid monumental Osiris, the colossal Rameses, sitting in granite “with his vast hands resting upon his elephantine knees,” these, and their brother gods of the age of the Pharaohs, have looked down upon the rising and falling Nile through all the centuries of European civilization. In no other land were the manifold forms and productions of nature so deified. In their pantheistic idolatry they offered worship not only to the sun, and moon, and earth, but to bulls, crocodiles, cats, hawks, asps, scorpions, and beetles. They seem to have made to themselves likenesses of almost every thing in “heaven above, in earth beneath, and in the waters under the earth.” The Apis and Mnevis bulls were stalled in magnificent palaces at Memphis and Heliopolis, and were embalmed in massive marble and granite sarcophagi, grander than enclosed the Theban kings. The sepulchres of Egyptian bulls have outlasted the sepulchres of Roman emperors. Nowhere else were kings so deified as here. Pharaoh incarnated in himself the national idolatry, and to crush the king was to crush the gods. The king made his palace a temple, and enthroned himself among the Egyptian deities. He sculptured himself colossal so vast that the Arabs to-day quarry millstones from his cheeks sitting hand in hand and arm in arm with his gods. To-day Rameses sits in the temple of Ipsambul between Ra and Ammun, his tall crown rising between the hawk head of the one and the tiara of the other, looking out from his rock-hewn shrine upon the desert, as he has sat since the Pharaohs. From Cambyses to Napoleon invasion after invasion has swept the Nile valley wave on wave yet here have sat these massive forms, the Nile coming to bathe their feet year by year, as if brothers to the mountains. They mark the graves of Egypt’s vanished gods, while the name of Him who smote these gods to death with Moses’s rod liveth forever.
(2.) But Egypt was the mother-land of philosophies as well as idolatries. Long ages after Moses, Herodotus, Pythagoras, and Plato followed the Hebrew lawgiver to the oldest university in the world. The Egyptian philosophy was inextricably entangled with its religion, and deciphered papyri show that magic and sorcery were esteemed as highly at the court of Pharaoh, as, long after, in the time of Daniel, at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The dreamy mysticism of Plato and of Philo reveals how hopelessly most precious truths were entangled in priestly juggleries, and how deeply this black art, or illusion, or demonism, left its mark on the ancient world. The heathen idolatry had no more potent allies in the old civilizations than the soothsayers, sorcerers, and magicians, and it was needful that they too should be signally vanquished by the prophet of the true God. Hence Moses in Egypt as, a thousand years later, Daniel in Babylon, and a half thousand years later still, Paul at Salamis and Philippi discomfited the false prophets who aped God’s mighty works with their lying wonders. The sooth-saying and necromancy found in Christian lands to-day belong to the same kingdom of darkness, and can be exorcised only in that “Name which is above every name.” Moses, then, smites for mankind; Israel brings the Sacred Name through the wilderness for the world.
(3.) The weapons and tactics of this warfare were not such as to inflame the pride of the people of Israel, or to awaken in after generations a thirst for military glory, but such as to turn the tides of their faith and hope wholly away from themselves to their God. Hence the Hebrew national anthems glory in Jehovah rather than in Israel. Not the baptism of a war of national independence, but that of the Red Sea redemption, was their great national remembrance. Enthusiasm for Jehovah thus became the national passion. How appropriate was this in the training of a nation which was to teach the world true religion!
The real character of these plagues, or judgment strokes, will, as a general thing, appear from an attentive study of the Egyptian geography and natural history. They arise, as can usually be seen on the face of the narrative, from natural causes supernaturally intensified and directed. In the first and ninth plagues the natural causation is less distinct. They cannot, however, be explained away as natural events; for, if the record is to be believed at all, they were supernatural (1) in their definiteness, the time of their occurrence and discontinuance being distinctly predicted; (2) in their succession; and (3) in their intensity. They were, in their power and direction, threefold: (1) against the Egyptian faith in the diviners, enchanters, and sorcerers, the prophets of a false religion. (2) Against their faith in their deities, their gods of earth, and water, and air powers of nature; and beasts, and birds, and creeping things. Thus Jehovah’s supremacy over idolatry appeared. But (3) they were also punishments for disobedience to God. There is from the beginning a gradually increasing intensity in these supernatural manifestations till the magicians are utterly discomfited, all the gods of Egypt put to shame, and Pharaoh compelled to yield reluctant obedience. At first the magicians seem to display the same power as Moses, (Exo 7:11; Exo 7:22,) then come signs beyond their power . (Exo 8:18😉 soon the prophet of Jehovah so smites them that they cannot appear at all, (Exo 9:11😉 and then they vanish altogether . So the weight of the judgments increases as with increasing light the crime of disobedience rises in magnitude beginning with simple though sore annoyances, as blood, frogs, and flies; then advancing to the destruction of food and cattle smiting first their dwelling-place and surroundings, and then themselves; till the locusts swept the earth and the darkness filled the heaven, and only the death stroke was left to fall . Thus we are taught how the consequence of sin is sin, and judgments unheeded inevitably lead on to sorer judgments, till destruction comes .
(4.) Some commentators have found a special application in each plague to some particular idolatry or idolatrous rite, but this we do not find warranted by facts. Some, following Philo, the learned and devout but fanciful Alexandrian Jew, separate the plagues into two groups of nine and one, and then the nine into three groups of three, between which groups they trace what they deem instructive contrasts and correspondences. Origen, Augustine, and others, have traced parallels between these ten judgments and the ten commandments, the succession of the judgments and of the creative days, etc. Most of these interpretations not to dwell on the extravagant conceits of the Rabbies are amusing rather than instructive, and would be appropriate rather to a sacred romance or drama than to a sober history like this. The wild fables of the Talmud, the monstrosities of the Koran, and the often romantically embellished history of Josephus, present here an instructive contrast to the sacred narrative.
(5.) Thus far the Egyptian monuments give us no distinct mention of the plagues and of the exodus. We have, however, Egyptian records of the sojourn and exodus of Israel, although confused and fragmentary, and written more than a thousand years after the events. Chief and most valuable among these is the narrative of the priest Manetho, who wrote his Egyptian history during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, B.C. 283-247, of which a few fragments remain. Josephus has preserved all that we have of this narrative in his work against Apion. It is, as might be expected, a very different history, being the relation of an Egyptian priest many centuries after the events; yet the points of agreement are very striking.
The Israelites appear in Manetho’s story as a nation of lepers, headed by Osarsiph, a priest of Osiris, who had been educated at Heliopolis, but abandoned his order and the Egyptian religion to take the lead of this people. He taught them to abjure idolatry, gave them laws, a constitution and ceremonial, and when he united his fortunes with theirs he changed his name to Moses. The war is described as a religious war, in which, for the time, the Egyptians were discomfited, and obliged, in compliance with prophetic warnings, to abandon the country for thirteen years, and to flee, with their king Amenophis, into Ethiopia, taking with them the bull Apis and other sacred animals, while this leprous nation, reinforced by shepherds from Jerusalem, fortified themselves in Avaris, (Zoan,) a city of Goshen, robbed the temples, insulted the gods, roasted and ate the sacred animals, and cast contempt in every way upon the Egyptian worship. Amenophis afterwards returned with a great army and chased the shepherds and lepers out of his dominions through a dry desert to Palestine. (From Ewald’s trans., Hist. of Israel, 2: 79.) Here, as Ewald shows, the great outlines of the story of the exodus are to be clearly seen; the Mosaic leadership, the war of religions, the uprising of the hostile religion in Egypt itself, the leprous affliction of the revolting people, so pointedly mentioned in the Pentateuch, the secret superstitious dread inspired by Moses, which seems to have shaken the foundations of the Egyptian religion, the confession of defeat in the struggle, and the transformation of the exodus into an expulsion from Egypt these are unmistakable traces of the same history coming down through Egyptian channels. The later Egyptian writers, Chaeremon and Lysimachus, echo the story of Manetho, mingling with it Hebrew traditions. ( Josephus Against Apion, bks. i, 2.)
(6.) The exotic of Israel from Egypt is a fact now universally admitted, whatever differences may exist in its explanation. Bunsen says, in his Egypt, that “History herself was born on that night when Moses led forth his countrymen from the land of Goshen.” That this event resulted from some heavy calamities which at that time befel the Egyptians, or, in other words, that the narrative of the plagues has a solid historical foundation, is also now maintained with unbroken unanimity by Hebrew and Egyptian scholars, even by those who decline to see in these events anything supernatural. Thus Ewald says, that this history, “on the whole, exhibits the essence of the event as it actually happened.” And Knobel says, that “in the time of Moses circumstances had transpired which made it possible for the Hebrews to go forth of themselves, and impossible for the Egyptians to hinder their undertaking or to force them to return.” In other words, they who refuse to recognise here miraculous influence do recognise miraculous coincidence. Without any war, which, had it happened, must, as Knobel says, have left some trace in the history without any invasion from abroad or insurrection from within to weaken the Egyptian power a nation, unified and vitalized by faith in the one Jehovah, went forth unhindered from the bosom of a strong and prosperous empire. This is the event to be explained. The Mosaic record alone gives an adequate cause.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Miracles in the Presence of Pharaoh
v. 8. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, v. 9. When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Show a miracle for you, then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent. v. 10. And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded; and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, v. 11. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, v. 12. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents, v. 13. And He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
SECOND SECTION
The miracles of Moses, or the result of the nine Egyptian Plagues, preliminary to the last. Pharaohs alternate repentance and obduracy
Exo 7:8 to Exo 10:29
A.Moses miraculous rod and the Egyptian magicians. The first plague inflicted with the rod: change of the water into blood
Exo 7:8-25
8And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 9When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you [yourselves]: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become [let it become] a serpent. 10And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as Jehovah had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and 11before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then [And] Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now [and] the magicians of Egypt, they also did in 12like manner with their enchantments [secret arts]. For [And] they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents; but Aarons rod swallowed up their rods. 13And he hardened Pharaohs heart [Pharaohs heart was hardened]1, that 14[and] he hearkened not unto them, as Jehovah had said. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Pharaohs heart is hardened [hard]2, he refuseth to let the people go. 15Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the rivers brink against he come [to meet him]; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine [thy] hand. 16And thou shalt say unto him, Jehovah, God [the God] of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto 17thou wouldest not hear [hast not heard, i.e., obeyed]. Thus saith Jehovah, In this thou shalt know that I am Jehovah: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine [my] hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. 18And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and 19the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of [drink] the water of [from] the river. And Jehovah spake [said] unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine [thy] hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers [canals],3 upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may [and there shall] be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone. 20And Moses and Aaron did so, as Jehovah commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. 21And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank; and the Egyptians could not drink of [drink] the water of [from] the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 22And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments [secret arts]: and Pharaohs heart was hardened, neither did he [and he did not] hearken unto them; as Jehovah had said. 23And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he [and he did not] set his heart to this also [even to this].4 24And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the riExo Exo 7:25 And seven days were fulfilled, after that Jehovah had smitten the river.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Exo 7:13. The same form here, , as in Exo 7:22, where the A. V. correctly renders it intransitively. Literally, was firm, or strong, i.e., unyielding, unimpressible.Tr.].
[Exo 7:14. The Hebrew has here a different word, . Literally, heavythe same word which Moses used respecting his tongue, Exo 4:10.Tr.].
[Exo 7:19. , plural of the word which is used almost exclusively of the Nile. Here probably it signifies the artificial canals leading from the NileTr.].
[Exo 7:23. Or, according to the English idiom: nor did he lay even this to heart.Tr.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
On the whole series of Egyptian plagues, see the Introduction. But we reckon not nine plagues (with Keil), but ten, as a complete number symbolizing the history of the visitation. Moses miraculous rod forms the prologue to it; the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, the epilogue.
1. Moses miraculous rod in contest with the divining rods of the Egyptian wise men, Exo 7:8-13.
Exo 7:8-9. Shew a miracle for yourselves.It is a general assumption, shared also by the Egyptians, that an ambassador of God must attest his mission by signs, miraculous signs. Take thy rod.Aarons rod is Moses rod, which, however, passes over into his hand, as Moses word into his mouth.A serpent. The Hebrew is . LXX. . According to Keil the expression is selected with reference to the Egyptian snake-charmers. He says, Comp. Bochart, Hieroz. III., p. 162 sqq., ed. Rosenmler; and Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books, etc., p. 100 sqq. Probably the Israelites in Egypt designated by , which occurs in Deu 32:33; Psa 91:13, in parallelism with , the snake with which the Egyptian serpent-charmers chiefly carry on their business, the Hayeh of the Arabs. Of the so-called Psylli it is only known that they are able to put serpents into a rigid state, and in this sense to transform them into sticks. This then is the natural fact in relation and opposition to which the sign, by which Moses attested his mission, stands. The relation between the mysterious miracle of Moses and the symbolical development of it is rather difficult to define.
Exo 7:11. These sorcerers (), whom the Apostle Paul, according to the Jewish legend, names Jannes and Jambres (2Ti 3:8), were not common jugglers, but , wise men, and , belonging to the caste of priests, Gen 41:8 (Keil).
Exo 7:12-13. Exo 7:13 does not stand in direct relation to the close of Exo 7:12. The hardening of Pharaoh cannot well relate to the fact that Aarons rod swallowed up the rods of the sorcerers, although this is probably to be understood metaphorically, but to the fact that the Egyptian sorcerers do the same thing as Aaron does. The essential difference between the acts of God and the demoniacal false miracles is not obvious to the world and the worldly tyrants.
2. The transformation of the water of the Nile into blood, Exo 7:14-25.
Exo 7:15. Lo, he goeth out unto the water. To worship the Nile.
Exo 7:17. The transformation of the water into blood is, according to Joe 3:4 [2:31], according to which the moon is changed into blood, to be conceived as a blood-red coloring by which it acquired the appearance of blood (2Ki 3:22), not as a chemical transformation into real blood. According to the reports of many travellers, the Nile water, when lowest, changes its color, becomes greenish and almost undrinkable, whereas, when rising, it becomes red, of an ochre hue, and then begins to be more wholesome. The causes of this change have not yet been properly investigated (Keil). Two causes are alleged: the red earth in Sennaar, or, according to Ehrenberg, microscopic infusoria. Even the Rhine furnishes a feeble analogue. The heightening of the natural event into a miraculous one lies in the prediction of its sudden occurrence and in its magnitude, so that the red Nile water instead of becoming more wholesome assumes deadly or injurious properties.
Exo 7:19. That blood should come into all the ramifications of the water, even to the stone and woodeu vessels, is evidently the result of the previous reddening of the Nile. Kurtz exaggerates the miracle by inverting the order of the reddening of the water. His notion is refuted by Keil, p. 479.5
Exo 7:22. How could the Egyptian sorcerers do the like, when the water had already been all changed to blood? Kurtz says, they took well-water. But see Keil in reply.6 According to the scriptural representation of such miracles of darkness, they knew how, by means of lying tricks, to produce the appearance of having made the water. In this case it was not difficult, if they also used incantations, and the reddening of the water subsequently increased.
Exo 7:25. Seven days were fulfilled. The duration of the plague. The beginning of the plague is by many placed in June or July, according to which view all the plagues up to the killing of the first-born, which occurred in the night of the 14th of Abib, i.e., about the middle of April, must have occurred in the course of about nine months. Yet this assumption is very insecure, and only so much is tolerably certain, that the seventh plague (of the hail) took place in February (see on Exo 9:31 sq.) (Keil). Clearly, however, the natural basis of the miraculous plagues is a chain of causes and effects.
Footnotes:
[1][Exo 7:13. The same form here, , as in Exo 7:22, where the A. V. correctly renders it intransitively. Literally, was firm, or strong, i.e., unyielding, unimpressible.Tr.].
[2][Exo 7:14. The Hebrew has here a different word, . Literally, heavythe same word which Moses used respecting his tongue, Exo 4:10.Tr.].
[3][Exo 7:19. , plural of the word which is used almost exclusively of the Nile. Here probably it signifies the artificial canals leading from the NileTr.].
[4][Exo 7:23. Or, according to the English idiom: nor did he lay even this to heart.Tr.].
[5][The point made by Keil is that, according to Kurtzs theory, the vessels of wood and of stone ought to have been mentioned immediately after the pools of water.Tr.].
[6][The reply made by Keil (and a very pertinent one) is that if the Egyptians already had well water there would have been no need of their digging wells (Exo 7:24) in order to obtain drinkable water. Keil understands that the phrases in Exo 7:19 are not to be interpreted so strictly as to imply that absolutely all water, even what had already been taken from the Nile before the miracle, was turned into blood. Murphy and Kalisch prefer to assume that the magicians dug wells, and practiced their arts on the water drawn from them.Tr.].
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
It is remarkable that upon several occasions in scripture, for the confirmation of the faith and the confutation of error, the serpent is made use of, see Num 21:8 . And it is yet more remarkable that this is expressly spoken of by the Redeemer himself as typical of his salvation. Joh 3:14 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the LORD (Hebrew. Jehovah. spake. See note on Exo 6:10, and compare note on Exo 3:7.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Section 2. (Exo 7:8-11.)
The destruction of all fleshly dependence (Egypt) the accompaniment of the word of salvation.
And now the judgments begin, prefaced by a sign, however, in the mercy of God, which is not that, and by which, if possible, conviction might be brought home to the haughty king. It takes its place, therefore, with the rest as part of the divine testimony. Of the plagues themselves, Keil has rightly distinguished the last -the death of the first-born -from all the rest. The announcement of it, indeed, falls in with the others, as he places it, for very evident reasons. The principal one which separates the plague itself is the relation which it bears to Israel and their redemption. It is not only the stroke by which they are freed, and in which God Himself appears, no longer acting through what men call “second causes,” but it is that by means of which they themselves for the first time are taught their true condition before God, and take the place in which alone salvation is possible to them. Thus, in the history of redemption, its relation is with that part in which we shall find the actual accomplishment of this. The present section shows only the preparation for it.
As to the nine plagues that remain, Keil has also given reason for believing that “they are arranged in three groups of three plagues each. For the first and second, the fourth and fifth, and the seventh and eighth were announced beforehand by Moses to the king; whilst the third, sixth, and ninth were sent without any such announcement. Again, the first, fourth, and seventh were announced to Pharaoh in the morning, and the first and fourth by the side of the Nile, both of them being in connection with the overflowing of the river. . . . . This grouping is not a mere external arrangement, . . . but is founded on the facts themselves, and the effect which God intended the plagues to produce, as we may gather from these circumstances, that the Egyptian magicians, who had imitated the first plagues, were put to shame with their arts by the third, and were compelled to see in it the finger of God, -that they were smitten themselves by the sixth, and unable to stand before Moses, -and that after the ninth, Pharaoh broke off all further negotiation.”
There are other and deeper distinctions, as we shall see; but we may add to these that “in the first three, Aaron uses the rod; in the second three, it is not mentioned; in the third three, Moses uses it, though in the last of them only his hand is mentioned. All these marks of order lie on the face of the narrative, and point to a deeper order of nature and reason out of which they spring.” (Murphy.)
The numerical significance accords fully with all this, while it leads us more directly to the deeper reason. Commentators have thus far shown us little of this, while the typical instruction, allowed to be so manifest generally in the book of Exodus, has apparently not been seen at all. Yet it is surely here as elsewhere.
This section falls, then, into four parts, the first of which shows us the world in the light of nature simply, or looked at by itself; the second looks at it as distinguished from the people of God, the division being, as it is really called, a “redemption” of the latter; while in the third, the inflictions are more distinctly from heaven; the fourth contains the warning of that final infliction in which the “chief of all their strength” being smitten, they are effectually humbled in the dust before God. But we must proceed slowly.
1. The numerals show us plainly that we must commence the first group of miracles, with the miracle of the rod itself. The signs, then, stand thus:
(1) the rod turned into a serpent;
(2) the river turned to blood, -the means of sustaining life turned into a cause of death;
(3) the plague of frogs, -the unclean things that come out of the river;
(4) the dust becoming lice. Let us look at them in order.
(1) And first, the miracle of the rod.
The rod is the sign of the power conferred upon Moses: hence it is not strange that our attention should first of all be directed to it. The rod turned into a serpent showed the whole power of Egypt delivered into Moses’ hand. As here addressed to Pharaoh, it was a challenge of the completest kind; and if imitated by the magicians, the feebleness of the imitation is apparent in Aaron’s rod swallowing up their rods. Of course, it was impossible for them really to imitate so stupendous a miracle, in which Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, was demonstrated as the Creator. All the power of Satan was incompetent to bring into being the smallest creature; and the language here is meant merely to affirm that to outward appearance the thing was done, -by what juggle need not be told.
It is simple enough, if we recognize the evil that is in the world, and that yet God is, -that the evil must be in His hand, must have at least its permission, and therefore its mission also from Him. His hand has made leviathan, and He that made him can make His sword approach unto him. “He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain.” This enables us, on the one hand, to see God in every thing; on the other, it reveals where the world is before Him. The evil in it is no accident. The forms of misery apparent every where are the multitudinous witnesses of its condition as away from Him. And this truth of God’s indictment of the world is the true Moses’ rod, to work the miracle of conviction in the soul. It is by the power of this truth that all the glory of the world passes away, and sin, judgment, and God who judges become reality to the soul.
But here we meet also the power of the enemy to resist conviction in the magicians of Egyptians, -the “wise men,” deep in nature’s secrets, -the prophets of the god of this world. Their work is in imitation of the power of God, to show, if possible, that this is not His hand from which the judgment comes, -that it is not judgment. They cannot abate the evil; they are powerless to avert the storm that is about to sweep through Egypt: they have no real help -cannot pretend to it, never think of it. They have only their pitiful, agnostic evidence, such as it is, that that which is attributed to God can be produced otherwise, so that there is no need for Him in the matter. Their rods too can become serpents: there are other powers in the universe which can produce evil. Be it so: the power of God is demonstrated in this, that Aaron’s rod swallows easily their rods. All other powers need to be accounted for, are dependent, not original, do not conflict in the least with that divine power above all, to which conscience affirms our responsibility, and which alone satisfies the need of the heart. True, the world is then under His judgment, but that only (if sin be a reality, ) confirms the truth into complete conviction.
(2) There has been yet, however, no judgment. The second sign begins these, and there could not be a more notable one. With the Egyptians, “the Nile was in the strictest sense regarded as divine, and was worshiped under a variety of names. As the bountiful Osiris, and under many other divine names, the Nile was the beneficent god of Egypt -the representative of all that was good. Evil had, however, also its god, the deadly enemy of Osiris, -the hated Typhon -the source of all that was cruel, violent, and wicked. With this abhorred being the touch or sight of blood was associated. He himself was represented as blood-red; red oxen, and even red-haired men were sacrificed to him, and blood, as his symbol, rendered all unclean who came near it. To turn the Nile waters into blood was thus to defile the sacred river -to make Typhon triumph over Osiris -and to dishonor the religion of the land in one of its supremest expressions.” (Geikie.)
But though we may see in this way how such a miracle would appeal to the Egyptians, we do not need the teachings of mythology to interpret it to us. The river, as we see in Scripture itself, was the very symbol of independence. Egypt drank no water of the rain of heaven: its source of supply was not above; and this is the world in its independence of God. But this independence of God, the Giver of life, is only death, and turns to death. The judgment here as elsewhere reveals the actual spiritual condition. That which as the creature of God, and His minister, is but the means of multiplied blessing, separated from Him, produces but more confirmed and complete separation. This is so simple that it needs no insisting on, and Scripture is full of it. (Job 21:14; Psa 73:7; Psa 73:11.)
But it should be noticed now, what every commentary dilates upon, that these judgments of God which begin here have in measure their natural counterparts. Thus the “Nile, at a certain stage of its yearly rise, assumes a red color, due to the presence of minute vegetative and animal growths.” And “when the Nile and its canals are full, in the height of inundation, the abounding moisture quickens inconceivable myriads of frogs and toads, which swarm every where, even in ordinary years.” Again, “when the inundation has risen above the level of the canals and channels, and is rapidly flowing over the entire surface, . . . gnats and flies innumerable burst from their pupae and spring into perfect existence. The eggs that produce them were laid in the retiring waters of the former flood. They have matured in the interval, and vivify instantaneously on the dust absorbing moisture enough to discolor it.” At the close of the inundation, when the water is very foul, murrain has been noticed to occur. Such a relation of these divine judgments to ordinary occurrences has surely meaning for us, not merely in that economy of the miraculous, which many have remarked upon, but much rather as emphasizing how the whole order of nature marshals itself under the divine hand against the transgressor.
The red Nile-water, however, is pleasant and drinkable, not, as in the case before us, a scourge which the magicians again may counterfeit but cannot remove. The priests of nature can show how this can be done -can do it themselves, substituting in a way common to all ages, never more common than to-day, “nature” for the God of nature, “law” for Him who rules by it. In all this, it is confessed however, there is no help for man -no remedy. Rather is his case given up as remediless, as nature’s laws are pitiless; there is no divine heart to turn to. In making man a machine, you escape from sin by denying all morality: but conscience refuses this. Any way, the waters are still turned to blood: the plague is not even moderated, but increased.
(3) In the third miracle -the plague of frogs, the river is again a means of distress to the Egyptians. In this case it is evidently by their numbers, their intrusion every where, and as is implied -swarming out of the mud and slime, -their uncleanness, that they become so. This last is, as perhaps all commentators agree, the fundamental idea, and it is this by which its numerical place is justified. Connected, moreover, with the last plague, as it is, undeniably, we find that we are following the same track as the apostle when he speaks of the result of departure from God: that “even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not seemly,” or, as he otherwise puts it, “to uncleanness.” (Rom 1:28; Rom 1:24.) Here are plainly the unclean things that come out of the river, when the creature is worshiped and served rather than the Creator. Man having cast off God dishonors himself, and the lusts he seeks to satisfy have sprung out of departure from God. To return to Him is the only remedy: “If any man is athirst, let him come unto Me, and drink; and he that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (Joh 7:37-38.)
The wise men of the world have here again no remedy. The water will readily produce frogs for them also; all their disquisitions tend, as they did in Egypt, to hallow the frog, though they may have too much of it. The gods of the heathen were largely just men’s lusts and passions deified; and to do them honor, they indulged them. But to call evil good cannot make it so; and to harden the conscience cannot satisfy the heart.
(4) And now, not the water, but the land, produces its myriads for their torture. The dust of the land smitten with the rod becomes “lice.” I take this, with the A.V., to be the true meaning of the word kinnim. “In the Talmud, the kinnah is a louse. The Jewish interpreters (including Onkelos and Josephus), the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Talmud give this meaning, which is supported by Bochart. The Septuagint gives skniphes, which Gesenius and others take to mean gnats. But konops or empis is the gnat. The sknips is said to be an ant that preys on figs, or an insect that lives under the bark of trees. Either of these bears more analogy to the louse than to the gnat or mosquito. The louse also is found ‘on men and beasts,’ while the gnat flies in the air.” (Murphy.) Baker suggests that “lice would shrivel at once in the hot sun of Africa,” and contends for the kindred thought of “ticks,” of which a kind lives in hot sand and dust, and is a great enemy to man and beast. (Quoted from Geikie.)
The insignificance of the creature used, the dust as that from which it originates, and the place of this plague in the order of these visitations, seem all to point in one direction. Dust is frequently connected in Scripture with death “the dust of death.” (Psa 22:15.) “Dust unto dust” was the original verdict which put on man the stamp of vanity. The book of Ecclesiastes shows us death as the great tormentor of man, leveling him, with all his wisdom and his pride, to the beast. (Chap. Ecc 3:19, etc.) What is beyond death only divine revelation and not human reasoning can show (v. Ecc 3:21); and conscience, if it point beyond, shadows the future with its accusations.
This, then, I take as the spiritual significance of this fourth testimony. Without it, the evidence as to the world’s condition would be very incomplete indeed. With it, we have surely a striking picture of what the world is -under Satan’s rule, God cast off, corrupt through lust, death brooding over it! And as to the last feature of it, though the wisdom of the world may labor to make it “natural,” the whole instinct of that nature of man to which they appeal shrinks from and abhors it. If it be so, man is lower than the beast, tormented as to the future as the beast is not, craving as his rational heritage an immortality which is denied to him. No: here (as the magicians say) is “the finger of God,” and it writes upon the dust itself, as Christ wrote upon it for the Pharisees in after-times, man’s condemnation.
And if man be under condemnation, his mouth is stopped; it is for God only to open His. Thus Pharaoh’s wise men utter their last word here. The world is now seen in the true “light of nature” -if nature has any light. But God has more to say, if man has not; and Egypt’s revealing plagues are not yet concluded.
2. In the three plagues that follow, we find emphasized the division put between the Egyptians and the Israelites, -literally, redemption,”a word I have preserved for evident reasons. God’s separation of His people is a redemption, the work of His grace in them as well as for them, which in the typical meaning comes out very distinctly. But this typical meaning has been itself almost unrecognized hitherto. I am not aware, at least, of any attempt to bring it out connectedly, though surely such meaning there must be. Apart from this, every commentary will show how barren of any specific spiritual significance these inflictions upon Egypt are. The typical meaning is indeed an illumination.
(1) In the first plague here there is a difficulty as to its nature even, which might seem to forbid interpretation. The word used as to it (arob) seems plainly derived from arab, to mix, and would thus mean “mixture,” as in the margin of our common version. It is used nowhere else except in the book of Psalms (Psa 78:45; Psa 105:31), referring to the same infliction; but a kindred word, ereb, denotes the “mixed multitude” that went out of Egypt with the Israelites. Symmachus, Aquila, and Jerome, of the ancients, translate it “mixture,” with many more modern, applying it, as again the common version does, to flies. It is objected, however, to this, that ver. Psa 105:31 is against it, but it does not seem evident that this could not apply to “one” of the myriad swarms that made up the great swarm. The Septuagint has, however, “the dog-fly,” and by this or “the gad-fly” many would translate it. But the authority of the Septuagint, though great, is far from infallible, and the other is a supposition. Certainly, if we are to abide by the Hebrew, which is alone inspired, the first meaning would seem the true one.
But in this case the instrument employed we must be content to ignore. It was something that “devoured,” as the seventy-eighth psalm shows; something of small size, making up for this in numbers; various in kind, whether flies or insects generally: the prominent thought is that of “mixture.”
Trying this by its numerical place, we may see that this is not unity, though in its place, and we are led to ask, May not this be the thought suggested, that lack of unity which is implied in “mixture,” -mixture in place of unity?
Fanciful enough this will seem, no doubt; but in these types, let us remember, we have what is addressed to the imagination, subject to Scripture and spiritual judgment. Let us go on, therefore, and see whither this may lead us.
It is the contrast between the world and the people of God that is before us, and here the index number gives us a plain contrast: it speaks, on the one hand, of “obedience,” “righteousness,” on the other, of “will,” “rebellion.” God’s work is one, manifested always as that, -internally, still more than externally, a unity. Man also, when obedient to His will, is at one with himself as with God, -at one with himself because with God. His life is of a piece, self-consistent and harmonious. If sin come in, it is a confusion, a contrary will: independence of God is discord, disunity, and man no longer at one with God is no longer at one with himself either. His “will,” astray from God, falls asunder into many divided “wills,” as the “lusts” within “war in” his “members.” (Jam 4:1.) And so with all that comes under the power of evil: it corrupts, falls apart, is disorganized; death, which is the stamp upon and fruit of sin, is separation, dissolution.
“Mixture,” combination, union, is still possible, and this is man’s substitute for God’s unity. But it only reveals the want of it. At one with God, we are at one with ourselves, and all things are at one with us also. Outside of this, there is nothing but a jarring concourse of incompatible things: the bond of the universe is snapped; and to one taught of God, the world is a thing smitten with the plague of incoherency, confusion, “mixture.” Out of which is only one way of deliverance.
The secret of the condition of things is now revealed. The wise men are useless: Pharaoh turns to Moses and Aaron, but only to suggest an impossible compromise. “Go, sacrifice unto your God in the land. Here again is “mixture” -a half obedience which is not obedience. Worship God where you are, he says; -that is, typically, Remain in the world; don’t leave it. But that is impossible. In the world, faith’s sacrifice is an abomination, -Christ’s cross only an offense. The cross is the judgment of the world -of man in the flesh, -and if we can worship there, no cross is needed: it is in this case simply a false indictment against man. Thus there is irreconcilable difference between the world and the believer. By the cross, he is crucified to the world and the world to him, and he glories in that which has done this. How impossible, then, to mix the world and Christ!
He who has turned to Christ has owned the enmity in which he was, and found the reconciliation. He has obedience endeared to him in Christ’s obedience to death for him. His is the blessedness of “the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” He is separated from the world and from the world’s plague of mixture. He is at one with God and at one with himself: he has taken his true place in that universe of God which has on it every where as that the mark of unity.
(2) The two plagues following in this series, however little outwardly connected with the first, will be found to have the most real typical connection. In this second one, the destruction of the cattle takes place, -the ordained servants of man, the type of that service which he needs and must receive from others. Independent really he cannot be. The higher any creature is in the scale of being, the more its needs multiply and the more dependent is it. And with man, the higher (or more civilized) is his natural life, the more complex and numerous are the services he requires from others. The “division of labor” means, of course, but this. Happy would the world be if men could simply accept this -could serve and be served according to God’s ordinance. Each caring for the other, how well would all be served! how blessed would it be to live in such an atmosphere of love -ministered to and ministering -as this implies!
But the world is away from God; weary, restless, dissatisfied, its craving is lust, its god its belly, and “corruption” is “in the world through lust.” In the selfish strife of private interest, the forms of love required by society, serve but as the stones upon graves to mark that the spirit has departed. There is a murrain upon the cattle, except where, among the people of God, the spirit of love has been gained in the knowledge of redemption. Here love manifests itself in service -necessarily, if it be love; there is ability and heart to minister; grace has in a higher way perfected the design in nature: the cattle are preserved.
(3) In the next plague, the ashes of the furnace sprinkled toward heaven bring an eruptive disease upon man and beast. The “furnace,” derived from a word which means “to subdue,” was, as some think, a lime-kiln, or for smelting ore, and connected with those public works in Egypt at which Israel had been made so cruelly to labor. Egypt itself had been such a furnace for the people of God, and as such had earned for itself righteous retribution. This seems a very natural explanation of Moses’ significant action. The disease that followed is too briefly described to be identified; but if so, we may be sure there is no need to identify it: all that is needed for the lesson is surely given us. It is noted by all commentators that the uncleanness resulting from such an attack must have been peculiarly severe upon a people who, like the Egyptians, were so punctiliously observant of personal cleanliness, and with whom this was a part of their religion. Typically, it would fittingly speak of the corruption of sin, the breaking out of that moral disease which Isaiah uses language such as might be drawn from it to describe: “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores.” (Isa 1:6.)
This is the inward condition of the world exposed; for as already said, these plagues only expose what is the true state of things as before God. And the connection between such a state and Egypt’s lime-kilns is easy to apprehend. The pomp and glory of the world minister to the lust of ambition and greed of all kinds out of which comes the corruption that is in the world, and in which it finds also its judgment; and this seems to be the meaning of what we have here. And now the magicians cannot stand before Moses: as long afterward the words “he that is without sin among you” scatter the would-be judges of the adulteress, so are Egypt’s wise men scattered now; “for the boil was upon the scribes and upon all the Egyptians.” Who, indeed, is exempt, save he in whom Christ is found the object for his heart, and the “exceeding great and precious promises” deliver from the “corruption which is in the world through lust”?
3. Here, then, a second stage in the conviction of the natural man is reached. We are now, in the third stage, to see, man being what he is, what the attitude of heaven must be toward him. The three plagues that follow all distinctly point to heaven as their place of origin. Here too the rod, which in the last three had not been seen, appears again, -a thing which the typical meaning alone as it would seem, accounts for. For it will be seen that the middle plagues to men seem scarcely divine inflictions: they proceed more from man himself, although, in fact, the government of God may truly be seen in them. But now we come again, as in the first plagues, to direct, positive inflictions.
(1) And first, we have the hail: and here once more we find what might seem a mixture -a concord of contraries. Yet nature furnishes it, though, of course, in this case, increased into a miracle. With the occurrence of hail and fire, (that is, electricity,) we are all familiar. They are products of the same cause -the meeting of a mass of warm air, saturated with moisture, with a cold upper current. Heat and cold must thus mingle together to produce it, and the electricity is disengaged, apparently, at the same time as the freezing of the vapor. We have in the book of Revelation, under the first trumpet, the occurrence of hail and fire; and in the eighteenth psalm, “hailstones and coals of fire” are emphasized as expressions of the divine wrath. Cold is the absence of heat, as darkness is of light; and light and heat are near akin, as, of course, are cold and darkness. God is light, and heat is the glow of His presence, which toward sin is wrath -the flame of fire. But cold and heat alike have their part in the storm of His wrath. If He forsake, it must be in anger, never indifference; never, therefore, mere withdrawal, -the chill and the fire mingle, and thus what should have been blessing, like the drops of vapor, becomes a pitiless iron shower which destroys every thing before it.
Thus upon the world the wrath of God abideth, suspended indeed by His forbearing love, which at the same time has provided a place of refuge. But still there are “the treasures of the hail which ” He has “preserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war.” (Job 38:22-23.) And they will be poured out yet, while the heavens proclaim His righteousness in it. It is this that makes it so terrible, that it is the action of righteousness; and this, faith anticipates and takes home as a present thing governing one’s thoughts and conduct.
(2) If the Lord be thus against the sinner, the world is full also of witnesses to this attitude of His. Man may have departed from God and become hostile to Him, but nature in its whole framework is obedient, and serves Him still. Thus the sinner finds himself in a stream of hostile forces, the hosts of the Lord, which the army of locusts vividly presents to us. “The locusts have no king,” says Agur, “yet go they forth all by bands.” (Pro 30:27.) “Nothing in their habits,” says a recent observer, is more striking than the pertinacity with which they all pursue the same line of march, like a disciplined army.” This instinctive discipline, with an invisible king, shows whose hosts they are -under whose marshaling: “His army,” the Lord calls them. (Joe 2:11.) “In every stage of their existence,” says the same person who was just now quoted, “these locusts give a most impressive view of the power of God to punish a wicked world.” To contend with them is hopeless, and the destruction caused by them is absolute: “the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.” (Joe 2:3.)
Thus nature, with its laws, serves the Law-giver, and woe to those who contend against their God. They are hopelessly in the grasp of destructive forces which fully own the One they do not -are the disciplined hosts of the Lord of Hosts. This an insect may teach us here, if only we have hearts to learn the lesson.
Along with this, we have in this section Pharaoh’s second attempt at compromise, as vain as the first one was. The men may go: the little ones must be left behind; in which case, of course, the little ones become a pledge for the return of their parents. But salvation is here, as the New Testament declares it, for thee and for thy house. If Pharaoh’s thought is to retain or bring back the fathers by the children’s means, God’s is, to save the children with and by means of their fathers. The circumcision of the Israelite’s house gives the divine rule for the old economy. The new cannot be behind it: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” (Act 16:31.)
This, then, is the tenor of universal Scripture. God’s all-embracing love would make of His people hands to reach out to others, and of the human ties which He has established, links by which the new creation itself shall be drawn together. He would thus claim for His own that which is, with no acquiescence on His part, departed from Him, and use as His that natural affection which, though fallen, is not incapable of being renewed and spiritualized. Thus He meets and satisfies the deepest instincts of our manhood, the divine Father manifesting Himself as not strange to what is best in human fatherhood, and teaching us to feel in ourselves the original likeness in which at first He created us to Himself.
The children of believers are, of course, naturally like other children. The nature we can impart is the old, and not the new: to have this, they must be born again, as all must. Nor does it follow necessarily, as we know, that because a man is saved his house must be. But if with faith in God there be faithfulness in the place in which God has put us, He has promised, “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Here is the thing, no doubt, which tests us; for it is not our words only that have fruit in this way; it is the combined influence of our words and ways. That three days’ remove from Egypt, if really taken, will have immense effect. And that we have come out to keep a feast to the Lord will give the positive side, without which separation from the world becomes a mere cold and hard asceticism.
These things are our types, and the God of Israel is as full of power to-day as ever He was: of that, these very locusts may remind us.
(3.) And now we come to the last plague of these nine -the last but one of all poured out upon the land of Egypt. The plague of darkness is one the significance of which is simple for those who know the meaning of the darkness upon the cross. God is light: darkness is the withdrawal of light, the forsaking of God. And this was (as we may see in the twenty-second psalm,) the most terrible part of that judgment upon sin which our dear Lord bore for us in His body on the tree. God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and cannot look upon sin: even from Him who knew no sin, when made sin, He must turn away; and so the cry of forsaken sorrow interprets the darkness to us. The “outer darkness” is its expression in the eternity to come.
God-abandonment! who save that solitary Sufferer can interpret this to us? Men would indeed choose to get away from God here, and the “far-off country “can be for awhile even a place of pleasure while we are recklessly wasting what can never be regained. But even the far-off country is not the hell where men will find the answer to their desire to get away from God. In Egypt, for three awful days they sat overwhelmed; none looked upon another, or rose from his seat. In that darkness that is the “shadow of death,” it is said, “they sit;” but what when it is not the shadow, but death itself, and the eternal flame shall give yet no light?
“In Thy light we see light.” In the ends of the earth, no place so destitute but some beams of that light must come. When men have found the place of their choice -a place without God, where, from the necessity of His nature, He can never be, all figures fail to convey the reality of that horror of utter darkness which they shall find it.
Here, then, fittingly, these nine plagues end. Pharaoh attempts, at the very last, another compromise. If he cannot prevent their going out, he will at least make them as poor as he can. Their flocks and herds were the main part of all which, as a shepherd-people, they possessed. They are thus the fitting type of our possessions -of that which we have in the world. These must be left, says Pharaoh; -the first attempt we have perhaps to define the doctrine which has since met such wide acceptance, alas! among the people of God, -that we are to separate what is “secular” from what is sacred,” -and that if we ourselves must needs go on pilgrimage, we must not have our all out of Egypt, honestly owning God’s title to all we have.
A certain claim, it is owned as reasonable, the Lord should have; but the things are ours outside this tax upon them. Yet does not this show how little we know what it is to be the Lord’s, when we have in any thing divided interests from His? Does it not show that we know little what it is to be in Christ, while we have another self with independent aims and motives? Is this other self, can it be, any thing else than the old self, which knows not Christ, and refuses Him?
Thus it is, surely, that along with this lesson of what the holiness of God is as against sin, we are made to learn what is the claim of that holiness -we will not say upon His redeemed, but rather for them. It is, in fact, in the very idea of redemption itself, necessary, in order to realize the fullness of blessing in it, that not only we, but all that is ours, shall be brought out of Egypt. “There shall not a hoof be left behind,” says Moses, “for thereof must we take to serve Jehovah our God, and we know not wherewith we must serve Jehovah our God till we come thither.” How true it is that we have not even -cannot have -the knowledge of the Lord’s will concerning us until we are, with all belonging to us, where God’s salvation brings us -outside the world.
(4) But God does not intend His people to go out of Egypt empty. They are to leave it rather with the spoil of Egypt in their hands; and yet, in taking this, they take but what is their own. Take to-day out of the world all that is the fruit or accompaniment of God’s salvation-work -take out of it all that Scripture has enriched it with -how poor would it be left! It is but the result of what the world is, that God could not take His people out of it without leaving it empty of all true blessing and enlightenment.
And now one last warning is permitted to Pharaoh ere the final stroke of judgment falls. At midnight, the time of deepest darkness, Jehovah is coming into the land Himself, and “all their first-born, the chief of all their strength,” shall die. The thunderbolt of Israel’s deliverance is at last to fall. The prostration of the world is to be the deliverance of those for whom God has undertaken. The type is easily read by its own light.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Exo 7:8-13 P. Aaron and the Magicians: Hardening of Pharaohs Heart.Magic and religion are, in the last analysis, fundamentally diverse; for, while magic claims to put a compelling constraint upon occult powers, religion implies a relation and dependence upon a personal Being of which prayer is the characteristic expression (p. 187). But the two have been, and are still, almost inextricably intermingled. It is not surprising, therefore, to find magical powers, in all good faith, claimed for the servants of Yahweh, and allowed, in inferior degree, to exist among His enemies. Magic has been called the science of primitive times, and its obvious success is due to a mixture of bluff, shrewd prognostication, cunning contrivance (cf. secret arts, Exo 7:11 mg.), and sleight-of-hand. Serpent-charming still persists in Egypt, and experts can stiffen serpents by hypnotic devices into rods. What is peculiar in the present story is that the rods become serpents, and Aarons rod swallows up the rest. The mg. on serpent distinguishes the term, meaning a reptile, perhaps a young crocodile, from the ordinary word used in Exo 4:3 J, where the sign was to convince Israel, not Pharaoh. The word for magicians is used only of Egyptian wizards. Jewish tradition (2Ti 3:8) knew the names of the two leaders, Jannes and Jambres. Though their success was marred by the swallowing up of their rods, Pharaohs heart was hardened (Exo 7:13). Here is one of the leading ideas of this part of the Bible. Three words are usedone only in Exo 7:3 P, another (mg. strong) by P and E, and the third (mg. heavy) by J. The various forms of expression, hard (in fact), self-hardened, and God-hardened, together with Pauls treatment in Rom 9:15-18, raise difficult questions. A little reflection lightens the difficulty. In all human conduct there is a mysterious combination of mans choice and Gods enabling. And God uses events to produce opposite effects upon different characters, as fire melts wax but hardens clay. Assertions of Gods sovereignty must not be isolated, but interpreted in harmony with His moral rule. Thus read, the cumulative assaults upon Pharaohs resolution call forth one of the most dramatic exhibitions in literature of the merely politic vacillations of a man whose conscience has been weakened, or silenced, by self-will.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
3. The attestation of Moses and Aaron’s divine mission 7:8-13
Pharaoh requested that Moses and Aaron perform a miracle to prove their divine authority since they claimed that God had sent them (Exo 7:9-10).
"What we refer to as the ten ’plagues’ were actually judgments designed to authenticate Moses as God’s messenger and his message as God’s message. Their ultimate purpose was to reveal the greatness of the power and authority of God to the Egyptians (Exo 7:10 to Exo 12:36) in order to bring Pharaoh and the Egyptians into subjection to God." [Note: J. Dwight Pentecost, Thy Kingdom Come, p. 83.]
The Jews preserved the names of the chief magicians even though the Old Testament did not record them. Paul said they were Jannes and Jambres (2Ti 3:9). These were not sleight-of-hand artists but wise men who were evidently members of the priestly caste (cf. Gen 41:8). The power of their demonic gods lay in their "secret arts" (Exo 7:11). They were able to do miracles in the power of Satan (1Co 10:20; cf. Mat 24:24; 2Th 2:9-10; Rev 13:13-14). [Note: See Merrill Unger, Biblical Demonology, p. 139; idem, Demons in the World Today, pp. 38-39.] The superiority of the Israelites’ God is clear in the superiority of Aaron’s serpent over those of the Egyptian magicians (Exo 7:12). The rod again represented regal authority and implied that Yahweh, not Pharaoh, was sovereign (cf. Exo 4:2-5).
There are at least three possibilities regarding the Egyptian magicians’ rods becoming snakes. The magicians may have received power to create life from Satan, with God’s premission. Second, God may have given them this power directly. Third, their rods may have been rigid snakes that, when cast to the ground, were seen to be what they were, serpents.
Aaron’s miracle should have convinced Pharaoh of Yahweh’s sovereignty, but he chose to harden his heart in unbelief and disobedience. Consequently God sent the plagues that followed.
"The point of this brief section is that Yahweh’s proof of his powerful Presence to the Pharaoh and thus to the Pharaoh’s Egypt will be miraculous in nature." [Note: Durham, p. 92.]