Exodus 6:28-8:7 A Few Little Puzzles To Draw Us Nearer To God

The first three plagues hit Egypt.  There were several things that I wondered about, the first of which was something I read in my commentary:  "The miracles and plagues were also God's way of judging the gods of Egypt and proving them false and futile.  'Against the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.  I am the Lord.' Exodus 12:12"  The question I had was whether these gods of Egypt were actually demons reporting to Satan or figments of the people's imagination.  I could see God executing judgment against real spiritual beings (He'd done that before with Satan and his angels).  I don't know what executing judgment against a non-existent "being" would consist of.  

Next, I wondered about what I read in 7:18 where God said, "The Egyptians will not be able to drink the water from the Nile."  It would change to blood, God said.  There's potentially an unspoken implication here, I think.  God not only changed the Nile water, but also the water in rivers, canals, ponds, pools, wooden buckets, and stone jars to blood, eliminating the entire readily-available water supply for the Egyptians.  But what about for His people?  There's no mention of the Israelites suffering without water.  (7:25 says this plague lasted a week).  So I began to wonder -- perhaps the Egyptians couldn't drink the water, but maybe the Israelites could.  That's an even bigger miracle, if the Egyptians could find nothing to drink, yet the Israelites noticed nothing different!  God could have made it become blood for one group while the other group noticed no difference!

The stupidity of Pharaoh's magicians seemed incredible.  Somehow, they came up with some pure water (possibly from the wells the Egyptian people began digging near the Nile), and they allegedly turned that pure water into blood to prove that their power was equal to God's.  Pharaoh is dying of thirst and they rob him of a drink to prove a point!  The same thing happened with the frogs.  Frogs were EVERYWHERE, yet somehow they manage to produce MORE frogs out of thin air??  I could just hear Pharaoh screaming, "You idiots!  Are you insane??!  STOP!!"

A last little tidbit is God's hardening of Pharaoh's heart, which kept him from giving in and letting the Israelites go.  I don't believe for a minute that God was causing Pharaoh to sin.  It instead seems like God was removing any path for or desire that Pharaoh might have to repent and obey.  

Father, I don't even want to say, "I can't wait to ask You about this when I get to Heaven," because when I finally see Your face, I won't care about anything else for eternity.  Instead, I thank You for leaving us little puzzles that cause us to draw closer to You!

 

Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford