Eyes of faith (Exod 7:8-25)

Exod 7:8-25

Instead of irrefutable proof, God empowers Moses and Aaron to perform twelve signs (if we include the initial miracle of Aaron’s staff swallowing the magicians’ and the crossing of the sea in Exodus 14). These are not about God self-indulgently revelling in His power but aimed at producing a knowledge of God (Exod 7:3-5). However, God does not wish to coerce us into blind obedience. As Hebrews points out, without faith no one can please God (Heb 11:6). He wants to be known and acknowledged in faith and trust. One day, He will come in power when the time for decision-making will be over and everyone will have to submit to Him, but until then God always comes in ways that leave room for faith – or doubt.

We see this in the initial encounter between Moses and Pharaoh (Exod 7:8-13). Although Aaron’s staff turns into a reptile (a serpent or crocodile),[1] so do the staffs of the Egyptian magicians and the skills may seem evenly matched. Nevertheless, there is room for faith. Aaron’s staff swallows up the Egyptians’, which suggests God’s power. In fact, this incident foreshadows the swallowing up of the pursuing Egyptians (Exod 15:12), when Israel will later cross the sea. Pharaoh’s resolve (the sense of ‘heart’ here) stays firm, however (for the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, see my post here). He refuses to listen. As in his case, so often those who do not know God need to see aspects of His presence and power repeatedly before they can have a change of heart.

So, the contest continues. God sends Moses to Pharaoh to forewarn him of the first plague (Exod 7:15-18).[2] In fact, this will be a repeated pattern. The plagues are presented in clusters of three (plus the last one on its own) and in each cluster, the first plague carries a warning delivered ‘in the morning’ (v.15), the second still has a warning (Exod 8:1-2) and the third is performed without one (Exod 8:16). For the most part, then Pharaoh knows what is coming and has the power to avert the coming devastation by letting Israel go, but he does not.

At God’s command, Moses and Aaron will act and transform the water of the Nile into blood (Exod 7:19-21). The source of life will turn to death symbolising God’s authority over life and death. The list of waterways affected including even the water in vessels leads one to wonder what water the magicians found to show off their own powers (Exod 7:22). Perhaps, they demonstrated to Pharaoh their magic tricks on ground water dug up, which has not been affected (Exod 7:24). No matter how, their ability to do so strengthened Pharaoh’s resolve further and not even the suffering of his own people could soften his determination (Exod 7:23-24). As so often in real life, there are alternative explanations to God’s activity. Someone may narrowly escape danger, get miraculously healed, or conversely, experience a warning from God and dismiss all that as coincidence. We need eyes of faith and an openness to God’s ways to interpret events in our lives and recognise His hand.

[1] The meaning of the Hebrew tannin is uncertain. It may be translated snake (though the usual word for that is naḥash as in Exod 4:3) or crocodile or even dragon (the ancient Greek translation, LXX, renders it so), or monster (Ezek 29:3).

[2] I use the traditional term ‘plague’ for these events even though the English word ‘plague’ only has the sense of pestilence/disease these days, whereas the Hebrew terms variously employed in the narrative mean ‘to strike’.