Exodus 7 ~ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron

Exodus 7


Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2 You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, 4 he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. 5 And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”

6 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

8 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.”

10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. 11 Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: 12 Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river. Confront him on the bank of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 16 Then say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened. 17 This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.’”

19 The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs—and they will turn to blood.’ Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone.”

20 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. 21 The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.

22 But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. 23 Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. 24 And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river.

Mount Nebo - Where Moses would see the glory of God and the Children of Israel enter the promised land.

Psalm 133
A song of ascents. Of David.

1 How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!

2 It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down on the collar of his robe.
3 It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore.

We become so focused on Moses, we generally forget thinking about this would be like watching this - As one of the people who had waited 500 years for freedom - as a slave in Egypt.

People Complained.

Exodus 5
19 The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.” 20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
God Promises Deliverance

22 Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me?

The first three plagues seemed to affect "all the land of Egypt," the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 9th did not affect the children of Israel. The slaves were only spared from the final plague by sacrificing the Paschal lamb, marking the place directly above the doors with the lamb's blood, and eating the roasted sacrifice together.

And the people complained in Exodus Chapter 14 - Leaving Egypt -  A bad day for the Lord.

Chapter 16, 17,  18 discusses problems,  Chapters 19 and 20 are about fear.  The Governing Disputes Discussed and the Temple . Complaining begins again as soon as God's business concludes for the Tabernacle in Exodus 32.  Sadness Chapter 33. Fear in Chapter 34.  Blessing in 39 for the last few Chapters of Building the Tabernacle. Glory follows the Blessing in Exodus 40.

The Story of the Exodus continues in Numbers Chapter One. 

⁶ The total number was 603,550.

 Numbers 9 Describes the Pillar  Numbers 11 ends the setting up of Government and Tabernacle to see complaining again. The pattern is of work or complaints. Numbers 12 is Aaron and Miriam oppose Moses. 13 is the refusal to participate in the promises of God.  14 is more rebellion. 15 Work. 16 Complain. 17 is really sad with miracles and complaints. Numbers 20 is a return back to every day life with Moses having rash words over Water and being provoked with the people again. 21 is deliverance in war and grumbling. 22 Is the surround countries getting worried about this crowd. Numbers 25 Moab Seduces Israel and a plague. Numbers 26 The Second Census. Numbers 27 Zelophehad’s Daughters certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father’s relatives and give their father’s inheritance to them. 30 is Holy days and vows. Numbers 31 war against the Midianites. 32 is Land is subdued before the Lord, you may return and be free from your obligation to the Lord and to Israel. And this land will be your possession before the Lord. 33 Here are the stages in the journey of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt by divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.

Numbers 34 is the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance is to have these boundaries. Numbers 35 have towns to live in and pasturelands. Numbers 36 the Lord commands for Zelophehad’s daughters: They may marry anyone they please as long as they marry within their father’s tribal clan.

Deuteronomy continues in the Exodus we have learned.

Deuteronomy 4:34-40

Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other. 

From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength,  to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.

Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.

It's rather amazing people don't like Deuteronomy - there are so many blessings willingly and graciously bestowed.

And when the people began to live His blessings.  A Nation was born -  

This is a view of the Temple from Herod's Royal Stoya - what the first Vatican was built to look like. 

A Nation following in the footsteps of the Nation before.

Why did Jesus and His Family live in Egypt?

Matthew 2:14-15
So (Joseph) got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.

Several very important reasons. Of course, the escape from Herod. Teaching us based upon History of King's lives - Jesus lived in Egypt for probably 3.5 years before going to Bethlehem and on to Nazareth. These stories are especially important to the Egyptian Coptic Church which states that the Holy Family remained in Egypt for a little over three and a half years.

[7 BC - Herod "the Great" executed two of his sons, Alexandros and Aristobulus (by his second wife, Mariamne). Mariamne herself had been executed earlier (29 BC), accused falsely of plotting to poison Herod.

6 BC (or as early as 7 BC) - Assumed date of Jesus' birth.

5 BC (Jesus about 1 year old, and residing in Egypt) - Near the end of Herod's reign, a group of students of the law, cut down a golden eagle that had been placed by Herod "over the gate of the Temple" (Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, book 2, 1:2). Jews saw the eagle as symbol of Roman domination and a violation of the law against the use of any sort of carved images, especially in connection with the house of God, their most sacred shrine. Although the perpetrators and their teachers were executed, the image was never restored.

4 BC (Jesus about 2 years old) - Fearful for his security, Herod ordered the execution of his son, Antipater, for a perceived conspiracy to murder his father.

Five days later, the sixty-nine-year-old monarch died at the Jericho Palace. From the description by Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (The Wars of the Jews, book 1, chapter 33:5-8), it has been surmised he suffered Fournier’s gangrene, a horrible disease that affected his genitals and blocked his breathing]

Another reason would be to educate Jesus to be beyond a mere country lad. To understand large Government.

Enabling Jesus to see beyond borders. Perhaps giving Jesus a foreign accent. A sojourner in a foreign land.

And, most importantly, to live the lives of the slaves - going like children - where their overseers direct them. Surrounded by events, unable to direct them.

Helping us to understand again, Jesus fully lived the life God wanted for us to know -  He would walk with us.

Mark 10:32
They were now on the way up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. The disciples were filled with awe 

<><