Context & Key Themes
Exodus 7 opens the confrontation between God and Pharaoh in earnest. Aaron’s staff becomes a serpent before Pharaoh, and Pharaoh’s magicians replicate the sign — but Aaron’s serpent swallows theirs. Then the first plague falls: the Nile turns to blood. The magicians replicate this too and Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. The themes are the contest between the power of God and the power of Egypt, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart as both divine judgment and human stubbornness, and the beginning of God’s answer to Pharaoh’s question: who is the Lord?
Key Verses
“See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.” — Exodus 7:1
“The fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.” — Exodus 7:21
Summary
God tells Moses: I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt. Pharaoh will not listen, and I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts out with great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.
Moses is eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they speak to Pharaoh. The Lord tells them: when Pharaoh says show us a sign, tell Aaron to throw his staff down before Pharaoh and it will become a serpent. They do exactly this. Pharaoh calls his wise men and sorcerers and they do the same by their secret arts — each man throws down his staff and they become serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallows their staffs. Still Pharaoh’s heart is hardened and he will not listen.
God tells Moses: Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes to the water and stand on the bank of the Nile. Take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. Say to him: the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to say let my people go so they may serve me in the wilderness. But so far you have not obeyed. By this you shall know that I am the Lord — I will strike the water with the staff and it will turn to blood. The fish will die, the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will not be able to drink from it.
Moses and Aaron do as the Lord commands. Aaron raises the staff and strikes the water of the Nile in sight of Pharaoh and his servants. All the water turns to blood. The fish die. The Nile stinks. The Egyptians cannot drink from it. There is blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt do the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh’s heart remains hardened and he does not listen. He turns and goes into his house and does not take even this to heart. All the Egyptians dig along the Nile for water to drink. Seven days pass after the Lord has struck the Nile.
Reflection
Aaron’s serpent swallowing the magicians’ serpents is the opening verdict of the entire contest: whatever Egypt can produce, God can not only replicate but consume. The magicians match the sign — and are immediately outmatched by it. This pattern will continue through the plagues. Egypt’s power is real but derivative and limited. God’s power is not competing on the same level. He is demonstrating that there is no level on which Egypt can meet Him.
The Nile was the lifeblood of Egypt — literally. The entire civilization depended on its annual flood cycle for agriculture, its water for drinking, its fish for food. It was also a sacred river, associated with the god Hapi and the sustaining power of the Egyptian pantheon. Turning the Nile to blood was not merely a public health catastrophe. It was a direct strike against the religious identity of Egypt. The god of the river cannot prevent the river from becoming death. The first plague asks Pharaoh’s question right back at him in the language of the river itself: who is the Lord?
Pharaoh goes home and does not take even this to heart. Seven days of blood in the Nile, fish rotting on the banks, water undrinkable throughout the land — and the king of Egypt is unmoved. The hardening of his heart is both something God declares He will do and something Pharaoh chooses with every dismissal. These two things are held together in the text without resolution because both are true: God is sovereign over Pharaoh’s heart, and Pharaoh is responsible for what he does with what he sees. The plagues have barely begun.