Exodus 7
ConstableExodus 7:1-7
Moses was “as God” to Pharaoh in that he was the person who revealed God’s will (Exodus 7:1). Pharaoh was to be the executor of that will. Aaron would be Moses’ prophet as he stood between Moses and Pharaoh and communicated Moses and God’s will to the king. Exodus 7:1 helps us identify the essential meaning of the Hebrew word nabhi (prophet; cf. Exodus 4:10-16; Deuteronomy 18:15-22; Isaiah 6:9; Jeremiah 1:7; Ezekiel 2:3-4; Amos 7:12-16). This word occurs almost 300 times in the Old Testament and “in its fullest significance meant ’to speak fervently for God’” [Note: Leon J.
Wood, The Prophets of Israel, p. 63. (] “The pith of Hebrew prophecy is not prediction or social reform but the declaration of divine will” [Note: Norman Gottwald, A Light to the Nations, p. 277. See also Edward J. Young, My Servants the Prophets, ch. III: “The Terminology of Prophetism,” for discussion of how the Old Testament used the Hebrew words for prophets.] God referred to the miracles Moses would do as signs (i.e., miracles with special significance) and wonders (miracles producing wonder or awe in those who witnessed them, Exodus 7:3). [Note: See Ken L. Sarles, “An Appraisal of the Signs and Wonders Movement,” Bibliotheca Sacra 145:577 (January-March 1988):57-82. The text usually calls them “plagues,” but clearly they were “signs,” miracles that signified God’s sovereignty. The ultimate purpose of God’s actions was His own glory (Exodus 7:5). The glory of God was at stake. The Egyptians would acknowledge God’s faithfulness and sovereign power in delivering the Israelites from their bondage and fulfilling their holy calling. God’s intention was to bless the Egyptians through Israel (Genesis 12:3), but Pharaoh would make that impossible by his stubborn refusal to honor God. Nevertheless the Egyptians would acknowledge Yahweh’s sovereignty. The writer included the ages of Moses and Aaron (80 and 83 respectively) as part of God’s formal certification of His messengers (Exodus 7:7). [Note: See G. Herbert Livingston, “A Case Study of the Call of Moses,” Asbury Theological Journal 42:2 (Fall 1987):89-113. “It is a common feature of biblical narratives for the age of their heroes to be stated at the time when some momentous event befalls them .. .” [Note: Cassuto, pp. 90-91. “D. L. Moody wittily said that Moses spent forty years in Pharaoh’s court thinking he was somebody; forty years in the desert learning he was nobody; and forty years showing what God can do with somebody who found out he was nobody.” [Note: Bernard Ramm, His Way Out, p. 54.
Exodus 7:8-13
- 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 (Exodus 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 (Exodus 7:10 to Exodus 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 (2 Timothy 3:9). These were not sleight-of-hand artists but wise men who were evidently members of the priestly caste (cf.
Genesis 41:8). The power of their demonic gods lay in their “secret arts” (Exodus 7:11). They were able to do miracles in the power of Satan (1 Corinthians 10:20; cf. Matthew 24:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10; Revelation 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 (Exodus 7:12). The rod again represented regal authority and implied that Yahweh, not Pharaoh, was sovereign (cf.
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.
Exodus 7:14-8
- The first three plagues 7:14-8:19 Psalms 78:43 places the scene of the plagues in northern Egypt near Zoan.
The plagues were penal; God sent them to punish Pharaoh for his refusal to obey God and to move him to obey Yahweh. They involved natural occurrences rather than completely unknown phenomena. At various times of the year gnats, flies, frogs, etc., were a problem to the Egyptians. Even the pollution of the Nile, darkness, and death were common to the Egyptians.
Evidence that the plagues were truly miraculous events is as follows. Some were natural calamities that God supernaturally intensified (frogs, insects, murrain, hail, darkness). Moses set the time for the arrival and departure of some. Some afflicted only the Egyptians. The severity of the plagues increased consistently. They also carried a moral purpose (Exodus 9:27; Exodus 10:16; Exodus 12:12; Exodus 14:30). [Note: Free, p. 95. “The plagues were a combination of natural phenomena known to both the Egyptians and Israelites alike (due to their long sojourn in Egypt) heightened by the addition of supernatural factors.” [Note: Ramm, p. 62. God designed them to teach the Egyptians that Yahweh sovereignly controls the forces of nature. [Note: See R. Norman Whybray, Introduction to the Pentateuch, p. 72; and Sailhamer, The Pentateuch . . ., pp. 252-53. The Egyptians attributed this control to their gods.
“Up to now the dominate [sic] theme has been on preparing the deliverer for the exodus. Now, it will focus on preparing Pharaoh for it. The theological emphasis for exposition of the entire series of plagues may be: The sovereign Lord is fully able to deliver his people from the oppression of the world so that they might worship and serve him alone.” [Note: The NET Bible note on 7:14. Some writers have given a possible schedule for the plagues based on the times of year some events mentioned in the text would have normally taken place in Egypt. For example, lice and flies normally appeared in the hottest summer months. Barley formed into ears of grain and flax budded (Exodus 9:31) in January-February.
Locusts were a problem in early spring. The Jews continued to celebrate the Passover in the spring. This schedule suggests that the plagues began in June and ended the following April. [Note: Flinders Petrie, Egypt and Israel, pp. 35-36; and Greta Hort, “The Plagues of Egypt,” Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 69 (1957):84-103; ibid., 70 (1958):48-59. “The Egyptians were just about the most polytheistic people known from the ancient world. Even to this day we are not completely sure of the total number of gods which they worshipped. Most lists include somewhere in the neighborhood of eighty gods .. .” [Note: Davis, p. 86. Cf. Frankfort, p. 4. Other studies have discovered more than 1,200 gods.
See E. A. W. Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, pp. ix-x; and B. E. Shafer, ed., Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice, pp. 7-87.
Many students of the plagues have noticed that they appeared in sets of three. The accounts of the first plague in each set (the first, fourth, and seventh plagues) each contain a purpose statement in which God explained to Moses His reason and aim for that set of plagues (cf. Exodus 7:17; Exodus 8:22; Exodus 9:14). God had announced His overall purpose for the plagues in Exodus 7:4-5. [Note: Kaiser, “Exodus,” pp. 348-49. Cf. C.
J. Labuschagne, The Incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament, pp. 74-75, 92-94. The last plague in each set of three came on Pharaoh without warning, but Moses announced the others to him beforehand. The first set of three plagues apparently affected both the Egyptians and the Israelites, whereas the others evidently touched only the Egyptians.