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| 1 And Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have made thee God to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. |
Made thee a god – Elohim, mighty one, a name applied to Jehovah as well as to men. E68; R338:2, R421:3, R1410:3
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| 2 Thou shalt speak all that I command thee; and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land. |
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| 3 And I will render Pharaoh's heart obdurate, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. |
Harden Pharaoh's heart – See comment on Exodus 4:21.
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| 4 And Pharaoh will not hearken unto you; and I will lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth my hosts, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. |
By great judgments – The plagues were doubtless a full compensation of justice upon the Egyptians. R5271:3
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| 5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth my hand on Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them. |
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| 6 And Moses and Aaron did as Jehovah had commanded them: so did they. |
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| 7 And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh. |
Fourscore – The fourscore, or twice forty, would bring us to 1878 in the antitype when Christ spake to Pharaoh (the world) by an act, in restoring Israel to favor. R181:6*
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| 8 And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, |
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| 9 When Pharaoh shall speak to you, saying, Do a miracle for yourselves, --then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy staff and cast it before Pharaoh--it will become a serpent. |
Shew a miracle – These three signs signified certain truths which, in the present time, will be convincing to the Lord's true people. R2910:5
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| 10 And Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and did so, as Jehovah had commanded; and Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh, and before his bondmen, and it became a serpent. |
Became a serpent – Symbolizing that all the evil there is in the world is the result of God's having let go of his rod or authority temporarily. R4058:4
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| 11 And Pharaoh also called the sages and the sorcerers; and they too, the scribes of Egypt, did so with their enchantments: |
Then Pharaoh – Type of Satan. R5273:2, R5419:5, R2910:2; F458
And the sorcerers – Sorcery, witchcraft and enchantments are manifestations of Satan and of demons for the delusion of mankind. R2110:2, R2189:3
Magicians – Satan's mediums. R341:1*
The names of these magicians are given to us in 2 Tim. 3:8, where it is stated that, aresist the message of God. R3994:5, R4060:2, R2189:3
Of Egypt – Satan's dominion of sin and death. R5643:1, R5273:1; F458
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| 12 they cast down every man his staff, and they became serpents; but Aaron's staff swallowed up their staves. |
They became serpents – Symbolizing the various views of the permission of evil which have been put forth by theologians of the past. R4060:4
Perhaps in some way the power of God will appear to be evil. Somehow God will permit the world, under the power of Satan, to have an hour of triumph during a great time of trouble. R5419:5
There are but two sources of occult power-divine and satanic. R5271:5
The Egyptian plagues were miraculous from one standpoint; not so from another. R5271:2
Duplicated under Satan's knowledge of natural laws. R1685:3
Some have surmised that they performed a trick common in India by hypnotizing a serpent. We are not sure, however, that the magicians did not do more than this. R5271:5
Satan's first agent was the serpent. R265:3
The powers of darkness have liberty and ability to perform wonders of certain kinds under certain circumstances. R2206:6
But Aaron's rod – The correct view on the permission of evil is such that it quite swallows up all the suggestions and theories of the past. R4060:4
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| 13 And Pharaoh's heart was stubborn, and he hearkened not to them, as Jehovah had said. |
And he hardened – See comment on Exodus 4:21.
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| 14 And Jehovah said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened: he refuseth to let the people go. |
The people – In the antitype it will be the "groaning creation" that will be delivered. R2910:2
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| 15 Go unto Pharaoh in the morning--behold, he will go out unto the water--and take thy stand by the bank of the river in front of him; and take in thy hand the staff that was turned into a serpent. |
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| 16 And say unto him, Jehovah the God of the Hebrews has sent me to thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness; but behold, hitherto thou hast not hearkened. |
Let my people go – Representing the call of the Christian Church to come out from the world and to engage in his worship. T25
In the wilderness – Condition of separation from the world. T70
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| 17 Thus saith Jehovah: In this shalt thou know that I am Jehovah--behold, I will smite with the staff that is in my hand upon the water which is in the river, and it shall be turned into blood. |
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| 18 And the fish that is in the river shall die; and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink the water out of the river. |
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| 19 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy staff, and stretch out thy hand upon the waters of the Egyptians--upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. |
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| 20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as Jehovah had commanded; and he lifted up the staff, and smote the waters that were in the river before the eyes of Pharaoh, and before the eyes of his bondmen; and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood. |
All the waters – The first three plagues were common to all in Egypt. The next six plagues affected only the Egyptians. R5640:3, R5272:2
The truth, as contained in millions of pages of tracts, poured upon the symbolic earth, society, liberally in many lands and in many languages. R4059:6
Were turned to blood – Perhaps it resulted from the inconceivably rapid growth of microscopic animals (infusoria) and minute cryptogamous plants of a red color. R3994:5, R5271:6
To society the truth seems repulsive, undesirable, bloody. They resent even the thought that the sacrifice for sins was the blood of Christ. R4060:1
Almost as miraculous as the turning of water into wine by our Lord at Cana. R5271:6
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| 21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river; and the blood was throughout the land of Egypt. |
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| 22 And the scribes of Egypt did so with their sorceries; and Pharaoh's heart was stubborn, neither did he hearken to them, as Jehovah had said. |
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| 23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and took not this to heart either. |
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| 24 And all the Egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river. |
The Egyptians digged around – The world (Christendom, Churchianity) seek for truth in various ways of their own. R4060:4
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| 25 And seven days were fulfilled, after Jehovah had smitten the river. |
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