Exodus 7:14-24 Sermon

the second sunday after the epiphany

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

 

You Will Know

Exodus 7:14-24

1 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. (NIV)

It certainly is easier to plead ignorance than to be held accountable.  But, while it might be easier, that doesn’t always mean it works.  The officer pulling out his pad of paper to write your speeding ticket may not even care that you didn’t know what the speed limit was; he’s only concerned that you broke it.  It’s your responsibility as a driver to know how fast you should be going.  Ignorance is no excuse.  Your project manager will not excuse your unfinished task simply because you didn’t know how you were supposed to complete it, especially if you never bothered to ask him.  Ignorance is no excuse. 

Yet there is a matter far more serious than a speeding ticket or unfinished task in which ignorance will most definitely be no excuse.  The most serious situation in which the words, “I didn’t know” will not fly is the time when each and every individual will be found in the presence of God himself, and asked to give an accounting of his life and his relationship with God.  When that happens, the response, “Wow, so you really do exist” will not be met with a chuckle or a wink.  At that point, there will be no room for excuses.  There will be no place for avoiding accountability for sin by pleading ignorance.  

Why?  Because men are without excuse.  God has revealed himself in many ways and at many times to mankind throughout history.  He did it in spectacular fashion to a skeptic in Egypt about 3,500 years ago. 

Pharaoh had been making slave life for the Israelites even more and more unbearable.  Conditions were beyond miserable and they were at their breaking point.  The LORD saw fit to take action and step in, so he sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh.  After Pharaoh was unimpressed with the changing of a staff into a snake, a feat which his own sorcerers successfully imitated, God gave Moses his next instructions: “Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him” (v.15).

First off, let us consider the purpose behind Pharaoh’s daily Nile River visit.  Did his morning routine include time at the Nile River to do a little fishing early in the morning while they were still biting?  Or did Pharaoh enjoy water sports so much that he kept his boat and a couple of jet-skis docked on the Nile, ready and waiting for him each morning?  Maybe that was where he went to start off the day with a bath, soaking in the refreshing waters of the Nile River. 

More than likely, the reason God directed Moses to meet Pharaoh at the Nile River in the morning was because that was where Pharaoh would be for church.  That’s right, the Nile River was more than just a water source; it was viewed as divine.  The Egyptians deified the Nile by associating a number of gods with it.  The Nile was, after all, their source of life, their lifeblood.  It provided their drinking water, irrigation for agriculture, and fish to eat.  So Pharaoh would go through certain religious ceremonies on a daily basis in an effort to keep all of the Nile gods appeased. 

So imagine his shock at seeing what happened when Moses and Aaron met him and they followed through with God’s command.  “[Moses] 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” (v.20).  Their source of life had suddenly been changed into something absolutely detestable to them: blood.  With this plague God was making a statement to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, as if to say, “See, just as you find blood to be a detestable thing, so I find your vain idolatry detestable as well.  See this: your god is no god at all, and I am clearly making myself known to you as the only true God.” 

And to those who would seek to write this miracle off by concluding that the red tint in the Nile was a natural occurrence (the waters do appear reddish during flooding as the silt is carried along by the rising waters), there are more than enough details to make that claim foolishness.  For we are told, “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” (v.21).  Dead fish.  A putrid stench.  Undrinkable water.  Even buckets and jars of water turned to blood.  And, surely if this were something less than a miracle, Pharaoh and his magicians would have simply pointed it out as a natural occurrence. 

Instead, using the devil’s power, they imitated it.  Yet that in no way trivializes the miracle that God first performed.  In fact, it shouldn’t surprise us that the devil is always close behind the Lord, aping his miraculous signs and wonders.  He wants to make the Lord’s outstanding works not stand out, assuming that if they are imitated, then they lose their luster.  But even the devil is unable to demonstrate any power other than that which God permits.  For if Satan really sought to undermine God, then he would have enabled the Egyptian sorcerers to do something really extraordinary, and change the blood back into water.  But that they could not do.  The Lord wouldn’t allow it.  His purpose had already been achieved in that everything had happened just as Moses explained it would.  The Lord God made himself known.  And he did it by making a mockery of the Egyptian Nile gods at the same time.

Doesn’t God have a way of doing that same thing today?  Something – anything – overtakes him as the number one priority in our lives, and he has a way of reminding us that nothing else is worthy of top billing in our lives.  The career is really going well, it’s stable, it’s bringing in good money, and it still looks as if the best is yet to come.  Then, when it becomes clear that life has begun to revolve around that job, then – boom – the water turns to blood and a bad business move leads to huge cutbacks, meaning there’s no more job to go to tomorrow morning.  The future looks bright, not because God promises he’ll provide for every need, but because the investment portfolio is stacked, then – boom – the water turns to blood and your retirement sinks to almost nothing when the market tanks drastically.  The new car went from zero to sixty into your heart in no time flat, then – boom – the water turns to blood and it’s totaled when you’re smacked by a reckless driver with no insurance.

Yes, when God is replaced by something else in our lives, he is not beyond reminding us how worthless it truly is.  What’s more, we should be thankful that he does, otherwise we might so easily be inclined to treasure all kinds of vanity and worthlessness in this world more than God.  And woe to anyone – especially Christians – who think that danger is such a far-fetched reality.  The case of Pharaoh may not terrify the unbelieving world, but it ought to terrify us, for look what resulted in his case even after God went to such extreme lengths to make his name and his power known: “Pharaoh’s heart became hard” (v.22). 

Dear friends, heed God’s warning.  Don’t be so naïve to think it could not happen to you.  Do not test the Lord by ignoring the Word by which he makes himself known.  Do not think even the finest Christian cannot fall.  Do not believe the lie that something else is more valuable in this life than God, for if you believe it long enough, you won’t be able to tell the truth from the lie.  A highly decorated cyclist found that out the hard way as he lied and lied and lied about taking performance enhancing drugs, convinced that the truth was irrelevant in his particular case.  But the stakes are much higher as far as our relationship with God is concerned.  Refuse to fear, love, and trust in him above all other things in life, and eventually it may be that your hardened heart no longer has a place for him.

But that certainly isn’t God’s desire in revealing himself to us.  No, God’s purpose for turning water into blood and Jesus’ purpose for turning water into wine were not to turn people against him, but rather to make himself known so that people would turn toward him. 

Think of the childless couple.  It became clear that they were unable to have children of their own.  When the tears dried, they began the long and laborious process of adoption.  They wanted a child to hold and to love and to raise together as their own.  The process was painful.  It was expensive.  It was heart-wrenching to be yanked back and forth with a yes, then a no, then another hopeful yes.  But when that father finally held a son – now his son – in his arms, there was not the slightest doubt in his mind that it was worth it, and that he’d easily do it all over again in a heart beat.

Painful as that process might be, it doesn’t come close to comparing to process God has gone through so that he could call all people his sons and daughters.  His tears, though, came from having to give up his only Son Jesus to die.  Painful as it must have been to see a child born into this world only to serve as a sacrifice, God endured it.  He exchanged his own perfect Son for you and me and all people.  He did it so that when he makes himself known to us, a relationship can be formed, one based on the holiness and righteousness of Jesus. 

The necessary work for the salvation of all people has been carried out and completed.  We know him our Savior God, who he is and what he has done. Now what remains is for God to be known by others.  We cannot wait for the waters of the bay to be turned to blood for people to know.  We cannot wait for bottled water to be transformed into bottled wine.  And in our day and age, one wonders if it would even make a difference anyway, or if people would respond like the philosopher Voltaire, who said, “Even if a miracle should be wrought in the open marketplace before a thousand sober witnesses, I would rather mistrust my senses than admit a miracle.”  I suspect millions today would feel the same way.  All the more reason not to wait on miraculous signs and wonders, like those shown to Pharaoh, who rejected them outright anyway, but rather to rely on something even more powerful: the Word of God and the good news about Jesus, our Savior from sin.  One day everyone will know him, some for better, but many for worse.   Let us make him known before that day, that others might know him on the Last Day not in terror, but in eternal joy, just as you and I know him.  Amen.

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)