Sign # 2 Water Turned into Blood (Ex. 7:14-25)

3/27/2008 10:31 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time  Focus:  Sign # 2:  Water turned into blood
Bible Reading & Meditation  Reference:  Exodus 7:14-25
 Message of the verses:  “14 ¶  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go.  15  "Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going out to the water, and station yourself to meet him on the bank of the Nile; and you shall take in your hand the staff that was turned into a serpent.  16  "You shall say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness. But behold, you have not listened until now."  17  ‘Thus says the LORD, "By this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned to blood.  18  "The fish that are in the Nile will die, and the Nile will become foul, and the Egyptians will find difficulty in drinking water from the Nile."’"  19  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood; and there will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’"  20  So Moses and Aaron did even as the LORD had commanded. And he lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood.  21  The fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. And the blood was through all the land of Egypt.  22  But the magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts; and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.  23  Then Pharaoh turned and went into his house with no concern even for this.  24  So all the Egyptians dug around the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink of the water of the Nile.  25  Seven days passed after the LORD had struck the Nile.”
 There were ten plagues that God used to convince Pharaoh to let Israel go and three of these plagues were not announced by Moses and Aaron.  The plagues increased in their intensity with the last plague, the death of the first born of all Egyptians, convincing Pharaoh to let Israel go.  Pharaoh’s magicians could duplicate the first two of these plagues and the first sign, but that is far as they could go.  These signs or plagues were done against the gods that Egypt worshiped and by only duplicating these first three plagues and not being able to stop any of them they proved that Israel’s God was God indeed.
 God will show Pharaoh and all of Egypt that He is God, the self existent One, through these ten plagues as He said to Moses in verse seventeen of this chapter.  I don’t know if any of the Egyptians actually believed in the Lord because of these plagues that were done to them, but they all surely got more evidence than needed to convinces them that Israel’s God is truly God.
 Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I hope that I will never be hard hearted enough to have to go through what Egypt went through to understand that God is trying to get my attention.  I am sure that there are times when my heart is hard to the things of the Lord, when I have not given Him all of me and that is what He wants me to give Him.  The LORD’s name means the self-existing One, which means that He needs nothing in order to exist, however if I act like I don’t need anything in order to exist, then I am sinning because I am trying to be like God.
My Steps of Faith for Today:  I want to worship the Self Existing One.
Memory verses for the week:  2 Cor. 12:9-10
9. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”  Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
10. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.