Exodus 7-10

What’s Happening?

Pharaoh is ruling over Israel in Egypt the way Satan ruled over Adam and Eve in Eden. Like the Serpent, Pharaoh has set himself and his kingdom up as rival gods. Pharaoh sees himself as a son of the gods and the ruler of the world. But through a series of miraculous signs, Israel’s God will rescue his people by conquering Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt (Exodus 7:3–5).

Pharaoh, the god of Egypt, challenges Moses’ God to see whose god can perform the mightiest miracle. As a priest representing God’s power over the serpent-like Pharaoh, Aaron’s staff turns into a snake (Exodus 7:8–10). Pharaoh strikes back. His own pagan priests conjure their own snakes by the power of their gods. But the gods of Egypt are no match for the God of Israel. Aaron’s snake consumes the snakes of the pagan priests (Exodus 7:11–12). It is a sign that God is about to consume Pharaoh and humiliate his gods. Still, Pharaoh rejects the results of his own challenge and refuses to listen to Moses, Aaron, or their God (Exodus 7:13–14). So God continues to display his power through a series of miraculous signs.

First, God turns the Nile River into blood. As a source of life for Egypt, the Nile was worshiped as a god. But this god had eaten the lives of Israelite children drowned in its waters. When Aaron strikes the Nile with his staff, its water turns to blood as if slain (Exodus 7:14–21). What once brought life now brings death. Pharaoh’s pagan priests replicate the sign, taking what little water remains and turning it into blood as well (Exodus 7:22).

Second, God sends frogs to cover the land (Exodus 8:1–6). Frogs were worshiped as images of a fertility goddess who assisted with childbirth. Pharaoh feared that the Israelites would multiply and cover his land, so he commanded midwives to help him kill newborn Hebrew boys (Exodus 1:15–16). Pharaoh believed he controlled life and death. But now frogs multiply uncontrollably and cover his land in the very way he feared Israel would. The goddess meant to govern fertility is powerless to stop God from conquering Egypt with life. Yet again, Pharaoh’s priests replicate the sign and summon even more frogs to overrun their god, Pharaoh (Exodus 8:7).

In the third sign, God turns the dust of the earth into gnats (Exodus 8:16–17). In the beginning, God formed Adam from dust (Genesis 2:7). When the serpent conquered Adam, God declared that humanity would return to dust, which the serpent would eat (Genesis 3:14, 19). Dust became the realm of death. Yet God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth (Genesis 13:16)—the very multiplication Pharaoh feared and tried to prevent by killing Israel’s children. Now God transforms the dead dust of the earth into swarming life. This time, Pharaoh’s priests admit defeat and confess that Israel’s God is stronger than theirs (Exodus 8:18–19).

Still, Pharaoh’s heart remains hardened (Exodus 8:15, 19). Pharaohs believed their gods would only accept them in the afterlife if they admitted no wrongdoing. So Pharaoh refuses to acknowledge his sin or Israel’s God, convinced that his hardened heart proves his divine strength.

Through six more signs, God continues to reveal who truly owns Egypt and the world. These signs uncreate Egypt by undoing the six days of creation in reverse. Flies devastate the land. Livestock disease and boils destroy animals and people. Hail collapses the boundary between heaven and earth. Locusts consume the vegetation that once sustained life. Darkness replaces the light. Egypt is returned to chaos to show Pharaoh and the nations that the whole earth belongs to God.

At the same time, God creates a safe haven for his people in Goshen. Unlike the first signs that affected everyone, these signs only uncreate Egypt. God makes a separation between chaos and life, darkness and light, Pharaoh’s people and his people. Pharaoh himself investigates and sees that Goshen is spared, yet he still refuses to release Israel.

Throughout these signs, Pharaoh wavers. At times he fears God and asks Moses to pray for relief. God responds, removing the chaos of uncreation. But after each moment of surrender, Pharaoh hardens his heart again. Still, some Egyptians begin to fear God. When warned about the coming hail, they obey Moses’ words and find refuge. By listening to God, they enter safe haven even in the midst of chaos.

Where is the Gospel?

All humanity is ruled by the serpent in his kingdom of death (Romans 8:20–21). But as he did through Moses and Aaron, God is committed to proving to hard hearts that he is stronger than every rival kingdom, every false god, and even death itself.

Jesus came like Moses and Aaron, performing signs and wonders (Acts 2:22). His first miracle mirrors the first sign in Egypt. As Aaron turned water into blood, Jesus turned water into wine (John 2:9), revealing himself as the life-giving God of Israel. Throughout his ministry, Jesus confronted rival powers—raising the dead (Mark 5:41–42), overwhelming demonic strongholds (Mark 5:2–13), and proving again and again that he is the true Son of God and ruler of the world.

Jesus not only proved his authority over the rulers and gods of this world, he conquered them (1 Corinthians 15:23–27). As Pharaoh believed he could drown God’s people and erase their future, Satan and hardened hearts believed they could overpower Jesus on the cross. But just as Aaron’s staff struck a fatal blow to Egypt’s gods, Jesus’ death struck a fatal wound to death itself (Acts 2:23–24). The serpent of death was swallowed up by Jesus’ life.

As life swarmed out of the Nile and overwhelmed Pharaoh’s land, Jesus’ life rose from a dead tomb and overwhelmed Satan’s realm of death. Through his resurrection, Jesus separated light from darkness, life from death, and created a safe haven that death itself cannot uncreate.

Jesus sealed this rescue with a covenant sacrifice. We belong to God not only because he made us, but because Jesus sealed our belonging with his blood. And God’s work is not finished. Even now, God continues to give the world opportunities to fear him, listen, and take refuge in the safe haven Jesus has created.

One day, Jesus will perform his final sign. He will uncreate Satan and death forever. He will reverse all slavery, oppression, and suffering. He will turn the whole earth into Eden, the whole universe into Goshen, and bring his covenant people into the safe haven of his presence forever.

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to see the God who is greater than all other gods. And may you see Jesus as the one who swallowed up death with his life and uncreated the grave to bring us into the safe haven of life with him.