3rd April 2024

3rd April 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Ex 7:14-25 focus v14-21)


Message (Alan Burke)


We know that there is only One God, the Egyptians though believed in the plethora of gods and the Lord God was making it known to the people of Egypt that all their gods were but idols and he the Lord is God. Here we are told that Moses was to go to Pharaoh early in the morning to ask for the release of the Israelites, he was to wait on the bank of th nile to meet him. 


We don’t know for sure why Pharaoh was going out to the water, it might have been as simple as he liked the water and was heading out for a wee dander on its banks. But the Nile is important throughout the narrative, we’ll think of that more in the coming weeks but for now what we need to know is that for Egypt the Nile ran and in a sense still runs like an artery through the land. If it wasn’t for the Nile most of Egypt would be a desert, but surrounding the Nile there is life, abundance of life and they worshiped the god of the Nile.  When I say god, just like all gods small g of the nations they are but idols, there is but one living and true God which Pharaoh and Egypt were going to discover. Anyway there were three gods associated with the Nile, Osiris, Nu and Hapi. I don’t expect you to know any of them but I want to draw your attention to Hapi. 


Hapi was a fertility god, the Egyptians called the Nile by the name of this god, Hapi. You can do a wee internet search if you don’t believe me. This god was a bearded man who was pregnant and with breasts. Hapi was the one who gave brith to Egypt and nursed its strength, nourished the entire nation with the water from the Nile. There were songs and prayers to the Nile. 


The Lord was going to turn this river to blood, Moses with the staff in his hand was to strike the water and it would be changed to blood, the fish in the Nile would die, the river would stink and not be able to drink it’s water. All so that they would know that the Lord is God. For all of Egypt, this would have been unmistakable, their God, their water of life, their most precious natural resource was turned to blood.


Can you imagine the response of Pharaoh and the officials never mind the people of the land of Egypt as they saw the Nile before their eyes, the life water of the nation turn to blood? It would have been a living nightmare, it wouldn’t take you long in a hot humid country to think, I need a drink, no like I really need a drink but by water source has turn to blood, what do you do? Hapi their god, the one who gave brith to Egypt and nursed its strength, nourished the entire nation with the water from the Nile was and now as it changed to blood it set of a chain reaction, the water turned to blood, all the fish that were in it died, they begin to decompose and the water that was drinkable, then blood, then the fish begin to putrefy, floating on the blood, the smell of the blood, like a coppery, iron smell, then with the dying fish, it would have been a feast for the nostrils. 


The fact that the water turned to blood, that the Nile was changed shows God’s sovereignty over all of creation. He is not only able to do miracles he sees and knows what is going to happen before it happens. That should be of comfort to us in our own lives that the Lord is sovereignly at work, he knows and he is able to do what he has promised.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q3 What do the scriptures principally teach?
The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. (2 Tim. 1:13, 2 Tim. 3:16)
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