exodus 7-8

God’s paragraph divisions of these two chapters are revealing:

Exo 7:1-7 p, a strong paragraph;
Exo 7:8-7:25 p, a strong paragraph with weaker paragraphs within it;
Exo 8:1-32 p, a strong paragraph with weaker paragraphs within it.

Exo 7:1-7 is a summary of what will happen in the next several chapters. God will tell Moses what He commands. Aaron will speak to Pharaoh for Moses. God will harden Pharaoh’s heart and he will not listen. God will multiply His signs and wonders in Egypt, so that he will bring out the hosts of His people by great judgments. And in the end,

“And the Egyptians shall know that I am YHVH, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” Exo 7:5

God is going to reveal who He is, who YHVH is, to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians (and presumably, to Moses and Israel as well) in the events culminating in Israel’s great deliverance. Remember that Pharaoh declared he did not know who YHVH was. Remember that God revealed to Moses that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew God as El Shaddai, but not as YHVH; He emphasized to Moses that He was going to reveal what “I am YHVH” means. So let’s play close attention also!

In the strong paragraph from Exo 7:8-25, the weak paragraphs within it are divided thusly:

Exo 7:8-13, the sign of the rod becoming a serpent
Exo 7:14-18, the instruction of the LORD that the river will become blood
Exo 7:19-25, the river becomes blood

This first plague is different in its paragraph divisions from the other plagues which follow, and the reason that is, is to teach us what “I am YHVH” means. The first weak paragraph reveals that God spoke His word and His command to Pharaoh. God moreover confirmed that it was His word and His command by the sign of the rod becoming a serpent. So God made His will known to the unbelievers, and He confirmed that it was His will to the unbelievers. He gave them an opportunity to repent and to obey. Nothing bad happened to the land of Egypt as yet.

Do you see how fair God is being with those who do not know Him?

In the next weak paragraph, God repeated His word and His command with a stronger warning and judgment to follow if He is not heeded. The fact that the weak paragraph ends after the instruction, and before anything else happens, reveals that God gave an opportunity to the unbelievers to repent and obey, before the plague actually came upon them.

Do you see how fair God is being with those who do not know Him?

The final weak paragraph of this section, is the actual accomplishment of the judgment warned of. This reveals that YHVH accomplishes His word, something that we learned from Torah in Genesis.

Do you see how fair God is being with those who do not know Him? The Egyptians could still get water by digging – just the water of the Nile was turned to blood. So the judgment increased their inconvenience, but it was not life- threatening. Pharaoh could at any time end the inconvenience to his people, by repenting and obeying.

When God said that He would multiply His wonders in Egypt, it is true – He is starting out small, both in awesomeness and severity. We need to keep our eyes peeled for the way God multiplies His wonders in Egypt as we go forward!

For further study: The third strong paragraph in today’s reading, Exo 8:1-32, does not divide the next plagues into weaker paragraphs in the same way that the first plague was divided. What is the Scripture teaching by that? What is common among all four plagues? What is different? Keep a note of the pattern, repetition, and breaks in pattern.

Finding Messiah:

“And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the land. I will make a difference between My people and your people.” Exo 8:22-23

The Hebrew here says literally, “I will set a ransom between My people and your people.” The ransom which has been set, which makes a difference between the Lord’s people and the people of the kingdom of darkness, is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For further reading:
The Plagues and the Exodus

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