Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Exodus
Book: Exodus
Chapter: 7
Overview:
Moses and
Aaron encouraged.
(1-7) The rods turned into
serpents,
Pharaoh's
Heart is hardened.
(8-13) The
River is
turned into
Blood, The distress of the Egyptians.
(14-25)
1-7 God glorifies himself. He makes people know that he is
Jehovah.
Israel is made to know it
By the performance of his
promises to them, and the Egyptians
By the pouring out of his
wrath upon them.
Moses, as the
Ambassador of
Jehovah, speaking
in his name, laid commands upon
Pharaoh, denounced threatenings
against him, and called for judgments upon him.
Pharaoh, proud
and great as he was, could not resist.
Moses stood not in awe of
Pharaoh, but made him tremble. This seems to be meant in the
words, Thou shalt be a
God unto
Pharaoh. At length
Moses is
delivered from his fears. He makes
No more objections, but,
being strengthened in
Faith, goes about his work with courage,
and proceeds in it with perseverance.
8-13 What men dislike, because it opposes their pride and
lusts, they will not be convinced of; but it is easy to cause
them to believe things they wish to be true.
God always sends
with his
Word full proofs of its Divine authority; but when men
are bent to disobey, and willing to object, he often permits a
Snare to be laid wherein they are entangled. The
Magicians were
cheats, trying to copy the real miracles of
Moses By secret
sleights or jugglings, which to a small extent they succeeded in
doing,
So as to deceive the bystanders, but they were at length
obliged to confess they could not any longer imitate the effects
of Divine power. None assist more in the
Destruction of sinners,
than such as resist the
Truth By amusing men with a counterfeit
resemblance of it.
Satan is most to be dreaded when transformed
into an
Angel of
Light.
14-25 Here is the first of the ten plagues, the turning of the
water into
Blood. It was a dreadful
Plague. The sight of such
vast rolling streams of
Blood could not but strike horror.
Nothing is more common than water:
So wisely has
Providence
ordered it, and
So kindly, that what is
So needful and
serviceable to the comfort of human
Life, should be cheap and
almost every where to be had; but now the Egyptians must either
Drink Blood, or die for thirst.
Egypt was a pleasant land, but
the dead
Fish and
Blood now rendered it very unpleasant. It was
a righteous
Plague, and justly sent upon the Egyptians; for
Nile, the
River of Egypt, was their
Idol. That
Creature which we
idolize,
God justly takes from us, or makes
Bitter to us. They
had stained the
River with the
Blood of the
Hebrews' children,
and now
God made that
River all
Blood. Never any thirsted after
Blood, but sooner or later they had enough of it. It was a
significant
Plague;
Egypt had great dependence upon their
River,
Zec 14:18;
So that in smiting the
River, they were warned of
the
Destruction of all the produce of their country. The
Love of
Christ to his disciples changes all their common mercies into
spiritual blessings; the
Anger of
God towards his enemies,
renders their most valued advantages a
Curse and a misery to
them.
Aaron is to summon the
Plague By smiting the
River with
his rod. It was done in the sight of
Pharaoh and his attendants,
for
God's true miracles were not performed as
Satan's lying
wonders;
Truth seeks
No corners. See the almighty power of
God.
Every
Creature is that to us which he makes it to be water or
Blood. See what changes we may meet with in the things of this
world; what is always vain, may soon become vexatious. See what
mischievous work
Sin makes. If the things that have been our
comforts prove our crosses, we must thank ourselves. It is
Sin
that turns our waters into
Blood. The
Plague continued
Seven
days; and in all that time
Pharaoh's proud
Heart would not let
him desire
Moses to pray for the removal of it. Thus the
hypocrites in
Heart Heap up wrath.
No wonder that
God's
Anger is
not turned away, but that his
Hand is stretched out still.