Exodus 7 · The Lantern

God Commands Moses and Aaron

And the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.

Why in the world, after reading that this name was also given to Moses, when it is stated, "I have made you as god to Pharaoh," should they deny this title to Christ who we find has been constituted not a god to Pharaoh but rather the Lord and God of all creation?

"I said: You are gods, all of you sons of the Most High." Let Eunomius hear this, let Arius, who says that the Son of God is son in the same way that we are. That we are gods is not so by nature but by grace. "But to as many as received him he gave the power of becoming sons of God." I made man for that purpose, that from men they may become gods.

I say that they are gods, lords and kings not by nature but because they have ruled over and dominated sufferings and because they have kept undebased the likeness of the divine image to which they were made—for the image of the king is also called a king.

You shall speak all that I command you, and Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land.

And I myself will make Pharaoh’s heart hard, and I will multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

And Pharaoh will not listen to you; and I will lay my hand on Egypt, and bring out my hosts — my people, the sons of Israel — from the land of Egypt with great judgments.

And Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand over Egypt and bring the sons of Israel out from their midst.”

And Moses and Aaron did so; as the LORD commanded them, so they did.

And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Aaron’s Staff

And the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron,

“When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Give a wonder for yourselves,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh’ — it will become a serpent.”

And Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and they did so, as the LORD had commanded. And Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

I think therefore, so far as I am able to perceive, that Moses coming to Egypt and bearing the rod with which he chastises and beats Egypt with ten plagues — this Moses is the law of God, which has been given to this world, that it may correct and amend it with ten plagues, that is, with the ten commandments which are contained in the Decalogue; but the rod, through which all t…

THERE WAS NO OTHER SIGN THAT MOSES PERFORMED OPENLY BEFORE PHARAOH EXCEPT THE SERPENT (Exod. 7:10) — Whoever considers this blameworthy should say what else ought to have been done. For indeed he made a serpent, which both inspired terror yet did not harm, because it is somewhat slow to injure due to a certain stupor.

For by the serpent is to be understood death, which was brought about by the serpent in paradise, according to the manner of speech which attributes the effect to the cause. Therefore the rod was turned into a serpent, and the whole Christ, together with his body which is the church, into the resurrection, that will take place at the end of time.

And Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers; and they too, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts.

And each threw down his staff, and they became serpents — but Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs.

And Pharaoh’s heart was strong, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had spoken.

The First Plague: Blood

And the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is heavy; he refuses to let the people go.

Go to Pharaoh in the morning — look, he goes out to the water — and station yourself to meet him on the bank of the Nile; and take in your hand the staff that was turned into a snake.

And you shall say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying: Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness. And look — you have not listened until now.

Thus says the LORD: By this you shall know that I am the LORD: look, I am going to strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned to blood.

And the fish that are in the Nile will die, and the Nile will stink; and Egypt will be weary of drinking water from the Nile.’”

And 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 canals, and over their pools, and over every gathering of their waters — and they will become blood.’ And there shall be blood in all the land of Egypt, even in the vessels of wood and of stone.”

And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded. And he raised the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile, before the eyes of Pharaoh and before the eyes of his servants — and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood.

But that the waters of the river are turned into blood is fitted suitably enough. First indeed, so that that river, to which they had handed over the little ones of the Hebrews by cruel slaughter, might render to the authors of the crime a cup of blood, and that by drinking they might feel the gore of the polluted flood, which they had stained with parricidal killing.

Just as we read in the Gospel that water was turned into wine, which denoted that people were changed for the better, so here its transformation into blood announces that sinners interpret the causes of spiritual things in a bodily sense. Blood is introduced here to denote the flesh, and undoubtedly the Jewish people took this materialistic view.

Then the plagues are visited upon Egypt. They were carried out corporally among the Egyptians; they are now carried out spiritually in us, for Egypt is the figure of this world. The first plague is the one in which the waters are turned into blood. The waters of Egypt are erratic, just as the dogmas of the philosophers are inconstant.

And the fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, and Egypt could not drink water from the Nile. And the blood was in all the land of Egypt.

And the magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts. And Pharaoh’s heart was strong, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had spoken.

And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and did not set his heart even to this.

And all Egypt dug around the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink from the water of the Nile.

And seven days were fulfilled after the LORD struck the Nile.

Exodus7

God Commands Moses and Aaron

Aaron’s Staff

The First Plague: Blood