Exodus 7 · The Lantern

God Commands Moses and Aaron

And the LORD said to Moses, See, I have made you a 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 send the children of Israel out of his land.

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

But Pharaoh shall not listen to you, so that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth my armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.

And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

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

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

Aaron’s Staff

And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

When Pharaoh shall speak to you, saying, Show a miracle for you: then you shall say to Aaron, Take your rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.

And Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod 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.

Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.

For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.

And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he listened not to them; as the LORD had said.

The First Plague: Blood

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

Get you to Pharaoh in the morning; look, he goes out to the water; and you shall stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shall you take in your hand.

And you shall say to him, The LORD God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and indeed, until now you would not hear.

Thus says the LORD, In this you shall know that I am the LORD: look, I will strike with the rod in my hand upon the waters in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

And the fish in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river.

And the LORD spoke to Moses, Say to Aaron, Take your rod, and stretch out your hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.

And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and struck the waters in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters in the river were 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 in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, neither did he listen to them; as the LORD had said.

And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also.

And all the Egyptians dug around the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.

And seven days were fulfilled, after that the LORD had struck the river.

Exodus7

God Commands Moses and Aaron

Aaron’s Staff

The First Plague: Blood