I invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Exodus chapter seven. We'll be reading verses 14 through 25. If you're visiting with us today, we have been working through the life of Moses and now come to the 10 plagues. Two weeks ago, we looked at a summary, the Sunday before Easter, a summary of the 10 plagues, and now we come to the first. Exodus chapter seven, verse 14. Hear the word of the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, the Lord, The God of the Hebrews sent me to you saying let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness. But so far you have not obeyed. Thus says the Lord by this you shall know that I am the Lord. Behold with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile and it shall turn into blood. The fish in the Nile shall die and the Nile will stink. And the Egyptians will grow 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, their canals and their ponds and all their pools of water so that they may become blood. And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile and all the water in the Nile turned to blood. And the fish in the Nile died and the Nile stank so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink from the water of the Nile. Seven full days passed after the Lord struck the Nile. Thus ends the reading of God's Word. The grass withers and the flowers of the field fade away, but this is the Word of God, and God's Word stands forever. We join me as we pray and ask for the Lord's blessing upon the ministry of the Word to our hearts today. Oh, gracious Heavenly Father, we bow before you because you are the King of kings and the Lord of lords. You are our God. We belong to you. You belong to us. You are great and mighty and high and lifted up. You are the king, the ruler of the heavens and the earth. You are the one who made every single soul that has ever lived on the face of the earth. You are the one who gave life to all the creatures of the earth. You are the one who upholds the world and everything in it, and you even hold the stars and planets in your hand. You're the one who fills the vast expanse of time and eternity. You are the same God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the same God who called Moses, the same God who sent Moses to Pharaoh, the same God who rescued the people of Israel out of the hand of Pharaoh in Egypt, just as you are the one who rescued us out of our slavery to sin. You are the one who brought us into the kingdom of light. You are the one who lives and reigns. You are the one who sent your beloved son into the world. You are the one who put our judgment on him on the cross and raised him from the dead, who is now seated in the heavenly realms. Oh Lord, we pray even now that you would come with the power of your spirit, the spirit of the risen Christ, and fill us Oh Lord, with the knowledge of Christ through the word and sacrament today that you would speak to our souls. We pray for all who are here that you would draw them near to you and comfort them and encourage them and build them up and strengthen them in the faith. We pray for all of our loved ones and our families. You know what each one needs most of all. And you are able to supply those needs out of the riches of your grace. Lord, we need you today as we open your word that we would not turn away like Pharaoh and go back to our homes. that we would hear and believe the Word of God. So come and do a mighty work in our own hearts today. Take away our coldness. Take away any bitterness. Lord, take away anything that prevents us from serving you faithfully. We ask for your blessing now upon the ministry of the Word of God that you would feed our souls, strengthen us, Lord, today. In Jesus' name, amen. I can still remember, as if it happened just last year, an unplanned witnessing situation that occurred long before I'd ever gone to seminary, prior to any theology classes I had taken. before I was expected to know the answers to the questions that people would pose. This was more than 40 years ago while I was in college. Can't believe how time has flown by. I was a senior at the University of Kansas. I lived in a fraternity house. There were about five or six Christians in this fraternity house. And I saw that as my mission field at the time, but I wasn't very well versed in sound theology at the time. I heard through a number of friends in the fraternity that another student was in bad shape. They came to me and said, he's really upset and was looking for me. My first thought was, me? What did I do? What did I do wrong? Why is he looking for me? Of course, that was my first thought. This guy who was so upset wasn't a believer, he wasn't a Christian. We didn't run in the same circle of friends. We had talked about the Lord. He was thinking more about life and what life was all about. I finally found him in his room with his face buried in a pillow. And he was sobbing, uncontrollably, just sobbing. I walked up next to him and said, What's wrong, Hal? What's going on? My mind was racing with all kinds of possibilities. He looked up at me with tears streaming down his face and he said, why, Eric? Why? Why is this world so messed up? Why is there so much suffering if there is a God? Why does he allow so much misery? He had spent the evening, you see, in the local hospital in Lawrence, Kansas, training at the emergency room, training to be an EMT. and it had been a particularly violent and bloody evening. He said, there was so much blood tonight. What would you say? I didn't know what to say. I began praying, oh Lord, give me words to say. I knew Romans 8, 28 already, but that didn't seem to fit. Don't worry, God's working out all things according to the purpose of his will for good. I finally said, well, Hal, I guess it's to show us how bad off we are. To remind us that we live in a world full of sin and how much we need a savior to rescue us. This really is a sad world, right? Because of the presence of sin and rebellion and death. Rebellion against God. There's a wonderful question and answer in the Heidelberg Catechism that I've come to love. which asks the question from that first line in the Apostles' Creed, I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. What do you believe when you say that? The answer is that the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them, still upholds and rules them by his eternal counsel and providence. that He is my God and Father because of Christ the Son. I trust Him so much, I do not doubt. He will provide whatever I need for body and soul and will turn to my good whatever adversity He sends upon me in this sad world. God is able to do this because He's Almighty God and desires to do this because He is a faithful Father. We do encounter all kinds of sadness. Like last Sunday as I announced my dear friend Ian Wright, an OPC pastor in the Chicago area, wrote. A friend of his actually was here to say that Ian's son was in a severe auto accident with a brain injury and wasn't expected to live. Rory, his son. Rory did pass away on Tuesday night. Ian wrote me Tuesday afternoon to say that God in his providence had taken his son home. I said, oh Ian, I'm so sad. I'm so sorry. He said, we roll ourselves onto God's kindness and care. We live in a sad world, very sad world, full of sin and sorrow and blood. C.S. Lewis, that great Christian author of the last century, wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, you know, and other great works. In his classic work, The Problem of Pain, he wrote this, pain insists on being attended to. That is, we must deal with it. We must do something about it. He goes on to say, God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, and shouts to us in our pain. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. He whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks in our conscience, and shouts in our pain. It's a megaphone God uses to rouse us from our deafness. That's what's going on here with the plagues. which God brings upon Egypt through his servant Moses. God is using a megaphone to rouse the Egyptians, to rouse Pharaoh. In fact, each plague, each blow or strike, that's the root of the Hebrew word that's used for the plagues. It's a blow, it's a strike. With each plague, the Lord is using a louder and bigger microphone to speak to Pharaoh and through Pharaoh to all the Egyptians. Last week or two weeks ago, as we saw in our overview of all the plagues, as one commentator put it, God's first visitation, these first plagues, are like warning shots across the bow of the Egyptian ship. Every step along the way, the God of mercy is calling the Egyptians to believe, to seek mercy. Through the plagues, God is calling people to repentance, to turn to the one true living God, to turn to Yahweh, Every affliction, every trial, every difficulty you see in this fallen sinful world, in this sad world, is a call from heaven to turn to the Lord. It's a reminder that this world is not heaven. David, the psalmist, writes in Psalm 119, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey your word. He heard God's megaphone. Psalm 119 verse 72, it was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. Now, not every affliction is for specific sins as the affliction upon the Egyptians, but all suffering and misery in this sad world is a clarion call from heaven that we must turn to the Lord and walk with him every day. We must turn to the living God who sent his savior into the world to rescue us from judgment that is to come and to save us from that judgment on the final day. I have two questions for you this morning as we look at this first plague. There's an outline there for you on page nine in your bulletin. First of all, what happened? What happened in the plague of blood? Well, verses 14 and 15 in chapter seven, and if you have your Bibles open, it'll be good to follow along. The passage opens with the Lord instructing Moses and Aaron to go and confront Pharaoh because he will not listen. because his heart is unyielding, because he refuses to let the people go. See, Moses is told to go, to show Pharaoh that there is only one God, only one God whom alone we must serve, only one God whom only we must worship, only one God in whom alone we must put our trust. Those three statements are from the Scots Confession that we used a couple weeks ago in our morning worship service. There's only one God. Moses is told to go to catch him in the morning. As he goes out to the water, it says, wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him. Now it's possible that Pharaoh was going out there to bathe, but more likely he was going out to worship. You see, the Egyptians worshipped the Nile River. They worshipped a god named Hapi of the Nile. The river itself was worshipped as divinity. It was, in a sense, a symbol of Egypt itself, the source of its prosperity. Pharaoh is called to turn back, to turn around. So far you've not obeyed. Pharaoh is called to acknowledge that Yahweh, the living God, the God who is, rules. Pharaoh is called to bend to the Lord. And remember, the Egyptians viewed even him as divine, as a divine king. Remember, Pharaoh has already said to Moses, who is Yahweh? Who is the Lord that I should obey him? and let Israel go. I don't know the Lord and I will not let Israel go. He says the same thing many unbelievers say today. As if it's a way out of a conversation about the Lord. Start talking about God. Unbelievers can say, well, I don't believe in God. I don't think there's a God. That's fine for you, but I don't believe there is a God. Who is God? Who is your God that I should do what he says? Moses is instructed verse 17 to say, by this you'll know that I am the Lord. Now that's a phrase that's repeated again and again and again throughout the plagues. By this you'll know. And therefore you must submit to the Lord. By this you'll know that I am. This is proof of the power of the living God. He's alive. He is supreme in His nature. And He responds to obstinacy. He's alive. He's not some distant, far-off deity. He responds. to rebellion, he punishes resistance to his will. He is active among us. We live and move and have our being in him. He is the great I am. By this you will know that I am the Lord. with this staff in my hand, verse 17. That's interesting, that's the voice of God saying that through his servant, the staff is in his hand. God's voice is merged with his servant there. With this staff that is in my hand, I will strike, I will blow. That is, it will occur immediately. So that they would know this is an act of God's judgment by his representatives. This is not a natural phenomenon. You may hear people try to explain even this plague away, as with all biblical miracles. There'll be people who will say, well, this was just a natural event. Sometimes the waters of the Nile turn red. They do. They did with sediment that came from the shores of Ethiopia in higher elevations. But that never harmed the fish. And this was blood. And it happened immediately. Remember in verse 20 of chapter three, I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. Wonders, that means events beyond the ordinary or natural explanation, beyond earthly or human power. The timing of this immediately was a clear message to Pharaoh. And the substance would be a clear message to Pharaoh. This was blood. Pharaoh shrugged it off, verse 23. He turned and went into his house and he did not even take this to heart. He shrugged it off. He had others who could go get water for him. The common people didn't. They had to dig. They had to dig new wells looking for water. They had to look for water that seeped underground that had not turned to blood. Pharaoh was still hardening his heart. So why did this plague come upon Egypt? We have the what, what about the why? I'd like to give you two reasons to think about. Why did God send this plague upon Egypt? Well, God's intention was to prove to Pharaoh that the Lord, the living God, Yahweh, is the one who rules. The one who's revealed himself to Moses. The Egyptians were worshiping and serving a false god and many gods. And they worshiped and served the created things rather than the creator, as Paul writes in Romans 1. They were worshiping and serving the Nile and each one of their gods. With each plague as we move forward, God is focusing on a different Egyptian idol to expose them as false gods and to show that he is supreme over all their gods. They were a judgment against Egypt's gods. In fact, Moses writes this later in Numbers chapter 33. The Lord brought judgment on their gods. He executed judgment on their idols, on their gods. And over the course of the plagues, this object or this objective is repeated over and over. By this, you will know that I am the Lord. And for the Egyptians, the plague of blood was full of significance. The Nile was their life. The Nile was their national pride. They worshiped the Nile. They venerated the Nile, like the Ganges River for the Hindus. Its water was the lifeblood of Egypt. And fish was their most important food. This blow, this strike was devastating. And a blow to their pride. It would be like all the wine in France turning to blood. Or all the apples in Michigan turning to blood. Or all the casinos in Las Vegas into dens of disease. It would be like all the beaches in Florida turning into quicksand. It was a strike against Egypt and their economy. Moses and Ered did just as the Lord commanded. The consequences were overwhelming. The life-giving qualities of the Nile were overpowered by God. It was polluted. Blood was everywhere. The Nile stank. It was a call to repentance. The stench, the smell of dead fish was everywhere. In my first position in ministry right out of college, I was an intern at a church in Miami, Granada Presbyterian Church. They put me in a side builder. It used to be a manse or a parsonage. I had a little office in there. And early on in my time there, a mouse died in the wall. They put out mouse bait, and the mouse ate the bait and ran into the wall and died. One dead mouse. It was nasty. It was overpowering. Just one dead mouse. This was a river full of dead fish. This was a call to the people to turn around. Yahweh was declaring He is the Lord. Now the Egyptian magicians, by their same secret arts, turned water into blood or blood-like substance. Again, as I said a couple of weeks ago, if this was blood, it was by the supernatural powers of the devil. 2 Thessalonians says, the work of Satan is displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. But there's a big difference here. What those magicians did didn't involve extensive bodies of water. The only water that was left was what was able to be dug up, and all their powers were limited. They couldn't reverse what God had done. That would have been a show of power, to reverse what God had done. Instead, they only made more blood. They only made matters worse. And what they did do made Pharaoh's heart harder. He totally ignored this shot across the bow. You see, in this miracle, God is declaring that he is greater than the Nile. There's an Egyptian hymn that's been discovered that reads, everything that has come into being is through the Nile's power. There is no district of living men without him. The living God is answering, no, I am the Lord. It's a megaphone call. He's using a megaphone to rouse a deaf Egypt. Your God is powerless. Your Nile God, Hapi, does not give life. It is a dead idol. I am the Lord of life. I am the Lord of the Nile. I can do with it as I please. You must listen to me. And so God is using his megaphone through his word to us today to reveal the ease with which he can smite a nation. God was bringing Egypt to its knees. Egypt was a superpower. This is a warning even to us today, down through history, right to the USA today. He can paralyze even a superpower, if he so chooses. He can paralyze our power grid. He could. He could paralyze our economy. He could paralyze our water supply. He could paralyze our prosperity. He could paralyze our crops, our supply chain. This very same thing could have, this is the living word of God. This is a warning, even to us. Secondly, why did God bring this plague upon Egypt? Well, the purpose of this plague is to reveal that God will judge sin. But in the meantime, he offers mercy. He offers these warning shots In the meantime, he offers mercy. This is a visitation of wrath upon the Egyptians for their sins against Egypt. God is intervening on behalf of his firstborn, what he calls Israel. Remember what happened 80 years before? The Nile River was filled with blood back then, 80 years previously. Exodus chapter one, verse 22. Remember every son that was born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile. That was an edict from Pharaoh. The Nile was filled with blood 80 years before when they started killing Hebrew baby boys and the Egyptians oppressed the Hebrews and God was patient for 80 years. The God whose servant Moses was snatched from the Nile was now exercising his holy justice while at the same time calling them to repentance before a greater judgment came. The river of blood was very inconvenient, but it was mild in comparison to the last plague, losing your firstborn son. This was more than just a big hassle, though. Blood outside the human body is a symbol of death, like my friend back in college saw 40 years ago. It's a symbol of death, a picture of doom. It lasted longer than a week because the stain was there for them to see. It's a great lesson in all of this for all of us. Whatever your idol is, Whatever you live for, if it's not the Lord. Whatever you have erected as the most important thing in your life, it will be overcome by the Lord. If not in this life, then certainly on the great day of the Lord. Whatever it is that takes preeminence, whatever replaces the living God in your life, it's an idol. We don't bow down to stone or wood statues. But as Calvin said, the human heart is a factory of idols, even today. A number of years ago, I remember the shocking news that came out of Miami about a very well-known politician who took his own life. Everybody knew his name. He built up a reputation as a hero in the city. The most important thing in his life was his notoriety. Being a celebrity, a man in the spotlight, a man who wanted to be known and read about, and all this blinded him to where he began. And it blinded him to deal treacherously with people. So they might gain building contracts and financial kickbacks and deals under the table. It's a reoccurring theme, isn't it? With celebrities and politicians and... activists. In the end, that which was his idol, his fame and his notoriety and his publicity turned to be too great for him to bear with the ongoing corruption probe. Things started bubbling up to the surface, all kinds of sordid details for the whole city and the world to read about. That which had become his greatest delight, his fame, became his greatest shame, public humiliation. God is using here in Exodus 7 the plague of blood to call out to Pharaoh, to shout to Pharaoh that his idol, the people's idol, the Nile, was nothing. And Pharaoh must bend the knee. Verse 23 says, though, he did not even take this to heart. He would not even listen. You know, as we close, there was another flow of blood coming after this one. which would also speak of God's judgment upon sin, but God's judgment upon sin once and for all. We sing, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. The blood of Christ shed on the cross. It speaks of judgment upon sin, but it also speaks of love. For sinners it declares down through the ages that there is mercy and grace for those who look in faith to the one dying there on the cross. That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and rose again from the dead according to the scriptures. There is another bloodshed. A flow of blood. I read somewhere last week that there's a striking resemblance between the first plague and the first miracle of the Lord Jesus. In the first plague, in judgment, God turned water into blood. In mercy, Jesus turned water into wine. All pointing to his shed blood. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, the God of all mercy and patience and compassion is calling you today to turn to him. to come with all of your sins, all your rebellion, all your defiance, with all the times you've not taken his word to heart and just turned around and gone home. He's calling you today to turn to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is offered to you. God says, come to me. The Lord Jesus says, fly to me, and you will be saved. Cry out to him. Praise be to God for the infinite grace and mercy that is found in Christ. Let's call on the name of the Lord today. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we bow before you and thank you for your mercy to us in Christ. Thank you that your grace is greater than our sins and thank you for the table of the Lord that speaks to us through the sacrament that we touch and feel and smell and taste of the grace of God. Oh Lord, bless, Lord, our hearts as we partake of the sacrament today. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.