Exodus 7:14-18

"And Jehovah said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is stubborn, he refuses to let the people go. Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river brink to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thy hand. And thou shalt say unto him, Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou hast not hearkened. Thus saith Jehovah, In this thou shalt know that I am Jehovah: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in my hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish that are in the river shall die, and the river shall become foul; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink water from the river."

Both the plague and its results were here predicted, the onset of it being specifically tied to the rod in Moses' hand, and to his stretching it out over the waters. These facts absolutely forbid any conclusion that the fouling of the great river was merely a natural occurrence. Even critical scholars like Noth have affirmed that, "Any connection with the yearly rise of the Nile seems quite impossible ... Rather we have here a unique divine wonder."[22] We can only marvel at the comment of Keller who rejected the Exodus account of the part played by the plagues in the exodus of Israel, declaring that such, "can neither be affirmed nor denied, since no contemporary evidence on the subject has so far been found."[23] Indeed, indeed, if scholars like Keller are waiting to uncover an ancient Egyptian monument detailing such a disaster to Egypt as the release of 2,000,000 of their slaves to liberty, and the drowning of one of their Pharaoh's in the Red Sea with his entire army, they shall never find it. No nation ever inscribed its shame on their public monuments! But note the blindness and unfairness and bias in such a complaint. Exodus is historical. Here is affirmed dogmatically and effectively the very thing that Keller can "Neither confirm nor deny." Our own view is that if some ancient monument could be uncovered that would deny anything in Exodus, it would only prove that monuments lie, as indeed they do. By old Trinity Church at Broadway and Wall Streets, New York City, an impressive monument upon the grave of Robert Fulton hails him as "The Inventor of the Steamboat," which he was NOT! The inventor was John Fitch, officially designated by the Congress of the United States, and honored by a great granite shaft at Bardstown, Kentucky, as the RIGHTFUL claim of that honor.

"In the morning ..." Why was Pharaoh going to the Nile river in the morning? Several possible reasons appear:

1. He customarily did so for the sake of taking a dip in its sacred waters. To Pharaoh, the Nile was his god. Dipping in its waters was supposed to provide all kinds of benefits.
   
2. The occasion could have been a spectacular public ceremonial honoring the river, a ceremony that would have required the king's presence.
   
3. It could have been merely taking a morning stroll.
   
4. Keil wrote that it was none of these, but that, "Without doubt, it was to present his daily worship of the Nile."[24]
   

"Let my people go ..." These words like an awesome refrain echo again and again through the sacred record: Exodus 7:16; 8:1; 8:20; 9:1; 9:13; also in Exodus 10:7; 3:12; and Exodus 4:23.

"Behold I will smite with the rod that is in my hand ..." This affords an understanding of the question of whose was the rod? Or who actually stretched it out? In these words the rod is in God's hand, and God will stretch it out, the true meaning being simply that God will do it through Moses. The Scriptures have already informed us that the relationship between God and Moses is also that which existed between Moses and Aaron (Exodus 7:1). Thus, there was no need in recurring narrative to multiply detail, as for example, by saying: "God commanded Moses to take the rod and say or do thus and so; and then Moses commanded Aaron to take the rod and do thus and so; and then Aaron took the rod and did thus and so etc." That is exactly the kind of needless repetition that one finds in the Samaritan version of these events.[25] For ages scholars have had no difficulty understanding the type of usage found here. "This rod is called the rod of God, the rod of Moses, and the rod of Aaron, God gave it miraculous power, and Moses and Aaron used it indifferently (first one, then the other)."[26] Only the critics have trouble with the rod!