Note: This article is an AI-generated adaptation of a spoken transcript and may not fully capture the nuances of the original presentation.
The passage from Exodus 7:14-24 describes the first of the ten plagues that God brings upon Egypt. The Lord instructs Moses to confront Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water, standing on the bank of the Nile with the staff that had turned into a serpent.
Moses delivers God’s message: “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.”
God warns that the fish will die, the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable to drink from their great river. The plague extends beyond the Nile itself—over rivers, canals, ponds, and all pools of water throughout Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone.
Moses and Aaron obey. In the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, Aaron strikes the water with his staff, and all the water in the Nile turns to blood. The fish die, the river stinks, and the Egyptians cannot drink from the Nile. Blood spreads throughout all the land of Egypt.
But the magicians of Egypt replicate the feat through their secret arts. Pharaoh’s heart remains hardened, and he refuses to listen. He simply turns and goes back to his house, not taking the matter to heart. The Egyptians are forced to dig along the Nile for water to drink.
The Main Message
The central truth of this passage is that God’s first plague turns Egypt’s life-giving river into blood, demonstrating His power over life and death, and pointing forward to Jesus’ life-giving blood that would one day bring salvation.
This profound event reveals three critical truths for us today.
1. God Exposes False Idols
The Nile was Egypt’s pride and her lifeblood. It wasn’t merely a river—it was worshipped as a god. The Nile sustained the entire nation. Every year, the flooding of the Nile provided food for all of Egypt, making the river absolutely central to Egyptian life, economy, and identity.
When God turns the Nile into blood, He is making a powerful declaration: He is supreme and has power over this false savior that Egypt trusted in. The very thing Egypt depended on most—their source of security and sustenance—becomes a sign of death and decay.
This judgment is really God’s way of uprooting the idols of Egypt, exposing their powerlessness and revealing that only the true God can give life.
We too are tempted to trust in our modern “Niles.”
We depend on various things for our security and identity—perhaps our careers, our financial stability, our relationships, our social status, or our health. These aren’t necessarily bad things in themselves, but when we place our ultimate trust in them rather than in God, they become idols.
God, in His mercy, may expose these idols in our hearts to show us that only He can give us true life. Jesus alone is our living water. Every other source we try to drink from will ultimately fail us—like trying to drink blood on the day of judgment.
We need to be careful to drink from the true fountain, the river of life that is Jesus Himself. He is the only source that will never run dry, never turn to blood, never fail to satisfy our deepest thirst.
2. God’s Judgment Is Righteous
This plague was not some random act of divine wrath, as if God were capricious or simply mean-spirited. There is a profound justice at work here.
Egypt’s river had once been stained with the blood of Hebrew children. Pharaoh had ordered that all Hebrew baby boys be thrown into the Nile to drown. Now, in divine irony and perfect justice, God brings that very cruelty back upon Egypt itself. The river that consumed innocent blood now becomes blood.
God sees every injustice, and His judgment always fits the crime. He is always righteous and always just.
This truth should bring us comfort and rest. We can trust that God’s justice is both perfect and patient. We might be going through a season right now where something deeply unjust has happened to us, and we don’t see how justice will ever be served. Perhaps it won’t be in this lifetime—but ultimately, God’s justice is completely righteous, and He will bring it to pass.
It might take a lifetime. We might not see it until we live with Him forever. But we can trust that God’s justice is perfect, patient, and works exactly according to His timing.
Of course, in Jesus, this same justice of God has been satisfied in a different way. The blood that flows in judgment in this story points forward to the blood that would be poured out from the Savior Himself. Jesus bore the judgment we deserve so that in God’s mercy we might live in Him.
3. Redemption Comes Through Blood
Throughout Scripture, blood marks both the judgment of God and the redemption of God’s people. Blood is both a consequence of our sin and the payment for sin—a paradox that finds its resolution at the cross.
The Nile’s blood here points us ahead to another kind of blood that will come: the blood of the Lamb, Jesus, that turns death into life.
Notice the contrast:
The plague brought the Nile from life to death
Jesus’ blood brings us from death to life
The plague brought decay
The cross brings cleansing
The application for us is to look always to Christ and His blood—the blood that truly purifies everything that sin has polluted.
Our idol worship, our trusting in things other than God as our ultimate security—all of it is washed away in Christ’s blood when we come to Him in faith. His sacrifice takes the judgment we deserve and transforms it into an occasion of great joy.
The wrath of God that we deserved is turned into a welcome, where we can stand before God with complete confidence. The death we deserved because of our sin is transformed into new creation life.
That’s an extraordinary place for us to be—rescued from judgment not by avoiding the reality of sin’s consequences, but by having someone else bear those consequences for us.
Living in Light of the Blood
This passage challenges us to examine our own hearts:
What are our “Niles”? What do we depend on for life and security more than God Himself? God may lovingly expose these idols, not to harm us, but to free us from false saviors that can never truly save.
Where do we long for justice? We can rest in knowing that God sees every wrong, every injustice, every cruelty. His justice may be delayed, but it will never be denied. And for those in Christ, the justice we deserved has already fallen on our substitute.
Have we drunk from the true fountain? Jesus offers living water that truly satisfies. His blood doesn’t bring death—it brings cleansing, forgiveness, and eternal life. Have we come to Him in faith to receive what only He can provide?
The river of blood in Egypt was a terrible judgment, but it points us to a glorious truth: there is another blood, the blood of Jesus, that brings not death but life, not decay but cleansing, not judgment but welcome into the presence of God.
Prayer: Father, we thank You that in the story of the Nile turning into blood, we see a pointer to another blood—blood that makes us clean in Jesus. We thank You that You gave us Your Son to wash us free from the guilt we have because of our sin. We thank You that we can now enter into Your presence with great joy and gladness, knowing that we have been made pure through His blood. May we live in the strength and comfort of knowing that all our sins have been forgiven, that we have been brought from death into life through the blood of Christ our Lord. Amen.