THEY DUG AROUND THE RIVER -- Monday:
After four hundred and thirty years in Egypt – the majority of them spent in "hard bondage" – the time came for the children of Israel to be delivered. Hundreds of years before this, God had told Abraham what He was going to do. He said of Egypt, "they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance" (Gen 15:13-14). The deliverance, however, would be a most elaborate one. It would actually occur in a single night, but the prelude to it would be significant. God was going to gain much glory for Himself, and provide a record through which His character and great salvation could be seen more clearly.
As is His manner, the Lord would work through appointed servants – in particular, Moses, who was himself raised in Egypt. After being forty years in the back side of the desert, the Lord called Moses into Kingdom activity. He would, the Lord declared, make Moses "a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet" (Ex 7:1). Initially that role would be displayed in the smiting of Egypt with ten grievous plagues, the likes of which the world had never before, nor since, seen.
The first of those plagues was a judgment against the waters of Egypt. At the command of the Lord, Moses told Aaron to take his rod and "stretch out thine 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" (7:19). Aaron did as he was commanded, and the waters turned to blood, the fish in the river died, and the waters raised a terrible stench throughout the land.
It was at this point that our text occurred. Frantic for water, "all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water" (NIV). The Word does not affirm they found water, insinuating they did – but they certainly had to work at it. The great river Nile was before them, but the waters in it were putrid, having been turned into blood. This was, and remains, the longest river in the world, over 4,100 miles long. But for all of its greatness, it could yield no life sustaining water for the Egyptians. They had to dig "along the Nile to get drinking water." What normally came easy for the Egyptians was now obtained with great effort. What was ordinarily plentiful was now scarce. They had to dig to drink, and the digging was done right next to the former source of water.
It seems to me that the rivers of Egypt are not the only thing that has been cursed by God because of abuse. When the Nile became a god to the Egyptians, it was subject to the curse of God, even though the river was of itself good. So it is with many good and honorable things, like a church, a family, a job, and a country. Some of these things have become gods to the people, and have thus been turned into blood, so to speak. In order to get any satisfaction for life, home, family, and country, men must dig for themselves. They cannot count on the normal flow of life, but must settle for small supplies from wells dug right next to former blessings. The more we give glory to God, the less we will have to dig right next to appointed resources.
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, grant me grace to maintain a proper perspective.