Two or three things stood out to us as we looked at Chapter 7, verses 8 through 13. And so what we have here is a picture of the one true God who is truly sovereign in His operations over the universe and His will makes come to pass everything in heaven and on earth, challenging this usurper, in this case Pharaoh and the deities of Egypt. The serpent contest portrays a heavenly combat, a battle between the God of the Hebrews and the deities of Egypt. It's certainly not just between Moses and the Egyptian magicians. These hostilities are not primarily between Moses and Pharaoh or between Israel and Egypt. In verses 8 through 13, the encounter between Pharaoh and the magicians of Egypt illustrate the whole point of the Exodus’ struggle. The incidents involving the serpents and the crossing of the Red Sea provide us the two boundaries on either end of this section of the book of Exodus, and they reinforce a theme that we see over and over again.

The serpent confrontation in verses 8 through 13 foreshadows the Lord's humiliation of Egypt through the plagues and the Red Sea. Exodus, chapter 7, verses 8 through 13 are critical for our understanding of what follows because they provide for us a preview of what's going to happen in the plague stories over the next several chapters and verses. Tonight we're going to be looking at verses 14 through 25, in preparation for that you may allow your eyes to run back to verses 8 through 14 where we were the last time we were together. If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Exodus, Chapter 7. The First Plague - The Nile Turned to Blood

River god egypt