Exodus 7

Summary

God has Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and show him signs, but He will harden the Pharaoh’s heart anyway. As they perform their signs, the Pharaoh calls his magicians to do the same, but Moses’ and Aaron’s are better. This doesn’t change the Pharaoh’s heart (the one God is manipulating). Even turning the water to blood, which the magicians could also do, and the Pharaoh wouldn’t let the Israelites go. The Egyptians didn’t have anything to drink for seven days.

Commentary

The narrative is either dishonest, or God is. It clearly states that God will make Pharaoh’s heart hard against Moses and the Israelites. When God points out that the Pharaoh’s heart is hard he has Moses and Aaron perform more signs as if it’s not all controlled. If it was just the Pharaoh that’s one thing, but denying water to all the people of Egypt over God’s own cruel games seems a bit excessive. And throughout Moses repeats the same lie. That his people want to be allowed to worship and that is all.