Systematic Theology – Covenant

The Plague of Blood

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: 16-22

Genre: Speech

Track: 16 of 22

Dictation Name: 16 The Plague of Blood

Location/Venue:

Year:

In our second session this evening our subject is the plague of blood. Our scripture is from Exodus 7:14, the first plague upon Egypt, the plague of blood.

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.

15 Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand.

16 And thou shalt say unto him, The Lord 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 wouldest not hear.

17 Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

18 And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river.

19 And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy 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.

20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.

21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

22 And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the Lord had said.

23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also.

24 And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.

25 And seven days were fulfilled, after that the Lord had smitten the river.”

The first plague upon Egypt turned the waters of the Nile and all the water streams and pools of Egypt into blood. There all kinds of attempts to explain away this miracle, one common attempt used by people who should know better, scholars liberal and conservative, was this was the flood season and it was a time when red marl was washed down from the mountains and gave a red coloration to the rivers and it was taken for blood. Now, it is amazing that scholars can actually write such nonsense and prestigious university presses in England and this country will publish it. The Egyptians lived there year in and year out, every spring they would see the red colored dirt in the streams, they knew what that was. Why should they be amazed at what had happened if it were an annual thing? The scholars apparently assumed that the Egyptians were idiots incapable of recognizing that the waters were laden with silt. This of farmers in Egypt. Now one must say that the scholars are amazingly credulous. Well the scripture says the waters were changed into blood. Blood signifies life according to Leviticus 17:11-14 but it also signifies death. Blood is shed to make the covenant or to cut the covenant and the blood of the covenant signifies life to all faithful members but it also sets forth death, judgment on the faithless to the covenant. God comes to Moses now to declare that He will deliver His people. This means judgment and therefore the sign thereof is blood. The Nile was the sacred river of Egypt, a symbol of Egypt’s strength and prosperity and we see first Moses spoke the Nile, a mark of judgment. The rod of God’s authority was laid against the lifeblood of Egypt. Then second because the waters were turned into blood the Nile was defiled and all Egypt with it.

But then third we must say that the pollution of the Nile was a portent of its uselessness, that which gave fertility to Egypt was now useless to it. The other plagues destroyed Egypt virtually and culminated in the death of the firstborn. The fertility of Egypt was no more. It was replaced by death. Thus the bloody Nile meant death to Egypt but it also meant life to Israel. It meant that the Lord of the covenant was redeeming His people. The bloody waters were thus salvation to Israel and death to Egypt and the bloody waters made clear that the judgment upon Egypt was covenantal. God was fulfilling His covenant promise to Egypt as well as bringing about His covenantal judgment to-ah-Egypt. His promise to Israel, His judgment to Egypt. And with the announcement later of the last plague Moses left Pharaoh. God had no further word for Egypt than judgment and it was the time for the Passover. We have then the cup of the Passover signifying the blood of the covenant in which God thereby says I will be faithful to my covenant people unto death and I expect my covenant people to be faithful unto me unto death. Israel had not been receptive to Moses, in fact they had very quickly when they saw the reaction of Pharaoh asked Moses to leave them alone in their slavery. The difference God made between Israel and Egypt was an act of grace. After the last plague the Egyptians came begging Moses that he leave and take the people with him. The judgment had been so radical that even the firstborn of the maidservant behind the mill we are told and all the firstborn of the beast were dead, according to Exodus 11:5.

Cassuto, the great Hebrew scholar, has commented on the expression ‘the maid servant behind the mill’ and I quote:

“Is common to Egyptian literature in the sense of the poorest of the poor.”

Thou hast said that I, Moses, will die on the day that I see your face, however I declare to you in the name of My God that I shalt not die but all the firstborn of Egypt will die and even your firstborn son shall perish. Not only the firstborn of human beings shall die but also all the firstborn of all the cattle, even the firstborn of the animals to which you attribute a divine character like the bulls of Apis and the cows of Hathor. Then you will realize that I execute judgment upon all the Gods of Egypt. Israel was delivered in spite of its sins by the grace of God but because that generation did not appreciate that grace nor live in terms of it it died in the wilderness. Thus there was a double judgment, there was a judgment upon all the firstborn of Egypt and an even more radical judgment upon Israel in that all of that generation perished in the wilderness. Judgment peter tells us begins at the house of God but there is a difference all the same in these two judgments. In a sense more drastic in that all the generation left Egypt perished under God’s judgment except for Caleb and Joshua, but the judgment upon Egypt was a judgment upon His firstborn, upon its future. The judgment of Israel was a judgment upon the older generation, its past, so that Israel had a future. Now Paul refers to this plague on the first born in First Corinthians 11:27-32 and I quote:

“Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”

In other words, to eat or to drink worthily of the Lord ’s Table, of the Christian Passover is to incur the plague of blood. This meaning has been very much lost in our time unfortunately but for countless centuries Christians recognized this meaning, it did lead to some very unhappy results but at least they knew that it was dangerous to partake unworthily. As a result many were afraid to partake of it until they were on their deathbed or very near to it. This attitude persisted in colonial America and one very important and great American was a party to this kind of fear, George Washington. On the other hand, we are clearly told in the laws of the Passover that it is also a fearful sin in the sight of God not to partake when we are members of His body. We are neither to partake unworthily nor are we to omit partaking. Thus we are to be under the blood in grace, only then are we separated from death. There is no neutral ground between life and death. We are called as members of the new humanity to avoid the plague of blood by being in Christ, faithful to the covenant because there is a plague on the old humanity. Hence Revelation 18:4 declares:

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

Babylon the humanistic world order, the world of the fallen Adam is under sentence of death.

And the seven vials, the seven judgments of Revelation give us the judgments upon Egypt, upon Babylon the great, upon the humanistic world order which is outside of God so that we live in a time of judgment. All time outside of God is a time of judgment but ours clearly more than most is such a time. The world is moving very, very close to very critical judgment, it is under the plague of blood. To be in the covenant and to be faithful to the covenant is to escape that plague because we belong to the Lord and are in His grace and our lives are given to His service. Are there any questions now?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] It certainly does not sinless. That’s the first thing we have to recognize and it is at that point that many have gone astray because to imagine that we can approach the Lord’s table sinless is to imagine something that puts us on a par with Christ. None of us in this life are sinless. By God’s grace and the world to come we shall be perfectly sanctified. What it does mean is that we do not continue in sin. We do not abide in the practice of the sins that beset us, that we are striving to overcome. This is why the words of invitation, while fencing off the table, usually declare all who are truly sorry for their sins, and those words go back to Calvin at the very least if not earlier, are invited and welcome to the Lord’s Table. So that we have to recognize that we do not come sinless, we come as sinners.

We come as sinners who are seeking strength to overcome our sins and who come as people who are seeking to serve the Lord so that our approach is not merely negative, I want to overcome this or that habit but also I want to do this and that for the Lord because He requires such service of me. Now, one of the weaknesses of approach to the Lord’s Table over the generations has been that the emphasis is too often on the negative. The self-examination is a necessity but there also has to be with it a dedication. You’re coming to be strengthened in the Lord, made afresh mindful of His grace and of the power of His spirit in us to go forth and to do things for His kingdom. Does that help answer your question, yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] What you have of course in people like the assassins of [unknown] and others are people who still have some absolute, it’s a humanistic absolute, but under humanism all those absolutes ultimately dissolve because everything is ultimately relative. Thus you had a broad streak in Islam since we’re dealing with the assassins of [unknown] that has gone into total relativism, going back to the time of the assassins, the old man of the mountain and his assassins, nothing is true, therefore we will kill for power, for purely humanistic reasons. Now it could well be that this element was in the minds of the assassins, purely relativistic power ploy, or it could be they still belonged the old world of Islam where there were few absolutes that have not dissolved all together, but outside of biblical faith absolutes sooner or later give way to relativism.

Because all other religions are humanistic and ultimately humanism has only one absolute: man. My will be done. And if it is an advantage for me to kill this or that person well then I shall kill them. I can destroy my marriage, I can destroy that person, I can do as I please because I am the absolute. That is the logic of humanism. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] I agree with you, there should be a preparation, what we have now is a very casual approach to the Lord’s Table. There used to be in most churches at one time an actual service, a pre-communion service to prepare one for the service. I don’t know what church still retains this but this used to be commonplace. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Very good, yes. Well that’s interesting because in most places of course that kind of thing which was once done everywhere has virtually disappeared. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] I’m sure there are other incidents of it surviving but by and large there isn’t the same approach that was once commonplace. Any other questions or comments?

Well if not let us bow our heads in prayer.

Our Lord and our God dismiss us with Thy blessing, give traveling mercies to all on their homeward way, a blessed night’s rest and joy in Thee day by day and a confidence in Thy victory. We thank Thee that our times are in Thy hands. Give us grace day by day to cast our every care upon Thee who carest for us. Oh Lord our God how great and marvelous Thou art and we praise Thee. In Jesus’ name, Amen.