Dr. Kevin DeYoung | Blood Throughout the Land

Friday, April 3, 2026; Good Friday
Given by Dr. Kevin DeYoung | Senior Pastor, Christ Covenant Church

Blood Throughout the Land

Exodus 7:14-25

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Father in heaven, help us now as we come to your Word. We have heard it read. We have heard it sung. Now, as it is proclaimed to us, would you give us ears to hear? By your Spirit, may I preach a better sermon than the one I have prepared, and give to these people, your dear people, ears to hear a better sermon than the one I will deliver. May Jesus Christ increase. May we decrease. In his name we pray. Amen. 

Of all the things that must seem strange about Christianity to non-Christians, I have to think that one of the things toward the very top of that list is our relentless focus on blood. Strange. If you're a Christian, if you've been in the church a long time, it doesn't seem strange. It's just what we do. It's who we are. It's what we talk about. It's what we sing about. But I have to imagine if Christianity is new to you, you're here visiting this afternoon, and it's unfamiliar – if you know non-Christians, as all of us do in our lives, it must be one of those things that seems so peculiar. Where else in the world, unless you have some kind of psychosis, are you always wanting to talk about blood? The Old Testament is full of bloody sacrifices. We see there in the Mosaic system, sprinkling of blood, the pouring out of blood, the shedding of blood, the draining of blood. We hear sermons about blood. We sing songs, like we just did, about the blood. We even have a recurring ritual where we symbolically, by faith, drink blood. And this day, Good Friday, is a bloody holiday. And this book is a bloody book. This text, which I'm about to read, the first of the 10 plagues, is another one of those stories literally awash in blood. Everywhere, everywhere, blood. There are connections in this story to today that will be obvious. It's not surprising that a preacher might preach a sermon about blood, but I think by the end you'll find a connection that maybe you haven't thought of before. Here's what we read in Exodus 7. The first plague, water turned to blood. Verse 14:

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, "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 to blood. The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.’ And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to Aaron, “Take your staff, stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals and their ponds and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.”’ 

Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood, and the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So, Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile. Seven full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile.” 

This is the first of the 10 plagues that God sends to Egypt to set his people free from bondage. We call them plagues, but they're not actually here called plagues. They're called signs and wonders. If you look at chapter 7:3, “I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I will multiply my signs and wonders” – that's what they're called. We call them plagues, and that's not an inappropriate label. A plague means to strike with a blow or with a wound, and we see that here. “I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it.” That's what God had decreed. And we see three times here, in verse 17 and verse 20 and verse 25, the language of “strike the Nile.” Strike, strike. This is indeed a plague. This is the first of the 10 plagues, and they are going to roughly move in order of severity. Blood, frogs, gnats. (Parenthesis: I know, I wrote a little kid's book, an ABC book, and I did for the letter G, gnats. I've gotten more complaints from all the things I've ever written, just about, from all the moms who said, "I'm trying to teach my kids the alphabet, and here you go with a silent g-word. for gnats.” Well, it's in the Bible.) Blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, death of the firstborn. Very easy to remember the order with this helpful pneumonic: “be forever grateful for lasagna, because haggis looks definitely disgusting.” There you go. Simple as that. But roughly, they go from bad – they're all bad – to worse. From inconvenient, here with seven days, they can't drink this water, to disease to destruction and finally to death. So, there's a method here to this seeming madness. There's also a pattern. Don't know if you've noticed this before, but these 10 plagues come in cycles of three and then the final plague, the death of the firstborn son, so that the first plague involves the morning – a confrontation in the morning with Pharaoh. The second plague is, then, a confrontation in the court of Pharaoh. And then the third plague is a symbolic action taken outside with no confrontation. So that happens 1, 2, 3, and then the same pattern – morning confrontation, court confrontation, outside symbolic activity – takes place 4, 5, 6, and then again 7, 8, 9. So, we have this very definite pattern of threes that happens in triplicate, leading to the ultimate of the plagues, the tenth. 

So what's going on in this first plague? Two things: one obvious, one less obvious. This is the obvious thing going on with the plague. It is a sign of God's righteous judgment against idolatry and unrighteousness. The less obvious thing that is going on: it is also a picture, this first plague, of the futility of rebellion against God and the folly of trying to be like God. There are two things. The first and the most obvious is that each of the 10 plagues, this one included, were meant to strike a blow against the sin and idolatry of Egypt. The point of the plagues, you could say, is really the point of this whole book. Look at verse 17, “Thus says the Lord, by this (that is, by this first plague) you shall know that I am the Lord.” You can wave that as a banner over the whole book of Exodus. What is the book of Exodus about? We know it. It has a lot of familiar stories of slavery and then the plagues and then the Red Sea and then the Ten Commandments and then a lot of chapters that get sort of fuzzy in our head about the tabernacle and then the glory coming at the end. Well, what is the theme of this big book? It's right there in verse 17: “By this you shall know that I am the Lord.” It's a book to tell us who God is and what he is like. Each of the 10 plagues reinforce this same relentless message: “I am the Lord, and there is no other. Listen to me.” That's what Pharaoh should have gotten, but he's hardened 10 times. The Lord hardens him. Sometimes it says he was hardened, and sometimes Pharaoh hardens his own heart, but 10 times there's a hard heart, and he doesn't hear and receive this message. 

The destruction of Pharaoh, the desecration of Egypt, the deliverance of Israel starts here with this first plague, which is the defilement of their most precious natural resource. And even now, thousands of years later, it's still that one resource. Perhaps you can have it shipped in from somewhere else. You can dig a canal. You can have tankers. But no civilization can exist without this natural resource. You need water. Now, this contamination you see in verse 25 lasts seven days. It's a kind of week of deconstruction, de-creation in Israel, during which time they're forced to dig wells and scrape along the banks of the Nile to find something, some sort of ground water to bubble up, something that they can drink. This was certainly a massive inconvenience. We've had the experience at times of losing electricity. It's why we all went out and bought those generators that we didn't use this time, but you still have them. Well, you think if you're without – worse than electricity, you're without water. And then, everything – the fish die, and the land stinks. It's kind of like if the first plague was turning gasoline into curdled milk. You think, what would happen in our society? Well, you can't drive your cars. You can't have trucks. You can't power anything by gasoline. And worse than that, if you do, it ruins your engine. And curdled milk is gross, and it smells. Everything grinds to a halt. There's panic. There's stink. There's stench. In fact, there's something ironic going on here. You may recall that back in chapter 5:21, when the people are not trusting in Moses and ultimately not trusting in the Lord to deliver them, and they now have to make bricks without straw, they complain to Moses, "You have made us, and the Lord has now made us a stench to Pharaoh.” We stink in the nostrils of Pharaoh. You see what the Lord's doing with this first plague? It's like he does so often with us, when we think we know better than God. They're saying, "You're going to make us stink to Pharaoh." I wonder if anybody had the wherewithal to put this together? Ah, so God, he did, he did know what he was doing, and we, in fact, now are a stench to Pharaoh – not us, but these rotten fish and this bloody water. That's right. God says, "You think that I'm going to make a big stink to Pharaoh?" Well, I will do it, and I'll do it my way. If you could just trust me – if you could just hold on, impatient Israelites, for just a second to trust me, that I know what I'm doing, and then watch and sit back and wonder. And this was not some cheap trick like dropping Easter egg dye into a little bowl of water and seeing it turn colors. 

This is emphasized at the end of the passage, in verse 19 and 20 and 21. Look there. Look at the “alls” – over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water. Verse 20: “In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of the servants he lifted up the staff, struck the water, and all the water in the Nile turned to blood.” Verse 21, the fish died. The Nile stank. They could not drink water. There was blood throughout all the land. Three times – 19, 20, 21 – all, all, all. The takeaway is that Yahweh has thoroughly transformed all of the water above the surface, and as we'll see even waters and vessels above the surface, into fish-putrefying blood. The plague represents the victory of Yahweh. And this is the point in all 10 plagues. Each of these are hitting not just at their inconvenience, but they're hitting them right between the religious eyes. Over and over, these plagues are to show how Yahweh can rout, and indeed make a mockery of, the supposed gods and goddesses of Egypt. That's what he's doing. 

They often thought in the ancient world that the world was divided into the earth, above the earth, and under the earth. And we even have that language in creation. The earth and the waters above the earth and under the earth. All dimensions. And see, ancient people thought all of these dimensions – the earth, above the earth, and under the earth – that they were all ruled by the gods. What we find in the plagues is time and again each of these realms, the earth and under the earth and over the earth, are absolutely put to desecration by Yahweh over the gods of the Egyptians. To make this point crystal clear, Numbers 33:4 tells us, "The people of Israel went out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had struck down among them” – and then here's this commentary – “On their gods also the Lord executed judgment.” On their gods. There were all sorts of gods associated with the Nile. Osiris, Khnum, most famously a god named Hapi – H A P I, not your Easter bunny. Hapi. The Egyptians called the Nile River by that divine name. There were hymns to the Nile, prayers to the Nile. This god, Hapi, was a male-female hermaphrodite with a beard and breasts who was thought to reproduce, and then the overflow was this watery abundance, and in the annual flooding it was thought that the Nile gave birth to Egypt and nourished the entire nation. This was one of their great gods, the Nile River. So it isn't just that the Lord struck the Mississippi or the Ohio or struck the Amazon or the Thames. He strikes them with their god. “By this you will know that I am the Lord.” So, they didn't just see this as, “Wow, the God of the Hebrews has power over natural resources and over the natural world.” They were meant to see, if they had eyes to see it, that the God of the Hebrews has power over our so-called gods and goddesses. 

And this first plague of blood was a type. It was a type of the final judgment to come. The New Testament will pick this up. Revelation 16. The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became like blood. The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs, and they became blood. So, this will be picked up in the New Testament as a symbolic picture of the Lord's judgment, drawn from the imagery here of the first plague. And more immediately, this first plague was meant to foreshadow the worst plagues to come. So, as bad and as gruesome as this was, you can really see as the first of the 10, it's gross. It's frightening. It's inconvenient. It's not nearly as bad as flies or gnats or sores or boils or hail or locusts or darkness. It's a massive week-long inconvenience. But do you see what this first plague was meant to foreshadow as they get worse by worse by worse? This is a terribly gross ordeal, a massive inconvenience, but it was, supremely, a warning. It was to signal to the Egyptians the land will flow with blood for all the guilty sinners who do not have a Passover lamb. This land will flow with blood, and it will be the blood of your absolutely most-precious, most-valuable, most-sought-after resource – not water – your children. Nothing more precious than that. And especially in that culture, your son, your firstborn son. Sin requires the death of the son. Sin requires the death of the son. That's what's coming. And their hearts are hardened. And Pharaoh's heart is hardened 10 times over until he loses the son. Well, you can see the connection that we ought to make on this day of all days, that God, a gracious heavenly Father – no arm twisting, no hardness of heart, rather the overflowing outpouring of a heart of love – sends his only begotten Son that that Son would be the propitiation for our sin, because sin requires the shedding of blood of the precious son. And so we have it in the Lord Jesus Christ, a sacrifice for our sakes, the shedding of blood, that if you want to avoid the bloody judgment to come that Revelation pictures, just like this plague, blood everywhere – if you want to withstand that judgment to come – you need to find and cling and hold and embrace the Son who died as a substitute for sin. That's what good Friday is about. 

I said there were two lessons here, and that's the obvious one. Here's the less obvious one, and it's just as important. Now, it builds on the first one, so we don't want to miss the first one. But here's the second lesson. This first plague, yes, it is certainly a picture of God's righteous judgment upon idolatry and sin. And we see this fulfilled in the righteous judgment upon the Son for God's people. But the first plague is also a picture of the futility of rebellion against God and the folly of trying to be like God. I don't mean when you're born again and empowered by the Spirit, and that's a kind of being like God. I mean trying to grasp at godlikeness for yourself. This passage is meant to show folly and futility. One of the things you should do when you're reading biblical narrative, especially Old Testament, is pause for a moment with the information that seems to be extraneous. Why do we need to know this? Because the story is about the blood and the plague and how the people had putrefying water, and it was everywhere, and the fish died. So, ask yourself then, why do we have this little bit about the magicians, verse 22, who did the same by their secret arts? Whether their secret arts means a kind of illusionist – that's what we mean by magicians today – someone who is an illusion and gets you looking this way and does something over here with their hand. That sort of illusionist or secret arts really by a kind of demonic power – however they did it, they were able to do the same things. Why are we told this bit of information, other than that it really happened? 

Well, here's why. To show the utter futility and folly of trying to do things your way and rebelling against the true God. Because this is really a laughable scene. The magicians come out, and you could see maybe they're sort of panicked a little bit. Pharaoh, Pharaoh, hold on before you get any crazy notions about letting these people go with this little parlor trick of blood in all the water, let us do our act of prestidigitation. And so, sure enough, we're told that they did the same thing. They also could turn some of the water into blood. But here's why this is laughable. What have they done as a result of their counterfeit art? They haven't made anything better. More blood. They've not solved the problem. Surely there's a lesson for us here. The powers of this world – there's real power in it. The devil has real power. The devil can do really bad things at work in the world. Here's what he can do. He can lie. He can accuse. He can cheat. He can destroy. He cannot solve. He cannot save. He cannot turn blood into water. That's what they needed. Hey magicians, I already saw the water to blood thing. Okay, you did it, too. What really would have been a power is if they could say, "Now watch. Here, I have my magicians by their secret arts, and they can turn this blood back into clean water.” But of course, they can't do that. They can only make things worse, which is why we come to verse 24, and it is a picture of absolute desperation and destitution. With all of their dashed hopes, all the Egyptians – so, Pharaoh's gone home to his house satisfied. All right, this God of yours isn't so powerful. But here's the result. All the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile. You picture them on all fours, scraping somewhere. Just like if you're at the beach or near a body of water – if I can just get down a little farther, maybe some moisture will trickle up. Somebody give me something clean to drink. They are left to scrounge for life, because their gods have proved impotent to do anything but imitate death. And this is a lesson when you and I go after other gods. Idolatry will leave you angry, frustrated, despondent, and in despair, because those gods can never save. They can never satisfy. 

Then I want you to think of one other connection. Look at verse 19. Now, there's some translation issues here, but the ESV, I think, has done a good job of getting the sense of it, and it's a good translation. All their pools of water, verse 19, so they shall become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt. Even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. So, this wasn't just some magic dye that was sprinkled out into all the water and then maybe seeped in. Or, as modern skeptical scholars say, well, this was something, and the algae turned up, and this is what happened at that time of the year. Sort of looks like our pool when we first take the cover off in the spring – stuff died in there. This is not a natural occurrence, and that's why we're told. No, even in these vessels. You imagine what it was like, that maybe as Pharaoh saw the Nile turning to blood, and he starts to go into problem-solving mode. We're going to need water. We're going to need water to cook and to boil, and we're going to need water to bathe and to wash, and we're going to need, supremely, water to drink. So, fetch me one of those stone jars, and hustle over. Open up the stone jar. Pours it out. More blood. Even there in the vessels of stone is blood. Even in the vessels of stone where there should be water, now there is blood. 

So, think to yourself, another one of God's signs and wonders. Also the first – not the first of the plagues, but the first of the signs that took place by the Lord Jesus. Not in Egypt, but in Cana of Galilee. When they ran out of wine at the wedding, and Jesus says, "I want you to go. I want you to find the vessels of stone, those stone jars, and pour water in them. And now bring them” – just like they might have brought them to Pharaoh and with anticipation poured out, hoping, hoping that maybe there was water they could drink in those stone jars, and nothing came out but blood. Now Jesus says at the wedding, "Come fetch those large stone vessels filled with water, and now I want you to see what's in there." And with fear and trepidation, thinking that what a horrible, uncouth faux pas we have committed at this wedding, and we have run out of wine, and then, lo and behold… Maybe it looked a little like blood – red – it wasn't blood, and it wasn't water. It was wine. To their astonishment, just like the Egyptians when they were hoping for water found blood, here when they were fearing it was nothing but water, Jesus had turned it into wine – and not just any wine, it was the best they had ever tasted. The God of judgment pours out his wrath upon the wicked by turning their water to blood. And this same God is also the God of mirth and mercy, who pours out the very best wine for his guests, transformed from ordinary water. Jesus did what the gods of Egypt never could do. Oh, they could destroy, they could kill, they could be a pale imitation, but they could not create, they could not give life, they could not save, and they could not satisfy. Oh, it's one thing to turn water into blood. Quite another if your God can turn water into wine. 

Will you welcome this God? Will you follow this God? Will you sit down and feast with this God? The same God, the God of signs and wonders. He has plagues. Oh, he has plagues. He has plagues in store for the wicked. And oh, what wonderful signs and miracles and feasting and drinking he has for his people if you repent and believe. We will all drink from the cup of the Lord poured out for us. Some will drink that cup of destruction, and others will drink to their great delight. Which drink will you drink? Let's pray. 

Father in heaven, we thank you for the sacrifice of the perfect Son of God, the just payment for unjust sinners. Thank you not only that he is the propitiation for our sins but that by his blood we can be clean and declared innocent and that he prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies and says, “Drink. I have saved the best for you.” Satisfy us with the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn our hearts away from those broken cisterns that cannot satisfy. Give us spiritual tastebuds that hunger and thirst after righteousness, knowing that when that is our hunger and thirst, we will be satisfied. We ask all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.