The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water… And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river. ~Exodus 7:21, 24
It is difficult (and undesirable) to imagine the sensory experience of the plague of blood, but it is clearly an escalation of the awful consequences of Pharaoh’s outright refusal to let Israel go into the wilderness to worship the Lord.
I imagine the predicament of an Egyptian citizen, not a follower of the Lord, but not rebellious like Pharaoh, having to scramble to find a way to access water for myself and my family. Digging along the Nile feels like a futile effort, but when we live to see such times, we have to do something!
Many years from now, the Lord will look upon Israel and see them living just like these Egyptians, and the prophet Jeremiah will proclaim his word: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13).
In both these scenarios, the only solution is a turning to the Lord. The average Egyptian may not know this, but the people of Israel ought to know better, and followers of Jesus should know even better. Jesus is the living water.
- Where are you scrambling to do everything on your own rather than receiving God’s gift of living water?
Pray for God to refresh you today.