Commentaria in Exodum
Chapter 7
The Lord sends Moses to Pharao and gives him signs to perform: Moses therefore turns his rod into a serpent before Pharao; then, at verse 19, he turns all the waters of Egypt into blood; the magicians of Pharao do the like, verse 22: hence Pharao hardens himself not to let the Hebrews go.
1. And the Lord said to Moses: Behold I have appointed thee the God of Pharao: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. 2. Thou shalt speak to him all that I command thee: and he shall speak to Pharao, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land. 3. But I shall harden his heart, and shall multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4. and he will not hear you: and I will lay my hand upon Egypt, and will bring forth my army and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt, by very great judgments. 5. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, who have stretched forth my hand upon Egypt, and have brought forth the children of Israel from among them. 6. So Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had commanded: so did they. 7. And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharao. 8. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: 9. When Pharao shall say to you: Shew signs; thou shalt say to Aaron: Take thy rod, and cast it down before Pharao, and it shall be turned into a serpent. 10. So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharao, and did as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron took the rod before Pharao and his servants, and it was turned into a serpent. 11. And Pharao called the wise men and the magicians: and they also by Egyptian enchantments and certain secrets did in like manner. 12. And they every one cast down their rods, and they were turned into serpents: but Aaron’s rod devoured their rods. 13. And Pharao’s heart was hardened, and he did not hearken to them, as the Lord had commanded. 14. And the Lord said to Moses: Pharao’s heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go. 15. Go to him in the morning, behold he will go out to the waters, and thou shalt stand to meet him on the bank of the river: and the rod that was turned into a serpent thou shalt take in thy hand. 16. And thou shalt say to him: The Lord God of the Hebrews sent me to thee, saying: Let my people go to sacrifice to me in the desert: and hitherto thou wouldst not hear. 17. Thus saith the Lord: In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold I will strike with the rod that is in my hand the water of the river, and it shall be turned into blood. 18. And the fish that are in the river shall die, and the waters shall be corrupted, and the Egyptians shall be afflicted when they drink the water of the river. 19. And the Lord said to Moses: Say to Aaron: Take thy rod, and stretch forth thy hand over the waters of Egypt, and over their rivers, and the streams, and the pools, and all the ponds of waters, that they may be turned into blood: and let there be blood in all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and of stone. 20. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had commanded: and lifting up the rod he struck the water of the river before Pharao and his servants: and it was turned into blood. 21. And the fish that were in the river died: and the river was corrupted, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river, and there was blood in all the land of Egypt. 22. And the magicians of the Egyptians with their enchantments did in like manner: and Pharao’s heart was hardened, neither did he hearken to them, as the Lord had commanded. 23. And he turned himself away, and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to it this time also. 24. And all the Egyptians dug 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 the Lord struck the river.
1. AND THE LORD SAID TO MOSES.—God here answers the timidity and complaint of Moses, which he put forward in the preceding chapter, verse 12.
BEHOLD I HAVE APPOINTED THEE THE GOD OF PHARAO.—“God,” not by nature, nor by hypostatic union: for such a one is not appointed, especially one who already subsists, as Moses here subsisted; but by participation of divine eminence and power against Pharao, as if to say: Fear not, O Moses, the cruelty and pride of Pharao, because I have made thee as it were the God of Pharao, not one whom he should faithfully adore, but one whom he should servilely fear as punishing, and entreat as healing; and, as Rupert says: “Since thou, the meekest of men, deemest it unworthy of thee as a leader to contend with Pharao, and humblest thyself, behold I will lift thee up; and I will make thee the God of Pharao, that thou mayest command the waters by the power of God, to create frogs; that thou mayest command the earth and ashes, and bring sciniphs and blains upon the king and his army; that thou mayest command the air, and it breed a pestilence; that thou mayest command fire, and it be borne mixed with hail upon sinners; by commanding the elements thou shalt be the God of Pharao: behold how glorious a queen of virtues is humility, which is wont to fly up to heaven.” So far Rupert. Whence the Chaldee renders: I have given thee for rab, that is, prince, of Pharao.
In like manner St. Basil became a God to the emperor Valens; St. Ambrose, to the empress Justina; St. Athanasius, Hilary, Hosius and Lucifer, to the emperor Constantius, when they most freely reproved him, nay compared him to Nero, Decius, Diocletian and Antichrist, as is plain from their words which I cited on 2 Tim. 1:7. So St. Bernard to Pope Eugenius: “Consider,” he says, “that thou oughtest to be the form of justice, the mirror of holiness, the defender of the faith, etc., the rod of the mighty, the hammer of tyrants, the father of kings, the salt of the earth, the light of the city, the priest of the Most High, the vicar of Christ, the Christ of the Lord, finally the God of Pharao.” So Elias was a God to king Achab by his threats and plagues: whence 3 Kings 17 [18]:17, when the king said to him: “Art thou he that troublest Israel?” he answered fearlessly: “I have not troubled Israel, but thou, and thy father’s house, who have forsaken the Lord.” See here what humility deserves, and how it exalted Moses, making him the God of Pharao. As Moses overcame Pharao, so the humble overcomes the devil.
We read in the Lives of the Fathers, book 7, chap. 23, that the devil met St. Macarius and wished to strike him with a sharp sickle, but could not, and therefore said: “Great is the violence I suffer from thee, Macarius, for when I desire to hurt thee, I cannot: whatever thou doest, I do more. For thou dost sometimes fast, I am never refreshed by any food. Thou often watchest, but sleep never oppressed me. But in one thing thou dost overcome me, I confess.” And when Macarius asked him what it was, he said: “Thy humility alone overcomes me,” at which saying, Macarius praying, he vanished into the air.
In the same place another Abbot says: “As much as a man humbles himself in humility, so much does he advance on high; for as pride, if it ascend to heaven, is brought down even to hell: so humility, if it descend to hell, will then be exalted even to heaven.”
In the same place another compares humility to St. John the Baptist, and charity to Christ. “All labour,” he says, “without humility is vain. For humility is the forerunner of charity. As John was the forerunner of Jesus, drawing all to Him: so humility draws to charity, that is, to God Himself, because God is charity.”
In the same place, chap. 15, a certain tanner of wondrous humility is preferred in merit to St. Antony, who continually said: “All this city enters into the kingdom of God for their justice; but I alone shall enter everlasting punishment for my sins.”
Hence St. Hilary, book 7 On the Trinity, teaches that Christ is called God in Scripture in other ways, namely not by appointment, but first by name, because He is simply and precisely called God, as John chap. 1: “The Word was God”; secondly by birth, because He is called God not by adoption but by generation: for He is called the Son of God begotten of the Father; thirdly by nature, because He Himself said: “I and the Father are one”; fourthly by power: for He Himself said: “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth”; fifthly by profession, because He professed before the Jews who persecuted Him that He was consubstantial and equal with the Father, as John 5: “He said God was his Father, making himself equal to God”; and this His profession He proved by miracles and sealed by His death and martyrdom. So St. Hilary.
Note: For “God,” the Hebrew is Elohim, which is given to others than God, namely angels and men, especially those to whom God has communicated His judicial power or rule.
Thus Moses was the leader of Israel, Num. 11:11. So in Exodus 22:28 it is said: “Thou shalt not speak ill of the gods (the judges), nor curse the prince of thy people.” Psalm 8:6: “Thou hast made him a little less than the angels,” in Hebrew than Elohim. Psalm 137: “I will sing praise to thee in the sight of the angels” (Hebrew Elohim). Thus we read in the Lives of the Fathers, Sentence 107, that St. Macarius was called the God of the monks.