Daily Lectionary | Exodus 7 & Matthew 12:22-end

Exodus 7

Summary

Moses will be like God to Pharaoh and Aaron will be God’s/Moses’ prophet who speaks to Pharaoh. Pharaoh will not listen, but the Lord will bring Israel out of Egypt anyway through acts of judgment. Moses and Aaron respond in full obedience. Moses stops making excuses for now.

Aaron casts down his staff before Pharaoh and it turns into a dragon or sea monster (the word here is different from the word for serpent used earlier in Exodus and in Genesis 3). The dragon could be associated with the Nile, one of the chief gods of Egypt. Pharaoh’s magicians could imitate this change of staff into a reptile, but Aaron’s dragon ate the magicians’. The LORD is more powerful than Egypts gods. This sets the theme for the plagues of judgment: the LORD will defeat Egypts gods.

The plagues come in three sets of three with a final climactic plague in the tenth. Each plague in each cycle is a judgment against either the water, land, or air. These are the zones of creation, so the plagues will represent a judgment on creation, a decreation of sorts. The LORD has power to create with blessing and de-create with judgment. 

The first plague and the last plague are also related. In the first plague, the Nile is turned into blood. This recalls Pharaoh’s earlier murder of Hebrew boys in the Nile. Their blood, like Abel’s in Genesis 4, calls up from the ground for vengeance. So the first plague initiates the LORD’s just vengeance. The first and ninth plague, the Nile turned to blood and the sun darkened, also form a bookend on the theme of judgment on the gods of Egypt. Along with the Nile, the sun was the other principle deity in Egypt. 

Pharaoh’s magicians are able to imitate the miracle of water to blood, but in their imitation they are never able to stop it. In fact, by turning more water into blood for the Egyptians they make things worse! 

Reflection

How does the LORD demonstrate his sovereignty over the created order and the spiritual realm in this chapter? 

Matthew 12:22-end

Jesus heals one who was demon-possessed, couldn’t hear, and couldn’t see. This represents the pinnacle of suffering and oppression and brings amazement to the people who wonder if Jesus might truly be the Son of David. This hopeful response is contrasted with the Pharisee’s response who say Jesus must be doing such work by a demon! 

Jesus exposes the folly of such thinking. Why would Satan cast out Satan? Satan’s kingdom would then fall! But it’s not Satan destroying his own realm of influence; it’s Jesus casting him out. It’s Jesus kingdom winning a war against Satan’s kingdom: “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” 

Jesus is the one who binds the strong man and is plundering his house. To deny this work of Jesus, is to commit the unpardonable sin.

Jesus then discusses the need for fruitfulness. Israel was meant to be God’s vine in the world bearing much fruit (cf. Ps. 80). Jesus’ kingdom, the new Israel, will bear that fruit. It will be fruit that comes from the heart. The heart is not hermetically sealed off from outward action; it’s intrinsically connected. One’s words reveal one’s heart. And its by our words that we will be judged.  The outer and inner man are connected.

The scribes and Pharisees demand more signs, but Jesus only offers the sign of Jonah. He will go into the depths of the earth, like Jonah went into the fish, for three days. And like Jonah, he will rise up again. At least Nineveh repented at Jonah’s preaching, but Israel is not responding in the same way to Jesus--someone greater than Jonah. 

Israel has been resisting Jesus, blaspheming the Spirit. But Jesus has been cleaning the house of Israel of demons, preparing the way for their repentance. But if Israel doesn’t heed Jesus’ message, “the last state will be worse than the first.” Jesus’ warning applies in general: things will get worse if you don’t respond to him. But it has an immediate, specific application to “this generation” of Israelites.” Tragically, that generation of Jews would continue down a path fomenting rebellion against Rome and suffer a severe judgment with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Reflection

Jesus confronts demons regularly in the Gospels, and in this section, Jesus teaches on the influence of the demonic. What do we learn about Jesus’ mission as it relates to Satan and his demons? What hope and warnings are in this passage?