Exodus 4:9
But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Exodus 4:1-9 and 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
So today we find Moses still trying to find a way out of going back to Egypt on God’s behalf. He asks God what should he do if the elders don’t believe the LORD sent him. So God gives Moses three miracles to perform and assures him that they will believe once they see these signs. There are many parallels and foreshadowing with these signs but we will focus our efforts on Jesus because we can certainly see Jesus in all three signs.
The first sign was that Moses would throw down his staff and it would turn into a snake. Then he would grab the snake by the tail and it would turn back into a staff. The first object is the rod or staff. The rod is symbolic of God’s ways, guidance and/or provision. Psalm 23 says, “your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” So think of the rod as the power of God.
The symbology here also takes us back to the garden of Eden when we first encounter a snake. The serpent had deceived Adam and Eve so God turned it into a snake. The snake can represent Satan but also lies and even power but ultimately it represents sin.
So the analogy to Jesus is that he would come from God (staff), then he would become sin and be crucified (snake) and then he would return to God after his resurrection (staff). He would grab Satan by the tail and defeat the power of the sin. This miracle shows us that Christ has the power over sin and the ability to defeat it.
The second sign was that Moses put his clean hand into his cloak. When he took it out it was covered with leprosy. God told him to put it back into his cloak and when he took it out again it was restored to normal. We see a similar pattern here as with the staff and we can conclude a similar parallel to Jesus as before. However, this miracle shows us that Christ is able to heal and cleanse us of our sin.
Then in the third miracle or sign, God tells Moses that if they don’t believe those first two miracles, he was to take water from the Nile and pour it on dry ground and it will turn to blood. This miracle breaks the pattern of the first two. This sign ends with blood and it’s not turned back into water like you might expect based on the how the first two miracles played out.
The Nile was and still is the source of life for Egypt. Without water from the Nile Egypt would suffer greatly. They are dependent on its water. The Nile was sort of a deity to the Egyptians. It was the giver of life. Symbolically God is going to take their life and when they reject Him, he is going to give them judgement.
We know that God demands blood as a payment for sin. So with this last sign, God is foreshadowing the death of Egypts’ firstborn sons as punishment for their sin. It’s also a foreshadowing of the life of Christ paying the punishment for our sin.
Lastly I think it’s interesting to note there were three signs given to Moses. Three typically symbolizes perfection. We see the number three in the Trinity, Jesus was resurrected in three days, Jesus rejected the three temptations of Satan and so on. So I don’t think it’s an accident Moses was shown three signs. These signs pointed to the perfect work of Christ on the cross. He would defeat sin, heal us and pay our penalty all at the cross.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)
Christ in the Old Testament 
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