“And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.”
The third sign: if they do not believe even these two signs, take some water from the Nile and pour it on dry ground, and the water from the Nile will become blood on the ground. The Nile was Egypt's life source and a god in the Egyptian pantheon. Its transformation into blood is a direct confrontation with one of Egypt's most fundamental religious claims. But Moses is given this sign for Israel's benefit, not Egypt's — this is authentication for the elders before the confrontation with Pharaoh begins. The third sign carries the weight of the first plague; it is the most dramatic and the most theologically pointed. Revelation 8:8 envisions an eschatological version of the same judgment — a great mountain thrown into the sea, turning it to blood. The specific judgment that will fall on Egypt begins here as a small sign, water poured from a jar, blood on the ground. What is shown in miniature will be performed at scale.
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