“Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand.”
Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. God instructs Moses to intercept Pharaoh at the Nile — the center of Egyptian religious life. The morning visit to the Nile may be a religious ritual, a royal inspection of Egypt's lifeblood, or simply a regular routine. Whatever its nature, God uses it as the moment of encounter. The staff now identified as the one changed into a snake connects the first confrontation at court to this second one at the river. The Nile that Pharaoh is about to visit is the Nile that killed Hebrew infants and that baby Moses was placed in. God is bringing His messenger to the very place where Pharaoh's policy was most brutally enacted.
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