In the week of creation, the Lord took the seventh day to rest from His work. It was the material part of the beginning of everything, which today still delight scholars of the universe. To do this, He only needed to give the command and everything was created by His Son, and without Him, the Word, nothing was made (John 1.1-3). When Jesus came into the world, He continued to carry out what the Father said, and so no deception was ever found in His mouth. He is the same today (Hebrews 13.8).

          Christ received all the power to fulfill the Father's will and repair everything that sin had ruined. The Master passed on the completion of the work to us, giving us the example to act like Him. All we have to do is carry out the same work, and we'll get it right and finish with a high grade (John 13.15; 14.12). The best thing today is to always read the Bible and meditate on what catches our attention. That way, we'll fulfill our mission with praise!

           Moses received God's call and went to the country that had tried to arrest him years before. Although he was brought up by Pharaoh's daughter, she and her father were probably dead now. The reigning Pharaoh had nothing to do with him (Exodus 2). As an obedient servant, Moses went to this king and said that God had sent him to take the Hebrews out of the Egyptian land, because they were slaves there (Exodus 3 to 5). However, the monarch's response was negative. So, God's servant began the battle for deliverance by the divine method!

           There would be no armies in that war, because Israel was impoverished. None of their men had the necessary resources; after all, being slaves, they didn't even have their rights respected, and Egypt was the greatest nation in the world. However, the Israelites were the people of the Covenant made by the Almighty with Abraham 430 years earlier, commanding him to leave his land and his kindred and go to a land that would be shown to him (Genesis 12).

           After Jacob went to Egypt and settled in the best land of that nation, his sons didn't even bother to seek the Lord (Genesis 47.27). As is usually the case, little by little they began to see their freedom diminish and, before long, they were nothing more than Pharaoh's slaves (Exodus 1.1-14). The whip of Egypt made them shut up and work from early sunrise to sun down for next to nothing. Shame on them! The people descended from Abraham was reduced to servitude for having turned away from God!

           Today, this shameful condition is banned throughout the world, but without a doubt, even in so-called developed countries, there are still situations analogous to slavery. Brazilian law prohibits this kind of treatment, but from time to time even the authorities use the poor in this way on their land. This is humiliating, because people have no right whatsoever when they submit themselves to work in order to earn a little food and clothing!

           Returning to the subject of the verse we are studying, the plague that turned water to blood, after Moses issued the command in Egypt, was the first of nine others to come. For seven days, there was no water to drink or cook with; the people dug wells by the river to find it. The means used by the Lord would break the wickedness of Pharaoh's heart to let the Hebrew people go. The tenth plague did the job!

           In Christ, with love,

           R. R. Soares