The River Runs Red

Reading the Word

From Exodus: The LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water; stand by at the river's bank to meet him... You shall strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall be turned to blood." Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded; he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile was turned to blood. The fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink its water. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen; he turned and went into his house. And all the Egyptians had to dig along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.

From Psalm 83: "O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! Even now your enemies are in tumult; those who hate you have raised their heads. They lay crafty plans against your people... Make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind... Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace. Let them know that you alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth."

From Matthew: Then they brought to him a demoniac who was blind and mute; and he cured him, so that the one who had been mute could speak and see. All the crowds were amazed and said, "Can this be the Son of David?" But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, "It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this fellow casts out the demons." Jesus said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste... If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you... Whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven."

Reflection

Back in the day, the Nile was Egypt's life.

It is the source of agriculture, commerce, drinking water, identity. It is what made Egypt Egypt. And God turned it into blood. Not because God is cruel, but because Egypt's entire economy was built on the blood of enslaved people. The river that sustained Pharaoh's empire was already running red with the labor and suffering of Israel. God made visible what was always true.

And what did Pharaoh do? He turned and walked back into his house. His magicians replicated the sign with their "secret arts" - they performed the same trick, as if matching the miracle cancels it. As if showing that you can also make water bloody somehow proves the water is fine. This is the logic of power when it is cornered: deflect, replicate, normalize. Do not deal with the Nile. Just go back inside and close the door.

Meanwhile, the Egyptians, ordinary people, not Pharaoh, dig along the riverbank for clean water. The consequences of Pharaoh's hardness fall on everyone. This is always how it works. The powerful walk back into their houses while the people dig in the dirt, looking for something drinkable.

Matthew puts a different hardened heart before us. Jesus heals a man who cannot see and cannot speak, a double isolation, cut off from both receiving the world and responding to it. The crowd is astonished, and the Pharisees, as usual, are threatened. Rather than seeing liberation, they see a political problem. So they name the Spirit of God the spirit of evil. They look at a man made whole and call it the work of Beelzebul.

This is what Jesus calls the unforgivable sin, not a moral failure, not a lapse in behavior, but the sustained, deliberate choice to call the work of the Spirit demonic. It is unforgivable not because God refuses to forgive, but because it closes the very faculty by which forgiveness is received. If you insist that liberation is oppression, that healing is manipulation, that the Spirit of God is the spirit of evil, you have lost the ability to recognize grace when it stands right in front of you.

Both texts from Exodus and Matthew offer warning and hope. The warning: power hardens. Systems protect themselves. Those who benefit from the way things are will replicate, deflect, and normalize rather than repent. The Nile will keep running red, and they will keep walking back inside. And our own hearts are not immune. We too can look at the Spirit of God at work in people and communities we have dismissed, and call it something else.

The hope: the kingdom of God has come. Not is coming. Has come! The man who could not speak now speaks. The man who could not see now sees. No magician's trick cancels that. No hardened heart undoes it. And the God who will not keep silence, who breaks through the Pharaoh's door with plague and the Pharisee's certainty with a healed body, is still breaking through today.

Prayer

O God, do not keep silence. The rivers still run red with the blood of the exploited. The powerful still walk back into their houses.

Soften our hardened hearts. Keep us from calling your Spirit by the wrong name, from looking at liberation and seeing a threat.

Open our eyes to see your kingdom coming in the places we have dismissed. Open our mouths to speak what the powerful would rather not hear.

In the name of Jesus, who makes the blind see and the mute speak, we pray. Amen.

For Today

Where have you walked back into your house rather than face what the river is telling you? Where might God be at work in someone or something you have been quick to dismiss? And what would it mean to say today, not "this cannot be of God," but "the kingdom of God has come to us"?