Sign of the Waters Turned to Blood
Satan will mimic God's work up to a point. We are told that Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses; but even then Moses' rod swallowed their rods. They were defeated in their own realm, that Pharaoh's faith in them might be shaken. But it was in their predictions of what was coming that the Hebrew brethren specially attested their superiority. The sky was roseate with the blush of dawn, as Pharaoh, accompanied by his court, came to perform his customary ablutions or to worship at the brink of the Nile. Moses met him with the peremptory summons, “Let my people go…” and in accordance with his prediction the Nile became as blood. But since by their clever legerdemain the magicians appeared able to do as much, his heart was hardened- i.e., “he did not set his heart to it.” In other words, he would not consider the message sent to him by the hand of God's accredited messengers.