Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
The word “victory” is a word that awakens hope and celebration whether on the athletic field or the battle field or an election. But in every victory there is also ‘defeat’ and ‘surrender’ by the vanquished. Those words stir up many different emotions, don’t they? We’re on a remarkable, historic journey with Moses as the most powerful man in the world, the Pharaoh of Egypt, supported by his demonically empowered sorcerers who have been battling with Moses and God over the future of 1 million Hebrew slaves in bondage in Egypt. Today the battle changes significantly, come join me in Exodus 8:16.
Yesterday we concluded our time standing alongside the Pharaoh as he watched people scurrying about piling up dead frogs, millions of dead frogs. God had responded to Moses’ prayer and stopped the infestation of frogs across the land of Egypt, but then came the challenge of finding and getting rid of millions of dead and decomposing frogs! Finally the stench was gone, the streets and houses were clear of dead frogs, and life was returning to some normalcy in Egypt. But God wasn’t finished, the Hebrews were still enslaved.
The record does not tell us Moses and Aaron sought another audience with the Pharaoh, this time it simply says: “The the LORD said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron, ‘stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground; and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.’ They did this…and gnats came upon people and animals. Across the land, the dust became gnats.” (Ex. 8:16,17)
In a matter of a few short weeks, Egypt had become a battle ground. Moses had come out of nowhere, a long forgotten hero of sorts. You may recall he’d been born into a Hebrew slave family but adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter and raised in the palace as a prince. But as an adult Moses had killed a slavemaster beating a Hebrew slave, and stripped of his Egyptian royalty by the Pharaoh he was banished from Egypt. For many years Moses had lived as a shepherd far from Egypt until one day he had an encounter with God at a burning bush which was not consumed. That encounter is recorded for us in Exodus 3 and it changed Moses’ life, and God sent Moses back to Egypt to confront Pharaoh, telling Pharaoh God wanted His people, the Hebrews, set free! Since that first encounter, now only a few short weeks ago, there has been an escalating confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh… and the God of the Hebrews and the demonic forces used by Pharaoh’s sorcerers.
These gnats are now the fourth miraculous demonstration of God’s power demanding Pharaoh’s submission. Have you ever found yourself overwhelmed by a swarm of gnats? I mean a swarm that is so thick you need to close your eyes and mouth and cover your nose and ears for the gnats seem to be covering your body, seeking every entry point. They can be suffocating can’t they? That’s what was suddenly happening in Egypt and the Pharaoh didn’t need another visit from Moses to explain what was happening. He did, as he had done with the snakes, the Nile river blood and the infestation of frogs… Pharaoh quickly summoned his magicians. But just as they had not been able to stop or reverse the three previous miracles, so this time they were helpless. In fact this time no matter how hard they beat the dust with their staffs they were unable to reproduce the miracle… no gnats came from the dust for them! The Exodus record says: “But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not…”
Can you see the Pharaoh screaming at the magicians while swatting at the gnats all around him as they cover his face? But the magicians are helpless. They cannot stop the infestation of gnats, and they can’t reproduce it. Pharaoh cries out to his magicians… ‘so what does it mean that you are unable to do anything?’ Their response is a historic moment: “This is the finger of God.” (Ex. 8:19) It’s only 5 or 6 words, but it is…SURRENDER!
The magicians were finally admitting Almighty God, the God of Moses, was more powerful than their demonic forces! A nationwide swarm of gnats is something no military can defeat. There were no screens on their windows like we have in many parts of the world today. Pharaoh’s only hope was that the sorcerers might somehow counter Moses’ God with their own gods… but not this time. God’s power is superior and finally Pharaoh was faced with a no hope situation. His royal officials could do nothing, his magicians and sorcerers could do nothing, he couldn’t even protect his own face from the gnats! But amazingly the record says: “But Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the LORD had said.” (Ex. 8:19)
So my friends, how do you explain the demonic forces duplicating the first three miracles, but not the gnats? We know that God is all powerful. God is able to do anything, anytime, anywhere. But we have here the evidence that sometimes God allows Satan to use his power to accomplish hurtful things in this world, as he did with the first three miracles. But with the gnats God drew a line of demarcation. No more! Oh the war with Pharaoh was not over, as we know, for his heart remained hard resisting several more miracles as we will see, but the dark powers of Pharaoh’s sorcerers are finally defeated and silenced. They admit defeat, they surrender with the gnats, claiming “This is the finger of God.” But, as we will see over the next few days, God was far from finished in Egypt!
Because we have no detail in Exodus 8 of the gnats plague ending, it appears God stopped the plague soon after the sorcerers admitted God’s supremacy. Did God allow the gnats to remain a day or two or a week, we don’t know, but we do know just as the power of God brought the gnats, the power of God removed the gnats. From this point on, the Pharaoh no longer seeks help from his magicians and sorcerers, for their powers have been conquered. But Pharaoh himself is prideful, arrogant, self reliant and as God continues to harden his heart, Pharaoh becomes adamant… he will not bow, he will not yield even if his magicians and sorcerers have surrendered! As we close today my friends, do we see anything of ourselves in this?
How resistant have you been to what God has tried to accomplish in your life or your family? How prideful, how self-reliant, how insistent are you that YOU are Lord of your life, king of your castle even when God offers His help to you? Oh friends, let’s not miss the opportunity here to see the fallacy, the danger of Pharaoh’s path, and look closely to see how similar our path is to his!
In closing today I urge us to consider that we too can sometimes be so resistant to God, so self reliant that we act like this foolish Pharaoh. We push away our family, our friends, anyone who tries to help us, especially if they don’t seem to have answers or at least the answers that we want. We humans, way too often, are determined to win the battles of our lives, even if we have to fight all alone! Oh my friends even the great King David found himself in this place of resistance to God and refusal to surrender. It nearly cost him his life! It did cost him his reputation! And finally when David was ready to surrender, Psalm 51 is the very powerful cry of his heart, pleading for God’s help. May I urge us, all of us, to take a few moments and carefully read Psalm 51 asking God to show us if our heart is anything like Pharaoh’s heart.
Today’s Scripture is Exodus 8:16-19.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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