Good morning my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends on this Tuesday,
Momentum is a powerful thing, isn’t it? Even a negative, destructive, downward spiral momentum is a force to be reckoned with, do you agree? Yesterday I left you with Moses and Aaron, struggling to regain some confidence for they were witnessing a destructive momentum that was nearly overwhelming them.
Twice, Pharaoh’s sorcerers had humiliated Moses and Aaron by duplicating what they thought were miracles which demonstrated God’s unique power, and both times Pharaoh expelled them out of his presence!
In the seven days since their last ejection from Pharaoh’s throne room my guess is Moses and Aaron were doing some real soul searching and having long, deep discussions, late into each night, wrestling with everything they had ever been told or taught about the God of Abraham.
At the same time they struggled to understand why God was allowing Pharaoh’s sorcerers to have such success in mimicking God’s miracles? Have you ever struggled with deep questions like these, my friends?
Then word came from God again to Moses as recorded in Exodus 8:1 “Go to Pharaoh and say to him: ‘This is what the LORD says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may worship Me. If you refuse, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country…”
Oh my, what an ugly scene must have arisen in their minds imagining frogs climbing up out of every water pond, river, lake and jumping by the millions, perhaps billions, into every aspect of life in Egypt. Businesses, homes, kitchens, bedrooms, palaces and even huts. The croaking would be deafening. And it was! For it really did happen!! (Exodus 8:1-5)
But WHY frogs? From his boyhood Egyptian training, Moses would remember the Egyptian goddess ‘Heqet’ who was depicted with the head of a frog and considered the goddess of fertility and childbirth. By flooding the land with frogs Moses’ God might have been thought by the Egyptians to be pouring out the great blessing of many children for every Egyptian woman, especially when Pharaoh’s sorcerers for a third time mimicked the God of Moses by also making frogs come up from the water, all across the land. (Ex. 8:6,7)
However too much of a good thing can be a curse and very quickly Pharaoh and his people were sick of millions of frogs, yet Pharaoh’s sorcerers could neither drive the frogs away nor stop their multiplication which continued!
So, Pharaoh begged Moses for help, promising to let the Hebrew slaves go if Moses could stop the frog infestation! (Ex. 8:8-11)
Moses declared “…so that you may know there is no one like the LORD our God, the frogs will leave you and your houses, your people and officials tomorrow. They will remain only in the Nile.” But in order to demonstrate His power over ‘Heqet’, the Egyptian frog goddess, rather than Almighty God causing all the frogs to jump back into the water, God killed the frogs! Millions of dead frogs started rotting in the Egyptian heat! “The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields. They were piled up into heaps and the land reeked of them. But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief from the frogs, he hardened his heart…” (Ex. 8:12-15)
Do you sense a resentment growing in the heart of Pharaoh toward Moses and the only true God? Can you imagine Moses too was getting frustrated with Pharaoh? But God was working His much larger plan to prove His supremacy to Moses and Aaron; Pharaoh the Egyptians; and especially the Hebrew slaves who needed to be convinced God could be trusted with any problem they might ever face!
We don’t know how much time elapsed between the frog plague and the gnat plague, but have you ever been pestered on a hot summer day by gnats buzzing all around your face, ears, nose and mouth? Exodus 8:16,17 gives us the picture of thick clouds of gnats rising up from the dust of the ground everywhere in Egypt! That was significant because the Egyptian god “Geb” was considered the god of the earth or dirt from which plant life grew to sustain animal and human life. But gnats, clouds of gnats!
There was no escape… except perhaps underwater! Pharaoh, of course, turned to his sorcerers for relief, but this time the magicians were stumped. Try as they did, they could not duplicate this plague of gnats. So, Pharaoh’s sorcerers had only one thing they could say: “This is the finger of God!” (Ex. 8:18,19) Oh my, that made Pharaoh very angry as his heart continued to harden.
Interestingly I see no evidence that Pharaoh cried out for relief from the gnats and perhaps it’s because the very next day God doubled up and sent another plague, this time flies! Moses threatened Pharaoh that if he did not release the Hebrew slaves God would send swarms of black flies, but this time God would miraculously put up an invisible wall so not one gnat or fly would be in the region of Goshen where all the Hebrew slaves lived! Think about that!! God sent this word to Pharaoh: “so you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land. I will make a distinction between My people and your people.” (Ex. 8:22,23)
And sure enough, clouds of black flies, billions and billions of them, filled the air of Egypt and there was no place anyone could hide from them. Pharaoh cried out for relief and promised Moses he would release the Hebrews. But again as God blew away the gnats and flies, Pharaoh’s heart hardened and he refused. (Exodus 8:24-32)
Honestly now are you weary just imagining what life was like for the people in Egypt in these horrific days and nights? Plague after plague, and they continued, as Exodus 9 and 10 describe, each one devastating a different segment of Egyptian life, culture and their economy. Each one humiliating one of Egypt’s gods. The flies plague had humiliated the Egyptian god “Khepri”, thought to be the god of creation, and its statue had the head of a fly. The plague that killed livestock throughout Egypt, but not one animal in the Hebrew region of Goshen, humiliated the Egyptian god “Hathor” who was depicted with the head of a cow and was thought to be the god of love and protection. (Exodus 9:1-7)
God’s plague of boils on the Egyptians, but not on the Hebrews, humiliated the Egyptian god “Isis” who was the god of health and healing. (Exodus 9:8-12) God’s plague of hail, which devastated the crops across the land of Egypt but not in the region of Goshen, humiliated the Egyptian god “Nut” which is the goddess of the sky and good weather. (Exodus 9:13-35) Moses brought to Pharaoh a very specific message when facing the reality of these terrible storms.
Exodus 9:16 records these remarkable words from God to Pharaoh: “I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you My power and that My name might be proclaimed through all the earth.” Let’s pause a few seconds and let that powerful statement soak in for a moment.
The most powerful man in the world, the Pharaoh, was having repeated power demonstrations from the one, true, living, almighty God, yet Pharaoh refused to bow his heart in surrender to God or even acknowledge God’s supremacy!
Let’s pause right here. How do you and I RECOGNIZE and RESPOND to the power of God at work or unleashed in our world or our lives? What power holds all the planets in their orbits and the stars in their fixed places? What power keeps the distance between sun and earth exactly right so humanity neither freezes nor frys? Are you among millions of people who simply ignore or disregard or discount the clear, tangible evidence of the supreme power of God at work all around us?
Or are you a person who delights in thanking God, praising God for what you experience everyday which is God’s reach to your life?
Oh my, here’s a great worship song to help us reject the apathy, the ignorance of our world and give God the praise He is due. And there are again more study notes and discussion questions for your consideration at the Grand Narrative link below, and I’ll meet you here again tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: Exodus 8, 9.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Exodus 9
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
“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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