Exodus 8
McGeeCHAPTER 8THEME: The second plaguefrogs; the third plaguelice; the fourth plaguefliesThe plagues continue upon the land of Egypt. God is directing His attack against a people immersed in idolatry.
Exodus 8:1
THE SECOND PLAGUEFROGSFrogs were represented by Heka, a frog-headed goddess. Also Hapi was depicted as holding a frog out of whose mouth flowed a stream of nourishment. This indicates the close relationship between the god of the Nile and the frog goddess, one of the oldest and the mother of goddesses. She was the goddess of fertility and rebirth, the patroness of midwives. One Egyptian picture shows Heka reciting spells to effect the resurrection of Osiris. Also a carving shows her kneeling before the queen and superintending at the birth of Hatshepset. Frogs were everywherein Egyptian bedrooms, in kitchens, in every room in the house, in kneading troughs and in ovens. When they walked, they walked on frogs; when they sat, they sat on frogs. It was a terrible situation. One frog could not do very much, but many frogs caused great consternation. Of course they were sacred and should not be killed.
Exodus 8:6
Once again the Egyptian magicians duplicated the plague of frogs. This reveals the power of Satan.
Exodus 8:8
It is interesting to note that although the magicians could multiply the frogs, they could not remove them. Pharaoh was so upset by this plague that he was ready to promise anything. God was beginning to force this king to acknowledge who He is.
Exodus 8:12
This passage gives us a more comprehensive picture of the heardening of Pharaoh’s heart. We are told that he hardened his own heart. God’s part in this was to bring to the surface that which was already there.
Exodus 8:16
THE THIRD PLAGUELICEUp to this point the magicians were able to duplicate every miracle wrought by the hand of God. For some reason they were powerless to reproduce this plague. If it was by trickery that they duplicated the miracles, at elast during this plague they finally acknowledged the finger of God in the plagues. Gradually God was convincing the Egyptians the He alone was God. The worship of these gods entered into the very life of the Egyptians and into their daily routines. This judgment brought loathing upon Geb, the earth god. Geb was closely related to the earth in all of its states. Geb was the one who made his report to Osiris on the state of the harvest. The word lice could mean gnats or mosquitoes. Its root means to “cover” or “nip” or “pinch.” It is interesting that the nipping, pinching, or covering could not be fulfilled by a gnat or a mosquito. It is, however, a good description of lice. A leading zoologist has said that the mites form an enormous order whose leading function, to a large extent, is to play the scavenger. You can well imagine with the land stinking of frogs that there were crowds of lice. The lice could eventually rid the land of the frogs and could therefore become a blessing as well as a curse. Regardless of the apparent help the lice might have been, one man tells about his experience with them in Egypt: “I noticed that the sand appeared to be in motion. Close …inpection revealed …that the surface of the ground was a moving mass of minute ticks, thousands of which were crawling up my legs …I beat a hasty retreat, pondering the words of the Scriptures, ’the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.’” The plagues of lice could not be duplicated by the Egyptian magicians. God is beginning ot level His judgment against life itself in the land of Egypt.
Exodus 8:20
THE FOURTH PLAGUEFLIESUp until this time the plagues had touched both the lands of Egypt and Goshen where the children of Israel lived. Many people were probably telling Pharoah that since Goshen was also affected by the plagues, the phenomena of the plagues had a natural explanation. Maybe they attributed the vexation to one of the Egyptian gods. Everything becomes crystal clear at this juncture, however, when God declares that from now on there is to be a distinction, and none of the following plagues will touch the land of Goshen, the home of Israel. From now on, judgment will fall only upon the land of Egypt. The fourth judgment is the plague of flies. These “flies” were most likely the sacred beetle or scarab as they were known in Egypt. These scarabs, many of gold, are found in the tombs in Egypt. They were sacred to the sun-god Ra. The severity of this plague is reflected in the fact that Pharaoh was willing to reach some sort of compromise with Moses at this time. Notice the proposal that Pharaoh made as the sacred beetle invaded the land.
Exodus 8:24
The Egyptian scarab spoke of eternal life. Imagine this most sacred thing becoming a curse to the people and a plague upon the land. Pharaoh wanted to work out a compromise; he made four compromises in all before the plagues came to an end. Moses and Aaron wanted the children of Israel to go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice. Pharaoh said, “All right, you may sacrifice, but stay in the land.” This is the same kind of compromise that many Christians make. It is always satanic.
This compromise says we can be Christians but not narrow ones. Be a broad-minded Christian and don’t change your life. If your life doesn’t change, you are not a Christian. Now don’t accuse me of saying you have to perform good works to be a Christian. I didn’t say it that way. We are saved by faith in Christ and nothing elseworks are excluded.
But when you put your faith in Christ to save you, it will change your life. That is where Christian conduct comes in. The inner man must be changed first. My point is that the contemporary church has made many compromises and for the most part is still in the land of Egypt. You cannot tell the difference today between the average Christian and the average man of the world. The facts tell us that over fifty percent of the citizens of the United States are members of some religious body. Whenever I am on a plane and they are serving cocktails, I play a game to pass the time. At first I counted the people having cocktails but that became too big an undertaking; so now I just count the people who do not have drinks. The other day I was on a plane where only four people did not take cocktails. Now friends, there must have been some church members on that airplane. They were sacrificing in the land of Egypt. They were broad-minded and did not want to be “square.” They wanted to live like the world. We are in a race today with two horses. One horse is black and one is white. If you decide to ride them and put one foot on one horse and one foot on the other, you will soon make a strange discovery. These horses will run in opposite directions. You must make up your mind which horse you want to ride. Moses will not accept Pharaoh’s compromise. Moses insists on Israel’s going three days’ journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord God. Next Pharaoh decides on a second compromise.
Exodus 8:28
Pharaoh’s concession this time is just a shade different from his other one. He says, “Do not go very far away and also entreat for me.” This, again, is the same kind of compromise that we find many churches (even fundamental ones) adoptingthe program of the world. They run their entire program on the basis of banquets, promotion, contests, and so forth. Many churches are so much like the world that it is difficult to tell them from the Rotary Club, or any knife-and-fork club whose membership is made up largely of those who do not know Christ.
Exodus 8:29
Pharaoh is hardening his heart and God is making him reveal what is already in his heart.