Good morning and welcome back to another Biblit! Last week we started the famous 10 plagues. We saw Moses perform miracles by the hand of God and turn all the water in Egypt to blood, thus proving God is superior over the Nile and the Egyptian gods. This week we continue with this theme of showcasing God’s superiority over Egypt and all creation. Let’s jump into this commentary on Exodus chapter 8.
Context
Alright, so chapter 8 starts off exactly 7 days after Aaron’s staff turned the Nile and all the water in Egypt into blood. The second plague starts off according to the pattern with a divine warning to Pharaoh. God speaks to Moses who speaks to Pharaoh warning that if Pharaoh doesn’t let Israel go worship the Lord, God will send a plague of frogs.
Frogs represented a god, named Heqet, who was the Egyptian fertility goddess. Just keep that in mind.
God then tells Moses to tell Aaron to stretch his staff over the Nile where frogs start pouring out. I mean, I can’t imagine how many frogs it would have been. They were everywhere. They got into people’s homes, all over the streets, even in the ovens and bedrooms! Even Pharaoh had little frogs in his bed. I mean, frogs are cool and all, but this just sounds horrifying.
Once again, God shows His superiority over Egyptian gods. The fact that the Nile (worshipped by the Egyptians) was producing so many frogs (a divine being for them) to the point of devastation and humiliation, was purposeful to show God’s power.
Pharaoh’s magicians came in to “save” the day and showed Pharaoh they could repeat this plague through their secret dark arts. Notice, however, that the magicians can only ever add to the plague or replicate it, they cannot reverse it or save Egypt from devastation.
This is the first time (of many) that Pharaoh calls Moses and Aaron and pleads with them to take away the frogs. Pharaoh promises that if they take away the frogs, then he will let Israel go make a sacrifice to God.
Moses prays to God and all the frogs drop dead, adding to the stench in the air. Pharaoh goes back on his word and does not let Israel go. We’ll soon learn that Pharaoh likes doing this. I have a feeling Moses was burning with rage at this point.
The third plague is the plague of gnats, or sometimes it’s translated as lice. This plague, as the pattern dictates, comes without warning. The Lord tells Moses to tell Aaron to strike his staff in the dust and the dust turned into gnats. This is the third and final plague of the first act. Remember, this act shows God’s supriority over Pharaoh, his people, and the gods of Egypt. The last part of this particular plague shows God’s superiority over Pharaoh’s special magicians. Even they recognize that these plagues are divine as they cannot reproduce the gnats.
Egypt is tormented by tiny insects, but Pharaoh will still not let Israel go and we move on to the fourth plague.
The fourth plague begins a new act. The first plague begins in the morning again and also reveals the theme of the entire act. Moses intercepts Pharaoh at the Nile in the morning and warns Pharaoh that if he doesn’t let Israel go, a plague of flies will come upon him and all of Egypt. However, this time the Lord declares that His people will be safe from the flies.
“I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This sign will take place tomorrow.” (Exodus 8:23 CSB).
Thus the theme of the second act is revealed. God wants to show His favor over His people and creates a division between Goshen and the rest of Egypt.
The second act of plagues also does not involve Aaron’s staff and so the following morning, as God promised, the land was filled with flies. Everywhere except in Goshen. The Bible tells us the land of Egypt was ruined. The last time the word “ruined” was used was in Genesis 6 regarding the devastation of the world due to sin and the judgment by the floodwaters.
Pharaoh once again calls in Moses and Aaron to plead for them to take away the flies. However, this time he tries to negotiate. (Come on, Pharaoh). He tells them that Israel can sacrifice to God within Egypt instead of traveling.
Moses rejects the negotiation and tells Pharaoh, no, Israel needs to travel 3 days into the wilderness to make sacrifices to God.
Then Pharaoh says, fine, but just don’t go very far. So Moses asks God and God removes all the flies. However, Pharaoh again hardens his heart and doesn’t let Israel go.
Interpretation
Ok, what did I take away from these 3 plagues?
God favors His people. At the beginning of the fourth plague we see God declare favor over the Israelites; His people. Earlier, remember God calls Israel His firstborn:
“Then you will say to Pharaoh: This is what the Lord says: Israel is My firstborn son.” (Exodus 4:22 CSB).
God loves His people, Israel, even though later on they will give Him much grief. But here we see He cares for them and protects them from the devastation of these plagues.You can’t negotiate with God. It’s a pretty desperate attempt for Pharaoh to try and negotiate the commands of God. The command was simple: travel 3 days into the wilderness to make a sacrifice. This shouldn’t have been a big deal; apparently, this was a common ask for slaves at this time. However, this Pharaoh denies it over and over. Perhaps out of those same initial fears the Pharaoh at the beginning of Exodus had when he decided to enslave Israel.
So what does he do? Pharaoh tries to negotiate; as if this is some final attempt to keep at least some of his power. God is quick to shut him down. It’s all or nothing with God’s commands. There are no half-obediences.
Application
Ok, so the two takeaways I had were basically just application points. But I’ll go into them a little more along with some other random thoughts I’m having this morning.
God favors His people, and we are His people. The beauty of the gospel (well, one of the many beauties) is that the Gentiles (aka, us) are now considered children of God along with all the Jewish descendants as long as they have accepted Christ! Adopted into His family! That same care and love He showed Israel in the midst of the plagues, He shows us too!
This doesn’t mean we won’t have hardship. God didn’t save them from the first 3 plagues, and He didn’t set a section of the world for Christians and say “the coronavirus won’t touch this.” We live in a broken world and should expect hardship and even death. That’s not what the ultimate love of God really is. To say that God’s fullness of love stops with a comfortable life in a broken world is really underselling God’s love. No, His love is that we now have access to God, we can build a thriving relationship with God, that He is sanctifying us and making us more like Him, and that one day we will be fully adopted into the Kingdom of Heaven where we can dwell with God face to face! That’s the love I’m talking about.
Furthermore, when we talk about God’s favor over Israel as His firstborn, we have to remember that His true firstborn, Jesus, was the one He sent to save us! I can’t help but think that if God shows this much favor and love for His firstborn nation, who end up grieving Him and getting banished from the promised land, how much more favor does God have for Jesus? And then God allows Him to willingly sacrifice Himself on our behalf! That’s incredible...I mean there just aren’t words to describe it.We also can’t negotiate with God. When it comes to our sin, we are quick to justify it. To come up with an excuse to sin or why it isn’t actually a sin, or any reason our mind can construct so we can “get away with it.”
This was a really solid sermon at our church about the first sin that just covers what sin is and how we should live in response to it:
I was just reminded of that when I read this passage. We often treat God the way Pharaoh did. And it’s not just with sin that we do this. Whenever God commands us to go somewhere and we want to stay home, we negotiate. We don’t fully commit, we don’t give Him our all. I want so desperately to give God my all each and every day. This is my prayer.