In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Welcome back to Purify the Heart. This is Pastor Zachary Courie and this is day 8 of our Lenten Exodus journey. Yesterday, in Exodus 7, Pharaoh refused to listen to the Lord through His servants Moses & Aaron. As a result, God had Aaron use his staff to turn the water of the Nile into blood in the first of ten plagues upon Egypt. Today, we continue with plagues 2 through 4. Let’s continue with Exodus 8.
8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. 3 The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. 4 The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants.” ’ ” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’ ” 6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. 7 But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.
8 Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” 9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “Be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.” 10 And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God. 11 The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile.” 12 So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the Lord about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh. 13 And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. 14 And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’ ” 17 And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. 18 The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. 19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
20 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. 21 Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. 22 But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. 23 Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.” ’ ” 24 And the Lord did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants’ houses. Throughout all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by the swarms of flies.
25 Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.” 26 But Moses said, “It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? 27 We must go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he tells us.” 28 So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away. Plead for me.” 29 Then Moses said, “Behold, I am going out from you and I will plead with the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow. Only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” 30 So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. 31 And the Lord did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; not one remained. 32 But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go. (Exodus 8:1–32, ESV)
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Four points that I’ll be making today are regarding:
* The replication of the first two plagues by the magicians.
* Pharaoh begging Moses regarding the frogs.
* The magicians attributing the third plague to “the finger of God”.
* Pharoah trying to have it both ways during the fourth plague.
1) When God through Aaron’s staff changed the water of the Nile into blood, Pharaoh’s magicians were able to mimic it by their “secret arts”. In the second plague, the magicians also make frogs come up on the land of Egypt, just as the Lord did through Aaron. But notice that they are adding to those plagues, not taking them away. They really would have shown Moses up if they had turned the bloody Nile back into drinkable water and sent the frogs back into the water; but Satan cannot undo the Lord’s work. He can only add to the wrath and judgment of God. This is like when the Holy Spirit convicts us of a particular sin that we’ve committed. He convicts us for the purpose of leading us to confess our sin to God so that we would freely receive forgiveness for that sin for Christ’s name’s sake. Satan, however, will take advantage of that sin and guilt-trip us so that we will cling to our defensiveness or despair instead. Satan wants us to focus on our works, or lack thereof; whereas Christ wants us to focus through faith on his work freely done for us in His life and in His death on the cross.
2) Pharoah begs Moses to intercede for him and his people, to plead God to relieve them of the frogs. The Lord has compassion on the King of Egypt, taking him at his word that he will let God’s people go, if the frogs are done away with, except for those that would go back into the Nile. But once the Lord clears out the frogs, Pharaoh is back to hardening his heart against the Lord. This is like in Jesus’s parable of the sower (Mark 4), when some hear the word of God, but because they don’t guard it, Satan comes along and steals it from them. The king of Egypt desired power, glory, and for all people to worship him. This points us to the King of the universe, Jesus the Christ, who desired to exercise the authority given to Him by His Heavenly Father for our sake rather than idolizing power itself. Philippians 2 tells us that, though He had Divine power as the Son of God, Christ chose only to use it when necessary, which is why He doesn’t perform miracles until His public ministry begins at the age of 30. Even then, His miraculous acts are still intermingled with very human acts like having to eat and sleep and pray. Instead of desiring his own glory, Christ desired to glorify His Father in heaven. Even when the Father shares His glory with the Son, because of His perfect merits, Christ then shares His glory with all those who are born again through the waters of Holy Baptism and thereby adopted as co-inheritors of that glory (see Romans 8).
3) Interestingly, when it comes to the plague of gnats, the Egyptian wise men aren’t able to replicate it, and they recognize something greater at work, namely “the finger of God.” Some scholars have connected the finger of God to the person and work of the Holy Spirit. However, the fact that the magicians attributed to “the finger of God” the gnats that came from the dirt on the ground points us to an interesting moment in John 8. A woman, who was caught in the act of adultery, is brought to Jesus by the religious leaders. They tested Jesus by asking if his opinion was in accord with the law of Moses, which commanded a man or a woman caught in adultery to be stoned to death. We’re told, starting in verse 6, “Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?“ She said, “No one, Lord.“ And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” Like the plague of gnats from the dirt upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians was a sign of God’s wrath and judgment, whatever the Son of God wrote with His finger on the ground convicted the woman’s accusers. That led them to repentance, though it doesn’t seem that it was accompanied with faith in Christ; but Jesus talks to the woman, forgives her her sins, and grants her to live a new life with this identity: forgiven by Jesus. The same is true for me and you today. Christ did not come to condemn us, and any sign of wrath is meant to lead us to repentance and faith in His grace and mercy freely won for us on the cross.
4) Finally, in the midst of the fourth plague, we see Pharaoh, trying to keep some control over the Israelites while also permitting them to go and worship the Lord, so that the Lord will relieve him and his people from the swarms of flies. He told Moses that they could worship God in the wilderness, but not to go very far away. This is like when we as Christians are convicted of a sin, but don’t want to forsake it completely. We don’t want to deal with the negative consequences of the sin, so we ask God to forgive us, with no intention of forsaking or striving against it. St. Paul says in Galatians 5, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. […] And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:16-18, 24 ESV)
Let us pray. O Lord God, You led Your ancient people through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land. Guide the people of Your Church that following our Savior we may walk through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of the world to come; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, You despise nothing You have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent. Create in us new and contrite hearts that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness we may receive from You full pardon and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Thanks for joining me to Purify the Heart! Tomorrow, we’ll continue with Exodus 9 and the fifth through seventh plagues. Until then, grace be with you. Amen.
