Exodus 8:1–15 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.
Moses showed Pharaoh that Egypt is in the hands of God
This is almost humorous from the beginning. The destiny of Egypt is in the hands of the Lord, the God of Israel. And the way He’s going to deal with them is frogs.
Throughout the plague stories, notice a pattern. First, the plague is threatened, then it is implemented, then it is imitated, and then it is removed. Each of the plagues is spoken of as removed, except for the tenth which involves the death.
Notice in verse 1, the phrase is repeated. “Let My people go in order that they may serve Me, in order that they may worship me.”
Exodus 5, 1 through 3 when Moses and Aaron first go to Pharaoh, they say, you need to let us go to worship the Lord, or He will visit plagues against you.
Frogs were associated with the Egyptian gods, Hapi and Heqt. Heqt was actually considered the goddess of fertility, and she was often pictured as a squatting frog. She was supposed to be a good luck charm to increase the fertility of the people. And so
The judgment warning against Egypt
If Hapt is the goddess of fertility and pictured as a frog, and Pharaoh had begun the Exodus story with an attack on an attack on the children of Hebrews, it may well be God coming back and saying, “You attempt to strike at the fertility of My people, and I will take out the god of fertility in Egypt, because I am the one who gives children. I am the one who is sovereign.”
God takes something weak and small and wretched, and He uses it to foil the wise and strong of this world.
The Egyptian magicians spring into action, and they imitate the plague by their occult practices.
The plague was doubled by the magicians and the net result is the increase in the misery of Egypt. And you can see Pharaoh saying, “Okay, that’s enough.”
Pharaoh, in verses 8 through 12 acknowledges the Lord for the first time in the book of Exodus. And he even manages to ask Moses to pray on his behalf to the Lord.
Moses turns to Pharaoh and says, “The honor is yours. You tell me, when do want to do this?” Now the timing of the question that Moses gives to Pharaoh, too, shows the sovereignty of God. It indicates that the Lord alone has the power to send and to relieve the plague. Okay, Pharaoh, My God is so sovereign, you just name the time. When is it you want this done. And then Pharaoh responds in verse 10 with an unreasonable request. He says, “Okay, okay, you want me to name it. Tomorrow. I want them gone tomorrow.”
The plague is removed in verses 13 and 14, but the consequences remain. I want you to think about two of the consequences here. First of all, there was a lot of hard cleanup work of the Egyptians. Frogs everywhere. Secondly, there was a stench throughout Egypt.
1 Corinthians 1:27 but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong;
