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Exodus 8 Have you ever wondered at why all these plagues were rained
upon Egypt? They all made fun of the gods that Egypt worshipped,
in the last chapter, the Nile represented life for them. In this
chapter, the frog god of fertility, Heka, was made fun of and shown to
be ineffective. Then the god of the earth, Seth, as the dust of the
earth became lice, followed by the insects, this god was shown to be worthless.
What amazes me is these dingbat magicians, who heap more pain by trying
to duplicate what God has already done. Pharaoh almost lets Israel
go in the last part of the chapter, until the plague of the insects is removed.
Then he forgot what he promised and did not let them. Let's take this
concept a little further for a second. When we are in tough times
and are forced to look to the Lord, we will often make committments to the
Lord, about what we are going to do, and how we are going to tithe, etc.
Until the tough times are over, then we conviently forget our promises to
God and return to our old way of life. Interesting, isn't it, we aren't
much different than Pharaoh! Just a thought.
Joe Turner
******
Exodus 8
Slimy frogs, lice, flies
- oh my! How disgusting. I can't even imagine! Touching
on the comments for the previous and this study - if the Egyptians were
then brought to their knees to get water, they were now made to detest things
they themselves idolized. I wonder if they were even aware of the irony.
The finger of God by which was
brought forth lice and was made the tablets of the 10 commandments
is also mentioned of Jesus in the new testament: Luke 11:20 But if
I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is
come upon you.
Shelley |
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Exodus 8:1-15
November 18, 2004
Reading through
the Bible in one Year: Acts 17-18
Weekly Memory
Verse: 1 John 5:11-12
Good Evening
Brothers and Sisters,
Exodus 8:1-15 (NASB95)
1 Then the Lord said
to Moses, “Go 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 smite your whole
territory with frogs. 3 “The Nile will swarm with frogs, which
will come up and go into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed,
and into the houses of your servants and on your people, and into your ovens
and into your kneading bowls. 4 “So the frogs will come up on you
and your people and all your servants.” ’ ” 5 Then the
Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand
with your staff over the rivers, over the streams 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 The magicians did the same with their secret
arts, making frogs come up on the land of Egypt. 8 Then Pharaoh
called for Moses and Aaron and said, “Entreat the
Lord that He remove the frogs
from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may
sacrifice to the Lord.” 9
Moses said to Pharaoh, “The honor is yours to tell me: when shall I
entreat for you and your servants and your people, that the frogs be
destroyed from you and your houses, that they may be left only in the
Nile?” 10 Then he said, “Tomorrow.” So he said, “May it be
according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the
Lord our God. 11
“The frogs will depart from you and your houses and your servants and your
people; they will be left only in the Nile.” 12 Then Moses and
Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the
Lord concerning the frogs which
He had inflicted upon Pharaoh. 13 The
Lord did according to the word
of Moses, and the frogs died out of the houses, the courts, and the fields.
14 So they piled them in heaps, and the land became foul. 15
But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and
did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.[1]
The Lord
continued to show Pharaoh how powerful that He was. In order to understand
the frogs, you have to understand what they symbolized and think about the
natural consequences of the plague of blood. If the Nile had become foul,
the frogs would seek to live elsewhere. In that case they would naturally
gravitate inland. However, there were probably not enough frogs in the Nile
to cause the trouble that was taking place.
Frogs were
considered to be sacred by the Egyptians, they were thought to have divine
power. The Egyptian goddess "Heqet" had a frogs head and was believed to
breathe life from her nostrils. It was also believed that her husband "Khnum"
was able to create things out of the dust which she would animate. Since
these frogs were considered to be gods, they were not killed. They
literally overran the land, invading peoples houses and bedrooms in the
process. One of the functions of the frog god was to help women in
childbirth. (The Bible Knowledge Commentary). Consider the amusement of
the situation, these precious frogs became a menace, getting into
everything, even the food supplies and ovens.
Think about the
imagery for a moment, it mocked God. Only God is able to have divine power,
to breathe life into man and to animate things made from dust, (Adam). God
is the only giver of life. By messing with the frogs, God made a clear
statement to the Egyptians that the frogs were nothing but frogs. Notice in
verse 11 Moses indicated that the frogs would depart, God killed them. This
is important because the death of the frogs indicates that God could kill
the frogs and they were not powerful enough to cause Him trouble. He is the
only God, and He is the all powerful God.
Let's take it a
step further, consider the people today who consider animals and bugs to be
more important than they are. People don't come out and say that the frogs
give you life, but the critters get more credit than they deserve. As a
matter of fact, animals and critters are treated better than God by many
Americans. At least people are concerned about the existence and welfare of
animals, they could care less about God. Considering that approach, animals
have replaced God, therefore they have become false gods again. Things go
full circle again.
The magicians
continue to amuse the story. They were successful in conjuring up frogs,
why not add a few more of the critters to the misery? Even though they were
successful in conjuring up the frogs, they certainly could not get rid of
the frogs. If you can't be a solution to the problem, why not become a part
of the problem? Pharaoh didn't cry to his magicians to remove the frogs
from the land, he cried out to Moses. All the mockery of God did not mean
much when things became miserable with the frogs did it?
If Pharaoh did
not believe that the frogs were from God, then why did he humiliate himself
in asking for their removal? Notice the specific language that Moses used
in verse 9, he nailed Pharaoh down, and nailed down the fact that Pharaoh
wished that the frogs were destroyed. In other words Moses made a point of
the fact that Pharaoh declared the frogs were not gods and needed to be
destroyed. Another interesting thing is that Pharaoh set the time for the
removal of the frogs in verse 10. Could it be that Pharaoh was trying to
buy one more day to figure out a solution so that he would not have to give
the Hebrew God credit for removal of the frogs? How come Pharaoh did not
request the frogs to be removed instantly?
God complied
with his request for the removal of the frogs and killed them. This created
more problems since they had to be heaped up. There were so many of them
that the Egyptians did not attempt to remove the heaps of dead frogs. The
second plague ended with the Egyptians being more miserable than ever.
Pharaoh stubbornly refused to submit to the will of God, and the story will
continue tomorrow.
I am going to
close here, if you wish to make further comments on the frogs, please feel
free to write in. I marked up for work today, and hope to return to a
regular schedule. Shelley is still recovering, and had her bandage removed
today. She visited Brian, the 24 year old who has a similar type of tumor.
The difference was that Brian's was twice the size of Shelley's. We are
told tat he is doing well, although he is spending an extended stay in the
intensive care unit.
Father, as we
consider Your word today, enlighten each one of us. Give us the wisdom to
acknowledge that You are God in every area of our lives.
In Him,
Joe Turner.
[1]
New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The
Lockman Foundation.
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Exodus 8:16-32
November 19, 2004
Reading through
the Bible in one Year: Deuteronomy 16-19
Weekly Memory
Verse: 1 John 5:11-12
Good Evening
Brothers and Sisters,
Romans 8:16-19 (NASB95)
16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are
children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may
also be glorified with Him. 18 For I consider that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the
creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
[1]
The third
plague is the plague of lice. It is interesting that the word for lice is
rather ambiguous. It can also be translated as mosquito’s or as gnats as
the NASB translates it. Regardless how it is translated, all three of these
insects can make your life extremely miserable.
Another thought
on this, we have a time frame for the first plague, seven days, the second
third and fourth don't have a time frame. I wonder how long these plagues
lasted. Also, there was no warning given for this plague. God told Aaron to
strike the dust, and he did so immediately, there wasn't any warning given
or any ceremony.
I didn't find
an Egyptian god associated with the lice, one note was interesting on this,
the Egyptians could not worship their gods if they were unclean. Therefore
if they were covered with lice, their bodies were unclean, considered to be
defiled and unable to worship.
A final thought
on this, the magicians had met their match. They tried to bring forth lice,
and failed, finally having to admit that the judgment was from a divine
being much larger than themselves. In admitting that, they also agreed that
there was no god in Egypt that was more powerful than the God that brought
the plague. The word that they actually used for God was "Elohim" which
indicated the supreme God that was over all, this had to be hard to admit
to. It was not the word "YHWH", but a generic form of god meaning that they
understood that a powerful God had brought on the plague. They admitted
defeat, but not surrender to the Hebrew God. Pharaoh would not listen to
them, he hardened his heart to the news.
Exodus 8:20-32 (NASB95)
20 Now the Lord said
to Moses, “Rise early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh, as
he comes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the
Lord, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me. 21
“For if you do not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of
insects on you and on your servants and on your people and into your houses;
and the houses of the Egyptians will be full of swarms of insects, and also
the ground on which they dwell. 22 “But on that day I will
set apart the land of Goshen, where My people are living, so that no swarms
of insects will be there, in order that you may know that I, the
Lord, am in the midst of the
land. 23 “I will put a division between My people and your
people. Tomorrow this sign will occur.” ’ ” 24 Then the
Lord did so. And there came
great swarms of insects into the house of Pharaoh and the houses of his
servants and the land was laid waste because of the swarms of insects in all
the land of Egypt. 25 Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and
said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.” 26 But Moses
said, “It is not right to do so, for we will sacrifice to the
Lord our God what is an
abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice what is an abomination to the
Egyptians before their eyes, will they not then stone us? 27 “We
must go a three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the
Lord our God as He commands us.” 28 Pharaoh said,
“I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the
Lord your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very
far away. Make supplication for me.” 29 Then Moses said, “Behold,
I am going out from you, and I shall make supplication to the
Lord that the swarms of insects
may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow;
only do not let Pharaoh deal deceitfully again in not letting the people go
to sacrifice to the Lord.”
30 So Moses went out from Pharaoh and made supplication to the
Lord. 31 The
Lord did as Moses asked, and
removed the swarms of insects from Pharaoh, from his servants and from his
people; not one remained. 32 But Pharaoh hardened his heart this
time also, and he did not let the people go.[2]
The fourth
plague is similar to the third, the difference is that a warning was given.
Another difference is that the lice did not go away before the insects came
on the land. King James translates this plague as the flies, NASB
translates it as insects, Word Biblical Commentary calls them "flying
insects", at any rate a new bug came to town. It was destructive to plants
and property, so whatever the insects were, they reeked havoc on the land.
There was two
Egyptian gods that were based upon the fly, the god "Re" and "Uatchit".
This plague could have been to demonstrate how that they also lacked power.
One other
observation on these verses is that Pharaoh may not have been willing to
release the Jews, but he was reaching a point where he could compromise with
the Hebrews. It's a matter of his bartering with God over the conditions of
the Hebrews release. The problem was that if the Hebrews sacrificed animals
in the land, the egyptians worshipped the same animals as gods. This would
have resulted in rioting in the land. Moses stuck to his conditions and
added one more, that Pharaoh would not change his mind.
God completely
removed the swarms of insects because Moses prayed to Him, and Pharaoh
backed out on his word, hardening his heart. We shake our heads in
amazement at Pharaoh, and fail to look in the mirror. I wonder how many
times we have faced trouble in our lives and turned to God for help. Then
once the crisis is over, we forget what we promised, stop going to church
and return to our former habits. We may not be as blatant as Pharaoh was,
publicly declaring our intentions, but secretly we are just as bad. A lie
is a lie, if we don't keep our word with God, is there any difference
between us and Pharaoh? Most Christians will serve God faithfully when the
chips are down, and we are walking through the dark times in our lives, but
what happens when we are prosperous and things are going good? Do we walk
away? Pharaoh cried out to God for relief when he was overwhelmed with
bugs, once things were good again, he forgot what he said. As we dig
through these chapters, keep in mind that man has not changed at all over
the centuries. We just change the nomenclature.
Father, as we
consider Your word today, build into each one of us the staying power to
continue to walk when things are bad and when things are good.
In Him,
Joe Turner.
[1]
[2]
New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The
Lockman Foundation.
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09/17/08
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