Swarms of Flies

Exodus 8:20-32

By Exodus 8:20, Egypt has experienced 3 plagues. First, the Nile was turned into blood. Then, the land was plagued with frogs, and next, the sand became lice or gnats. In each case, we are told that Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he refused to listen.

Exodus 8:20 tells us:

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.”’” (Exodus 8:20 ESV)

We see in this verse that Pharaoh is still carrying on with his tradition of going to the river for renewal and strength. Although God has demonstrated His control over the Nile and all the aspects of nature that the Egyptians worshiped, Pharaoh continues to look to his gods and traditions.

God warns Pharaoh. He says, “Or else, if you will not let my people go...”

In giving Pharaoh a warning, God is showing kindness and patience. He is trying to reason with Pharaoh. Throughout history, God has made efforts to reason with people. Before He judged Israel, He tried to reason with them. He said:

"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." (Isaiah 1:18-20 ESV)

In His reasoning with Israel, God explains the blessings that come with obedience and the curses that come with disobedience.

To this point in Exodus, God has not asked for the freedom of His people. He has demanded that they be permitted to go three days journey into the wilderness to worship. And with the first two plagues, God attached a reason. With the first plague, He said, “By this, you will know that I am the Lord.” (Exodus 7:17) With the second plague, He said, “...that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.” (Exodus 8:10) Now, with the fourth plague, God gives another reason. He says, “...that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.” However, at this point, God is demonstrating this truth by doing something different than He has done so far. This time He is saving His people from the plague. He says:

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. (Exodus 8:22 ESV)

God was showing kindness in trying to reason with Pharaoh. Pharaoh mistook God’s kindness for weakness. In part, this explains how God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” By giving him a choice, God allowed Pharaoh to go his own way, which was the way of destruction.

When Pharaoh refused, God sent the plague as promised.

As in the plague of the lice or gnats, it is unclear to us what exactly the fourth plague was. In the original Hebrew, the plague is called the plague of the “‘arob.” The closest translation of the word is “swarm,” but a swarm of what is not stated. The Septuagint translates “ha arob” as “the dog-fly” (ή κυνόμυιά). However, Jewish commentators from around the same time connect the word with a root word meaning “mixture” and suppose it to designate either a mixed multitude of all kinds of wild beasts (Josephus and Jonathan), or a mixture of all sorts of insects (Aquila & others). Modern scholars generally agree with the Septuagint that a particular species of animal—probably an insect—is meant, but question if it was the dog-fly. The dog-fly, (Musca canina), is not a pest in houses, as the “swarm” was (Exodus 8:21; Exodus 8:24), nor does the dog-fly do any damage to the land (Exodus 8:24). Therefore many suggest that the plague was the scarab beetle. This beetle damages people, furniture, houses, and crops. Another fact in favor of the scarab beetle is that, like all beetles, it was sacred, and was not to be destroyed, being a symbol of the sun-god, Ra, especially in his form of Khepra, or “the creator.” Egyptians were obligated to suffer through this plague without attempting to diminish it. They would also suffer unbelievable pain because the scarab beetle “inflicts very painful bites with its jaws” (Kalisch); and they would for the first time experience property damage. The frogs and mosquitoes would have been annoying and troublesome, but, according to Exodus 8:24, the land was ruined by this plague. (Ellicott’s)^[1]

A dung beetle in action.^[2]

An ancient scarab amulet from Egypt.^[3]

The scarab beetle, or dung beetle, made balls of dung and pushed them across the ground and into their boroughs. Then the female laid eggs, and the dung became food for the young. To the Egyptians, it appeared that the beetles sprang from the ground out of nothing. Thus, the beetles were connected with renewal and creation. Also, the god Khepra was pictured as pushing the sun across the sky, up from the ground in the east and back down into the ground in the west. An amulet of precious stone in the shape of a scarab was placed on the chest of a mummy in hopes that it would declare them innocent before the gods.^[4]

Psalms 78:45 says of this plague:

He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, (Psalms 78:45 ESV)

Here, as in Exodus, the Hebrew just says “swarms.” The “of flies” is assumed or added to make the meaning clear. It was probably swarms of beetles, especially since it says these swarms “devoured them.” God demonstrated He was God in the midst of the land by taking control, once again, of one of their chief deities, and, once again, defiling them and making them unacceptable to their gods by one of the symbols of their gods.

Exodus 8:25 tells us:

Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land." (Exodus 8:25 ESV)

Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and now he is willing to bargain. He suggests they go and sacrifice to the Lord in the land.

Notice that Pharaoh is calling the Lord “your God.” Although God has demonstrated His sovereignty over the land of Egypt and over Egypt’s gods, Pharaoh does not recognize Him as Lord but only as “your God.”

Also, when Moses argues that the sacrifices the Hebrews would make would be an abomination to the Egyptians, Pharaoh does not deny or argue the point. He concedes and then says, “Plead for me.”

All Pharaoh needed to do was to say “Okay” to God. However, Pharaoh did not want to deal directly with God. He wanted Moses to deal with God for him. This was probably because, in his heart, he knew that he was not being honest. He had no intention of letting the people go. He was not ready or willing to acknowledge God as his God, but only as God over the Hebrews.

Now, I want to apply this to us.

Many of us want someone else to plead with God for us. And we, like Pharaoh, want to bargain with God.

Two separate issues come up out of this. First, wanting to bargain with God shows that He has us over a barrel, or, at least, we feel trapped with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. So, we will offer God a compromise. This is something like, “God, if you will bless me and remove this plague, I will go to church.” (Never mind that I get to choose the church and the conditions.) These bargains that we try to make with God do not address the problem of the hardened heart that God is trying to address and thus avoid the real problem.

So, we come to the second problem, we want someone else to plead with God for us.

The Bible says:

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Joel 2:32 ESV)

What prevents anyone from calling on the Lord?

People tend to consider the Lord to be somebody else’s God, but not their God. Or, possibly, like Pharaoh, they are not ready to surrender to God. Pharaoh lied, and we can lie too. Pharaoh said he would let the people go, but he lied. He wanted to get God off his back, so he lied to God. It is much easier to lie to God by asking someone else to plead with God for you. Pharaoh could have pled with God for himself, but he would not, even though his own gods had proven worthless.

Another truth that was brought to mind by the word flies is that the devil is known as the lord of the flies.

Our world is being devoured by swarms of demons. The devil has convinced modern man that he does not exists.

The devil is a deceiver. He operates by lying. Demons have no authority over the life of a believer, but they have convinced many people that they have no choice but to behave in one way or another. Behind every addiction, every psychological problem and every case of oppression is a lie or many lies. Do we deal with the lies, or do we deal with the demons?

Please hear me!

We have to be balanced. Medicine has much to say, and we have learned a great deal about how the body works. Our minds affect how our bodies function, and our bodies and minds are connected. Chemical imbalances must be dealt with chemically. For example, if you believe your life is threatened for a prolonged period of time, your heightened anxiety and fear will cause a number of medical problems, whether it is high blood pressure, stress-related heart problems or other. I am not giving medical advice, other than to say, it is foolish to ignore physical symptoms or the advice of medical professionals who know how the body works. Modern antidepressant medicines can be and are very helpful, and they are prescribed and controlled by professionals trained in their use.

However, it is also foolish to ignore the cause of the problem. Is your life threatened? Then you need to deal with the problem. Get help!

Is it a lie and your life is not really threatened? Again, it is important to deal with the problem and get help.

In an article in “Medical News Today,” Dr. Catherine Paddock speculates:

We spend a lot of time listening to ourselves talk inside of our heads. We listen to our inner voice each time we read a book, decide what to have for lunch, or imagine how we are going to get our view across in a meeting.

In fact, estimates suggest that we spend at least a quarter of our waking hours attending to our inner voice.

But how is the brain able to tell the difference between the inner voice and the external voice that makes the sounds that other people hear?

Tools exploring this area of brain processing could be very useful to improving our understanding of disorders that involve "hearing voices," such as schizophrenia.^[5]

What I believe the Bible teaches is that we must learn to distinguish between the truth and the lie when we listen to our inner voice, because we cannot always tell when that inner voice is not our own. What tools did Satan use when he incited David to number Israel? (1 Chronicles 21:1) I suggest it was David’s own thoughts, or at least what David perceived to be his own thoughts.

Besides being able to cause a person to hear things, the evil one can cause a person to see things. For example, consider Ezekiel 13:6-7.

They have seen false visions and lying divinations. They say, 'Declares the Lord,' when the Lord has not sent them, and yet they expect him to fulfill their word. Have you not seen a false vision and uttered a lying divination, whenever you have said, 'Declares the Lord,' although I have not spoken? (Ezekiel 13:6-7 ESV)

To be free, truly free, of the swarm that is plaguing our world, we must do two things.

1.       Each person must call on the Lord, acknowledging Him as God and asking Him for salvation.

2.       Each person must give up bargaining with God. It is called surrender.

Church and discipleship are about learning how to walk free and stay free of the swarm because we live in “fly” infested territory.

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^[1] https://biblehub.com/commentaries/exodus/8-20.htm. Accessed August 21, 2019

^[2] https://www.kidsdiscover.com/quick-reads/sacred-dung-beetles-ancient-egypt. Accessed August 23, 2019.

^[3] https://www.britannica.com/topic/scarab. Accessed August 23, 2019

^[4] https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/khepri. Accessed August 21, 2019.

^[5] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320335.php. Accessed August 23, 2019

The Finger of God

Exodus 8:16-19

God demonstrated His authority in the contest of staffs. When first Aaron’s staff and then the Egyptian’s staffs were changed into serpents, Aaron’s staff swallowed the staffs of Pharaoh’s servants. The staffs and the serpents were symbols of authority in Ancient Egypt.

God demonstrated He is the source of life by touching the Nile River and changing it to blood.

God demonstrated He is the source of renewal by turning the annual proliferation of frogs into a plague.

The Egyptian gods each had power over a specific aspect of nature. They worshiped these gods as their protectors and providers. However, these gods also give us a clue to what they valued. They worshiped what was important to them.

Today, we will consider yet another plague with which God struck Egypt. Exodus 8:16 says:

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.'" (Exodus 8:16 ESV)

Up to this point, God warned Pharaoh before He sent a plague. God would say, “If you refuse to let my people go, I will turn the Nile into blood.” And then, when Pharaoh refused, God sent the plague.

In this instance, God gave no warning.

God warns us because of His grace. He does not owe us a warning. For example, Pharaoh knew what was right. He knew in his heart and by his conscience that his treatment of Israel was wrong. All men of all ages have known instinctively right from wrong. Things like murder and the abuse of children are almost universally understood to be wrong, and Pharaoh had been doing both for years to control the population of the Israelites. God did not owe Pharaoh a warning, but He repeatedly warned Pharaoh.

For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. (I Thessalonians 5:2-4 NKJV)

The world knows about “the Day of the Lord.” The Bible, the Church and God’s messengers have been warning the world since the time of Christ. It comes up in movies and television shows. People know about it, but like Pharaoh, they harden their hearts. For those who refuse to listen, the Day of the Lord will come with seemingly no warning. However, there have been plenty of warnings.

The plagues that God sent on the Egyptians were judgments on their gods and their sins. Their worship of false gods was a sin, but the gods represented various national values that were sinful. In previous messages, we have seen how the Nile River and the frogs were represented in gods. Today, we will see how the dust or sand represented a god.

I have read two views, and God does not name which Egyptian god He is judging. So, I must admit that I have chosen the Egyptian god that I believe fits this plague, but there is another Egyptian god that would fit. However, the nature of the judgment and the sin does not change whichever god one chooses. Both are false gods, and both were shown to be powerless before the Lord our God.

Dust is quite common in Egypt. It has vast deserts covered in sand. According to Wikipedia, in a city known as “Sepermeru,” an important temple honored the god “Set,” or “Seth.” One of the names of this town was “gateway to the desert,” which fits well because Set was known as the god of the desert.^[1]

Dust and sand were the domain of Set. However, that was not what he was known for. Set was a god of chaos, fire, deserts, trickery, storms, envy, disorder, violence, and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion. ... He was lord of the red (desert) land where he was the balance to Horus' role as lord of the black (soil) land.  One of Set's major characteristics is his forceful, potent, and indiscriminate sexuality.^[2]

This fascination with chaos, fire, violence and sexuality defines our present-day movies and entertainment. We have an industry that capitalizes on the things that Set immortalized.

When God judged this Egyptian God, He used gnats or lice. Equally ancient sources disagree on the meaning of the word used, making it impossible to determine whether these were gnats or lice. The root meaning of the word comes from the idea of fastening or digging in with a sting. What is clear is that they were blood-sucking tiny parasites. It is also clear that they were exceedingly numerous.

Because of the flooding of the Nile, the Nile mosquito would regularly become so numerous they would form clouds and drive animals and people crazy with their painful bites as well as getting into ears, eyes, nose and mouth. This plague was that same kind of torture multiplied.

When the Egyptian magicians tried to bring forth gnats from the sand, they could not, and they arrived at the conclusion, “This is the finger of God.”

Besides being painful, itchy and very annoying, these gnats would have also had another consequence. Egyptian religious practices required that the priest or worshiper not be defiled by any vermin or insects. So, during the plague, the priests would not have been able to offer sacrifices or perform their religious rites because they would have been unclean or defiled.

It is instructive to recognize that God used dust from the domain of their false god to defile them and make them unacceptable to that same god.

When we make sexuality our god, we end up defiling ourselves, making ourselves unacceptable even to ourselves. 1 Corinthians 6:18 says:

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. (I Corinthians 6:18 NKJV)

There is no better picture of sinning against our own bodies than a picture of a body crawling with lice or gnats so that there is not an inch of exposed skin that is not covered. There would be nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

This brings up another issue that was becoming abundantly clear to the Egyptians when they said, “This is the finger of God.”

There was nowhere to go for shelter from or to hide from this God of the Hebrews. They had no means of controlling, avoiding or mitigating the effects of this plague. The pests were too small and too numerous to be stopped.

When the Psalmist thought about God, he said:

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. (Psalms 139:7-10 NKJV)

The gnats would have been like this. With nowhere to go for relief, the magicians were finally confronting Pharaoh with their own helplessness in the face of this onslaught.

The sand has another significant point. Sand is used in Scripture to reference things too numerous to count. For example, God told Abraham, “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore.” (Genesis 22:7, NKJV) Few things are said to be as numerous as the sand, but in Psalms 139, where it says one cannot flee from the presence of the Lord, it also says:

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. (Psalms 139:17-18 NKJV)

The Psalmist takes great comfort in the knowledge that God’s thoughts toward him are more numerous than the sand. He is on God’s mind. We can take great comfort in knowing that God’s plans for us are to give us a hope and a future. However, what if we have set ourselves up in opposition to God. What if we are covered in lice or gnats and realize that they represent the finger of a God whom we have set ourselves against and against whom we have hardened our hearts? What if all those thoughts are our enemy?

Exodus 8:19 says:

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. (Exodus 8:19 ESV)

Pharaoh would not listen. At first, he would not listen to Aaron and Moses. Now, he will not listen to his own advisors, the people he paid to keep him on top.

This is what happens when we choose our sin over God. There is nowhere to run. We see ourselves as defiled and touched by the finger of God, but not as a friend. The idols, the false gods, serve to hide us from the conviction of our sin. Men say foolish things like “There is no God,” to cover up their own unworthiness and sense of uncleanness. In short, they harden their hearts.

No matter how much we say, “God loves us,” or “God wants me to be happy,” we know in our hearts that our loose and indiscriminate sexuality is displeasing to God.

We may say we are not hurting anybody and that what two consenting adults do is their own business, but we are only kidding ourselves. For example, according to the World Health Organization, an estimated 40-50 million abortions take place every year. This corresponds roughly to 125,000 abortions every day. The USA accounts for approximately 3,000 abortions per day.^[3]

Let me remind you what I said earlier:

Pharaoh knew what was right. He knew in his heart and by his conscience that his treatment of Israel was wrong. All men of all ages have known instinctively right from wrong. Things like murder and the abuse of children are almost universally understood to be wrong, and Pharaoh had been doing both for years to control the population of the Israelites.

We can say all we want that abortion is about a woman’s right over her own body, but in our hearts we know that murder is wrong, especially the murder of babies.

Millions, literally millions, of mothers, doctors and men are walking around covered with the gnats of their own conscience and uncleanness with nowhere to run or hide.

Please hear me.

God can help. God can free us. His plague, although a judgment, was meant to get Pharaoh to wake up and repent. God does love us. God does want us to be happy, but He cannot help us if we harden our hearts and will not listen.

He gave His only Son to pay the price for our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, but only if we confess our sins, only if we recognize that we have been doing wrong.

If we harden our hearts and refuse to listen to God, we, like the Egyptians, will experience ever-worsening plagues until the Day of the Lord comes upon us seemingly without warning.

Will you not make peace with God now, while there is time?

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^[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(deity). Accessed August 16, 2019.

^[2] ibid.

^[3] https://www.worldometers.info/abortions. Accessed August 17, 2019.

No One Like the Lord Our God

Exodus 8:1-15

When Pharaoh refused to listen to God’s command and repeated warnings, God struck Egypt at its source, the Nile River. He did not destroy Egypt, but with the Nile  full of blood for 7 days instead of water, God communicated that He had control over Egypt’s source of life.

This first plague was designed to make it clear that God is the great “I Am” (Exodus 7:17). However, Pharaoh did not take this to heart. This was apparently because the magicians of Egypt were able to make blood out of water (Exodus 7:22).

When Pharaoh hardened his heart and did not listen to the word of the Lord, God sent a second plague. According to Exodus 8:10, this plague was designed to make the point “there is no one like the Lord our God.” I hope that in studying what this plague was that we too will understand that there is no one like the Lord our God, and also be able to apply this truth to our present-day lives.

First, let’s consider the plague. Exodus 8:1-4 says:

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. But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. 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. The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants."'" (Exodus 8:1-4 ESV)

Frogs would come up into their houses and even be on their beds. This was bad. Ellicott, in his commentary, states:

Frogs were sacred animals to the Egyptians, who regarded them as symbols of procreative power, and associated them especially with the goddess Heka (a wife of Kneph, or up), whom they represented as frog-headed. Sacred animals might not be intentionally killed; and even their involuntary slaughter was not unfrequently punished with death. To be plagued with a multitude of reptiles which might not be put to death, yet on which it was scarcely possible not to tread, and which, whenever a door was opened were crushed, was a severe trial to the religious feelings of the people, and tended to bring the religion itself into contempt.^[1]

Imagine being unable to walk without stepping on a frog, and also needing to try and not kill any of them. A website called “Exploratorium” said this about the frog in ancient Egypt:

In ancient Egypt, the frog appears as a symbol of fertility, water, and renewal. The water goddess Heket often appeared as a woman with the head of a frog. Frogs were also the symbol of the midwife goddess Heqit, who ruled conception and birth, and Egyptian women often wore metal amulets in the form of frogs to enlist her good favor. Frogs appeared in great numbers each year at the flooding of the Nile, an event which was crucial to agriculture in that it provided water for many distant fields. Frogs thrived in the muddy bogs left by the receding waters, and it is easy to imagine how frogs came to be viewed as favorable symbols of abundance. In fact, the frog became a symbol for the number hefnu, which meant either 100,000 or simply "an immense number."^[2]

As the floodwaters receded, the frogs coming forth would have been signs of new life. Jeretta and I lived close enough to rice paddies to hear the frogs croaking and associated those sounds with the arrival of spring. This would have been the same concept for the Egyptians. The river flooding did not come on the calendar at the time of spring, but the renewal of life was the same as what we consider spring to be.

Our culture still has celebrations that center on the arrival of spring. Bunnies and eggs are symbols of fertility and have become a part of our Easter celebrations. Now, do not get off track! This is not a message against the Easter Bunny or Easter eggs. I mean to point out the attraction that new life and renewal has for us. Many of us love the first signs of spring, the cherry blossoms and the crocuses. However, with this comes the temptation to worship life itself.

This is precisely what modern man has done. We think that we are wiser than the Egyptians, who worshiped life symbolized by frogs. But, we worship life in not too different a way. We have immortalized life in the theory of evolution. The life principle supposedly works in such a way that given enough time life inevitably happens, and the proof is that we are here. We have deified life.

The scientific method is necessary for our growth and learning. Observation, testing and experimentation can and does lead us to a knowledge of our world. We can describe in great detail and with ever-increasing accuracy, both the processes and contents of our world. And this knowledge is a tool that helps us use the materials around us to improve our lives and be productive. What science cannot do is answer the philosophical reason why. Science describes what is here by use of observation. It cannot explain the origin of the species, much less explain life and its meaning.

However, God would be unnecessary if evolution could explain life. There is another god, and it is life itself, life that perpetuates itself in the survival of the fittest.

It is essential that we come to the understanding that there is no one like the Lord our God. It is vain and foolish to think that life is its own explanation. The Bible tells us:

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. (Psalms 53:1 ESV)

How foolish to think that because we can observe life, we can explain it!

This is our modern idolatry.

God worked to get Pharaoh’s attention with an over-abundance of frogs. The Egyptian magicians were also able by their craft to bring up frogs on the land of Egypt. Here, as in the plague of blood, they were not able to provide relief or stop the plague. They just added to the problem with more frogs.

Pharaoh was made uncomfortable enough that he called for Moses and asked Moses to entreat the Lord to take away the frogs (Exodus 8:8).

Moses said:

"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." (Exodus 8:9 ESV)

I do not know why Pharaoh chose to spend another night with the frogs, but he said “tomorrow.” And Moses said:

Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God. (Exodus 8:10 ESV)

The miracle was in the timing. Pharaoh named the time for the frogs to leave. The cleanup was awful.

The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. (Exodus 8:13-14 ESV)

Once there was relief, Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go.

Ecclesiastes 8:11 says:

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11 ESV)

Because God extended grace to Pharaoh in removing the frogs and mercy in not treating him as his sin deserved, Pharaoh continued to harden his heart. His heart was fully set to do evil.

Pharaoh had gods. Whatever happened with the Nile, he could count on renewal. He could count on the cycle of life. Flood, frogs and harvest came every year. All his gods were the same. He could understand them because his gods were subject to the cycle of nature. What he needed to understand was that the Lord our God is not like other gods.

If you are seeking renewal, you will not find it anywhere but in Christ. Renewal and new life are not found in nature, spring or evolution. We can observe the process of growth, renewal and life because God has built it in, but we cannot reproduce it. Life is only found in God, and there is no other place. But, we have His promise:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)

This is what we are looking for in spring, the promise of renewal, a refreshing after the long cold death of winter. God has placed eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11), but we can never search it out. Life and eternity are only found in God. What we want, what we need, and what our hearts long for is the new life found in Jesus Christ.

In Him, we are made new.

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^[1] https://biblehub.com/commentaries/exodus/8-1.htm Accessed August 9, 2019

^[2] https://www.exploratorium.edu/frogs/folklore/folklore_4.html Accessed August 7, 2019

The Source of Life

Exodus 7:14-25

The God of the Hebrews, the Lord, sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh with a message: “Let my people go!” He gave signs for Moses and Aaron to perform before Pharaoh. In Exodus 7:1-13, Moses recounts the challenge of the staffs, where God demonstrated that His power was greater than Pharaoh’s.

However, Pharaoh’s heart grew hard. Exodus 7:13 says:

Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. (Exodus 7:13 ESV)

The God of the Hebrews is the God who created the Egyptians, whether or not they acknowledged it. For this reason, Pharaoh’s hardened heart was a severe problem. What we are going to see today is that his hardened heart cut him off from the source of life.

Hebrews chapter 3 warns us several times about having hardened hearts. Hebrews 3:13 tells us:

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:13 ESV)

We see an example of the deceitfulness of sin and of hardened hearts in the confrontation between God and Pharaoh. Every human heart is a Pharaoh with its own “Egypt” to rule and a Nile River running through it.

Exodus 7:15 says:

Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. (Exodus 7:15 ESV)

Our account starts with Pharaoh going to the water in the morning.

The Nile, the water that Pharaoh was going to, was the source of life for Egypt. One of the many gods worshiped by the Egyptians was named “Hapi.” He was the god of the annual flooding of the Nile. Wikipedia says this about Hapi:

The yearly flooding of the Nile occasionally was said to be the Arrival of Hapi. Since this flooding provided fertile soil in an area that was otherwise desert, Hapi, as its patron, symbolised fertility. He had large female breasts because he was said to bring a rich and nourishing harvest. Due to his fertile nature he was sometimes considered the "father of the gods", and was considered to be a caring father who helped to maintain the balance of the cosmos.^[1]

The flooding of the Nile was essential to Egyptian prosperity. They built “Nilometers” at locations along the river to determine the extent of the annual flooding and used the measurements to help determine taxes and predict the harvest.

An ancient “Nilometer” built to measure the annual flooding of the Nile.^[2]

When something is important to us, we track and measure it. The Nile was important to the Egyptians. It was the source of life to them.

In Exodus 7:17, the Lord says,

“By this you shall know that I am the Lord...”

When Moses said, “Thus says the Lord...,” Pharaoh said, “I do not know the Lord.” (Exodus 5:2)

Pharaoh is getting to know the Lord in an adversarial way because he has set himself in opposition to the Lord. It started with the fear of loss in chapter one of Exodus when the Egyptians realized the economic force the Hebrews had become. They enslaved the Hebrews for economic gain and their advancement. Now, consider what was about to happen. Exodus 7:17-18 says:

Thus says the Lord, "By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood. The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile." (Exodus 7:17-18 ESV)

Two things essential for life are about to be touched, water and food. The Egyptians ate fish from the Nile. When the Hebrews complained they wanted to go back to Egypt, one of the things they remembered was eating fish. (Numbers 11:5) Now, the fish were about to die, and the water was to become blood. Food and water are essential for physical life. Water is absolutely necessary. Therefore, even when the river is blood, the Egyptians will be forced to drink it. Exodus 7:19 tells us that even the water in vessels of wood and stone was turned into blood.

Water and food are essential for physical life, and blood is the life of a body. The Scriptures go as far as saying:

For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off. (Leviticus 17:14 ESV)

In his refusal to let the people of Israel go, Pharaoh was protecting what was important to him. He valued prosperity, power and his kingdom. He was the ruler and god of his kingdom, Egypt, and he refused to acknowledge the authority of the Lord (Yahweh) over him or his kingdom.

Pharaoh thought the source of his life was nature, found in the Nile River, and economics, found in the labor of the slaves and the food and goods they produced. Beyond these he acknowledged no force greater than himself.

How like the people of today!

We tend to think or live as if our life consists in the abundance of our possessions. Jesus warned against this when He said:

Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. (Luke 12:15 ESV)

This is the deceitfulness of sin of which Hebrews 3 warned us. Notice that Hebrews 3:13 warns us against being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:13 ESV)

Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened.  Consider Exodus 7:21-23.

And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. (Exodus 7:21-23 ESV)

Since his magicians were able to reproduce the same by their secret arts, Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened. They could not lift the plague and turn the blood back into water. They could not restore life and prosperity. They could not remove the death and bring back the fish. They were deceived into thinking they had some power because they turned water into blood.

What good did their power do them? Were they really connected to the source of life?

Jesus asks us a question.

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? (Mark 8:36-37 ESV)

Pharaoh did not understand the source of life. Nature, abundance, food and water are not life. In Pharaoh’s case, blood, which is our life, became a source of death to him.

Jesus told us:

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. (Mark 8:35 ESV)

This runs contrary to our thinking and our nature. By nature, we hold on to what we perceive as being the source of our life. Pharaoh thought Egypt was his life. It was his kingdom.

This natural thinking is the source of idolatry, having a god other than the one true God, the Lord (Yahweh). It was the source of all the idolatry of Egypt and it was at this issue that God aimed the plagues.

God will do the same in each person’s life. The Nile running through your life is what you perceive to be the source of your life. You are the Pharaoh of your own Egypt. Will you submit to God?

John tells us this about Jesus:

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4 ESV)

Jesus is the true source of life. Only in Him is life to be found.

God was giving Pharaoh a chance. He told Pharaoh:

“By this you shall know that I am the Lord...” (Exodus 7:17)

He was giving Pharaoh a chance to know the true source of life.

He is giving each of us the same chance. He calls us to Himself and says:

"If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" (John 7:37-38 ESV)

If we refuse this offer, what we perceive to be our source of life will become a source of death to us.

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^[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapi_(Nile_god) Accessed August 2, 2019.

^[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilometer Accessed August 2, 2019

Pharaoh’s Heart Was Hardened

Pharaoh’s Heart Was Hardened

Exodus 7:1-13

God spoke to Moses a lot.

In Exodus 3, God appeared to Moses in the burning bush.

In Exodus 4, God spoke to Moses in Midian and appeared to him at a lodging place along the way. 

In Exodus 6, God spoke to Moses in Egypt.

In Exodus 4:10 and 6:12, Moses told the Lord that he could not speak well, and then in Exodus 6:30 Moses said for a third time that he could not speak well.

Moses did not go to Egypt with a lot of self-confidence, and it appears that he did not move at all unless the Lord commanded him to do so. At each step along the way, God told Moses what to do, and He also told Moses what to expect. 

From the start, God told Moses that Pharaoh would not be willing to let the people of Israel go. God repeatedly said that Pharaoh would not let the people go.

In Exodus 7, God speaks to Moses again. He reveals a little more of His plan and gives the next step in the process. Exodus 7:1 says:

And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.” (Exodus 7:1 ESV)

This statement begins chapter 7, but that does not mean there is any gap in time between the last verse of chapter 6 and this verse. Therefore, it follows immediately after Moses’ objection that he was of uncircumcised lips.

God’s answer to Moses was: “And the Lord [Yahweh] said to Moses, ‘See, I have made you God [Elohim] to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.’” With these words, we understand that God assigned Moses as His spokesman, God’s mouthpiece. He was to speak for God, and Aaron was to speak for him. The Lord says:

You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. (Exodus 7:2 ESV)

It is essential to understand that Moses was to speak what the Lord commanded and that he was to say all of it. Moses was not making up any of what he said. God told him what to say. He was speaking words given to him by God. Moses had approached Pharaoh with the statement, “Thus says the Lord...” in Exodus 5:1, and he was rebuffed in no uncertain terms. By making Moses “God” to Pharaoh, God makes it clear that it was not Moses that Pharaoh was refusing. Pharaoh was rejecting God.

This is essential for us because God still speaks, and many in this world do not listen. We are not to make up anything of our own. Opinions are not the same as the Word of God.  We are to give the world the word of God. However, the world will not listen. The Lord has told us the world will not listen. God told Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you.” God tells us the same thing. We have a parallel in the New Testament where Paul uses the incident we are reading about today to illustrate what we can expect from the world.

2 Timothy 3:1-8 says:

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. (2 Timothy 3:1-8 ESV)

We will cover more of the parallels between this and what was happening between God, Moses and Pharaoh, but first, we must understand that just as God warned Moses that Pharaoh’s heart would be hard and ears closed, God warns us that people’s hearts will be hard and ears closed. 

God also told Moses in Exodus 7:4 that He would “...lay my hand on Egypt and bring my people out of Egypt by great acts of judgment.” God does this so, “The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” (Exodus 7:5) 

There are consequences for closed ears and hard hearts, and Pharaoh serves as an example of what happens to those who refuse to listen to the Lord. The ten plagues that God strikes Egypt with each confront a specific sin or idol with which the Egyptians were buttressing the walls built around their hearts.

However, before we get to those battles, we must first witness the next confrontation. The first time Moses confronted Pharaoh is recorded in Exodus 5. Moses said, “Thus says the Lord...” And, Pharaoh rebuffed him. 

In Exodus 7, the confrontation involves a display of power. Pharaoh asks for proof. Exodus 7:8 says:

"When Pharaoh says to you, 'Prove yourselves by working a miracle,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.'" (Exodus 7:9 ESV)

Moses was to have Aaron throw down his staff if Pharaoh said, “Prove yourselves by working a miracle.” God said, “When Pharaoh says...” Pharaoh apparently said ... because Moses told Aaron to throw down his rod. Having asked for proof, we would expect Pharaoh to accept the proof. But instead, he called for his wise men, sorcerers and magicians. 

These were the educated men of his days. Pharaoh had his own private collection of magic books and knowledge reserved only for himself and his magicians. We know that the Egyptians practiced embalming and engineering that rival modern accomplishments. They were not ignorant, and they were committed to what could be termed occult practices.

Many have undertaken to explain what happened next, but when Aaron threw down his staff, the Scriptures say:

Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. (Exodus 7:11-12 ESV)

Since many scholars do not believe in magic, many commentaries take the Egyptian staffs turning into serpents as some sort of sleight of hand. If we take the Bible for what it says, the Egyptian sorcerers were able to reproduce the miracle of turning their staffs into snakes.

The Bible speaks of demons, the power of darkness and the devil, and it is not speaking in metaphors. The confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh involved the power of God in Moses and Aaron and the power of darkness in the Egyptian enchanters. The same battle has continued throughout history. 

In Matthew 24:24, Jesus warns of those who will perform false signs and wonders.

For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24 ESV)

We know that the devil is a deceiver. Jesus told us:

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44 ESV)

One of his lies is that he does not exist or that he is inactive in our world. Another lie is that he is somehow equal with God as an adversary. The Bible is clear:

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4 ESV)

We do not fear the evil one because Jesus won the battle over death and the grave. Satan is a creature, and God, the creator. There is no comparison of power, position or authority. However, God has allowed the evil one to continue to oppose Him at the present time. As 1 John 5:19 says:

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. (1 John 5:19 ESV)

The confrontation between Moses, Aaron and Pharaoh reflects the battle that is in the world. It is not a metaphor. It was a skirmish in the continuing battle. The staffs were pieces of wood upon which the powers of the unseen world worked.

Please note that everyone present had a staff. Moses’ staff was a shepherd’s tool, and he was instructed by God to carry his staff. The Egyptians’ staffs were the tools of their trade as well. Egyptian hieroglyphics depict staffs of various kinds and common among them are staffs shaped like serpents. These staffs represented authority and position and were related to the priestly or ritual functions of the magicians and sorcerers.

The carrying of staffs seems to have been ubiquitous. Everyone had a staff. They were practical since practically everyone walked everywhere. Having a staff to assist in walking, as well as confrontations with anything met with along the road, was a part of life. The magicians and rulers carried specialized staffs as symbols of authority and position.

When the authority of God was challenged by the authority of Pharaoh, God’s authority swallowed Pharaoh’s. The event was real, and the symbolic meaning was significant.

The Egyptians obeyed authority from gods or spiritual powers. These powers spoke through Pharaoh and through the magicians. There was no higher authority in Egypt. All authority in heaven and earth was resident in these authorities, and these authorities were symbolized in the staffs of the men present in that room. When Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs, the message was sent that a greater authority was present.

In our day, the greatest authority is the individual, the intellect and the conscience. Each person determines for themselves what is true, what is important, and what is right. No king, Pharaoh, or priest can tell an individual what he or she must do.

The individual appeals to science, religion or conscience as the authority for each decision. The authority to which we appeal is our staff. We lean on it for support. 

Let’s return to what Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:1-8. Remember, we read that in the last days, “there will come times of difficulty.” And, we read that people would always be learning but never “able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.” That passage ends with:

Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. (2 Timothy 3:8 ESV)

According to tradition, Jannes and Jambres were the two chief servants of Pharaoh whose staffs were among those swallowed by Aaron’s staff.

When Moses met God at the burning bush, he threw down his staff at the command of God, and it became the staff of God. This was an act of surrender and obedience. When Jannes and Jambres threw down their staffs, it was an act of challenge and opposition.

Pharaoh did not choose to surrender. Exodus 7:13 tells us that in spite of the demonstration of God’s authority and power, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen.

The question for us today is what it will take for us to surrender.

You have your staff, the thing that you lean on for authority. What will it take for you to surrender to the God who made you?

Jesus illustrates what this looks like when He met with His disciples after the resurrection. They were professional fishermen; their nets were their staffs. They were experts. They fished all night and did not catch anything. Nothing was wrong with their technique. Nothing was wrong with their nets. But Jesus told them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. There was no change in substance to what they were doing. They just surrendered. They surrendered their nets to the Lord, and He gave the increase.