Exodus 8:1-9:35

Daily Reading for Wednesday, Week 6

Exodus 8-9:35 (English Standard Version)

Exodus 8

The Second Plague: Frogs

¹ 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. ²But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. ³The 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. ⁴The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants."'" ⁵And 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!'" ⁶So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. ⁷But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

⁸Then 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." ⁹Moses 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." ¹⁰And 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. ¹¹The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile." ¹²So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the LORD about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh. ¹³And the LORD did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. ¹⁴And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. ¹⁵But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

The Third Plague: Gnats

¹⁶Then 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.'"¹⁷And 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. ¹⁸The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast.¹⁹Then 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.

The Fourth Plague: Flies

²⁰Then 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. ²¹Or 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. ²²But 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. ²³Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen."'"²⁴And 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.

²⁵Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land." ²⁶But 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? ²⁷We must go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as he tells us." ²⁸So 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." ²⁹Then 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." ³⁰So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD.³¹And the LORD did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; not one remained. ³²But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.

Exodus 9

The Fifth Plague: Egyptian Livestock Die

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, "Let my people go, that they may serve me.²For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them,³behold, the hand of the LORD will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. ⁴ But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die."'" ⁵And the LORD set a time, saying, "Tomorrow the LORD will do this thing in the land."⁶And the next day the LORD did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died. ⁷And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not one of the livestock of Israel was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

The Sixth Plague: Boils

⁸And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw them in the air in the sight of Pharaoh. ⁹It shall become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and become boils breaking out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt." ¹⁰So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. And Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. ¹¹And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians.¹² But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had spoken to Moses.

The Seventh Plague: Hail

¹³Then the LORD said to Moses, "Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, "Let my people go, that they may serve me. ¹⁴For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. ¹⁵For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. ¹⁶ But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. ¹⁷ You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go.¹⁸Behold, about this time tomorrow I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. ¹⁹Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them."'" ²⁰Then whoever feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, ²¹but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the LORD left his slaves and his livestock in the field.

²²Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field, in the land of Egypt." ²³Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.²⁴There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.²⁵The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. ²⁶ Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.

²⁷Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, "This time I have sinned; the LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. ²⁸Plead with the LORD, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer." ²⁹Moses said to him, "As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the LORD. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s. ³⁰But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the LORD God." ³¹(The flax and the barley were struck down, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud. ³²But the wheat and the emmer were not struck down, for they are late in coming up.) ³³So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the LORD, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. ³⁴But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. ³⁵So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.

Pastor’s Commentary:

In our text today we have the second through the seventh plague of the ten plagues of Egypt. Each of these plagues is like God kicking one of the props out from under Pharaoh, Pharaoh’s country, and his religion. The second plague was against an Egyptian goddess named Heqt, who took the form of a frog sometimes. In fact, it was taboo to step on a frog in Egypt. Here God gives them so many frogs that they can’t help but stepping on them and trying to sweep them out of their houses. Imagine the sticky slimy mess that one would make just by walking through your house! Ugh. But this plague served to demonstrate that God was actually in control of the frogs of Egypt, not Heqt.

There are times we would like to think that we are in control. It is usually at times like these that God brings something into our lives to take away that silly thought. No, what God has in store for us is always good. He is in control, and His Word details what is best for us.

The plague of gnats (or perhaps lice) was an embarrassment to the god called Geb. Geb was in charge of the earth of Egypt. Offerings would be made to Geb for the fruitfulness of the earth. But from the earth came these gnats instead! In fact, it is likely that the priests could not enter into their temples to offer their sacrifices since the gnats would have made them unclean. Therefore, they tell Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God. We cannot replicate this plague.”

The fourth plague involves swarms of some kind of insect. The Hebrew is not clear about the kind of insect that invaded Egypt. It could have been the scarab beetle. Or it could have been a gadfly that perhaps caused blindness in some people. Whatever the case, it is probable that this plague was against Ammon Ra, a god of Egypt. Ammon Ra had the head of a scarab beetle. And yet there are swarms of them all around, controlled by God! It’s as if God is saying, “Yeah, your god is nothing but a bug.”

The fifth plague was against all the livestock of Egypt. This is significant, because Egyptians worshiped the livestock in their land. This is especially the case where the Apis bull is concerned. The Apis bull was regarded as a prophet in Egypt. When the Apis bull died, Egyptian priests would go throughout Egypt to find its replacement. But here, they all die at the same time! God stops the false worship of the animals!

The sixth plague was against Imhotep, the god of medicine. Imhotep could not protect even the priests from the painful boils.

The seventh plague was against Nut, the sky goddess. As the hail fell down and destroyed everything an Egyptian would have to wonder where she was, and whether or not his sacrifices to her had worked.

All of these plagues served to show the Egyptians that their gods and goddesses were not in control, but that the God of Moses and the children of Israel really was. Some of Pharaoh’s servants believed God with the seventh plague, but Pharaoh continued to harden his heart against God.

Let us remember that we should look to the true God for every good in this life and beyond. Everything else this world trusts in will indeed fail. But God has worked salvation and peace for us through Jesus Christ our Savior!