Exodus 8:1-32

There is a battle going on in this world.  A battle rages between God and Satan; between those who fear God and those who do not.  Essentially, this battle is one of priorities between what God and man consider to be the purpose for which man has been created and given life.  God created man in order that man would worship Him and bring glory to His name.  Man in his sin has become distracted from this purpose and has determined to live for the purpose of building his own empire in order to worship himself and have others worship him too.  God makes it very clear that He wants the children of Israel to be free and to worship Him.  Pharaoh has made it very clear that he wants the children of Israel to continue to serve as slaves who are building an empire for Pharaoh’s glory.  These two conflicting priorities continue to rage all over the earth and in the hearts of men today.  It is a battle over worship.  God demands to be worshiped while man desires to worship himself and his own achievements.  There is no way for man’s desires and God’s demands to both be satisfied.  The plagues in Egypt demonstrate how far God is willing to go to bring man into His purpose as well as just how much man is willing to suffer in order to avoid submitting to God.

THE PLAGUE OF FROGS: Pharaoh was not convinced by the blood in the water so God tells Moses to call the frogs out of the rivers and streams that come out and invade all of the land, the houses and food of the land of Egypt.  Once again, the magicians of Egypt make the problem worse by bringing up more frogs but they are powerless to make the frogs go away.  Finally the situation becomes so desperate that Pharaoh agrees to let the people go to worship.  Moses agrees to pray for the frogs to die off because of Pharaoh’s decision.  Moses prays and the frogs return to the river or they die and were piled up creating a very bad smell in all the land.  The price of rebellion against God continues to be paid long after the rebellion ends.  However, once the frogs are gone, Pharaoh hardens his heart again and refuses to let the people go.  This is a clear demonstration of a false repentance that is all too common in the world.  Men do not like the consequences of sin so they claim to repent, but the truth is that they still love their sin.  The result of this false repentance is that as soon as some relief from the consequences is gained; men go right back into the sin that they love so much.  True repentance always demonstrates a genuine hatred of sin and not just remorse over the consequences.

THE PLAGUE OF FLIES: I am sure that the pile of dead frogs already had the swarms of flies and insects in great abundance in the land.  God commands Moses to strike the dust so that it becomes gnats and insects that swarm the land.  God make a clear distinction between the land of Egypt and the land of Goshen where Israel lives.  Egypt is infested with the insects while Goshen is insect free.  Amazingly the magicians still try to make more insects but this time they fail.  In light of this they finally try to convince Pharaoh that God is behind this and that he should listen to Moses.  Pharaoh then tries to bargain with Moses about where he will allow them to worship and how far they might go.  Pharaoh has still not repented because we see that he still thinks that he has a right to make demands.  God is not in the business of making deals with sinful men.  God demands total and complete surrender not a bargaining session where both sides come together and make concessions in order to appease the opposition.  Pharaoh is desperate because he tries to hold on to his own pride while at the same time he desperately wants to be rid of the flies.  This is the common condition of men.  We long to be free from the pain that sin brings into our lives but we refuse to humble ourselves before God and worship Him.  The path to joy in Christ and freedom from sin is marked by submission and surrender to God.