Exodus 8:1-15 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Exodus 8:1-15. Let’s go!
Exodus 8:1-6 (NIV)
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.
2 If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs.
3 The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs.
4 The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials.'”
5 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, 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.
On verses 1-6: The ancient Egyptians worshiped Heket, who was known as the goddess of fertility and was represented by the frog. Sculptures and paintings of Heket depict her with the face of a frog. Apparently the worship of Heket informed the way Egyptians viewed sex and having babies. By causing frogs to appear everywhere in Egypt – in people’s bedrooms and homes – and later causing the frogs to die in verse 13, the Lord was communicating that the Lord is far greater than Heket and that it is the Lord, not Heket, who reigns over the issues of sex and fertility.
Also, the fact that frogs appear everywhere suggests to me that when the Lord is not reigning over the way we view sex, the result is a stinky mess. Like frogs everywhere, our lives and, in particular, the way we approach sex, becomes out of control, not in a wild and romantic way, but in a sickening and distressing way. Just as those of us who struggle with lustful thoughts can tend to turn almost any situation into an opportunity to lust, so frogs appeared all over Egypt. When our lives are controlled by lust, sex stops being something we enjoy and rather something that enslaves us. We need God’s help and lordship in this area.
Exodus 8:7-12 (NIV)
7 But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.
8 Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD.”
9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.”
10 “Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said. Moses replied, “It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the LORD our God.
11 The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile.”
12 After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the LORD about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh.
On verses 7-12: Notice that while the Egyptian magicians could seemingly replicate the appearance of frogs by their secret arts (v7), they could not by their secret arts remove the frogs. Pharaoh still needed to ask Moses to pray to the Lord for the frogs to leave (v8). It goes to show that occultic practices like divination, fortune telling, tarot cards, Ouija boards may have a certain power to them, but it’s a power that only makes things worse instead of making things better.
Exodus 8:13-14 (NIV)
13 And the LORD did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields.
14 They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them.
On verses 13-14: After the frogs had died and were removed from the Egyptians’ homes, the land still reeked of frogs. Likewise, sin leaves a stench in our lives that doesn’t always go away immediately. Getting rid of a sinful habit is important and necessary, but to the extent that the sinful habit caused hurt or damage to ourselves or others, there may still be some time before things smell normal again, even after we’ve gotten rid of that sinful habit.
Exodus 8:15 (NIV)
15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.
On verse 15: Pharaoh does what a lot of us do: we only go to God when we have a problem, but when the problem goes away, we go back to living as if we are the centre of our own universe (not realizing that the reason for our problem in the first place was that we were living as if we are the centre of the universe!). So when you go to God with a problem and He gives you relief, unlike Pharaoh who hardened his heart, keep a soft heart before God and worship Him all the more. Remember that the reason God gave you relief was so that you could worship Him even more.
Heavenly Father, I pray that You would reign over the way I view sex, my body, other people’s bodies, and You, believing that Your way brings peace whereas the world’s way only brings a mess. Come and be the centre of my universe. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
