Exodus chapter 8 begins with the Lord telling Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, This is what the Lord says: Let My people go that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will fill your whole country with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and your bed…. So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt and the frogs came up and covered the land. But the magicians did the same thing by their secret arts and they made frogs come up into the land of Egypt.” How pathetic! At first the cheap imitations of Satan appear genuine and attractive, but over time we can see they are shallow and empty. The best the magicians can do is produce more misery. Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “pray to the Lord to take the frogs away… and I will let your people go to offer sacrifice to the Lord“. So often when people experience the consequences of their rebellion, they do not repent, but simply want the consequences removed. Too often they will SAY anything, but DO nothing. Repentance means to literally “turn away from”, the change that happens in the heart is visible in the behavior. Moses prayed, the frogs died, and “Pharaoh saw that there was relief and he hardened his heart and would not listen… just as the Lord said.” Does this sound familiar?
Next, God tells Moses, “Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground, and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become lice.” The lice came upon man and animal, but the magicians could not duplicate this plague. The magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God“. The power of Satan is limited. The glorious good news of salvation is summed up one welcome verse. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, after explaining that “the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God“, and then listing all the unrighteous acts (so we all will know we made the list), the apostle reminds us, “And such were some of you!” He reminds us that by God’s grace we were washed and completely restored by our faith in Christ. He calls us “Justified”; spiritually God treats me “just-as if-I’d” never sinned. Satan desires to continue to keep us mired in our sin, but Jesus Christ came down into the muck of mankind to show us there is hope.
Early the next morning God tells Moses to meet Pharaoh as he goes to the water. Again, he tells Pharaoh, God commands you to “Let my people go so that they may worship me“. He also tells Pharaoh that if he doesn’t God will send a swarm of flies. “But on that day, I will deal differently with the people in the land of Goshen… I will make a distinction between My people and your people“. God continues to make a distinction between His people and everyone else. We read that thick swarms filled Pharaoh’s palace and he summoned Moses and tries to make a compromise, “Go sacrifice to your God here in the land“. But God does not bargain with how He will be worshipped, those that claim the worship God “in their own way” are being deceived. Pharaoh then says he will allow the people to leave, he even asks Moses to “pray for me“. After Moses prayed, “not a fly remained“, but “Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go“. Pharaoh is playing a game, but God is to be revered. When people ask me to pray for them, I take it seriously, and so does God. Christ died so that we may have access to God; what a great privilege we have been given. God desires to have closeness to you even now. Use the gift you have been given.