Exodus 8:1-15
I. Introduction
The
world in Pharaoh’s day was made full of frogs.
John tells us the same is true in our day.
II.
God displays his glory by covering the land with frogs and hardening Pharaoh’s
heart.
1. In warfare, you shape the battlefield before
you attack. God is so preparing Egypt
with small doses of judgment. This
morning we will examine the nature and extent of the 2nd plague.
2. The nature of the judgment is an assault on
Egyptian idols. In 1-7, it is the frog
and in 8-15, it is Pharaoh. In
particular, God will mock them. And
though not final, the judgment is extensive.
3. The Egyptian god Heket was the head of a frog
on the body of a woman. She was one of
the deities associated with creation and fertility or childbirth. Heket was the consort of Khnum who created
men on his potter’s wheel. She breathed
the breath of life into them. Women wore
amulets of Heket to protect them during childbirth. Later, she became associated with the
resurrection; thus, amulets would read I am the resurrection.
4. Our account begins with a warning to Pharaoh
to release the people of God for service to their rightful owner
(pyramids). Pharaoh has misappropriated
divine property. He refuses. Appl:
warning. For not heeding the
warning, God judges.
5. The nature of the warning is, as I have
suggested, extensive: vs. 2 (whole
territory, vs. 3-4 (read). In vs. 3, we
have the word swarm. The word is used in
Genesis 1:21 (read). In this text, it is
a mockery of the Egyptian goddess by the true Creator. In effect, God is saying you like her. I am going to give her to you. Thus, frogs are everywhere. It had to have been utterly and maddeningly
disruptive. Plus, imagine the sound of
it all (cacophony of croakers)! The
word swarm is also used of the children of Israel in Exodus 1:7 as they fulfill
their creation mandate of Genesis 1:28.
God gave them life not Heket.
Here, he is giving Egypt Heket to cause them to despise and hate
her. In vs. 7, the magicians counterfeit
the sign in some way. It is the lesson
that religion can only copy and pretend.
But notice, they cannot undo the misery and ironically only add to
it. It is the utter inability of the
pretense of false religion. Later, God
kills Heket and she fills the land with a foul stench (14). It is the reminder that God is the only
sovereign. The no gods of the world are
a lie and bring misery.
6. In the next section (8-15), God sets upon
Pharaoh. As you know, he too was a
god. Now, he must entreat the servants
of the one true God for relief. He must
humble himself as king before shepherds.
The irony is intense. Moses
entreats God on his behalf. God
answers. Read vs. 13. The curse of the plague retreats. But Pharaoh rebels once there is relief. The word is derived from room. Pharaoh sees an opening against God and
exploits it. He hardens his heart. It is a great picture of the way of man. We are sensitive at tragedy. As it retreats from our memory, we continue
our way. Appl: 911.
But this too is divine judgment because the text is very clear. What he did was according to the word of the
Lord. God’s word is creative. It creates life and judgment. Pharaoh did what he did. He is responsible and accountable for what he
did. But once we read according to the
word of the Lord, sovereignty and causality is cast over it. See 4:21.
God is the cause because he is shaping the battlefield to destroy the
false gods. In itself, it is a
warning. Illus: Killer whale and her young. God is teaching us about his power, and the
grace that we have from him.
7. And this very same drama is with us
today. In Revelation 16, John moves us
from the literal realm to the spiritual.
The context is the judgment of the sixth bowl which is the just before
the final destruction. The judgments are
multiple because God is shaping the battlefield and opening a door for men to
repent. Read Revelation 16:13-14. The phrase out of the mouth is a marker for
deceptions (words). See 12:15. John is using Exodus eight to display divine
judgment on the deceived. The frogs come
out of the mouth of the dragon (Satan), beast (civil government opposed to
God), and the false prophet (false religion).
John calls them unclean spirits like frogs. And in the following verse (14a) he translates
the symbol: they are the spirits of
demons. The unholy triangle is speaking
words of deception that are the product of demonic forces. Like Heket was a deception, so too are the
words of the false trinity. Beale in his
commentary on Revelation says their croaking is loud but meaningless. False religion has volume; it says absolutely
nothing. It offers a fake
salvation. To transfer the allusion from
Exodus, the deceptions cover the land.
The mendacity is dead and it stinks.
But men are not moved because they are deceived. Like the Egyptians, men think their false
religions give them life. Heket is a
lie. And God is using the spirits of
deceit to gather the world for the final judgment.
8. A few years ago, George Barna conducted a
survey and discovered that Christians are increasingly adopting spiritual views
that come from Islam, Wicca, secular humanism, and the Eastern religions. We are turning to no gods that cannot
deliver. Their promises are empty. See Revelation 16:15a (a warning to the
Church/NB: present active participles of watch/keep).
9. Our hope is the good Shepherd. He alone gives and sustains life. He protects us from deception! We must keep watching and keeping.