Exodus 8:20-32
I. Introduction
One of the vagaries of our culture is that we are self-centered and man centered. The term anthropocentric is from anthropos the Greek word for man. We should be theocentric from the Greek word Theos for God. One thing for sure, God is theocentric. Everything is for his glory.
II. God displays his glory by filling the sky with flies and hardening Pharaoh’s heart.
1. The 4th plague begins the second series of three judgments. We now know that the judgments are multiple and over time. The word plague has the idea of wound or beating. Pharaoh refuses the divine request because he presumes he does not have to give in to it and is mightier that God. Thus, God is flogging (plaguing) him for his insolence. The beating is judicial and mocks the impotence of Pharaoh. It is a display of God’s power and justice.
2. The plagues are also a polemic against Egyptian theology. False theology is an affront to God. God acts to set the record straight.
3. In this case, God says to Pharaoh if you do not send my people out I will send a swarm on you. It is generally accepted the reference is to flies, the biting kind (see Psalm 78:45 [ate them]). As before, God is creating disorder and reversing the role of man in the creation as a lowly life form is exercising dominion over him. To this point, God has brought judgment from the water, the earth, and now the sky. Creation is mocking man. This may also be a polemic against the Egyptian god Khepera who was a form of the sun-god. The anthropomorphic form was a man with the head of a scarab beetle. The beetle would roll balls of dung in front of him; thus, Khepera would roll out the rising sun. God is displaying his glory against their sky god. In vs. 24, the MT reads that the swarm is great or literally heavy. There is a play on words here because this is the word used of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. God is using nature to harden man. The glory of God reduces man to a pitiful estate. Read 22b (you may know I am Yahweh in the midst of the earth). NB, not that you may believe or repent. God is central to creation and not the insect gods. Illus: consumer is king!
4. A new element emerges that is also a display of divine glory. God exempts his people from his wrath upon Egypt. Read vs. 22a & 23a. He separates his people out for special treatment. I want to use a pejorative term. God discriminates. He protects them. Based upon what? Nothing save his word to Abraham. It is true of us based upon his word to Christ and no other reason! God acts on behalf of a despised people based upon the good pleasure of his will. It displays his glory because the choice is unearned and unmerited. Appl: election (God does not share his glory; if we have a part, then we deserve some of the credit which lessens the glory of God). The other profound consideration is that Goshen is a safe place. In Reformed theology, safety is security. In the other two systems, man is only safe if he keeps himself. We are safe because God keeps us. Illus: The 18th Century songwriter Augustus Toplady was once caught in a violent storm and sought refuge among some giant rocks. It was the basis for his words rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Thus, Christ is the only safety from the wrath of God. We see his glory in simultaneously providing salvation with judgment. It is also noteworthy that the people of God are not removed from wrath but are protected from it. See Revelation 12:14 (symbolic). Appl: Gospel (in Christ not from Christ). The word in vs. 23 for division is from the word ransom whereby a transfer of ownership is secured through payment or substitution. In this case, the payment is the first born of Egypt. See Exodus 4:23 and 12:29. It is altogether an expression of the glory of God who takes the one (lowly slave) and rejects the other (the mighty and proud). The mighty are fallen.
5. And this is the first instance where the magicians are absent. They have had their day. Their glory is gone. God alone is center stage.
6. Then there is Moses. He is forty years removed from the court of Egypt. He has lived on the backside of the wilderness for forty years as a shepherd. He is now engaged in verbal battle with Pharaoh. In 26-27, Pharaoh tries to trick Moses and remain in control. But he had to humble himself before Moses and concede with every answer of Moses. How can this be? Illus: playing chess with Bobby Fisher. It is the glory of God. See Exodus 4:12.
7. Lastly, Pharaoh engages in deceit and changes his mind. The text reads he hardens his heart. Read 8:32. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, men would place a scarab (carving of the beetle) on Pharaoh’s heart to keep him from confessing his sin and thereby escape judgment. God will reverse this. Depending on how you count, there are 20 references to hardening in this section. How should we understand them? Three are a description (no help regarding causality). Two are a self-hardening. This is one of them (true). Nine have God as the cause (cf. 7:3). Six have the formula as the Lord said (cf. 34f). The weight of the evidence is that God is the cause (fifteen to two or one!). Thus, behind Pharaoh’s recalcitrant and obstinate heart, is the supremacy of God. He thinks he can outmaneuver and impose his will on Moses, but God is maneuvering him for greater judgment yet to come. And this is a telling point. The wrath of God is not intended to induce repentance in Pharaoh but to display the glory of God. The deceitful fail and fall.
8. It is altogether glorious; history is theocentric. Read Romans 11:33-36.