Exodus chapter 8. We know that
God brought 10 plagues, and these plagues are also called signs. God brought these 10 signs or
plagues upon the nation of Israel, upon Pharaoh, before Pharaoh
obeyed God's command, let my people go that they may serve
me. Now we looked at the first of
those 10 plagues last Wednesday evening, that is when Aaron stretched
forth his rod over the river Nile and all the waters in Egypt
turned into blood and the fish in the river, they died. There are nine more of these
plagues or signs But we're going to look at eight of them tonight. We'll save that last one, which
was the death of the firstborn. We'll save that for a separate
message. But tonight, we're going to go
through these eight plagues. Verses one and two of chapter
eight. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, thus saith the Lord, let
my people go, that they may serve me. And if thou refuse to let
them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs. So the second of the 10 and the
first of the eight we're looking at tonight is the plague of the
frogs, the frogs. The Egyptians worship the frog. This is one of their gods that
they worship. And when we think about this,
I don't know about you, but it comes into my mind how far man
has fallen. And we're part of mankind, all
of us. We're all part of mankind. And
but by the grace of God, we're not worshiping frogs. That's
amazing, isn't it? That a man who was created in
the image of God, who knew God, who fellowshiped with God, who
walked with God, who communed with God, that sin has so altered
man. The fall is so great. that man would worship a frog. Just like the Apostle Paul wrote
in Romans chapter one when he wrote, professing themselves
to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the
incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man
and to birds and to four-footed beast and creeping things. How far has man fallen into sin? How altered is man as he was
created in the image of God? You know, frogs, this plague
of the frogs, frogs are unclean. They're unclean. And no doubt
that is what is manifested here in the plague of the frogs. The
devil, his works are uncleanness. Men live in uncleanness and sin
and evil. Now, it was impossible for the
Egyptians to escape from these frogs. Notice in verse three,
we're told, and the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly,
which shall go up and come into thine house. Can you imagine
that? You open the door and go into
your house and it's full of frogs. Not just in your house, but they
come into that bedchamber and you want to go to bed and your
bed's covered over with frogs. And the lady of the house wants
to do her cooking. And the ovens, her ovens, she
opens the door of the oven, and what does she see? She sees frogs. And into the board in which they
rolled out their flour, no doubt, into making bread, there was
frogs. Frogs everywhere. Now, The Egyptians
were able, the magicians rather, of the Egyptians were able to
duplicate this miracle or this plague like they had with the
water, turning the water into blood. But think about it, though
God allowed them to be able to turn or to bring forth frogs,
they couldn't command the frogs to leave. That's what the Egyptians
needed. They didn't need more frogs.
They were everywhere. They were in their houses, in
their beds, in their ovens. And the magicians, God allowed
them to work this miracle, yes. But they didn't have the power
to cause the frogs to leave. Only the Lord, only God has had
the power and has the power over all creation to cause these frogs
to die and to deliver the land of Egypt from the frogs. Many years ago, just had to be
back in the 1960s, I heard a message and the title was One More Night
with the Frogs. Now, I've never forgotten the
title. I don't remember anything else about the message, but I've
never forgotten the title to that message, One More Night
with the Frog. The pastor was preaching from
this text because notice in verses 9 and 10, Moses asked Pharaoh
about sending these frogs away. And Moses said unto Pharaoh,
glory over me, when shall I entreat for thee and for thy servants
and for thy people to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses
that they may remain in the river only? Now, wouldn't you think
the man would have said now, now's the time. He didn't say
that, did he? No, look in verse, and he said
tomorrow, tomorrow. One more night with the frogs.
And the thought is that many men procrastinate when they hear
the gospel. Many people do. They procrastinate. They put off to tomorrow. And
tomorrow never comes. Tomorrow, what we call tomorrow,
when it comes, it's today. It's not tomorrow. Many people
put off seeking the Lord. The scripture says, seek the
Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. And
we encourage everyone, ourselves and everyone, seek the Lord.
Man said, well, God hasn't saved me. Well, have you ever asked
him to save you? Have you ever asked him? He said,
well, no. Well, ask him. What is his word,
his promise is? Call upon me, and I will answer
thee, and show thee great and mighty things, and things which
thou knowest not. Yes, one more night with the
frogs. Well, what did this miracle or
this plague, what did it accomplish concerning Pharaoh? Look in verse
15. But when Pharaoh saw that there
was respite, the frogs died, he hardened his heart. and hearken
not unto them as the Lord had said. So that's the first of
these eight plagues we're looking at tonight, the plague of the
frogs. The next plague, the second is
the plague of lice. Look in verse 16, still in chapter
eight, verse 16. And the Lord said unto Moses,
say unto Aaron, stretch out thy rod and smite the dust of the
land. that it may become lice throughout
all the land of Egypt. And they did so, for Aaron stretched
out his hand with his rod and smoked the dust of the earth,
and it became lice in man. And in beast, all the dust of
the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. Have you
ever seen pictures of the pyramids in Egypt? It looks like there's
a lot of dust there to me. In fact, it looks like that's
about all there is, is dust. But all the dust became lice,
turned into lice, and was upon the men and upon the animals. There's two things, two thoughts
that come to my mind with this plague. First of all, the dust. The fact that the dust was turned
to lice, reminding us of man's sin. When Adam sinned, remember
God spoke to him and said, curse it is the ground for thy sake,
for dust thou art, and under dust shalt thou return. God threatened Adam for his disobedience
with death, and the wages of sin is death. That's the first
thought that comes to my mind, this dust turning to lice. Have you ever been, when I think
about lice, have you ever been where there's fleas? You know, fleas jump on you,
don't they? They do. I remember, and this goes back
several years, when my wife and I and our children, they were
small, we stayed in a pastor's house, and they had fleas in
the house. And that's very uncomfortable. Those fleas, they jump on you. They get on your legs. And I
can just think about these lice. I mean, they were on the people,
on the animals. And lice, evidently, they are
very, I don't guess you could say contagious, but they move
from person to person, evidently, because I've heard of that happening
in schools. with children and lice on the
hair of, especially girls, it seems like, with the longer hair. But lice, it reminds us, the
fact that the dust was turned into lice reminds us that the
wages of sin is death, that God cursed the earth. And the second
thing that comes to mind is Or the second thing that we see
here is these magicians. Now, up to this point, they've
been able to duplicate every plague. But notice in verse 18,
not this one. And the magicians did so with
their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. That's what I've told us, I think
last week and maybe the week before. that God allowed these
magicians just to go so far. And that's the way God allows
Satan to go just so far and no further. And the magicians tried
to do what they'd done with the other plagues, but this time
they were not allowed to do so. And the final word, this is the
last word we hear from these magicians, You see in verse 18
and 19, the final word is, this is the finger of God. Notice
that in verse 19, then the magician said unto Pharaoh, this is the
finger of God. They admitted, they confessed
that this was God's work and it was above their ability and
above Satan's ability to do this. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
was blasphemed. They accused him of casting out
demons, devils, by Beelzebub. But our Lord said this, by the
finger of God. If I do this by the finger of
God, and you see that in one gospel account, and if you compare
that in another gospel, it is Not by the finger of God, but
by the Holy Spirit. These magicians confess, this
is the finger, this is the Holy Spirit. This is God, the Holy
Spirit. We can't go up against this. The third plague, down in verse
20. The flies, the plague of flies. And the Lord said unto Moses,
rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh, lo,
he cometh forth through the water and say unto him, thus saith
the Lord, let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou
wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon
thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into
thy houses, and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of
swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. And
I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people
dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there. To the end thou
mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. This too, we recognize, was a
god that the Egyptians worshipped. This god, I believe, was named
Beelzebub, and they worshipped the flies. And I want you to
notice in those verses that I read, those two words, of flies, swarms
of flies, of flies is in italics. In other words, the translators,
they added that, of flies. All that the text evidently says
is swarms. There were swarms. And the translators,
they said, of flies. But I want you to turn with me
to Psalm 78. In Psalm 78, we read, Psalm 78 and verse 43. How he had wrought his signs
in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Zohan and had turned
their rivers into blood and their floods that they could not drink
He sent diverse sorts of flies among them, which devoured them,
and frogs, which destroyed them." Notice there in verse 45, diverse
sorts of flies. Now, it wasn't just the common
fly, evidently. There was many insects that God
sent here. But notice the psalmist said,
it devoured them. He sent diverse sorts of flies
among them which devoured them. In other words, they were being
bitten by these flies. A horsefly, have you ever been
bitten by a horsefly? Oh, they hurt, don't they? They
do. And big flies. Little flies,
nobody likes them either. But those big flies, they can
really hurt. Well, with this plague along
with the remainders, we're told that God put a difference here.
This is the first time we read this. We've had these plagues
in the land of Egypt, but now God tells Pharaoh, I'm going
to put a difference. Where my people live in the land
of Goshen, these flies are not going to come. And for the remainder
of these plagues, His people are going to be separated. God
puts a difference, a division between His people and Pharaoh.
And we know that's true in this world. There's only two divisions. There's only two divisions in
this world, right? There's only two religions. The
religion of Cain and the religion of Abel. The religion of works
and the religion of grace. There's only two divisions of
people, those who are dead in trespasses and sins, who've never
been saved by the grace of God, and those whom God has, in mercy,
regenerated, given life, and brought them to trust in Jesus
Christ as their Lord and Savior, translated them as the Apostle
Paul, giving thanks unto the Father who hath made us meet
Qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light. That's what Paul wrote in Colossians,
isn't it? We all, when we come into this
world, are dead in trespasses and sins. And in God's mercy
and grace, he calls out his chosen people, those that he has loved,
those that he loves, and those that he has redeemed by his precious
blood. Now the fourth plague, we go
to chapter nine, verses one through three. Then the Lord said unto
Moses, go in unto Pharaoh and tell him, thus saith the Lord
God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. For if thou refuse to let them
go and wilt hold them still, behold, The hand of the Lord
is upon thy cattle, which is in the field, upon the horses,
upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep. There shall be a very grievous
moraine." A pestilence. God promises a pestilence. And in this plague, we see that
the possessions of the Egyptians began to be affected. We see God's absolute control
also over every creature. All the cattle, if you notice
in verse six here, chapter nine, all the cattle of the Egyptians
died, but not one. Not one cow, not one calf died
that was owned by the Israelites. Verse six, and the Lord did that
thing on the morrow, and all, A-L-L, all the cattle of Egypt
died, but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. What a difference God put between
His people and The Egyptians, all of the cattle of the Egyptians
died, but not one of the cattle of the children of Israel. How
powerful. We see the power of God, don't
we? To see his distinguishing power among the creatures. Well, let's move on to the fifth
plague in verses eight and nine, the plague of boils. Boils. The Lord said unto Moses and
to Aaron, take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace and let
Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust
in all the land of Egypt. and shall be a boil breaking
forth with blends upon man and upon beast throughout all the
land of Egypt. And they took ashes of the furnace
and stood before Pharaoh and Moses sprinkled it up toward
heaven and it became a boil breaking forth with blends upon man and
upon beast. Have you ever had a boil? I mean
one that was in your flesh somewhere I have. I remember when I was
just a kid, I had one on the side of my leg, and I've still
got an indenture there where that boil was. I mean, that's
not fun, is it, to have a boil? And boils broke out upon man
and beast. You say, well, if all the beasts
had already died, Well, not the beast of the Israelites. They
hadn't died. Not one of them died. So the
Egyptians, obviously, they needed beasts. They needed milk. They
needed meat. What did they do? They bought
from the Israelites cattle, no doubt. And now, this plague,
these boils began to break out, took the ashes. Now, Arthur Pink, I want you
to notice in verse 10, he points out in verse 10, the definite
article, the. And the magicians, let's see,
yes. And they took ashes of the furnace. He said the definite article
here, the, before the furnace in verse 10. And then he quotes
from the companion Bible saying that this was an altar. It was
an altar that he took these ashes from and it was an altar upon
which they burned or offered sacrifices unto the god Typhon,
that evil principle. And his thought, that is Pink's
thought, is that most likely these sacrifices were being offered. Pharaoh was, and the magicians,
his priests, they were offering these sacrifices trying to fend
off these plagues. But from the ashes, Moses took
some and threw it up into heaven, and the boils broke out upon
the people. He went on to say, just as the
previous plague signified the worthlessness of the works of
the natural man, so this teaches the utter vanity of his religious
exercises. Now the sixth plague, the hail,
in verse 18, chapter nine, verse 18. Behold, tomorrow, about this
time, I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as
hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof, even
until now. And look down to verse 24. So
there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail. Lightning, I imagine. very grievous, such as there
was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt, all that
was in the field, both man and beast, and the hail smote every
herb of the field and break every tree of the field." Now, this,
of course, Reminds us of what damage hail
can do. Sometimes we hear of baseball-sized
hail, and that's pretty bad, isn't it? It can beat up your
car. Have you ever seen a car that's been out, a truck, and
hail, I mean, just dents all over it? And it can hurt you
too, if it's that big, the size of a baseball, but no telling
how large these hailstones were. The scripture here said never
had been before. Since Egypt had been a nation,
they had never seen hailstones this large that God caused to
rain down. And not only that, but the fire.
And as I said, I believe this was probably lightning, which
we see accompanying storms where there's hail. The fire ran along
upon the ground. What do we see here? Well, if
you read the whole passage here concerning this plague, the first
thing we see is the importance of believing God's word. The importance of believing the
word of God. Look with me in verse 20. He that feared, now the Egyptians
heard what was going to take place. Moses told Pharaoh. He that feared the word of the
Lord among the servants of Pharaoh, what did they do? They heard
hail's coming. What did they do? Well, if they
believed the word of God, they caused their servants and their
animals to be in a place of protection. He that feared the word of the
Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle
flee into the houses. And he that regarded not the
word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.
What happened to those that were left in the field? Well, they
were destroyed, weren't they? With these great hailstones. And that just reminds us again
that we need a refuge. We need a refuge, and there's
only one refuge where we may find safety, and that is in Christ. He is our refuge. And the second thing we see is
the safety of God's people in verse 26. Only in the land of
Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hell. Again, we see the division that
God put between the Egyptians and his people. The safety of
God's people. If you're one of his children
tonight, you know that you're in the hand of Christ, who's
in the hand of God, and nothing can ever take you out of his
hand. The safety of God's people. Now the seventh plague, we go
to chapter 10, verses three and four, the plague of the locust. Moses and Aaron came in unto
Pharaoh and said unto him, thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews,
how long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? Let
my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou refuse to let
my people go, behold, tomorrow Will I bring the locust into
that coast? I'm sure all of us here tonight
have some idea of a plague of locusts, what it can do. Every
once in a while we hear in a certain part of the world where there's
just a plague of locusts and they eat everything, all the
vegetation. They can just strip a country
of all the green Look with me in Psalm just a minute again,
Psalm 105. This plague is touching their
food source. In 105, you know how many times
we see this in the Psalms as you read through them. The author
goes back and recounts the history of the nation of Israel. And
we saw that in Psalm 78 just a minute ago where the psalmist
went through these plagues and we see this again. And what we
are reminded of as we read this always is the goodness of God
and the evil of the nation of Israel. Notice here in this Psalm,
Psalm 105 verse 29, Thou hidest thy face in the wrongs. Psalm 105, 29. He turned their waters into blood
and slew their fish. Their land brought forth frogs
in abundance in the chambers of their kings. He spake and
there came diverse sorts of flies and lice in all their coasts.
He gave them hail for rain and flaming fire in their land. He
smote their vines also and their fig trees and break the trees
of their coast. He spake and the locusts came
and caterpillars and that without number and did eat up all the
herbs in their land and devoured the fruit of their ground. We see this confirmed by the
psalmist in the recounting the history of the nation of Israel. And this time, if you turn back
here to Exodus, this time, and we've seen thus far all these
plagues, and Pharaoh's reaction every time was he hardened his
heart. He went into his house. This
time, he confesses, I have sinned against the Lord. Notice that
in verse 20 here in chapter 10. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart. Well, let me see. Verse 16, in favor of call for
Moses and Aaron and haste. And he said, I have sinned against
the Lord. It's the first time that he confesses
that he's sinned, that he's brought all this upon himself and upon
his country. But his confession was not a
true confession. His repentance was not true repentance. I have sinned against the Lord,
your God and against you. Now therefore forgive, I pray
thee, my sin only this once, and entreat the Lord your God
that he may take away from me this death only. And he went
out from Pharaoh and treated the Lord, and the Lord turned
a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts and cast
them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust
in all the coast. of Egypt, but the Lord hardened
Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children of Israel
go." False confession, false repentance, if you please. One
last plague. Verse 21, the plague of darkness. Verse 21, the Lord said unto
Moses, stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may
be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness. which may
be felt. And Moses stretched forth his
hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the
land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither
rose any from his place for three days. But all the children of
Israel had light in their dwellings. The Egyptians had a darkness
which they could not light up, one writer said. They had a darkness
which they could not light up. Israel had a light which they
could not put out. And of course, in the New Testament,
believers, God's children, are called children of light. Children
of light. Why does God call his people
children of light? Well, because God commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face, the person
of Jesus Christ. In contrast, in Proverbs 419,
the wicked, the way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not
at what they stumble. This light that God gave to the
children of Israel, and we know God's spiritual Israel, God's
people, he's the one who gives us light to see the glory of
God in the face and the person of Jesus Christ. May the Lord
bless his word to all of us here this evening.