Flies

Story: Flies

Passage: Exodus 8:20-32

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:  God gave Pharaoh another chance.  This time if he didn’t obey, He would send swarms of flies into Egypt.  Houses would be filled; even the ground would be covered.  This time though, God would spare Goshen, where the Israelites lived.    This happened and Pharaoh decided the people could sacrifice within Egypt.  Moses said that wasn’t good enough so Pharaoh gave them permission to leave as long as the flies disappeared.  Moses prayed to God and the flies disappeared, but Pharaoh hardened his heart and didn’t let them leave.

Notes: This plague was the first to leave the Israelites unharmed.  God did this to show the Egyptians that He was the Lord.  The flies, just like the gnats, made the Egyptians’ sacrifices invalid.  The Hebrew actually only calls it a swarm.  It does not specify what it is a swarm of.    It could have been any insect really.  Pharaoh compromised and decided they could sacrifice in Egypt.  Moses reminded him about the social issues with them sacrificing in Egypt and then Pharaoh clearly promised that they could leave.   I find it interesting that Pharaoh wanted Moses to plead for the flies to leave.  That shows that he knew God was behind this.  He did not cry out to God himself though and he didn’t seem to actually fear God very much since he immediately took back his promise.  This time, the passage says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. I wonder if God was involved in this or if Pharaoh’s pride had taken over at this point.

Questions:  Why did Pharaoh harden his heart when he knew that God was behind these plagues?  How did the Egyptian people feel about what was going on?  Were they angrier at the Israelites or Pharaoh?  How did the Hebrews feel at this point?  Did they actually believe that Pharaoh was letting them go?  Was there celebrating?

Lessons:  Sometimes we cry out to God when things are tough.  But then, when things are good we forget Him and rely on ourselves.  This is exactly what we see happen here.  I suspect that Pharaoh did not deliberately lie to Moses, but rather that he rethought things after the flies left.  As awful as this looks to us, we do the same thing.  When we are clearly insufficient, we let God be God.  But as soon as we have the slightest hint of control, we make ourselves our god and we put the true God second.  When we do this, we are just as guilty as Pharaoh was in this passage.