Frogs, Gnats

Story: Frogs, Gnats

Passage: Exodus 8:1-19

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:  God told Moses to go to Pharaoh again.  If Pharaoh did not listen, God would send frogs to fill the land.  Moses obeyed and Pharaoh did not listen so frogs filled the land.  Pharaoh’s magicians duplicated this as well.  Pharaoh called for Moses and told him that if he got rid of the frogs, he would let them go worship.  Moses had Pharaoh pick a time for the frogs to leave and Pharaoh picked the next day.  Moses cried out to God and the frogs died the next day and stink.  When Pharaoh saw the frogs were gone he changed his mind and didn’t let Israel go.  Then God told Moses to tell Aaron to strike the dust of the earth. The dust became gnats which covered all the people and animals.  The magicians could not duplicate this so they decided that this was done by God.  Pharaoh did not listen though. 

Notes: God chose frogs because the frog was worshipped in Egypt.  It was illegal to kill a frog.  The Egyptians soon realized how stupid it was to worship frogs.  I love that the magicians duplicated this as well.  All they did was contribute to the problem.  Pharaoh’s magicians could never solve the problem, only duplicate it.  Pharaoh was treating Moses like God.  Instead of crying to God himself, he went to Moses.  Pharaoh promised to let the people leave to worship the Lord.  Moses wanted Pharaoh to know for sure that God was responsible for the frogs though so he made him pick a time for the frogs to leave.  Pharaoh picked the next day which would have been impossible by natural causes.  But God did it.  The frogs died wherever they were, even in the houses.  The passage says that the land stank.  I’m sure that was an understatement.  They piled the dead frogs in heaps.  I wonder if there were people whose job it was to cart the heaps of frogs to the Nile and dump them in.  Pharaoh changed his mind.  He didn’t care about his promise; he just wanted to be rid of frogs!  The next plague came without warning to Pharaoh.  I find it interesting that Aaron is still doing all of the actions.  I wonder if Moses was wishing he had listened to God the first time now.  God would tell Moses what to do and Moses would then have to tell Aaron to do it.  The gnats were significant because the Egyptians were obsessed with cleanliness.  If yo had a bug issue, you weren’t allowed to worship.  The passage states that this plague also infected the livestock which means the animals couldn’t be sacrificed.  This plague put Egypt’s religion on hold.  God was showing His superiority over their idols.  Up to this point, Israel is also affected by these plagues.  The magicians can no longer imitate these plagues.  They now realize that this is God’s doing and not Moses’.  At this point, I bet they are panicking as they realize what they are up against.  Pharaoh however will not listen to logic and does not listen.  Unfortunately for Pharaoh, God’s just getting started. 

Questions:  What did the Israelites think of these plagues?  Did they get mad at Moses?  Did Moses care anymore?  How did the magicians create frogs?  Why couldn’t they produce gnats?  Were they panicking as they realized who they were up against?

Lessons:  God is more powerful than anything.  He deserves all of our attention.  When we put something ahead of God, we are making a huge mistake.  Sometimes I think we subconsciously decide something is more important than God.  We would never state that out loud, but we act like it.  God shows in this passage that He is bigger and more powerful than anything the Egyptians worshipped.  We need to make sure we don’t put creation above the creator in our hearts.