Exodus 8 (The Plagues of Frogs, Lice & Flies)

Exodus chapter 8. And come into your house, into your bedroom, on your bed, into the houses of your servants, on your people, into your ovens, and into your kneading bones.

And the frogs shall come up on you, on your people, and on all your servants.

Say to Aaron, stretch out your hand with your rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.

So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.

The magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and threathed the

Lord, that he may take away the frogs from me and my people. And I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the

Lord. Accept the honor of saying, When I shall intercede for you, for your servants and for your people, to destroy the frogs from you and your houses, that they may remain in the river only.

Tomorrow, let it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the

Lord our God. And the frogs shall depart from you, from your houses, from your servants, and from your people.

They shall remain in the river only. Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried out to the

Lord concerning the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh. So the Lord did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courtyards, and out of the fields.

They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank.

But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the

Lord had said. So the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the land, so that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

And they did so. But Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and beast.

All the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. Now the magicians still worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not.

So there were lice on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God.

But Pharaoh's heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the

Lord had said. And the Lord said to Moses, Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water.

Then say to him, Thus says the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me, or else if you will not let my people go, behold,

I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants, on your people and into your houses.

The houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.

And in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the

Lord in the midst of the land. I will make a difference between my people and your people.

Tomorrow this sun shall be. And the

Lord did so. The swarms of flies came into the house of Pharaoh, into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt.

The land was corrupted because of the swarms of flies. And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, Go, sacrifice to your

God and the land. But Moses said to him, It is not right to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the

Egyptians to the Lord our God. If we sacrifice the abomination of the

Egyptians before their eyes, then will they not stone us? We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the

Lord our God as he will command us. I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the

Lord your God in the wilderness. Only you shall not go very far away, interceding for me.

Indeed, I am going out from you, and I will entreat the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart tomorrow from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people.

But let Pharaoh not be noticeable any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the

Lord. So Moses went out from Pharaoh, and entreated the

Lord. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people.

Not one remained. But Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also.

Neither would he let the people die. There's some good sound effects there.

They're shoveling the frogs, huh? It sounded like it, didn't it?

Alright, last time in chapter 7 we saw the first plague, which was what?

You remember what the first plague was? Yeah, turning water into blood.

So one of the things that I want us to focus on in this session is the connection between the plagues of Egypt or the plagues upon Egypt and the connection between that and the plagues and the end times in the book of Revelation.

So there's definitely a lot of similarities. There's the water into blood.

There's hail. There's the locusts. There's boils. Also in Revelation chapter 11, do you remember the two witnesses?

And what's one of the things that they're able to do? Turn water into blood.

And of course, many people think that one of the two witnesses is indeed Moses. Usually the two theories, it's

Enoch and Elijah or Moses and Elijah. But whatever the case, we see a lot of parallels between the plagues of Egypt and the book of Revelation.

So chapter 8 verses 1 and 2 says,

And the Lord spoke to Moses, go to Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me.

But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all your territory with frogs.

This is sort of a strange judgment. I mean, it doesn't really sound all that terrible. I'm going to afflict the land with frogs.

Well, it doesn't sound that terrible until you start to think about it. I mean, just imagine walking into your house and there's frogs everywhere in the living room.

You go into the kitchen. The kitchen's filled with frogs. They're in the cupboards. They're in the sink. They're in the toilet.

You go from room to room. You're stepping on them. They're just everywhere. And actually, it does seem pretty horrific when you think of it that way.

You lay down in bed under the covers, frogs crunch.

They're in between your pillowcase and your pillow. Okay, I'll stop. Jim. Okay, what

I discovered was that each one of these plagues is focused on a judgment of the gods or the deities, not gods, but the deities that the

Egyptians worshipped. Pharaoh wore an arm bracelet which had the head of a frog on it.

Okay. So it was a judgment against those deities in Egypt. Okay.

Except for the 10th one, which was completely separate from the other nine.

Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. So you see the blood, right? Water into blood.

And then you see the frogs. Look at verse five. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your hand over with your rod over the streams, over the rivers, over the ponds and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.

So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.

And once again, like we saw in the last chapter, verse seven, and the magicians did so with their enchantments and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.

And I said last time, like, this does not make sense. The last thing that people want are more frogs.

Right. So why would they do that? Well, I think the only explanation is that they're saying, well, whatever the

God of the Hebrews can do, so can we. You know, our gods are able to do the same thing.

Now, of course, if they really had the ability, as I said last time, if they had an equal power with God, what would they do?

They'd reverse the plague, not bring more frogs. So let's turn to Revelation chapter 16.

I want to establish this connection between the Old Testament judgments here and the judgments upon the earth in the end times.

So really what we're reading about in Exodus is just a foreshadow of of things to come.

So, again, you saw the blood and then the frogs.

So Revelation chapter 16, look at verse four says, then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water and they became what blood.

And I heard the angel of the water saying, you are righteous, O Lord, the one who is and who was and who is to be, because you have judged these things.

They have shed the blood of the saints and prophets and you have given them blood to drink for it is their just do.

And I heard another from the altar saying, even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.

And remember last time how we talked about Pharaoh was hardening his heart, but also said that the

Lord was going to harden his heart. And the complaint is, well, that's not fair.

Why God is hardening Pharaoh's heart. Some people think that that sounds unfair.

What does it say about God's judgments, though? What do we just read? Yeah, true and righteous are your judgments.

And if you look at Pharaoh hardening his heart, Pharaoh hardens his heart ten times. Guess how many times the

Lord hardens Pharaoh's heart? Ten. So it's ten in ten. And I think the message that said is that, yes,

God is sovereign and in control of all this. But, you know, man has responsibility as well.

And to that point, look at Revelation 16, verse seven again, that God's judgments are what?

True and righteous. And he's given them what to drink? Blood.

And there's always someone who says or they think to themselves, but my

God would not do that. My God is a God of love and mercy, and my

God wouldn't do that. And that's true. Their God wouldn't because their God is not the God of Scripture.

Marcus. What's that verse again in Genesis? I've forgotten the chapter in reference, but 1825.

Thank you very much. That one comes to mind. And I'm assuming

I can read your mind here. So will not the God of all the earth do right or will not the judge of all the earth do right?

Okay. All right. That's a good one. When things seem to be very much out of control, right?

Horrible tragedies that happen, right? Shall not the judge of the whole earth do what is right?

So God is sovereign. Man is responsible. And all throughout this, we see that Pharaoh's given a chance.

I mean, Pharaoh acts deceitfully. We saw that and it's going to keep going. So Pharaoh was given a chance.

He had the opportunity to choose between right and wrong. He chose wrong. So Moses then brought the plagues.

And today, in this age, you're trying to connect this with revelation. In this age, mankind has the choice to do right or to do wrong, to worship the

Lord or to go their own way. So when the end times begin, whenever that happens, there's going to be no excuse because people had a chance.

And the scripture says in second Thessalonians 2, 11, that the Lord will send them the people in the end times.

He'll send them a strong delusion so that they should believe the lie.

Or if I can put it another way, God hardens their heart. So this is why we encourage people to seek the

Lord while he may be found. People won't submit to God now while things are going good.

Are they really going to turn to him or submit to him when things are horrific or being a

Christian is illegal or it could bring even the death penalty? Probably not.

Yes, Marcus. Second Thessalonians 2, 11. Yes. Second Thessalonians 2, 11.

All right. Any other questions or comments? Jim. In verse 10, it says, and he said, tomorrow.

Pharaoh said, get them out of here. And Moses says, tomorrow. But this is also what he says.

And he said, let it be according to your word that you may know that there is no one like the

Lord our God. And shortly after that, in the following verses, you can see little parts of Pharaoh's heart softening because he says, okay, you can go.

But he never really truly comes off of that because after they left, he got the troops together and he followed them.

Too bad he didn't stick with it. He said a lot of things. He doesn't stick with it. Okay. I'm taking too long to get to my point here with Revelation.

But in Exodus, water turned to blood and then the frogs, right? So in Revelation 16, what have we seen so far?

The water is turned to blood. Now look at verse 13.

It says that I saw three unclean spirits like what? Frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

So frogs were unclean animals to the Israelites.

I mean, they're slimy. They're cold blooded. They're loathsome creatures.

So all of this is judgment language that the biblically informed reader of Revelation, if they knew the story of Exodus, which

God's people. I mean, that's one of the big stories in the Old Testament. If you know Exodus, you're going to read through Revelation and say, that sounds familiar.

This sounds familiar. And it's judgment language. And what's Egypt a picture of? It's symbolic for the world, right?

So God's raining down the plagues on Egypt. It's symbolic for God raining down judgments on the whole world during the tribulation.

Yes, we had something. The dragon and the beast, the same thing. Yeah, there's the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, right?

Oh, is the dragon Satan? Okay, well, then the beast and the false prophet are the Antichrist and the false prophet are the

Pharisees. That's an unholy trinity, right? Exactly.

And also, we've already seen snakes. So how many people are afraid of snakes?

How many of you are afraid of frogs? You are now. We saw the thing with the snakes a couple chapters ago.

And what's the devil called in Revelation 12? That serpent of old.

So there's just so many connections that we don't have time to look at them all. All right.

So Egypt is filled with frogs. Look at verse eight or go back to Exodus eight.

If you're not there already, Exodus eight, verse eight says, then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, entreat the

Lord. Any other version? What does it say? Other than entreat?

What? Plead? Plead with the Lord and treat the Lord that he may take away the frogs from me and from my people.

And I will let the people go that they may sacrifice to the Lord. So this is,

I think maybe this is what Jim was talking about. This is the first sign that Pharaoh is starting to yield.

I mean, not really because we know what happens, but it looks like it because he says, okay, if you do this for me,

I will let the people go. So now the first plague probably didn't affect Pharaoh too much.

Uh, the water into blood, you figure that there was still some fresh water. So Pharaoh would have had access to the fresh water.

So the first plague probably didn't affect him too much, but then frogs everywhere that did and Pharaoh's had enough of that.

So now he's saying, okay, he's starting to yield. Um, well back in chapter five, you remember what

Pharaoh said? Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord that I should listen to him now?

What does he say? You know, plead with the Lord to take away the frog. So his attitude is starting to change.

Linda, I think it's interesting that he doesn't ask his musicians. Yeah. He's lost some faith in them.

I think he's going to lose even more faith in a moment. And yes, my translation of the

Greek is pray to or make supplication to. Okay.

Yeah. So Moses is acting like an intercessor, right? Moses is an intercessor between the children of Israel and the

Lord. And he's that with Pharaoh as well. All right. So Pharaoh's attitude starting to change a little bit.

Now he's ready to negotiate. You take care of the frogs. I'll let the people go.

Look at verse nine. And Moses said to Pharaoh, accept the honor of saying when

I shall intercede for you. That is, uh, you set the time.

You, you tell me when for your servants and for your people to destroy the frogs from you and your houses that they may remain in the river only.

So he said tomorrow, you would have thought you would have said like right now, go do it as soon as possible.

He says tomorrow. And Moses said, let it be according to your word that you may know that there is no one like the

Lord, our God and the frogs shall depart from you, from your houses, from your servants and from your people.

They shall remain in the river only. So what does

Moses do? He, he intercedes. He pleads with the Lord. Verse 13.

So the Lord did according to the word of Moses and the frogs died.

I mean, it's almost better to have them alive. I think. I mean, now they're all in the houses dead.

They're everywhere. Now they're just dead. And that's where the sound effects came in. Verse 14.

They gathered them together in heaps and the land stank.

So Moses kept his word. But did Pharaoh keep his word? Of course not.

And this is going to be a reoccurring theme for the rest of this ordeal. Look at verse 15.

But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he thanked Moses and praise the

Lord. No, that's what he should have done. What did he do? He hardened his heart.

So if you're not convinced that Moses or Pharaoh's responsible to me, this, this settles it.

He hardened his heart and did not heed them as the Lord had said.

So now Pharaoh, it's not that he's ignorant of the Lord. Now he knows who the

Lord is, the power that the Lord has. And he's only increasing his guilt at this point.

All right. Now we're coming to the plague of lice. Verse 16. So the

Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the land so that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

Is everyone following along? I want you to be reading these verses along with me.

Okay. Verse 16 again. So the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the land so that it may become lice throughout all the land.

So like the other plagues, the magicians, they try to copy it.

Right. Only this is the first one that they can't duplicate. Now, why is that,

Jim? I think if you look at the word smite and this word, it shows the severity of the plague.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, the plagues are, you could argue they're just getting worse and worse as you go.

Marcus. Another translation for lice. I know. I know.

Can we go back to hardening the heart? Yeah, let's go back to hardening the heart. What does that mean? Might not that be the unpardonable sin?

Just a thought. What? Hardening the heart? The unpardonable sin. Okay.

All right. You're not answering my question. Listen, why couldn't the magicians duplicate

Kathy? I don't know. Because they were being made out of dust rather than being called up from the bird.

Okay. So, I think the reasoning is maybe they could get, remember we talked about this last time, get these serpents to stiffen up and you throw them down, they slither.

Making water red is possible. Getting frogs to come,

I have no idea how they could do that, but it's possible, I guess. Creating life from non -life, just creating, making dust into lice, that's not possible.

And that's when they say, this is the finger of God. At least that's the reasoning based on the position that they were doing tricks before, which some of us disagreed about and that's okay.

But again, that's my position. I'm going to stick to it. All right. Now, for this fourth, before we get to the fourth plague.

Now, Marcus, you raised your hand and you were going to make a point about the lice. What was that? Another translation is gnats.

Right. Yeah. Who has gnats? Okay. Who has lice?

In the cross -reference, it says could be gnats. Who has lice in the actual text?

Hey, all right. I think we're finally getting in the majority here. So, as most of you know,

I use the New King James Version. So, here's the thing. The King James Version and the

New King James Version say lice. Practically every other translation that I'm aware of say gnats.

Okay. So, here's why. And you say, well, you know, Pastor Mike uses the

New King James just because he likes that one best. No. I actually think the King James Version and the

New King James Version are the most accurate Bible translations. If you disagree with that,

I'm not looking to pick a fight over it. But all the other translations say gnats.

Well, what does it say in the scripture here? What did he make the lice out of?

Dust. Okay. So, the dust is laying on the ground. Right?

It's on things. What does it say? The lice is on man and beast.

Right? Now, if they're flies, what's the next plague?

Flies. Or if they're gnats or something that's flying around, that's the next plague. This is on man and beast.

It's the dust that's laying on everything. It just lines up. So, all the other translations say gnats.

The two best translations in my humble, totally unbiased opinion say.

I'm sticking with lice. All right. All right. Marcus. No, I just,

I'm glad you're my pastor. Thank you. I respect everything that I hear from the

Bulta. Or even when you're down here on our level. Just explain again.

It has to do with which texts or which manuscripts that you're going by.

Isn't it that you prefer those two? Isn't that so? Yeah. There's so many manuscripts.

Right. So, to summarize this, the King James Version and the New King James Version are from one line of manuscripts.

That the church has used historically. But starting in, is it the 1800s?

They found some very old copies of the Bible. They think are the oldest copies.

Codex, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrius. But they are more complete.

But they think they are older. So, all the modern translations, except for the New King James, are from a different line of manuscripts.

So, King James, New King James is from one line of manuscripts. All the others are from this other line.

Most scholars today believe that, you know, the NASB and the new versions are more accurate.

I'm in the minority. Say I take the other position. I'm not even sure that's the case here though.

This might not even be a matter of a different word. That this manuscript has a different word.

Lice and gnats. I think this is just how they translated it. So. I discovered the other day,

Mike. I was looking at another translation. I mean, of the King James. And I was comparing it to the other

King James that I have. And there are little words here and there that are different. Yeah.

So, you know, but I think I agree with you that the King James, the authorized version, is accurate.

And then, you know, the New King James and the NASB, which I use both.

Yeah. And I think the ESV and the NASB, I think they're accurate. I'm not saying they're not.

But, it's just, I think these two versions are better. But, again, not everyone agrees with that.

Wouldn't you agree that the original Greek is the most accurate? Right.

But, of course, we don't have the original, you know, the Gospel of John that John wrote.

That doesn't exist. So, you have a copy of a copy of a copy. And that's where you get into the two manuscript lines.

Yes, Linda. I'm curious, for the people that have the NASB in their thing, if they look in Psalm 105, what is it, 31, what that says.

Psalm, well, all right, let's all. Psalm 105.

Anyone have the King James version? Psalm 105, 31.

And what version are you looking for? Just. Okay. Psalm 105, 31.

He spoke and there came swarms of flies and lice in all their territory.

So, what is the other? Yeah. I'm not going to say both say flies.

All right. Yeah. Mine say flies and gnats. You got the gnats there too. Huh. It's just a translation thing.

Interesting. I'll put it's just a translation thing. They're choosing.

We got to be different. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

So, opening up a can of frogs here.

One last comment. All right. So, the new translations.

Here's the thing. Why are there all these new translations coming out? I saw an interview with Billy Graham and he was saying, yeah, there's a new translation every week.

He said, and that was back in the eighties. I don't know if that's, I mean, he might've been exaggerating a little bit.

Why are they putting out new translation after new translation after new translation? What's the reason?

Money. Money. Because they want to put out study Bibles and other material.

And if they use the NIV or the whatever translation, they have a copyright on it.

So, if you put out a study Bible and you want to use the NASB, you have to pay royalties. Okay.

So, these denominations will put out their own Bible so they don't have to pay royalties.

And to get a copyright, something like 10 % of the material has to be different.

So, they have to change things to get a copyright. All right. I don't want to get too sidetracked on this.

Okay. One more thing. There's a new translation out there. I don't know how long it's been on the market, but it's called the passion translation.

Yeah. And people that are in, not all, but that are in the charismatic movement are buying it in droves.

Yeah. And it really does not do justice to... Yeah. Mel Gibson probably gets a royalty.

Well, and listen. If you think, well, pastor's wrong, my Bible's better than the new king.

If that's what you want to think, that's fine. Okay. We're not going to fight about it. As long as no one's using the message.

That's my... Okay. Moving on. Sorry. Not sorry.

Sorry. Not really. So, look at verse 20.

This is the fourth plague. And the Lord said to Moses, rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water.

Then say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me.

Or else if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants.

But notice that in verse 22, the Lord, what does he do? He sets apart the land of Goshen.

And we know what Goshen is, right? That's where the Israelites resided. So, here's the final connection that we're going to make with the book of Revelation.

The plagues in Egypt, God sheltered his people, right?

Now, they were facing, you could say, tribulation or persecution from the

Egyptians. They were being mistreated. But the wrath of God or the judgments of God, he protected his people.

And I think that's what you see in the book of Revelation. I mean, people are suffering.

Certainly, the redeemed that are alive during the tribulation are going to face persecution from the beast or the

Antichrist and the false prophet. But do you remember the 144 ,000? They have the seal of God in their forehead.

They're protected. The two witnesses for their ministry right up until the end, they're protected.

And then in Revelation chapter 12, the woman, which we believe is symbolic for Israel.

God prepares a place for her in the wilderness. So, God's people are protected from God's wrath, just like they are in Egypt from the plagues.

And of course, we believe the church is raptured and spared from God's outpouring of wrath.

Now, here in Exodus, we're going to close with verse 25.

Pharaoh tries to strike a deal to keep the Israelites under his control.

If you get rid of the swarms of flies, he wants them to sacrifice where?

Go three days into the wilderness? No, he wants to keep them within the borders of Egypt.

Verse 25. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, Go sacrifice to your

God in the land. That is, stay here. And that's within the borders.

And why doesn't Moses do it? He won't compromise how to worship

Yahweh. The Lord is very specific in his command of how they are to worship him.

And Moses, he gives this reason that the Egyptians will be upset and stone us. Maybe he was concerned about that, but he didn't want to compromise the worship, what

God had said. So Moses, once again, intercedes on behalf of Pharaoh in Egypt, verses 31 and 32.

And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people.

Not one remained. But Pharaoh hardened his heart. At this time also, neither would he let the people go.