The Ten Plagues: The Plague of Frogs

The Ten Plagues: The Plague of Frogs

Introduction:

I have a vivid memory of my childhood and it is not a good one. Chances are you have memories of when you were a kid that are seared into your minds and these memories affect you today as adult. As adults, we attach emotions and feelings, both positive and negative, to circumstances that happen to us as children. My memory is really silly. Really simple. I can remember being in my bed, I must have been 5 or 6 years old. I could not have been much older than that. I woke up to a croaking sound underneath a desk in my little bedroom. I was curious so I got out of my bed to investigate. Sure enough, on the floor, underneath the desk was a large, green, disgusting bull frog. I have no idea how it got there although I do have my suspicions. Many of you may not know but I have an older brother named Spencer who used to terrorize me as a child. He was an evil wicked kid and it was obvious that my parents preferred me. Of course I am kidding about the evil, wicked, and the favoritism but I would not have put it past my big brother to throw a frog in my bedroom. He would have been 10 or 11 years old. I can’t prove it and he denies it to this day but Im losing track of the memory. I got down out of my bed, discovered the bull frog, and this vicious amphibian attacked me. He hopped, he hipped, he slimed his way toward me and from that day on, I have disliked, nay hated frogs. I know that I am playing a terrible game this morning because in telling you my deepest darkest fear, I run the risk of pranksters pranking me with hidden frogs in my bathroom, underneath my seats, and frogs stowed away in my desk. I say all of this today to say that I believe that I understand a bit what the Egyptians must have experienced. For they did not deal with a singular frog underneath a desk, they dealt with billions, perhaps trillions of frogs stampeding roughshod over their entire nation. We will dig into that in just a moment.

Do you remember in the late 1990’s another F.R.O.G. phenomena occurring here in the United States? No I am not talking about frogs taking over a city. I am talking about a movement that sprung out of the WWJD campaign. Can you remember it? That’s right, it was called F.R.O.G. Do you remember what it stood for? Right again!

Fully

Rely

God

A company hailing from Indiana named Dicksons Inc. created the FROG crusade. The company produced half a million bracelets, set for distribution in 1998. The bracelets sold for a cool .98 cents. The movement really took hold of teenagers then progressed to adults. Instead of asking “what would Jesus do” the F.R.O.G. bracelets would remind the wearer to fully rely on God. That is a F.R.O.G. that we could all use am I right?

This morning, if you have not guessed, we are talking about frogs. Well not really. Frogs are certainly a part of the message but we are actually talking about God, about humanity, about obedience and about consequences. Let me remind you of the important characters: Moses, his brother Aaron, the Pharaoh, and of course God Himself. You might say that we have a battle of God’s in the book of Exodus. A battle between man, man’s arrogance, and God. A battle between philosophies and ideologies. A war between self reliance, selfishness and self centeredness, and being obedient to God’s call. You know, if you boiled down Pharaoh’s biggest problem into a simple statement, you might say that his problem…Egypt’s biggest problem is that they did not fully rely on God. They were disobedient to God, His commands to let His people go and worship Him, and His desire for their liberation. Because they did not fully rely on God, they received actual frogs for their pleasure. Well, they received frogs for their punishment.

One thing that you will notice in today’s message and every message concerning the 10 plagues, the Pharaoh’s disobedience does not occur in a vacuum. Meaning that every time that the Pharaoh disobeys and remains hard hearted, his actions ripple outward to his people. The Pharaoh’s sin does not just affect him, it destroys his country and his people. Brothers and sisters, that’s sin for you. Sin never just hurts you, it hurts the people around you. Innocent people. Your family. Your friends. Your church. They are all affected by our private and public sin. In fact, our sin and disobedience often hurts the ones we love most more than it hurts us.

One of my favorite theologians is the great N.T. Wright. Listen to what he says about disobedient behavior. "The consequences of disobedience are not only personal but also have a ripple effect on our communities and the world, as it perpetuates sin and its destructive consequences." Simply put, sin gives way to more sin. Disobedience opens the door to more disobedience. I saw this illustrated in my teenage years. I had friends who started smoking. At first, it was no big deal. It was just a cigarette. Then it became a pack, two packs, three packs. My friends were addicted. Cigarettes then became paired with alcohol. Then the cigarette becomes cigars, pipes, then alcohol is a willing partner to marijuana. My friends would graduate from high school as youthful alcoholics and drug addicts. When marijuana wasn’t enough, it became pain pills, heroine, and other hard drugs. When you sow the seeds of destruction in your youth, you get death and disease in your adult years. Sadly, not much has changed since ancient times. The Pharaoh is simply illustrating the simply slop, the mad decent, into sin and willful disobedience. As mature Christians, we have seen this mayhem play out in our lives, in our families, even in our own church. Some Christians hear the call of God to exit the car before it goes over the cliff, some do not and we all grieve for those brothers and sisters. Friends, we should pray for our culture because it too is sin sick and the car is heading over the cliff.

Background and Context:

This morning we are reading from Exodus 8:1-15. It is one of the more fascinating pieces of Scripture. What you are going to see is a scene repeating itself over and over again. At least 8 more times we will be treated to a morning confrontation between Moses, Aaron, and the Pharaoh. Then there will be a symbolic gesture. Two weeks ago, the meeting took place at the Nile and the gesture was transforming the Nile’s water to blood. Today we are in the court of the Pharaoh and the symbolic gesture will be to bring frogs from the river. I sat for a while and tried to figure out a statement that best encapsulates the book of Exodus. The best that I could do was this: Exodus is about the God who makes Himself known. It is even stated within the pages of Exodus, “I will do this thing, that you may know that the Lord is God in all the earth.”

Exodus 8 recounts the story of the Israelites' liberation from slavery in Egypt. In this specific section, it describes the second plague that God inflicts upon Egypt, which is the plague of frogs. God commands Moses to confront Pharaoh and demand the release of the Israelites. When Pharaoh refuses, God causes an abundance of frogs to overrun Egypt, affecting the land, houses, and even the bedchambers of Pharaoh and his people. This is an important point that we will come back to in a moment. Pharaoh's magicians also replicate this plague, but the situation worsens, leading Pharaoh to seek Moses' intervention to end the plague.

Before we read today’s passage…

Statement of Belief:

We believe the Bible to be inspired, God breathed, infallible, and authoritative. We believe the Bible is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training believer’s in righteousness. God’s Word gives life. It provides peace in trouble and protection in tribulation. It is alive, active, and cuts to the core of the human soul. Since there is no other book like it, let us stand to show our reverence and respect.

Today’s Thought:

Egypts Problem? They Did Not Fully Rely On God!

Today’s Quote:

"The consequences of disobedience are not only personal but also have a ripple effect on our communities and the world, as it perpetuates sin and its destructive consequences."

- N.T. Wright.

Today’s Scripture:

Exodus 8:1-15 ESV

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, "Let my people go, that they may serve me. [2] But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. [3] The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. [4] The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants."'" [5] And the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!'" [6] So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. [7] But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. [8] Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, "Plead with the LORD to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the LORD." [9] Moses said to Pharaoh, "Be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile." [10] And he said, "Tomorrow." Moses said, "Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God. [11] The frogs shall go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They shall be left only in the Nile." [12] So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the LORD about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh. [13] And the LORD did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. [14] And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. [15] But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

Today’s Education From The Amphibian Infestation!

Lesson One: God Demands Our Worship vs. 1-4

This morning we are all in for a treat as we receive education from an amphibian infestation. As I read this story and prepared for this message, I was struck with something that went unaddressed when we talked about the very first plague, the plague of blood. What hit me like a ton of bricks is stated in the first four verses of Exodus 8. Specifically verse 1.

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, "Let my people go, that they may serve me.

Some of your translations may read slightly differently. Instead of the word “serve” your Bible translations may insert the word “worship”. The Hebrew word being used is ”ʿāḇaḏ” and is pronounced “ah-vad”. If you have ever wondered what that phrase means, that one Hebrew word gives great definition. What exactly is the Lord wanting the Hebrews to do out in the wilderness that they cannot do while slaves in Egypt? After all, if you go with the translation “worship”, does that mean that the Hebrews could not worship God in the privacy of their homes? Clearly not. It is understood that the Hebrews were awaiting God’s movement, hoping that God would respond to their prayers. It is understood that the people, even though they were captive in Egypt, were still able to worship God, albeit potentially in an underground manner. If you go with the current translation of “av-vad” as “serve”, could the Hebrews not serve their God while in Egypt? Again, even though the Hebrews were slaves, they could still serve God. Obviously they were an oppressed people, nevertheless, they could still serve the Lord. I did some digging and discovered something interesting. There is more than one translation to that word for “serve” or “worship”.

The word also means “to labor, to work, to do”. Here is where it gets interesting. The word also means “to be worked, to be tilled as land is tilled, as soil is tilled”. There it is. It is not so much that God is wanting His people to be set free to serve Him in the wilderness or for them to come worship Him in the wilderness. Clearly they could remain in Egypt and do those things and it is understood that they would continue to serve God and worship God while entering the wilderness. The reason that God wants His people to be set free is so that He can work on them, so that He can ready them for their journey, so that He can improve their faith, deepening their faith, widening their faith. God wants them to be set free to enter the desert so that He can properly introduce Himself.

So, go back to my earlier statement, this one thing that struck me. It is our first lesson from this amphibian infestation. Lesson one, God demands our worship. Isn’t it interesting that from the very beginning of His relationship with Israel, God demands them to worship Him. Friends, we often think of worship as something that we do for God. We come to a room and we perform some perfunctory rituals that we hope will please God and we call it worship. We come here, sing some songs, raise our hands, maybe give a tithe, and we call it a day. That’s worship.

False. That is not worship. Those things can be worshipful but it is not worship in and of itself. Worship is a two way street. Worship is a conversation. Worship is when we witness God’s majesty and in turn God works on us. Worship is exciting and exposing. We should come to God as the ancient Hebrews did, enthusiastically, recently, but with exception that when we are in God’s presence that we are not left the same.

When the Hebrews encountered God in the wilderness, they would never be the same. Can you say that about your worship experiences? When you encounter God do you leave that experience the same or do you leave convicted? Changed?

God is not a god that needs human hands to serve Him.

Acts 17:24-25 ESV

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, [25] nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

Oh friends, that is the revelation this morning to all of us. God wanted His children to depart from Egypt so that He could reveal Himself to them. His children could not see Him clearly while held in a corrupt and oppressive land. His children could not behold His majesty while surrounded by false gods and idols made with human hands. Corrupt culture can absolutely serve as a barrier to worship. What is the practical application of this point? Simple, what is holding back your worship? Do you need to put the phone away, turn off the TV, shut off a relationship, knock off some distraction, so that God can work on you as you worship Him? Do you need to give something up? Do you need to confess some hidden secret sin? Are you so involved in following the latest trends on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and the list goes on and on? Are you so involved with those media sites that you have taken you eyes off of Jesus and now you are drawing?

Friend, what is your Egypt, who is your Pharaoh, and where is your wilderness? Why are you not making motions to get there as quickly as possible so that God can reintroduce Himself to you? Why are you content to lay in the cesspool of our degenerate culture when you could actively go back to God?

Lesson one, God demands our worship.

Isaiah 25:1 ESV

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

Lesson Two: God Disciplines The Wicked vs. 5-6

So, lesson one, God demand our worship. What is lesson two? Lesson two is that God disciplines or punishes the wicked.

Exodus 8:5 ESV

And the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!'"

The single most horrible verse in all of the Bible. Pure nightmare fuel. Because of Pharaoh’s disobedience the entire land of Egypt was infested by frogs. So just for perspective, what sort of frog are we talking about here? Are we talking about a little tree frog? Thats not that bad? Maybe it was an itty bitty little tinny weeny toad? Probably not. Theologians and even scientists have surmised that the most likely candidate of pervasive frog of the Nile River was what we call today the “Goliath Frog”. These frogs have been found in Western Africa, along the Nile River, and even in South America. How big is the Goliath Frog? They grow up to over a foot in length. By a foot I mean in the body, not from nose to outstretched webbed toes. Can you imagine that? Frogs up to 3 feet long from stem to stern and weighing in at a colossal 7 to 8 pounds running roughshod over everything.

Brothers and sisters, if I was Egyptian during this plague, Im converting. Im out. Call me a Hebrew because I am not on God’s side. I would either convert or just tell God to take me now.

How catastrophic was this plague? Frogs came from the rivers, from the canals, appearing from pools of water, and even appearing from the very dirt of the land. This is one of God’s most impressive acts of spontaneous creation in the Bible. There were frogs everywhere! There were frogs in the Egyptian’s beds. Imagine that. Our beds are some of the most sacred, special, and intimate places that we can go. Frogs were there. There were frog pouring out of their pockets. Frogs in the kitchens, the bathrooms, everywhere. Gross.

Again, God was using the Egyptians gods against. Frogs were sacred in Egyptian culture. Frogs were symbolic of life and fertility. Millions of frogs would have been spawned and born during the rainy season of the Nile each and every year. The Egyptians took note and created a fertility god and goddess and modeled them around the frog. The goddess that the Egyptian people loved and cherished was Heqet. Where was Heqet now? Had she abandoned her people? No doubt the Pharaoh sought her help and even had his magicians replicate the miracle. We will come back to that in just a moment.

What caused the Pharaoh to remain disobedient? You might say “hard heartedness” and you’d be correct. Ultimately what led to Pharaoh’s downfall was his desire to be a god himself. That is all of our own downfalls. Pharaoh remained headstrong, stiff-necked, and self centered when it came to the one true God. The Pharaoh would come to God on his terms. He would not obey God because he himself was a god. That is always the root of our disobedience towards God. Our desire to be our own god.

Friend, there is only one God and He is not interested in sharing His throne with you or me.

We need to beware of disobedience. We should instead fear the Lord.

By my reckoning, I think that there are roughly three problems with the Pharaoh’s disobedience. Three problems with our disobedience.

First disobedience brings God’s punishment. In the Old Testament we can see that God sent various punishments in the form of pestilences, diseases, defat by enemies to individuals and nations who disobeyed God. The Lord of Lords punishes people for a lack of repentance and willful disobedience.

Disobedience also brings God’s wrath. In the New Testament Paul tells us in Romans 1:18-32 that God’s anger and wrath is revealed against all forms of disobedience, ungodliness, and the people who suppress the truth in their wickedness and disobedience. Disobedience always attracts God’s anger to those who remain stubborn in their sin.

Friends I know that this is not popular because we want to always talk about how loving God is and God is loving. This is so true. Oh my goodness God is loving. However, we cannot forgo the justice of God for His love. For His justice is also love. Allowing sin and disobedience to remain unpunished is not loving.

Lastly, disobedience hinders God’s blessings. Remember, the Lord can’t bless you if you want have nothing to do with obeying His Word. When the Hebrews knew God’s Word and disobeyed it, they missed out on God’s blessings. They get defeated by their enemies. They suffer. They hurt. They lose their prosperity, their property, and more importantly, disobedience breaks fellowship between them and God. Disobedience does the exact same thing to us today. When we disobey God, it breaks fellowship.

If you want to attract God’s blessing upon your life, live a life of obedience. It’s just that simple.

Beware of Disobedience, Fear the Lord!

Disobedience Brings God’s Punishment
Disobedience Brings God’s Wrath
Disobedience Hinders God’s Blessings

Revelation 21:8 ESV

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Lesson Three: God Dismantles False Witnesses vs. 7

Lesson one, God demand our worship. Lesson two, God disciplines the wicked. Lesson three, God dismantles false witnesses. Who am I talking about here? The Magicians of course. These silly charlatans. Somehow, mostly likely through demonic powers, these magicians are able to replicate the miracle of the frogs. Are they able to remove the frogs? Are they able to lesson their impact? No.

All they do is make more frogs. That had to be frustrating for the Pharaoh.

Exodus 8:6-7 ESV

So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. [7] But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

Oh friends we have to watch out for people who claim to have spiritual power but are only influenced by demonic darkness. We have to remain vigilant when considering the logic and the wisdom who claim spiritual truth but their words are really just lies, twisted truths, that are only meant to deter true believers from the righteous Biblical paths.

We need to be aware of false religions who claim the name of Christ but their version of Christ departs radically from the Biblical Jesus.

Mormons.

Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Unitarian Universalist.

Christian Science.

The list goes on and on. There are all sorts of speakers, preachers, teachers who teach radical false Gospels that appear supernatural, even Biblical in origin, but in reality are just doctrines riddled with false doctrine and heresy.

If you have to add a precursor to the word “Gospel” then it is a false Gospel.

If the story of the plagues does one thing, it exposes that there was and there will always be people claiming to perform the miraculous, people that dabble in the supernatural, people that proclaim new extra Biblical knowledge that is expressed to just them and no one else.

Beware friends. Beware and watch out. Be on your guard.

When I was a kid there was a game show that came on in the afternoon, after school, and I loved it. It was called “Spot the Not”. Basically kids would be shown a picture. They would be timed to remember as much about the picture as they could. Then after a few seconds they would be shown another picture that looked nearly identical to the original. The kids would have to pick out the things in the pictures that didn’t belong. They had to spot the nots. They had to come up with the things that didn’t belong.

Well, how as Christians do we play spot the not when it comes to false teachers, false doctrines, and modern day magicians?

Well first off, don’t be spiritually immature. False teachers always and I mean always prey on the spiritually immature. They love people who do not know the Bible. You see, false teachers know just enough about the Bible to be dangerous. They will say things that sound almost right but missing deep truths that keep the Scripture anchored to reality. They do this on purpose because the twisting of Scripture generally unmoors you from Biblical truth and usually separates you from your money. Embrace Godly wisdom, know the Bible, meditate on God’s Word, and be mature in your thoughts and deeds.

Another way to spot the not is carefully observe teachers, preachers, religious writers, and spiritual leaders daily living. False teachers have a way of embracing inappropriate sensuality and sexual immorality. They cross the lines of decency with the opposite sex. Listen to how they speak to members of the opposite sex. Observe how they treat their spouse, namely their wife. Usually false teachers and spiriual charlatans come across as “available” if you know what I mean. The list is long friends of men, especially men, who have fallen into the trap of sexual sin. Do not follow these leaders. Not for one second. Also beware of men who have little to no accountability in their lives. They live on a proverbial island where no one can tell them what to do, what to think, and constantly give in to their demands. Angela and I attended a church in Birmingham. It was a large church. It had a celebrity pastor. His ministry fell apart because of secret sexual sin. There is a grave yard of pastors who had large ministries that imploded because they put themselves a part from any accountability. No one could tell them “no”. I say this with every fiber of my being, in all caps, DO NOT FOLLOW THESE MEN. BEWARE AND BE WISE!

Do not follow men who claim to have extra Biblical knowledge. Do not follow men who translate Scripture radically different than traditional trusted sources. Do not listen to men who claim hear the voice of God yet that voice conflicts with the deep truths of Scripture. Do not follow the man who misinterprets Scripture, twisting passages, to bring glory to himself instead of bringing glory to God.

Lastly, you will see a pattern here in these plagues. The magicians told the Pharaoh what he wanted to hear. Always! They never departed from what the Pharaoh wanted or demanded. My goal each and every Sunday morning is to present God’s Word truthfully. My goal is that you walk out of the place feeling closer to God. My goal is for you to be convicted by Scripture but also encouraged by being in the presence of God and His people. My goal is never to tell you what you want to hear. I have made members mad at me over the years because they were offended by God’s truth. I have had members leave because they felt that my view of Scripture was to narrow, to black and white, and I was literally told recently that my view of Scripture was on “the wrong side of history”. Well friends I would rather be on the right side of God and on the wrong side of history. His story does not judge me, God will. That’s all that I care about. That is all that matters.

How should you spot the not. Look to God. Pray deeply and sincerely. Match the methods of the teacher or preacher to the truth of Scripture. If they do not match, you are as bad as Pharaoh listening to the magicians.

Lesson one, God demands our worship.

Lesson two, God punishes the wicked.

Lesson three, God dismantles false witnesses.

I John 4:1 ESV

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Remember Christians to Fully Rely On God…FROG!

Bibliography

Websites:

https://religionnews.com/1998/01/01/news-feature-frog-bracelets-have-answer-for-wwjd-question/

https://www.crossway.org/articles/8-ways-to-spot-false-teachers/

https://www.universityreformedchurch.org/sermons/a-divine-distinction/

https://superiorword.org/exodus-8-1-7-the-plague-of-frogs-part-i/