Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh With Serpent and Frogsby CNSDA
8:4Exodus 8:4
And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.
The threat was that frogs would come up upon Pharaoh himself and upon his people and upon all his servants. It was fulfilled when the rod was stretched over the waters and frogs came up from the river and covered the land of Egypt. They entered houses, including the palace itself, with bed-chambers and ovens and kneading-troughs invaded, while frogs also remained in the river.
Though the Egyptians regarded frogs as sacred, they became an intolerable nuisance and torment throughout Egypt. The Nile, which they revered as an object of worship, became a source of pollution, showing that their river idol could not protect them.
The visitation was the second plague upon Egypt, brought as a judgment from the God of Heaven. It came by the power of the living God and not by magic nor by any human power of Moses and Aaron. Its purpose was to convince Pharaoh that the great I AM had sent Moses to command him to let Israel go that they might serve Him.
The Egyptian magicians by their enchantments appeared to bring up similar frogs as Moses and Aaron had done. Over this Pharaoh exulted and gloried, and their counterfeiting led him to believe the miracles were performed by magic. So it had been with the earlier signs of the rod becoming a serpent and the river turned to blood, which had left his hard heart unmoved and increased his hatred of Israel.
Although the magicians could produce frogs, they could not stay the plague or remove the frogs. In this God's work was shown superior to Satan's, for they could imitate only a few of the miracles and were not suffered to proceed further.
God gave abundant evidence that the plague and its removal were not magic by the manner of removal. The living frogs were removed at the appointed time, while the dead frogs were left to be gathered in heaps lying in sight before the king and all Egypt and corrupting the atmosphere. He did not cause them to disappear and return to dust in a moment, so none could say the removal was magic like the magicians' work, and their vain philosophy could not dispose of the evidence.
When Pharaoh saw the magicians powerless to remove the plague he was somewhat humbled. He asked Moses and Aaron to entreat the Lord to take the frogs away from him and his people, promising to let Israel go to sacrifice. Moses answered by having him set the time for removal and by challenging his glorying and the magicians' power, so that Pharaoh might know there is none like unto the Lord God. In this way Pharaoh began to know something of the God whom he had professed to be wholly ignorant of, though the plague continued until the appointed time.
Satan worked through the magicians to counterfeit the true work of God for a two-fold purpose, to destroy the influence of what God wrought through Moses and to reach down through all ages to destroy true faith in the mighty miracles and works Christ would perform when He came. His working was calculated to harden Pharaoh's heart against God's power, to stagger the faith of Moses and Aaron in the divine origin of their mission, and to keep Israel from release from servitude to serve God. Moses in this work prefigured Christ's first advent to break Satan's power over the human family and deliver those made captives by him.
The frogs overspreading the land picture the flood of periodicals and books now overspreading the land. A large share of them are commonplace, idle and enervating, and also unclean and degrading. Their effect is to intoxicate and ruin the mind and to corrupt and destroy the soul.
The threat was that frogs would come up upon Pharaoh himself and upon his people and upon all his servants. It was fulfilled when the rod was stretched over the waters and frogs came up from the river and covered the land of Egypt. They entered houses, including the palace itself, with bed-chambers and ovens and kneading-troughs invaded, while frogs also remained in the river.
Though the Egyptians regarded frogs as sacred, they became an intolerable nuisance and torment throughout Egypt. The Nile, which they revered as an object of worship, became a source of pollution, showing that their river idol could not protect them.
The visitation was the second plague upon Egypt, brought as a judgment from the God of Heaven. It came by the power of the living God and not by magic nor by any human power of Moses and Aaron. Its purpose was to convince Pharaoh that the great I AM had sent Moses to command him to let Israel go that they might serve Him.
The Egyptian magicians by their enchantments appeared to bring up similar frogs as Moses and Aaron had done. Over this Pharaoh exulted and gloried, and their counterfeiting led him to believe the miracles were performed by magic. So it had been with the earlier signs of the rod becoming a serpent and the river turned to blood, which had left his hard heart unmoved and increased his hatred of Israel.
Although the magicians could produce frogs, they could not stay the plague or remove the frogs. In this God's work was shown superior to Satan's, for they could imitate only a few of the miracles and were not suffered to proceed further.
God gave abundant evidence that the plague and its removal were not magic by the manner of removal. The living frogs were removed at the appointed time, while the dead frogs were left to be gathered in heaps lying in sight before the king and all Egypt and corrupting the atmosphere. He did not cause them to disappear and return to dust in a moment, so none could say the removal was magic like the magicians' work, and their vain philosophy could not dispose of the evidence.
When Pharaoh saw the magicians powerless to remove the plague he was somewhat humbled. He asked Moses and Aaron to entreat the Lord to take the frogs away from him and his people, promising to let Israel go to sacrifice. Moses answered by having him set the time for removal and by challenging his glorying and the magicians' power, so that Pharaoh might know there is none like unto the Lord God. In this way Pharaoh began to know something of the God whom he had professed to be wholly ignorant of, though the plague continued until the appointed time.
Satan worked through the magicians to counterfeit the true work of God for a two-fold purpose, to destroy the influence of what God wrought through Moses and to reach down through all ages to destroy true faith in the mighty miracles and works Christ would perform when He came. His working was calculated to harden Pharaoh's heart against God's power, to stagger the faith of Moses and Aaron in the divine origin of their mission, and to keep Israel from release from servitude to serve God. Moses in this work prefigured Christ's first advent to break Satan's power over the human family and deliver those made captives by him.
The frogs overspreading the land picture the flood of periodicals and books now overspreading the land. A large share of them are commonplace, idle and enervating, and also unclean and degrading. Their effect is to intoxicate and ruin the mind and to corrupt and destroy the soul.