Exodus 8:5
And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.
The command to bring frogs came only after Pharaoh had been warned to let Israel go to serve God, or else all his borders would be smitten with frogs. At that command Aaron stretched forth his hand with the rod over the streams, over the rivers, over the ponds, and over the waters of Egypt in every direction. Frogs then came up from the river and the waters and covered and spread over the whole land of Egypt.
They overran houses and took possession of bedchambers, and entered even into ovens and kneading-troughs, swarming even in Pharaoh's palace until they became an intolerable nuisance and torment. Though the Egyptians regarded the frog as sacred and would not destroy it, the swarms could not be endured. The plague also polluted the Nile, which the Egyptians revered as sacred, turning it into a source of nuisance and torment, showing that the Nile and its gods could not protect their worshipers and displaying the supremacy of the true God.
The frogs came by the power of the living God, the God of heaven, wrought through Moses to convince Pharaoh that the great I AM had sent him to command Pharaoh to let Israel go to serve Him. It was not by magic, nor by human power or science, nor by any power in Moses and Aaron, and God alone could remove them. The magicians by their enchantments appeared to bring up similar frogs like Moses and Aaron. With Pharaoh's heart already hardened and unmoved by the rod becoming a serpent and the river turned to blood, this copying led him to count the miracles as magic and increased his hatred of Israel.
Satan was on the ground opposing Moses and came to the aid of the magicians to work counterfeit miracles through them by enchantments. His purpose was to counterfeit the true work of God to destroy its influence, to harden Pharaoh's heart against God's power, to stagger the faith of Moses and Aaron, and to destroy faith through all ages in the mighty miracles Christ would perform. 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. God's work proved superior to Satan's, for the magicians could imitate only a few miracles and were cut off by God's controlling power, and they could not stay the plague, remove the frogs, or proceed further.
When Pharaoh saw the magicians could not stay the plague or remove the frogs, he was somewhat humbled. He called for Moses and Aaron and asked them to entreat the Lord to take the frogs from him and his people, promising to let the people go to sacrifice, and he began to know something of the God he had professed to be wholly ignorant of. Moses had Pharaoh himself appoint the time for prayer for relief, and set the removal for the next day, so Pharaoh might know there is none like the Lord God. In this Moses answered and rebuked Pharaoh's former haughty boasting and glorying over Moses because of the works of his magicians, asking where that glorying was now and where was their power to remove the plague.
At the appointed hour the living frogs were taken away throughout Egypt. God purposely let them die where they were instead of causing them to vanish to dust or to return to dust in a moment. Their bodies remained to be seen gathered together in heaps before the king and all Egypt, whose putrid remains polluted and corrupted the atmosphere. This gave the king and all Egypt evidence that vain philosophy could not explain away, proving the work was not sorcery or enchantment like the magicians but a judgment from the God of heaven.
The frogs overspreading Egypt pictures the immense tide of periodicals and books now overspreading the land. Like those frogs, this printed matter is commonplace, idle and enervating. Much of it is unclean and degrading, intoxicating and ruining the mind and corrupting and destroying the soul.