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Warren Wiersbe · Citado em PreceptAustin
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Wiersbe - The fact that there were still frogs in the river indicates that the water was again normal (8:11). If the water were still blood, the frogs would have died. (Be Delivered) The Nile will swarm with frogs - The verb swarm means multiplication as used of Israel in Ex 1:7+ which "increased greatly, and multiplied." What this means is that God is saying that when He sends this plague, you will look out into the Nile and you will see the water multiplying with moving frogs. Just think of that for a moment. You are looking at the Nile and all of a sudden you see movement in the Nile, and as you look, you discover a multiplication of frogs and they are headed straight for your house! NET on swarm - The choice of this verb שָׁרַץ (sharats) recalls its use in the creation account (Gen 1:20). The water would be swarming with frogs in abundance. Thompson on swarm - The word “swarm” is interesting. It is a word that specifically refers to a great multiplication of numbers with moving, living, smaller creatures (William Gesenius, Hebrew Lexicon, p. 850). What this means is that God is saying that when He sends this plague, you will look out into the Nile and you will see the water multiplying in moving frogs. Just think of that for a moment. You are looking at the Nile and all of a sudden you see movement in the Nile, and as you look, you discover a multiplication of frogs in the Nile. It is swarming with frogs. (Sermon) Ryken - The Egyptians relied on Heqet for two things in particular. One was to control the frog population by protecting crocodiles, the frog’s natural predators. Obviously, when Egypt was overrun (or overhopped!) with frogs, Heqet was humiliated. This plague proved that she was powerless to resist the mighty strength of the Lord. (PW-Ex) Which will come up and go into your house - Your house is Pharaoh's house This is strange and clear evidence that this is not some natural phenomenon because frogs do not usually come into houses, but stay near the shore for security and food. This is not a description of the natural behavior of frogs but evidence of the supernatural hand of God! Undoubtedly Pharaoh had the safest house with the most guards and servants and yet still he was absolutely helpless against God's army of frogs and could do nothing to stop the frogs from "breaking and entering!" This is so bizarre as to almost be comical. It's like that game we used to play as kids when we played hide and seek, and the frogs are saying "Ready or not, here we come!" And into your bedroom and on your bed - This too is supernaturally directed behavior! Your bed is Pharaoh's bed! Can you imagine Pharaoh crawling into his ornate royal bed covered with the finest of linens and just as he pulls up the covers, he feels movement beneath his body and under the covers? Talk about insomnia! Ryken quips "By the time frogs started showing up under his bedcovers, even Pharaoh was starting to have his doubts about Heqet’s power." NET - This verse lists places the frogs will go. The first three are for Pharaoh personally—they are going to touch his private life. Then the text mentions the servants and the people. Mention of the ovens and kneading bowls (or troughs) of the people indicates that food would be contaminated and that it would be impossible even to eat a meal in peace. And into the houses of your servants and on your people - So the frogs do not restrict themselves to Pharaoh but affect al the Egyptians. God is telling these frogs "Hop" and they are hopping everywhere! Cassuto - they shall come into the houses of thy servants, and, needless to say, upon your people, that means, into the houses of your people, although frogs are fond of wet and cold places, they will be found—so great shall their number be—even in your ovens, which are kindled for the baking of bread, and in your kneading-bowls, in which the dough becomes warm and leavened. Nor is this all. The frogs will be so numerous and daring that they will even climb up people’s legs, even up the legs of his majesty himself (Ex 8:4) and the frogs shall climb up both upon you, and upon your people, and upon all your servants. The mocking satire is obvious. And into your ovens and into your kneading bowls - God has a sense of humor with this plague. The frogs were not deadly but they were disturbing. Imagine a mother going to pull out her kneading bowl to make bread for the evening meal and she let's out a piercing scream because there are frogs in her bowl! Think about what would happen to the frogs that entered ovens! Have you ever smelled barbque frog or even worse frog legs that were burned to a crisp? Because frogs were considered sacred the people could not kill them but simply had to be endured Swarm (08317)(sharats) means to swarm; to breed abundantly; to multiply. It is a word that specifically refers to a great multiplication of numbers with moving, living, smaller creatures. It means to teem, to swarm in numbers and rate of birth and multiplication. It serves as a description of a large number of creatures densely populating a location. Most passages use the animals themselves as the subject of the verb, but some verses speak of land or water swarming with creatures. Shārats emphasizes their immense numbers and prolific reproduction. In Ex 8:3 the Septuagint uses the verb exereugomai which means to vomit forth or to overflow with. Sharats - 14v - breed abundantly(1), increased greatly(1), populate the abundantly(1), swarm(3), swarmed(2), swarms(5), teem(1). Gen. 1:20; Gen. 1:21; Gen. 7:21; Gen. 8:17; Gen. 9:7; Exod. 1:7; Exod. 8:3; Lev. 11:29; Lev. 11:41; Lev. 11:42; Lev. 11:43; Lev. 11:46; Ps. 105:30; Ezek. 47:9 Matthew
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Wiersbe - Satan opposes God’s work by imitating it, and in this way he minimizes the power and glory of God....Pharaoh’s attitude was, “Anything Jehovah can do, we can do better!” Of course, he couldn’t, but that was enough to bolster his pride and keep him from submitting to the Lord. (Be Delivered) Ryken on magician's replication of the miracle - this time Pharaoh wasn’t all that impressed. He didn’t want any more frogs than he already had! What he really wanted was for someone to get rid of them all; but rather than subtracting from the invasion, his magicians could only add to it, so that, again, even Satan’s power was turned to God’s glory. Thompson - The purpose of the magicians doing this is so that Pharaoh will say our magicians can do the same thing Moses and Aaron can do, who claim they are from God. They wanted Pharaoh to think they were just as powerful as Moses Believer's Study Bible - It is ironic that the magicians could only compound the problem. They were unable to solve it or to reverse what God had done to afflict the people. David Thompson - Now liberals have attacked this plague by suggesting that the reason the frogs came up in such great numbers was because the Nile had been polluted to the point that fish died and that is what drove the frogs up onto the land. However, any logical assessment of what happens here refutes that point. We may make five key observations that would indicate this was not a natural result of polluted water: 1) This happens in conjunction with the hand and staff of Moses and Aaron. Ex 8:6 2) The frogs did not just hang around the banks of the Nile but covered all Egypt. Ex 8:6 3) Pharaoh himself realizes this is a judgment of God. Ex 8:7–not some annual Nile River thing 4) The frogs left all the land and went back to the Nile at God’s command . Ex 8:11 5) The frogs all died in massive numbers at the same time at different places. Ex 8:13 Well, this shows the folly of the liberals because what was it that polluted the water? It became blood. That is what killed the fish. So if you suggest that the reason for the frogs is the water became bad, then you actually acknowledge plague #1 is exactly why it became bad. (Sermon) Exodus 8:8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, "Entreat the LORD that He remove the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the LORD." Entreat - Ex 5:2 9:28 10:17 Nu 21:7 1Sa 12:19 1Ki 13:6 Ac 8:24 and I will - Ex 8:25-28 Ex 10:8-11,24-27 12:31,32 14:5 Ps 66:3 *marg: Ps 78:34-36 Jer 34:8-16 LIAR, LIAR PANTS ON FIRE Liar Liar Pants On Fire is a phrase that children like to scream at each other whenever they think the other is lying. As subsequent passages prove, Pharaoh is not sincere, but is lying. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said - Pharaoh forced to eat a bit of humble pie! The greatest ruler in the world brought to his knees by frogs! He is really desperate now. His magicians made more not less. He does the unthinkable in calling for help from Moses and Aaron. How long the frogs were covering the land is not stated, but however long, it was enough to garner the attention of Pharaoh. He had experienced enough of the croaking, jumping frogs! NET Note - This is the first time in the conflict that Pharaoh even acknowledged that Yahweh existed. Now he is asking for prayer to remove the frogs and is promising to release Israel. This result of the plague must have been an encouragement to Moses. Ryken points out that his request for prayer "was not a sign of Pharaoh’s spirituality but only of his superstition. Many desperate people have called for a minister without ever really intending to call upon God." This is a remarkable request—remarkable because it shows how much Pharaoh had learned about the ways of God. For starters, he had learned God’s name. The first time he encountered Moses, he said “Who is the LORD …?… I do not know the LORD” (Exod. 5:2). Now he was getting to know him after all—much better than he expected—just as God had promised. Pharaoh’s speech to Moses and Aaron begins and ends with the special name of the Lord. Pharaoh had also learned something about God’s power. The reason he summoned Moses and Aaron was because he knew that this plague was a divine miracle. He knew that God had sent the frogs and that only God could take them away. By asking for their removal, he was admitting that the Lord God of Israel had power over all creation. Pharaoh even seems to have understood that the way to gain access to that power was through prayer. The word he used for prayer (atar) is the word for supplication, for making a humble entreaty. Somehow he knew that divine intervention would come through human intercession. Pharaoh had learned what God requires. He ended his speech by making the first of many false concessions: “I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD” (Exod. 8:8b). This turned out to be a lie, of course. People will promise God anything when they are in trouble, but the promise is soon forgotten. Nevertheless, Pharaoh’s promise clearly shows that he understood what God demanded of him. At some level he knew that God’s people were made for God’s glory and that he needed to let the Israelites go and make sacrifices to their God. (PW-Ex) Spurgeon -- “There is a measure of faith which goes to increase a man’s condemnation, since he ought to know that if what he believes is true, then the proper thing is to pray himself. It would have been a wonderfully good sign if Pharaoh had said, ‘Join with me, O Moses and Aaron, while I pray unto Jehovah that he may take the frogs from me.’ But, no, he had only a condemning faith, which contented itself with other men’s prayers. Entreat the LORD that He remove the frogs from me and from my people - "Pharaoh begins and ends his speech with the name of YHWH. He is humble now, or seems to be so." (Cassuto) Notice Pharaoh is beginning to come to "know" this LORD He about Whom heretofore he had arrogantly asked "Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and besides, I will not let Israel go.” (Ex 5:2+) Notice that Pharaoh does not entreat his magicians to remove the frogs. Intellectually he is beginning to get the picture that this one Moses calls LORD has power and so Pharaoh asks Moses to go to Him. Pharaoh does not entreat Moses to remove the frogs, but to the God of Moses. Clearly Moses' words and actions had not drawn attention to himself but to the LORD. THOUGHT - Every believer should learn from Moses' example here. We are God's vessels of honor, but only One rightly deserves the honor and that is God Alone. This principle is inherent in Jesus' command in the Sermon on the Mount "“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Mt 5:16). Notice Jesus' qualifying phrase "in such a way." His point is that in whatever good works God allows us and empowers us to accomplish, we are to carry out those good works in such a way that the glory and honor deflect off of or away from us and instead point clearly to the Lord. For all of us in ministry (and we are all in ministry) it is so tempting and easy when praised for some good work to take just a miniscule portion of the glory for ourselves (if we are really being gut level honest!) We are still in this fallen flesh and that is simply a natural weakness, and so none of us will be perfect in giving God 100% of the glory. We can however know we are on the right track when others begin to say things like what you did or said makes me want to fall more and more in love with Jesus and live more and more like Him (or similar statements that point toward the Triune God and His glory). And I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the LORD - Pharaoh is disingenuous. He is lying. He will make the same statement again after the swarms of insects in Ex 8:28 and then again after God's thunder and hail in Ex 9:28. In Ex 10:8 after the locusts, for a fourth time, Pharaoh tells Moses the Israelites can go. Then in Ex 10:24 after the thick darkness, Pharaoh tells them they can go and serve the LORD. Mattoon - In this second plague, God changed His method to get Pharaoh to submit. Imagine this situation, "Pharaoh, what caused you to give in and break? What terrible animals did God use to get you to surrender? Were you attacked by vultures, wolves, lions, or bears? What dreaded beasts were they?" Imagine the humiliation of Pharaoh as game. Proverbs 29:23-A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit. The Lord did not give Pharaoh the luxury of a dignified invasion of bears, lions, or tigers. God showed the greatness of His power by making an animal, empty of every evil quality, as the means of a terrible affliction to His enemies. How easy is it, both to the justice and mercy of God, to destroy or save, by means of the most despicable and insignificant of instruments! With God, nothing is impossible. Pharaoh not only suffered humiliation from the frogs, but God also humiliated Pharaoh another way. The Lord reversed the relationship of Moses and Pharaoh, making the king the suitor and Moses the one being sought. What an embarrassment for the Pharaoh, the so called "god" of Egypt has to go to Moses. The Almighty has exalted Moses in the eyes of the Pharaoh. Pharaoh has gained nothing by resisting God, only pain and humiliation. The same holds true for us today. Ryken adds "What all this shows is how much a person can learn about God without ever coming to him for salvation. Pharaoh knew that God was both Creator and Judge. He recognized the power of God’s name and believed that he could answer prayer. But he did not know God as his Savior and Lord. The proof is that he could not pray to God for himself; he had to ask Moses and Aaron to do the praying for him. He also made the wrong request. Rather than asking God to take away his sins, he asked God to take away the frogs. Pharaoh wanted relief from the punishment for his sin without being willing to repent of the sin itself. Quite literally, the man didn’t have a prayer—at least not a proper prayer to call his own." (Ibid) Believer's Study Bible - Personally affected, Pharaoh promised anything for relief, but he honored his word only until the frogs were removed. This statement showed his first recognition of the God Yahweh.
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Wiersbe - God’s providential care of Israel was evident in all these seven last plagues, because the Jews escaped each one of them (Ex 8:22–23; Ex 9:4, 11 [“all the Egyptians”], Ex 9:26; Ex 10:6 [“all the Egyptians”], Ex 10:23; Ex 11:7). PURPOSE OF THE SEPARATION OF EGYPTIANS AND ISRAELITES In order that you may know that I, the LORD, am in the midst of the land - The distinction between Israel and Egypt made it obvious that the source of the plagues, from which Israel was delivered, was the God of Israel (cf. Ex 9:4, 26; 11:7). The Separation is so that the Egyptians might recognize the power, authority and sovereignty of Jehovah Who Alone could direct a plague to fall on one people and not on another. Durham - “What is new in this fourth of the mighty acts, apart from the nature of the miracle itself, is the separation of the land of Goshen from the effects of miracle (there has been no mention of Goshen’s fate in the earlier accounts), the negotiations between Pharaoh and Moses, with each of them setting conditions, and the allusion to the antipathy of the Egyptians to Israel worship (or to Israelite ways, and to Israelites in general).” Exodus 8:23 "I will put a division between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign will occur."' " a division - Heb. a redemption DIVISION REPRESENTS REDEMPTION! I will put a division between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign will occur - Moses and Aaron give Pharaoh a day to ponder the plight of swarms of insects but he was unresponsive. The specification of time underscores the supernatural aspect of this plague and emphasizes that Jehovah is in full control of time and events (then, now and forever, amen!) Currid on division (or redemption - see below) - The meaning seems to be that Yahweh will deliver his people from the plague and hand over Pharaoh’s people to it. Pharaoh, of course, can do no such thing. NET on division - The word in the text is פְדֻת (pédut, “redemption” This would give the sense of making a distinction by redeeming Israel.