The Story of Moses : Exodus 8
The Plagues Begin (Part 2)
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
05-11–2025
Ten Commandments
A lot of people, even people who do not consider themselves religious, know the story of Moses. How?
In 1956, Cecile B. DeMile produced, directed and narrated a film based on the first five books of the Bible. Charlton Heston played Moses and Yul Brynner was casted as Rameses.
In 1957, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and winning for best visual effects.
In 1999, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
?In 2008, the American Film Institute revealed their top ten movies of all time and this movie was ranked at number ten.
Since 1973, this film has aired in prime time during the Passover/Easter season.
What’s the name of the movie I’m talking about? That’s right, “The Ten Commandments.”
Last week, the showdown between Yahweh and Pharaoh began with the first plague - blood.
Video Clip: Ten Commandments YouTube- stop at 1:15
The Nile was blood, the streams and ponds were blood, even full water jars turned to blood.
Their food source was gone - all the fish died. Their drinking water was gone. Their ability to bathe was gone. The river, once a source of life and beauty, now smelled absolutely terrible.
This would have disrupted life in Egypt as they knew it. Everything would have come to a standstill.
The plague of blood was directed at the gods of the Nile - Hopi, Isis, Osris, Khnum. The very source of life in Egypt was now blood and Egyptians hated blood!
Egyptian Religion
The Egyptians were a polytheistic religion, meaning they worship many gods. There were about 3,000 gods in their pantheon, with 80 major gods and goddesses.
They were also pantheistic, meaning they attributed divinity to the land, the sky, the sea.
In this showdown between Yahweh and Pharaoh, God will take on the Egyptian gods one by one and show that they are absolutely powerless before Him.
The Plagues
Why did God use plagues to make his point?
To reveal His omnipotence and Pharaoh’s helplessness
To demonstrate His protective power in shielding His people from the effects of the plagues.
To punish the Egyptians of their cruel treatment of His people
To show judgment against the false gods of the Egyptians.
To show other nations what happens when you mistreat His people
To test the Israelites and to get them ready to leave Egypt.
To strengthen the faith of Moses and Aaron
The plagues were God’s answer to Pharaoh’s taunting question:
“Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:1-2)
Pharaoh is about to find out who the Lord is and the wheels are set in motion for the Israelites to leave Egypt for good.
The first three plagues (blood, frogs, gnats) harassed the people; the second three caused them pain, and the last three terrified them. The last plague destroyed any resistance and caused mourning and wailing from the palace to the peasants.
The magicians were able to turn water into blood, more blood!
But Pharaoh shrugged, thinking this was amusing, and just turned and walked back to his throne.
This would last for seven days. But this was just the beginning.
Please turn with me to Exodus 8.
Prayer.
Plague Two: Frogs
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials.’” (Exodus 8:1-4)
God continues to be gracious in the face of Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness. Through Moses, Yahweh warns Rameses that he has a choice. He can let the people go, or the next plague will come upon him and the whole land.
He gives a detailed prediction of coming attractions -frogs, lots of frogs!
I only like one frog [Kermit] and he turned 70 years old this past week.
They will be in his palace, in the king’s bed! His servants quarters will be inundated with frogs. Even the ovens in the kitchen will have frogs.
Surely Pharaoh understands that he is outmatched, right? Nope. Not even close.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs 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.” (Exodus 8:6)
Why frogs? This plague is directed at another one of Egypt’s gods.
Hapi, the god of the Nile River was depicted holding a frog in his hands.
According to Egyptian religion, the god Khnum made humans on his pottery wheel and his wife, Hequet, breathed life into humankind.
Hequet had the face of a…wait for it…a frog! She was worshipped in a beautiful temple. She was the goddess of fruitfulness.
She was said to help women have babies and men to leave legacies.
We have a fruitfulness problem in our modern church. Too many people are worried about fruit that will not last - political power, prestige, popularity, wealth.
Paul David Tripp gives a word picture of this sort of fruitfulness. He writes that it’s like stapling fruit to a tree. It looks good for a while, but because it is not connected to the root system, it eventually rots and falls to the ground.
The fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, is fruit that has eternal results and is produced as we stay close to the true vine Christ.
Frogs were considered sacred in Egypt, much like cows are considered sacred in India. Many Egyptians saw frogs as good omens and many people wore frog amulets around their necks.
It was against the law to kill a frog and if you did, the death penalty was the result.
They worshipped frogs because were common around the Nile, because they reproduced rapidly, and because being amphibians they are part of two worlds, creatures of both land and water.
So they couldn’t do anything about the millions of frogs that were everywhere in Egypt.
One thing I thought about this week was the sound that millions of frogs would make.
[Frogs croaking You Tube - first 30 seconds - LOUD!]
Pharaoh called his magicians and they produced frogs by their secret arts.
They couldn’t make the frogs go away.. They could only make more frogs. The one thing they didn’t need was more frogs!
Remember satan can’t create. He can only copy.
“Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.” (Exodus 8:8)
There is progress in this request. Pharaoh asks Moses and Aaron to pray to the Lord. He doesn’t acknowledge Yahweh. The word he uses is a general term for God.
For the first time, he also tells them that he will grant their request and let the people go to sacrifice.
“Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.”
Even in this showdown, Moses is polite and deferential to Pharaoh. Moses gives him the opportunity to choose when this plague would end.
If I were Pharaoh, my answer would have been pretty easy - RIGHT NOW!
But look at Pharaoh’s answer.
?“Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.
What? Why tomorrow? There are frogs everywhere!
Pharaoh may have been hoping the plague would end before his appointed time so he could tell the people that it wasn’t Moses’s God who did this.
Let me make another point here. We often do this. When asked, when are you going to stop drinking or doing drugs, or watching porn, we say, “Tomorrow!”
Whenever we are confronted with sin of any kind and convicted to stop, satan whispers, “Yes, repent. But do it tomorrow.” We say, “Of course! I’ll get on that…tomorrow!” And tomorrow is just another day.
Brian “Head” Welch is the guitarist for the Grammy winning n-metal band Korn. He tells the story starring the meth in front of him and begging God to help him stop. He felt that satanic pull, “tomorrow, you can quit tomorrow.”
But he knew that tomorrow he might be dead. So he decided that very minute was the time to quit. He flushed all the drugs he had down the toilet and started walking with Jesus, getting clean one day at a time.
When asked how he has stayed clean and sober for so long now, Brian responded,
“I never said I was sober. I am high on the most high. He's poured his love into my heart by the Holy Spirit. I traded in my ashes for beauty. I traded in my addictions for relationship, for love."
Moses replied, “It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God. The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile.” (Exodus 8:9-11)
Again, Moses reminds Pharaoh why God is doing this - that they may know there is no-one like the Lord our God.
In response to his request, the frogs will leave exactly when Pharaoh asked.
“After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. And the Lord did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields. They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them.” (Exodus 8:11-14)
The frogs didn’t just disappear. They dropped dead. Millions and millions of dead frogs. They were piled up like snow plows pile up snow in parking lots in the winter.
Remember the blood in the Nile and the stench of dead fish? Now the land is filled with piles of dead, stinking frogs.
“But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.” (Exodus 8:15)
When Pharaoh saw there was relief, when he figured out that the danger had passed, he hardened his heart.
We do this also, don’t we? Over 25 years of ministry, I’ve met with many people who were in crisis and made all kinds of promises to God.
During a marriage crisis, a husband sees the possibility of his wife leaving. All of a sudden, he starts to attend church, read their Bible, bringing flowers. He’s a “new man.” Except, the fruit is merely stapled on.
When the storm clouds blow over and things calm down and they see that there was relief, the old habits return and all the promises are forgotten.
A teenage girl promises God that if she’s not pregnant, she will become a missionary and share Jesus with unreached people groups. When it becomes obvious she is not pregnant, she forgets the promise and goes back to her partying.
Plague Three: Gnats
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,’ and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.” They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came on people and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats.” (Exodus 8:16-17)
With the third plague, there is no warning, no explanation, no detailed prediction. Just gnats, billions and billions of gnats.
The word here in the NIV is translated “gnats,” but it can also be translated as lice, maggots, or mosquitos.
Once, I tried to take the boys fishing at Humiston Woods early in the morning. As we were sitting by the water, it occurred to me that fog had started to move in. It wasn’t fog, it was a cloud of mosquitoes! We ran to the car and itched for days from all the bites.
They were small, stinging insects that caused irritation and itching.
We understand these kinds of bugs in Illinois. In the fall, during the harvest, tiny black bugs called noseeums descend on us, bite us and drive us crazy.
These Egyptian gnats went straight for the mouth, nose, and eyelids, causing intense suffering.
This plague was directed against the Egyptian god of the land Geb. The gnats overran the Temple of Geb, rendering his priests, who were known as the pure ones and took multiple baths a day, unclean and unable to perform their duties.
When you see pictures of this era of Egypt, the Egyptians are living large and in ease. They were proud of their comfortable lives, being served by slaves and fanned by servants.
The gnats brought their comfortable existence to a grounding halt. There was no respite, no escape. Life was unbearable.
In the last two plagues, the magicians were able to imitate the miracles. But not this time!
“But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. Since the gnats were on people and animals everywhere, the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” (Exodus 8:18-19a)
Let me allow Chuck Swindoll to set the scene:
“Do the thing!” Pharaoh ordered.
“We’ve tried, Majesty, but we can’t duplicate the gnats.”
He glared at his magicians like an overbearing animal trainer, and they cowered like whipped dogs. Despite the heavy drapes over every palace window and entrance, the gnats flooded in unabated, stinging and swarming and driving everyone to the brink of insanity. Even Pharaoh’s eyes were beginning to have the look of a wild, raging animal.
“We can’t do it, sire,” they repeated. “It must be the finger of God.”
“Get out!” He screamed. “I’ll beat you to death if you don’t get out of my sight right now, useless fools!”
The magicians ran through the nearest doorway, and Pharaoh spun around and wildly swiped the air near his ears and face. He shuddered as thousands of pin needles crawled over his flesh.”
Think through the last two weeks in Egypt. First, all the water turned to blood for seven days. Then, frogs invaded the land, died, and were piled up in great heaps everywhere. Now, gnats are stinging and biting and driving man and animals absolutely crazy.
This has to be it, right? Pharaoh sees the devastation the first plagues have wrought and says, “Okay Moses, take your people and get out.”
"But Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the Lord had said.” (Exodus 8:19b)
Good grief! What’s it going to take?
Charles Spurgeon wrote:
“Pharaoh increased his guilt. His vows heaped up his transgressions. He forgot his promises; but God did not. They were laid by in store against him.”
Plague Four: Flies
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the river and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies; even the ground will be covered with them. (Exodus 8:20-21)
Like the first plague, Moses again meets Pharaoh at the river in the morning to confront him and again demand, “Let my people go that they may worship me.”
Again, Pharaoh is warned of what is about to happen. Swarms of flies will replace the swarms of gnats. Even the ground will be covered with flies.
I HATE flies. When I worked at Salem Boy’s ranch , the building I worked in wasn’t far from the horse barn. I put up fly strips in morning and by the afternoon they would be full. I walked around with a large flyswatter and, no matter how many I killed, there were still more.
Imagine this situation on steroids! Flies in the palace. Flies in the temples. Flies in the houses. Just like the gnats, there would be no escape.
This plague would be directed at Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies, and at the Scarab Beetle, the Egyptian symbol for eternal life.
But this plague would be different.
“‘But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This sign will occur tomorrow.’” (Exodus 8:22-23)
The Hebrews dug wells by the river for drinking water. The Israelites dealt with the frogs and the gnats right alongside of the Egyptians.
There would be flies throughout the land but not in Goshen, where His people, the Hebrews lived. God is going to make a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites when it came to the flies.
“And the Lord did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his officials; throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.” (Exodus 8:24)
Blood, frogs, gnats, flies. The land was ruined by the flies.
Pharaoh realized that things were out of control so he decided to negotiate with Moses.
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God here in the land.” (Exodus 8:25)
Moses has already made clear this wouldn’t work and Pharaoh knows it.
But Moses said, “That would not be right. The sacrifices we offer the Lord our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. And if we offer sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us? We must take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, as he commands us.” (Exodus 8:26-27)
One commentator wrote:
“Moses refuses on the grounds that to sacrifice in Egypt would be like killing a pig in a Muslim mosque, or slaughtering a cow in a Hindu temple… In the sense that the Egyptians would consider the sacrifice of a sacred animal as blasphemous.”
“Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God in the wilderness, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me.” (Exodus 8:28)
Pharaoh counteroffers. I’ll let you go but don’t very far. I need to keep an eye on your group.
Moses answered, “As soon as I leave you, I will pray to the Lord, and tomorrow the flies will leave Pharaoh and his officials and his people. Only let Pharaoh be sure that he does not act deceitfully again by not letting the people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.” (Exodus 8:29)
Twice, Pharaoh has offered to let the people go and twice he has gone back on his promise. Moses confronts him and reminds him of this. Keep your word, Rameses. But he wasn’t about to let the people go.
Then Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord, and the Lord did what Moses asked. The flies left Pharaoh and his officials and his people; not a fly remained. But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go. (Exodus 8:30-32)
Chuck Swindoll again:
“This is what the Lord says,” Moses proclaimed. “Let my people go so that they may serve Me. If you don’t , I will swarm you with flies - you, your servants, your people, your houses. Yes, the Egyptian houses will be filled with flies.”
“However, the Lord said, I will make a distinction on that day between Goshen, where my people live, and Egypt. No flies will swarm there so that you may know that I, the Lord, am present in this land. I will distinguish My people from your people, and you will see the this sign tomorrow.”
No more swarms. Pharaoh pleaded silently in his heart. No more swarms!
But then he remembered the other reason he came to the river - to plead with Hapi. Everyone knew that Egypt belonged to Hapi, and no foreign gods had ever held sway in Hapi’s land. This little Hebrew deity would soon learn his lesson. Pharaoh’s neck stiffened and his shoulder’s tensed.
“Bring on the flies, nomad,” he said, “and witness what Hapi will do to your Lord’s precious land of Goshen!”
Pharaoh threw his cape over his shoulder, marched past Moses, and continued to the Nile.”
David Guzik writes:
"Despite God’s kindness to him and to Egypt, Pharaoh continued to harden his heart. This is a demonstration of how deep and severe the gradual hardening of a heart may become.”
Again, Pharaoh’s heart was hard, his god useless, and his people growing anxious about what could come next.
Distinction
Moses wasn’t just to lead the people out of Egypt to hang out and be free. He was leading them out of Egypt so that they could worship God.
For four hundred years, they had been slaves in Egypt and had only known the Egyptian gods. They probably even worshipped the Egyptian gods. (See the Golden calf incident)
God is making the point that their freedom was about worship. It was time for them to worship the true God. They were being set apart to worship.
The word “distinction” can also mean to redeem. Yes, there would be no flies on the Israelites living in the land of Goshen. But, there was a deeper redemption taking place here.
God had chosen Abraham and promised to make him into a great nation. He reaffirmed his covenant with Issac and Jacob.
He led Joseph to Egypt and then brought 70 of his family to the land of Goshen. In 400 years, they became a nation of two million.
God had made it clear that he would redeem them from slavery.
To Abraham, God said,
“Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.” (Gen 15:13-14)
God would protect his people and prove that Pharaoh could not protect the Egyptians. God would bring the people out of bondage and into the freedom of the Promised Land.
Why? Because the Israelites were more holy than other nations? Because they were bigger, stronger, or more numerous? No.
He redeemed them because He had chosen to love them. The writer of psalm 111, says it this way:
“He has sent redemption to His people; He has ordained His covenant forever; Holy and awesome is His name.” (Psalm 111:9)
He is still in the redeeming business today!
Isaiah wrote:
I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” (Isaiah 44:22)
Peter wrote:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (I Peter 2:9)
Paul wrote:
In him [Jesus] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace (Ephesians 1:7)
Ending Video: Now I am Completely Different - The Chosen YT
