Exiting Egypt Chapter 8 P3

Exiting Egypt

“The Second Plague – Frogs Everywhere”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 8 P3

And so the judgment came – frogs everywhere. They swarmed into the homes, bedrooms and even in the people’s beds. They swarmed on the people themselves and were in their kitchens, in their ovens and in their cereal bowls. They would stick out their heads when the people would take a bite of their favorite sandwich, Bacon Lettuce and Frog. They were in their underwear, in their clothes when they put them on in the morning and when they took them off at night.

Now the Bible doesn’t say where so many of them came from, only that there were an awful lot of them, which says that God may have multiplied them.

But why did I say that such a plague was comical? Well for one thing, can you imagine bringing down a whole government by frogs? Instead of a snow day, they had a frog day. And these guys really didn’t have a name in the Hebrew language. They were called swamp-jumpers.

Others have interpreted the word as literally calling them “croakers.” And so, God conquered Egypt with croakers.

But there is judgment here and this cannot be forgotten.

First this is seen in the wording found in verse two. God said that He would “smite” the land with frogs. This word is not used again until chapter 23 and is used three times as God smites the firstborn. It is a strong word, often meaning a fatal blow that has been struck, and is used

elsewhere in the bible in speaking of divine judgment (Isa. 19:22; Psm. 89:23).

The use of frogs could very well have been God’s statement against the false gods of the Egyptians. Frogs were associated with the Egyptian gods, Hapi and Heqt. Heqt was actually considered the goddess of fertility and was often pictured as a squatting frog. She was supposed to be a good luck charm to increase the fertility of the people.

We also see in this judgment a sort of payback for what Pharaoh did to Israel a little over 80 years earlier. God was paying back, through their goddess of fertility, or the frog, Pharaoh’s attack on the children of Israel’s male children, upon the Israelites ability to give birth to make children. It’s like God was saying, “You attempt to strike at the fertility of My people, well I’ll take it out on your god of fertility.”

Further, what I found interesting is the language of this plague. In the beginning, that which brought on the Israelites slavery was that they were very fruitful and multiplied.

But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them (Ex. 1:7 NKJV)