The Third and Fourth Plagues: Lice and Flies

[0:00] Last time we were in chapter 8 of Exodus and the dealing of God through Moses and Aaron with the king of Egypt, Pharaoh, or the Pharaoh of Egypt, if you will.

[0:28] Last time we looked at the plague of the frogs that came, how many dreamed about frogs after that study? Yeah, and you think that's bad, wait till tonight.

[0:43] But remember, God brought the frogs upon the kingdom and they got into everything, got into the houses, got into their bedrooms and their kitchens and their stoves, in the cabinets where the dishes were, all of those places, frogs everywhere.

[1:00] And so the magicians of Egypt attempted to imitate that miracle once again and they did so.

[1:12] But the one difference in that this time was that they were not able to make the frogs disappear. Now, it doesn't specifically say that in the scripture, but notice in verses 7 through 9, the magicians did so with their enchantments, brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.

[1:35] But then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, Entreat the Lord that he may take away the frog from me and from my people, and then I will let the people go that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord.

[1:49] And so if the magicians were able to withdraw the frogs, Pharaoh would not have gone, remember, to entreat Moses, ask Moses to entreat before Jehovah for him.

[2:06] And so now we begin to see the inability here of these magicians begin to show up. God is beginning to do more and more of a work now to show the fallacy of these magicians of Egypt and their arts and crafts that they use.

[2:25] So that was the beginning of that process. Now, again, as the process continues here of God bringing more and more evidence of the fact that these plagues are from him, Moses says to Pharaoh, in essence, Glory over me when shall I entreat for you.

[2:48] In other words, he sets himself below Pharaoh and says, Here's what I want you to do. I want you to set the time. Set the time when you want me to entreat to Jehovah for these frogs to disappear or to go back into the rivers and the lakes.

[3:10] Tell me the day. All right. Now, again, what better way? Amen. What better way to try to cause Pharaoh to recognize the reality here?

[3:24] These things are coming from the hand of Jehovah. Then to let Pharaoh set the time and the day and Moses at that particular time entreat Jehovah and then the frogs be gone.

[3:41] Now, that's what happens. That's what happens. You recognize here. So. He sets a time. Pharaoh says, All right.

[3:53] In verse 10. Tomorrow. Just do it tomorrow. That's when we'll do it. Someone asked him this evening. Why didn't he wait? Why did he wait overnight?

[4:03] And I just kind of figure he just loved the croak of the frogs. Amen. Yeah. Yeah. But more so, I think, I think that he did not believe that if these things are removed at the behest of Moses, that it would not be able to occur overnight or just all of a sudden.

[4:28] It's going to take a while for these things to retreat. But that wasn't the case. Moses intervened before Jehovah. You know, of course, Pharaoh had said, If you do that and these frogs disappear, I'll let your people go and worship.

[4:46] And so Moses prays at that specific moment. The frogs are gone. They vanish. They disappear. They retreat all of a sudden.

[4:57] What further proof do you need? Amen. I like verse 10. Verse 10 said, Moses then went and called and cried out to Jehovah. All right. Well, that wasn't verse 10, but later on he says he prayed, he cried aloud.

[5:13] And thus all the people or anybody close by could hear that he was making supplication to Jehovah. And that's when the frogs disappeared. Don't think the people had a problem with believing these things came from the God of Israel.

[5:28] And I think Pharaoh himself had to understand and believe that, yeah, that's the case. But he's an obstinate guy. All right. And that's what gets him in trouble here.

[5:39] He's not about to be done better by anybody else. All right. He's going to be the master because he's the Pharaoh. Now, of course, Pharaoh, after the frogs disappear, Pharaoh, again, does not live up to his bargain, his agreement.

[6:01] And as he has time to catch his breath and the dust has settled and the frogs are gone, he hardens his heart once again and fails to let Israel go.

[6:12] So that brings us to verses 16 and 17, where we left off last week. The Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod and smite the dust of the land that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

[6:33] And they did so. For Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast. All the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

[6:48] You think frogs were bad? Now come the line. Anybody had any, has anybody had any experience with lice? You know, from year to year, every once in a while, you find this little scourge of head lice in children in school.

[7:06] And they say, what a tremendous job it is to try to get rid of those things. But here and now, we get that picture of what takes place in Egypt.

[7:18] Now, differences of opinions from scholars about what the exact definition of this word translated lice really is. It may be lice.

[7:29] They believe it could be gnats. Some even believe they may have been ticks, but that's kind of far-fetched. Either lice or gnats. But whichever the case here, it's not hard to imagine the anguish that comes upon those that have been affected by the plague of the lice.

[7:49] Now, lice are, as we said, very difficult to eliminate. Yeah, can't eliminate them, but eliminate. All right? To get rid of these things.

[8:00] And let me read to you here what they tell us about the lice and how much they spread. In the space of 12 days, it says a full-grown female lays 100 eggs, from which, in the space of six days, about 50 males and 50 females are produced.

[8:24] There, you know, equality there, notice. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. If you want equality, just look at the lice. In 18 days, these young females are at their full growth.

[8:36] Each of which may lay 100 eggs, which will be hatched in six days. So, in the course of six weeks, the parent female has 5,000 descendants.

[8:50] Yeah. That's for one gal. All right. All right. So, think of the enormity of what takes place here upon the people of Egypt and everything around them.

[9:07] That spread of the lice that takes place. Now, if they were gnats, if they were indeed gnats, they were so small, the species that were so small, that were, they were hardly visible to the eye.

[9:25] Arnats aren't that easy to see anyway. Amen. These seemingly are even smaller than that. Can hardly see them with, with the eye. But the sting that they cause is highly painful and irritates the skin a great deal.

[9:40] They even creep into the eyes and into the noses of people that they afflict. And, that they pop out after the rice harvest and they come out in great swarms.

[9:56] So, you can imagine now, after the frogs have disappeared, they probably thought, all right, we're in good shape here. But now, all of a sudden, the only thing that happens is, Arnats strikes the ground in lice.

[10:10] in multitudes, begin to appear and begin to swarm upon the people. Now, verses 18 and 19.

[10:22] As usual, the magicians would try to imitate and create the lice as well. So, the magicians did so.

[10:33] That is, they smote the dust of the ground with their rods. And, with their enchantments to bring forth lice. But, they could not.

[10:45] They could not bring forth the lice. Why? Other than the fact that God prevented them from doing that, why could they not do it?

[10:59] They imitated the frogs. They imitated the water turned to blood. Why could they not imitate the plague of the lice?

[11:13] Everything else. the frogs, in particular, were something that comes out of the water that already existed. These lice did not.

[11:27] they came out of the dust. They've come from the dust. It's a new creation, if you will. Magicians can't create their magical arts, witchcraft, and everything else that they use, their demonic powers, whatever, could not create the smallest of little creatures out of the dust of the ground, like God does.

[11:54] All right? All right. Now, so why, why did God do that that way? What was He doing here?

[12:09] Only He can create life. Okay, and what else along with that? Same train of thought, same train of thought. If He could create life, from the dust of the ground, what about the magicians?

[12:30] They could not. He's trying to show everyone that these arts, that these guys have been using through all of this, and the demonic influence that was used through that, is fallacy.

[12:54] it's totally inept. It cannot do what they believed it could do. So, these guys are useless.

[13:07] From this point forward, you never see them again. Trying to duplicate what God's done. They're done. They're finished.

[13:19] All right? You just can't outdo God as hard as you try. All right?

[13:30] Now, as was said, these magicians were put to shame because God prevented any demonic influence to be at work here to try to emulate this particular miracle, this particular plague.

[13:47] All right? And again, the reason being is so that the people could see how ineffective these magicians really are in their inability to do the things that people thought they were able to do.

[14:03] I mean, after all, when you put that beside the power of God, amen, yeah, there's no comparison, no comparison whatsoever.

[14:16] So, notice if you will, back in verses 18 through 19, magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not.

[14:29] So there was lice upon man, upon beast. Then the magician said unto Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had said.

[14:47] Now, even the magicians recognized, okay, what this is. But, when they told Pharaoh this is the finger of God, he used the word Elohim, which is a generic term for God.

[15:06] He was not giving glory to Jehovah here. Now, what's happening? It's as if they were saying, this is the finger of some deity, some power greater than us, and some power greater than Moses and Aaron, more than likely thinking it was one of the gods of Egypt that was causing this to take place.

[15:29] All right? So don't get the idea here that a revival was breaking out. And the idea here is they did not want Moses and Aaron to be seen in the eyes of the people to be greater than they are.

[15:47] All right? So that's why they make that statement. This isn't Moses and Aaron that's done this. This is some deity, probably an Egyptian deity, that's brought all this to bass, and that deity is greater than any of us, is what they were saying.

[16:03] Okay? So it would have been nice had revival broken out there, but it didn't. So as a result, this miracle did not have any influence upon Pharaoh either.

[16:18] All right? He's just continuing on, even though their magicians couldn't repeat this, but their idea that possibly it was an Egyptian god that was doing it, but it was kind of strange to think about it.

[16:38] Why would an Egyptian god do it anyway? Yeah? I mean, if this was some type of judgment, why would the Egyptian gods bring judgment upon the people of Egypt and Pharaoh?

[16:53] Okay? So it didn't really make sense. You know, when you're such a hard-hearted, hard-headed, obstinate individual, common sense doesn't make any difference, does it?

[17:08] It doesn't play into the equation here. And that's what's happening here. Has anybody here ever been this obstinate? John's shaking his head and I'm going to ask him are you shaking your head about yourself or your wife?

[17:29] No, myself. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, okay. The thing we've got to be sure of is that we are not obstinate against the will of God.

[17:44] Amen? All right. Now, brings us to the fourth plague where now again a distinction is made between the Israelites and the Egyptians and these plagues that now follow.

[18:08] Israel in the land of Goshen. I texted Lee the other day when I was asking him to take the study. I told him I said I was not found out I was not in the land of Goshen because I got the plague.

[18:23] But of course I wasn't a Jew so hey, you know, yeah, yeah. All right. And so the distinction is going to be made here between Israel and the people of Egypt because the people of Israel in Goshen become exempt from the plagues and we looked at that somewhat before.

[18:41] now verses 20 and 23 there's a difference here in what takes place.

[18:55] The Lord said unto Moses, rise up early in the morning stand before Pharaoh. Lo, he cometh forth to the water and say unto him, now we've looked at before, every day Pharaoh would come to the water probably to worship.

[19:10] All right. Because they considered water, the Nile in particular deity. So he said he comes forth to the water in the morning stand before Pharaoh.

[19:22] Lo, he cometh forth to the water and say unto him, thus saith the Lord, again, thus saith the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me.

[19:33] Else, if thou will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee and upon thy servants and upon thy people and into thy houses and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies and also the ground wherein they are and I will sever in that day the land of Goshen in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there.

[20:01] To the end thou may know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the earth and I will put a division between my people and thy people tomorrow shall this sign be.

[20:15] Alright? Now, do you notice a difference here in what God instructs Moses to do than what he's done before?

[20:32] In the other dealings, he instructed Moses and Aaron to use the rod, strike something, do something with it. He doesn't do that here.

[20:43] There's no intermediary, if you will, between God and the plagues like Moses and Aaron. He said, tell Pharaoh if you don't let him go that I'm going to send the swarm of flies.

[21:01] Alright? So, things begin to change even more now. I think I've said before, God would make a great lawyer, wouldn't he?

[21:17] He knows the tactics to use in dealing with people's hearts. And he's doing that here with Pharaoh. Okay? Pharaoh's hard-hearted, he's obstinate, God knows that, and he's going to continue to work in that and through that in what he does here now.

[21:38] Alright? Now, when he says there's going to be swarms of flies, alright, the literal translation of that word is heavy vermin, alright, is the translation of the word translated swarms here.

[21:58] That's the meaning of the word. Heavy vermin. and it expresses the idea of a mixed number or mixed multitudes of different kinds. And the idea here possibly is that it's not just flies as we've been thinking, as we think as flies, but flies, wasps, hornets, anything like that that flies.

[22:24] Alright? It's a possibility here in what that word originally denotes. That's translated swarms.

[22:35] So you get the idea here that there's going to be an invasion unlike anything Egypt has seen to this point. Some believe the word refers to what's known as the dog flies.

[22:49] They're more numerous and annoying than any gnat was. It says when it's enraged, they fasten themselves to the human body, especially upon the edges of the eyelids and become a dreadful plague.

[23:06] And the reason, one of the reasons some think it's the dog flies is because, once again, the Egyptians held dogs in high esteem. Alright?

[23:17] Because when they worshipped the pagan god Anibas, they worshipped that pagan god under the form of a dog. So once again, notice here how many times God is, if you will, striking the religious symbols and figures of the Egyptians.

[23:40] And perhaps this plays into the thinking of Pharaoh and his being so obstinate. When, in biblical times, when one army, army of one nation defeated another army of another nation, what did that say?

[24:03] What did the god is more powerful than our god? Yeah, yeah. The god of the conquering army is stronger than the god of the country that was defeated.

[24:15] What about here? The river, alright, the Nile, it's been struck with water, with blood, alright, frogs came out of it, now, the dog flies, if you will, striking this Anibus pagan god, anything that they worship is now becoming a source of dread, if you will, to the people of Egypt.

[24:52] What does that say? Jehovah is greater than any of them, alright, now, the swarms are going to fill the houses of the Egyptians, and even upon the land in which they were living, that is, the land of Egypt, alright, in other words, that part of the land that's not occupied by houses is going to have these dog flies, flies, or flies, or whatever they are, alright, they're going to be there, except for the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel are living.

[25:33] It was entirely spared. Verse 23, I will put a division between my people and thy people, tomorrow shall this sign be.

[25:45] the word, I like this, the word that's translated division, when he said I'll put a division between my people, it's correctly translated redemption or deliverance.

[25:58] What a picture here. I'm going to put redemption, deliverance, between my people and your people. So, there's the real distinction there, if you will.

[26:11] a deliverance for the people of Israel, by the Lord. Now, what was the, another purpose, what was the purpose here of God making that distinction?

[26:32] Two things. What do you think they are? Making the distinction between the people of Egypt and the people of Israel in Goshen. First of all, again, Israel's God, not any deity of Egypt, Israel's God is the one that sends the plagues.

[26:54] He's the one that's been doing it. That's pictured in the fact that the people of Goshen are not touched by them. Then something else, and this was the hardest thing for them, for Pharaoh, I think, to really reconcile themselves to.

[27:10] that the God of the people of Israel, Jehovah, has power and authority in the land of Egypt. Yeah.

[27:23] I mean, after all, he had Moses strike the dust of the ground, it became lice, and now the swarm of these flies, whatever they may be, he's got authority over Egypt.

[27:37] Thusly, he possesses supreme authority over everything. Israel's God is absolute God, the one and only true God.

[27:52] And as the true God and the only true God, he rules over the land of Egypt with free and boundless authority and power.

[28:04] Yeah. Yeah. That's what all this is. All that's shown by Israel in Goshen being freed from these plagues.

[28:19] All right? Now, verse 24 through 27, And the Lord did so. They became a grievous swarm of flies in the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses and into all the land of Egypt.

[28:34] the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies. And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, Go ye, yeah, notice, Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.

[28:53] And Moses said, It is not meet so to do, for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. Lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes?

[29:06] And will they not stone us? Will they go three days journey? We will go three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to Jehovah our God as he shall command us.

[29:18] All right? Pharaoh's going to let them go here. But, you got to stay in Egypt. You can't go outside of Egypt.

[29:30] You got to stay here. Why was he so afraid of letting people of Israel go outside of Egypt? Yeah.

[29:44] They wouldn't go back. Adios, amigos. Yeah. Yeah. Why did he want them there? Labor. Cheap labor.

[29:54] Yeah. Yeah. Cheap labor. He didn't want them to unionize. Yeah. No unions in Egypt. Yeah. Yeah.

[30:05] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They were his bread and butter. I mean, you know, everything, everything that Pharaoh and all the other Pharaohs did the same thing.

[30:18] Use their harsh labor to build these great monuments to themselves and to their rule and reign. Yeah. So he didn't want to let them go. So stay in the land.

[30:30] But Moses said we can't do that. And there's reason for that. And that reason for that is what we hold for next week.

[30:47] But notice he calls it the abomination to the Egyptians. All right. So look at that. Think about that.

[30:57] and we'll come back to that next week. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for your loving kindness and for the blessing of being together tonight to look back in your word.

[31:08] And again, Father, we just stand amazed in all that you are and how you operate in the world and in the lives of your people.

[31:23] Lord, you do it all, not per se for retribution, but to draw the heart of men to yourself. And so, Father, we thank you for that and thank you for enabling us to see those things that you do and the way you're doing them and the reasons why you're doing them.

[31:41] And so, Father, I pray that you'll enable us then to keep our eyes out and see how you are operating in our lives and our world today that we may see you at work and rejoice in what you're doing.

[31:57] And we'll thank you for it. Thank you again for these sweet people that have come again tonight to study your word, ask your blessings upon them. Pray for our Falls Creek groups and pray God to continue your blessing there that you work mightily in their heart and their lives through what they hear this week.

[32:14] And we'll thank you for it now in Jesus' name. Amen.