Monday, March 2, 2009

Exodus 8:1-7


Why the Plagues? The plagues were a contest between God and the gods of Egypt. Egypt had many gods and many idols. Each plague was directed toward a particular god in Egypt.
1) Blood - the Nile was the life blood of Egypt and sacred to Osiris
2) Frogs- Heka was the frog headed goddess of Egypt and it was an offense to the goddess to kill frogs.

We are to not to worship any other god.
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

Has our society been worshiping false gods? For decades we have heard stories of people who were unable to kill rats on their property, we are told what kind of clothing is not acceptable, we are told that we should not hunt for food nor are we to chop down trees. I believe that we are to be good stewards of our environment but let us not be foolish and make idols of nature.
Lets protect the environment with wisdom as directed by the Lord our God.
Here is a link to Protected Species List

check the link and then imagine that God determined to plague your home, community and nation with one of those that are on this list. We are certainly called to be good stewards of the environment but have we gone too far? The earth is the Lords and the inhabitants thereof. It is the Lord we should seek for direction on how to care for our environment.


Exodus 20:2,3, 5
Chapter 8:1-7 And the Lord spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs: And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into the bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs: And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon the people, and upon all thy servants. 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 Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.


Once again God sends Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh to tell him to let the children of Israel go worship the Lord God of Israel. Once again Pharaoh refuses. God sends a plague throughout Egypt. Frogs are everywhere!( Yech...not a fan of frogs.) v 7 says that the magicians also brought frogs upon the land of Egypt...just what Egypt needs more frogs. What kind of a battle is this you would think that the magicians of Pharaoh would at least attempt to get rid of the frogs that God had sent as a plague. But it was an offense against their goddess Heka to kill frogs so I suppose the only way they could show any power was to add more frogs to an already plagued Egypt.

This plague effected the Children of Israel as well as Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The decisions that leadership makes effects a great many people whether we agree or disagree with their decisions. Quite possible their were a few Egyptians who were thinking that Pharaoh should just let the Children of Israel go and worship God rather than face the plagues God had sent upon them.

3 comments:

Edie said...

Great post Debrah. I always wonder why the magicians always duplicated what God did through Moses instead of trying to counter it. I believe it was because they knew they had no power to overcome whatever God did.

Dorothy Champagne said...

I wonder what the people of God were thinking as well. Did they see it as impending doom, or did they wait upon God and anticipate the miracles that would come. Good points.

Edie said...

Just stopping by to say hi Debrah. Hope you are having a great week!