Exodus 8:1-15 (Hebrew: 7:26-8:11)

¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD says, “Send away my people, so that they may serve me. ² But if you are refusing to send them away, see, I will plague all your territory with frogs. ³ The Nile will swarm with frogs that will come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. ⁴ The frogs will come up on you and on your people and on all your servants.”‘” ⁵ And the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Extend your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!'” ⁶ So Aaron extended his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. ⁷ But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. ⁸ Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with the LORD to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.” ⁹ Moses said to Pharaoh, “Honor yourself by commanding me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.” ¹⁰ And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “It will be as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God. ¹¹ The frogs will go away from you and your houses and your servants and your people. They will be left only in the Nile.” ¹² So Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the LORD about the frogs, as he had agreed with Pharaoh. ¹³ And the LORD acted consistent with the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. ¹⁴ And they gathered them together in piles, and the land stank. ¹⁵ But when Pharaoh saw that there was a break, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had predicted.

Nuisance

The frog was also a deity in the Egyptian pantheon. Heqet was a goddess who represented fertility. To have the territory overrun by these creatures was more than an annoyance. It was another reminder to Pharaoh that his worldview was erroneous. It was an embarrassment. And, even though his magicians were able to duplicate the same thing on a smaller scale (because they were illusionists) he was perturbed, so he appealed to Moses to have the LORD stop the plague. He was starting to take the LORD seriously. Moses even gives Pharaoh the honor of choosing the day for the pestilence to stop. But when the break came, Pharaoh still stubbornly refused to comply with the LORD’s demand.

I wonder if we are any better than Pharaoh was. We regularly experience nuisances in our lives, and they sometimes are so bad that we appeal to the LORD to rescue us. But do we ever stop to ask if the LORD wants to change us? Maybe an annoying event might be his way of getting our attention. Perhaps we should not be so quick to return to business as usual when the nuisance is over.

LORD, forgive us for ignoring you when you remind us of our need to change. Help us to see the possible significance of the annoying interruptions in our lives. Keep us sensitive to your guidance.