Exodus 8:16-32

¹⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’” ¹⁷ And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. ¹⁸ The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. ¹⁹ Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. ²⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. ²¹ Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. ²² But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. ²³ Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.”’” ²⁴ And the Lord did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants’ houses. Throughout all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by the swarms of flies. ²⁵ Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.” ²⁶ But Moses said, “It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? ²⁷ We must go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he tells us.” ²⁸ So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away. Plead for me.” ²⁹ Then Moses said, “Behold, I am going out from you and I will plead with the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow. Only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” ³⁰ So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. ³¹ And the Lord did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; not one remained. ³² But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.

 

The first church I pastored out of seminary was Stonecrest Baptist Church in Woodstock, GA, which is in North Georgia, above Atlanta.  When I left there I went to pastor First Baptist Church in Dawson, GA, which is in South Georgia.  I remember after telling our first church that we would be leaving to go to Dawson, GA, that a friend of mine said, “So, you’re going to pastor below the gnat line?”

“The gnat line,” I asked.  “What is that?”

“You’ll see,” he said.

Another friend of mine who pastored in another state cautioned me that I would encounter great swarms of gnats in the summer time in South Georgia, and to be prepared.  He told me that he used to pastor down there.  He said he had recently gone to South Georgia to visit and, on the way home, they had to leave the windows open on the interstate in an effort to get all the gnats out that had come in when they had briefly opened their doors.

I am happy to report that I personally found these reports greatly exaggerated.  Yes, the environment in South Georgia was conducive to gnats, and you did have to contend with them, but the visions of the plagues of Egypt I had before going there did not turn out to be true.  The gnats were bad enough, I should say, that you could judge how long a person had been in South Georgia by whether or not they used their hands to swat away the gnats, or whether they simply blew upward into their own faces to dispel them.  There were also numerous home remedies, including putting pickle juice behind your ears, but we never had to resort to such things.

Pickle juice would not have helped the Egyptians.  Nor would the skillful art of blowing upwards into their own faces.  What they faced in this plague was brutal indeed:  massive swarms on gnats that irritated and pestered the Egyptians.  They had nobody to blame but Pharaoh, who, amazingly, persisted in his stubbornness.  Let us consider the next two plagues, both of which deal with swarming insects, and what these rounds in the conflict between Moses and Aaron and Pharaoh reveal.

I. The Inability of the Devil to Keep Pace With God (v.16-19)

In the first two plagues, the devil is able to kind of keep pace with God, as it were, mimicking His power with his own displays of power.  Of course, we know that, in reality, the devil only has such power as the Lord allows Him, but, even so, the Egyptian magicians were able to display their diabolical power in the face of the first two plagues.  Not so with the third.

¹⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’”

The Hebrew word that most translations translate as “gnat” is used nowhere else.  Isidore of Seville described a gnat as an “animal that flies through the air suspended on wings.  But it is so subtle and minute that it escapes being seen by the eye unless one looks closely.  But when it lands on the body it drills in with a sharp sting.  If anyone cannot see it flying, he still feels its sting immediately.”[1]  The Hebrew word used here may refer to the gnat as we understand it (and that is how I will use it here), or it may refer to mosquitos or ticks.[2]  Whatever its precise meaning, it appears to refer to some kind of small, flying pest with the ability to harass human beings.

This reference to the “dust of the earth” is also interesting.  It brings to mind Genesis 2:7, in which we read that “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”  Is it possible that by having Aaron strike the dust the Lord is saying something to Egypt about His ultimate power over life itself?  I think so.  It may also be a sign of the coming, dreadful, final plague in which the firstborn sons of Egypt were killed.

¹⁷ And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. ¹⁸ The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. ¹⁹ Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

Have you ever had a small child ask you to run with her?  Unless you want to be extremely unpleasant and open yourself to the censure of all onlookers, you will slow your pace, allowing the child to make a race of it and probably to win as well.   Or have you ever had a little boy ask you to arm wrestle?  Unless you want to win the “Punk of the Year Award,” you’ll hold back your full strength and let the boy make a competition of it.

God need not do any of these things, and He is never open to censure when He displays His full power, but it is striking indeed how the Lord God allows Pharaoh’s magicians to keep pace for a while.  But here, in this plague, He pulls ahead, reminding Egypt that whatever powers the magicians might have, they do not possess power that rises to the level of God’s power.  In fact, the power of the magicians comes nowhere near!  “The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not.”  It’s  kind of pitiful really:  they could not even create a gnat!  They could not, because their powers, such as they were, were on loan anyway, and God had had enough of their petty displays.

Concerning their inability to replicate this miracle, Peter Enns makes an interesting observation:

The first two plagues concern the water, which is the life and power of Egypt, politically, economically, and religiously.  The gnats, however, come from the dust of the earth, which is not the Egyptian “power source.”  Their magic and secret arts are empowered by the Nile, but with the third plague, the magicians are out of their element.[3]

Perhaps there is something to this.  Perhaps their powers were linked to the (in their mind) powerful Nile.  Perhaps they were less confident in the face of this earth-bound plague.  Regardless, the Lord is demonstrating to them that He is the Lord of land and water.  His power is not greater in one place than in another.  He is all-powerful in all places, unlike these magicians.

II. God Protects His People in Trials and Difficulties (v.20-24)

Pharaoh persists in his diabolical hatred and stubbornness, refusing to repent, refusing to let the Hebrews go free.  In doing so, he invites the wrath of God in the fourth plague.

²⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. ²¹ Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand. ²² But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. ²³ Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.”’” ²⁴ And the Lord did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants’ houses. Throughout all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by the swarms of flies.

What is truly telling about this plague is the fact that God protects His people in the midst of it.  The flies swarm over the Egyptians, but not over God’s people.  This is an amazing development!

Does this mean that the plague of flies was not, in its way, frightening to the Hebrews?  Yes, no doubt, as any raw display of the power of God would be.  But the point is that it was frightening as they observed it, not as they experienced it.  They did not experience it!  They were protected from it.  Perhaps, in a sense, they felt here what they would soon feel as they passed through the Red Sea and saw the towering walls of water quivering with power to their left and right:  fear and awe at their close proximity to such power.  But what they did not feel and experience was the wrath of God.  That was reserved for Egypt.  His own people He kept safe, shielding them from the plague itself.

This principle of God’s protection of His people is beautifully demonstrated by the Lord Jesus in His “High Priestly Prayer” in John 17:

¹¹ And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

No, we are not promised an escape from the world, but we are promised the presence of God and His protecting hand among us as we live in it.  God’s love is constant, and no tribulation can separate us from it.  Paul put it like this in Romans 8:

³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Hebrews were experiencing this unbreakable love in exile in Egypt.  We experience it through the indwelling presence of Christ.  God is faithful to protect His people, even, in ways we might not understand, in the midst of persecution.  The martyrs might tell us many things, but they would not tell us that God had failed them, or that He was absent from them.  Indeed, the martyrs’ joy reflects the fact that they experience the closeness of God in their moment of death in ways we can barely imagine.

III. Pharaoh’s Refusal to Make a True Commitment Reveals His Lost Heart (v.25-32)

In the midst of this plague of flies, Pharaoh does something shameful indeed:  he attempts to bargain with God and, once again, he offers half-hearted repentance.

²⁵ Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.” ²⁶ But Moses said, “It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? ²⁷ We must go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he tells us.” ²⁸ So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away. Plead for me.”

How very shameful this is!  Do you see what Pharaoh is doing?  He attempts to meet God’s demands on his own terms:  he will let them worship, but only within the land of Egypt.  Moses (perhaps sarcastically), points out to him that this simply will not do as the Egyptians will be offended by their worship and will attack them.  So Pharaoh relents, but, here again, only in part:  “I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, only you must not go very far away.”

What bluffing, half-hearted repentance this is.  True repentance does not bargain.  True repentance does not seek to meet God in the most minimalist of ways.  There is no such thing as a little bit of repentance.

Pharaoh agrees to let them go, but only a little ways away.  He still wants them within arm’s reach.  Why?  Because he wants his own rebellion within arm’s reach.  If he really wanted to be far from his sin, he would want to be far from Israel against whom he sinned.

It is not unlike the man who swears off drinking, but does not smash the liquor bottles.  He puts them away, but just over there.  It is not unlike the man who swears off pornography, but does not burn his collection of pornography.  It is like the man who swears off adultery, but keeps his flirtations close at hand.

The true quality of Pharaoh’s repentance can be seen in the fact that, once again, he goes back on his word.

²⁹ Then Moses said, “Behold, I am going out from you and I will plead with the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow. Only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” ³⁰ So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. ³¹ And the Lord did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; not one remained. ³² But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.

Pharaoh goes back on his word because he was only playing with words all along anyway.  He had not truly repented.  He had not truly let go of his own agenda, his own plans, his own lusts.

How about you?  Have you truly let go of that which plagues you?  Have you truly repented, or are you attempting to bargain with God?

Let us learn even from poor, deluded Pharaoh.  Let us learn from his stubborn refusal to bend his knee to the one true God.  Let us learn to tremble before his example of blindness and lostness.  And let us make sure that we have chosen the better path!