Chapter eight of Exodus begins with the second plague, the first of course was turning the water into blood, but the second was frogs. Frogs, frogs everywhere. In the house, under your chairs, in your bed, no place to sit or lie but rather worship, sleep and eat with them instead. And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron: Hold out your arm with the rod over the rivers, and the ponds, and bring up the frogs on the land of Egypt.”
Aaron followed the orders and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. It is known that out of all the plagues the frogs were the least destructive. Some have believed they were simply meant to annoy and humiliate the Pharaoh.
Today the Jews use a song that was written around 1957 for children to sing and learn Jewish history at their Passover Seder, it is:
One morning when Pharaoh awoke in his bed.
There were frogs in his bed, and frogs on his head.
Frogs on his nose and frogs on his toes.
Frogs here, frogs there. Frogs were jumping everywhere.
Of course, the lesson to be learned was since you choose to worship the frog god Hekt, you can have frogs everywhere. And now the magicians do it again, they add insult to injury. Why did they do it? To prove they are as great as Moses and Aaron they inflict even more pain on the Egyptians. They produce more frogs! Think about the stupidity! Wouldn’t it have been wiser to make frogs disappear rather than make even more frogs? Well, even though those frogs were only a humiliation, Pharaoh decided he would cooperate. He summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with the Lord to remove the frogs from me and my people and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.”
Did you listen carefully? Pharaoh is willing to acknowledge the God of the Jews as a real God. In fact Pharaoh even choose to call Him the word YHVH which we translate as Yaway. And Pharaoh is acquiescing to the God of the Jews. He skipped right over his magicians who were using illusion to duplicate what God does easily. Moses’s reaction to Pharaoh was judicious. He agreed to Pharaoh’s request, he even asked Pharaoh when he would like the frogs removed. Pharaoh quickly responded ‘tomorrow’. Moses agreed with Pharaoh and added “that you may know that there is none like the Lord our God.”
And Moses assured the Pharaoh that the frogs would return to the Nile and remain there. Actually the phrase, “that you may know that there is none like the Lord our God” is said four times during the plague narratives.
That phrase is repeated because the purpose of the plagues is to reveal the one true God to humanity. When Moses and Aaron left the Pharaohs presence, Moses cried out to God! It doesn’t say he prayed, or speaks to him it says he cried out. This implies he is anxious to relieve the suffering of the innocent Egyptians who were plagued by the frogs. In fact, we saw this before when Abraham pleaded for those in Sodom who might be innocent. Moses is pleading for those Egyptians he believes are not full-fledged evil doers.
We, in turn, have Christians crying out for the saving of non-believers who are really nice people and just don’t happen to believe God. We want mercy for the “good guys” who just don’t see a need to study scripture or believe what anyone tells them about God. Even though God did not tell Moses to allow Pharaoh to dictate when the frogs would leave, God went along with Moses’s decision. And God did it! He killed all the frogs in the houses, in the courtyards, and the fields.
And they piled them up in heaps! And then, oh boy, did they stink! We can understand the frogs stunk but can we understand why Pharaoh stunk? Well, once the frogs were gone, at his request, he no longer listened to Moses, and he would not allow the Jews to leave to worship their God.
Pharaoh has not yet learned the lesson, Man Rules, God Overrules. But eventually Pharaoh will.
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