PRODUCING FROGS

PRODUCING FROGS:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials.’” -Exodus 8:1-4

Our family is part of a church with a building on a piece of property backing up to a paper mill. On certain days - when all the conditions are right: heat, humidity, etc. - the stench of dank, musty, toxic, cardboard is overwhelmingly palpable. It’s so tragically pungent that you can literally taste it.

In the book of Exodus we see God call Moses to be the LORD’s spokesperson and ambassador of Israel’s deliverance in order to fulfill God’s covenant promise to Abram/Abraham “...and all the peoples/families/tribes of the earth will be blessed through you” in Genesis 12:3.

The nation of Israel was enslaved for approximately 400 years - just as God had forewarned in Gen 15:13. So God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, instructed him to approach Egypt’s king (Pharaoh), and demand their emancipation “so that they may worship me (God) in the wilderness.”

Egypt was arguably the greatest superpower on earth at the time. The idea of a transient shepherd even gaining Pharaoh’s audience seems absurd - never mind the idea of approaching him with a non-negotiable demand for the unconditional release of his country’s inherent workforce.

Think about it - the United States of America has been around since 1776. We just celebrated our bicentennial a few years ago. Our nation has only been in existence for ½ the time Israel endured the hardships of national slavery before labor laws, social justice reform, etc. Now imagine a random farmer or rancher demanding an audience with our President…

Moses understood fully the apparent lunacy of this proposal and said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” So God let Moses know that it wasn’t about Moses or Pharaoh, but rather about God’s covenant promise “...and all the peoples of earth will be blessed through you” for the purpose of a divinely reconciled relationship between humanity and the Almighty Creator.

God anticipated both Moses’ uncertainty and Pharaoh’s reluctance; so God told Moses, “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”

For the most part, those “signs and wonders,” and “mighty acts of judgment” are what we typically refer to as “The Ten Plagues of Egypt.” Because Pharaoh had hardened his own heart toward God - God gave him over to his rebellion. Pharaoh refused to listen and yield to God and His sovereignty; therefore we read “and all the water was changed into blood. The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.”

The Nile had been turned to blood. There were dead fish everywhere, a horrific stench - far worse that wet cardboard. All the water in Egypt was turning to blood - in their Mr. Coffee makers, their Britta filters, their vending machines, their dishwashers… every last drop was turning to blood - and then we read, “But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts…” Ironically, in an effort to demonstrate his power and authority Pharaoh’s magicians actually compounded the problem.

You might be asking, what has any of this to do with the title: “PRODUCING FROGS?” Well, the second plague was the plague of frogs. Remember what we opened with today: “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials.’”

Despite the fact that the entire country was saturated in blood - Pharaoh continued to ignore God’s demand for the release of His people for the purpose of emancipation, reconciliation, and glorious worship. Then we read in Exodus 8:6, “So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land.” From the nasty blood-muck Nile, which was Egypt’s lifeblood of fertility, emerged an host of hemoglobin and plasma coated croakers. Frogs were making their way into homes, kitchen counters, bedrooms, ovens, pantries… and we read, “But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.”

God’s covenant promise to Abram stands. All the families, tribes, and peoples of earth will, and in fact have been blessed, through Him in the unique God-man Jesus Christ. Yet we, like Pharaoh, harden our hearts to His authority, sovereignty, and almighty will.

In our insatiable quest for autonomy and striving to not only “be like God,” but in fact to be god in and over our own lives - we, like Pharaoh, make a ridiculously feeble attempt to trample His unstoppable covenant promises and subject God’s authority, will, and mission to the indentured servitude of our personal authority, will, and mission in life. We attempt to eject God from His throne and strive to reign over our lives in His place.

God’s desire in bringing “signs and wonders” and even “mighty acts of judgment” upon us is not our misguided conception of spite, malice, revenge, or malevolence - but rather as God said to bring us out of bondage to sin in order to know that He truly is God. When God brings those gracious plagues into our lives we, like Pharaoh’s magicians in an effort to demonstrate our authority, power, and will - merely compound the problem by producing frogs.

God’s covenant promise stands - humanity’s universal blessing exclusively in and through Jesus Christ. Our sin-debt has been paid-in-full. His mission continues to be perfectly fulfilled. It wasn’t hindered by Satan, Adam & Eve, by Pharaoh, Israel, the Pharisees, by me - or even by you.

So in the midst of His signs, wonders, and mighty acts of judgment - all perfectly designed and intended for the purpose of our emancipation and reconciliation - are you pushing back in an effort to reign supreme and demonstrate your resolve, toughness, tenacity, power, sovereignty, and indomitable will - only to ultimately compound the problem and produce frogs? Or have you come to that place of yieldedness in order to celebrate freedom and worship God Almighty in the wilderness that precedes the Promised Land?

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com