14 TENACITY

First Pharaoh is threatened and then plagued with frogs. Frogs are little despicable and inconsiderable animals, and yet by their vast numbers in this plague are rendered a sore plague to the Egyptians. God could have plagued them with lions, bears, wolves, or with vultures or other large birds of prey, but He chose to do it this time by these contemptible instruments. This was done by a perfect God whose wisdom, ways and actions are always perfect. How did this choice of plague serve to magnify His own name? He is Lord of the hosts of the whole creation, has them all at His command, and makes what use He pleases of any of them. The wisdom and creative power of God is perhaps shown as much in the making of an ant as an elephant. His effectual plans to serve His own purposes by these least of creatures as well as by the strongest, may serve to point out two significant things. One, that the excellency of His power, in judgment just as well as in mercy, may be to use the smallest and most insignificant of creatures to emphasize the greater greatness of God, not the creature. Two, The Egyptian god, Heqet, was sometimes depicted with the body of a frog. Frog ornaments or jewelry with a special god-related meaning were common in ancient Egypt as charms for fertility. The true God was making fun of Egyptian goddess of fertility, a false god!

See what reasons we have to stand in awe of our God, who, when He pleases, can arm the smallest parts of the creation against any of us and laugh at any imposter or false god. If God is our enemy, any one of His creatures are potentially at war with us. In this miraculous plague God can humble Pharaoh’s pride and chastise his stubbornness. What a mortification it must be to this haughty monarch to see himself brought to his knees and forced to submit by such despicable means! Every child is, ordinarily, able to deal with or conquer one or two frogs. He or she can triumph over them, but here, so numerous is the number of the troops God sends against Pharaoh, and so vigorous their attack, that Pharaoh with all his chariots and horsemen could make no progress against them. God can insult any who insult Him. Anyone who sees the vast wonders of the heavens with a telescope or looks through a microscope at the minuscule order of creation can readily determine that a greater Being made things in an orderly fashion. The intelligent design argument from an orderly creation for the existence of God makes those who will not acknowledge Him above themselves sinners simply by reason of their unbelief. Even without the Bible, people can think and see that an intelligent, orderly and powerful Creator God exists. Pharaoh could have easily concluded that when God pleases, He can make a small and simple creature insult and trample on humans. We can use this line of reasoning when we confront the powers that stand in the way of delivering the “slaves” of our day.

As to the plague of frogs we may observe that even before it occurred it was announced. Moses delivered the news. It was a threat, but certainly not an empty one. Moses, no doubt, had a conference with the divine Majesty daily for fresh instructions, and perhaps even while the river was yet blood Moses is directed to give notice to Pharaoh of another judgment coming on him, in case he continues to be obstinate. Verses 1, 2 say, “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.”’” Psalm 7:12 seems to say that God does not punish men for sin unless they persist in it. Notice the “If he does not relent” in this verse: “If he does not relent, he (God) will sharpen his sword; he will bend and string his bow.” This verse implies favor if the convicted person yields. This is stated differently, but with the same meaning, in what Moses says to Pharaoh, “If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country.” Moses intimates that if Pharaoh complied, the controversy would be dropped immediately. The plague threatened, in case of refusal, was persuasively comprehensive. Frogs were to make such an inroad against them as would make them uneasy in their houses, in their beds and at their tables. They would not be able to eat, drink, nor sleep in quietness, but, wherever they were, people would be infested by frogs. Verses 3 and 4 say, “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.” God’s curse on a man, whether an Egyptian in Moses’ day or persons you know in our day, will pursue him wherever he goes, and lie heavily on him whatever he does. Deuteronomy 16:2 says something similar. “You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.” There is no avoiding divine judgments when they are sent from a righteous, fair and all-knowing God.

Now let’s look to see how this plague was inflicted. Pharaoh did not regard the alarm, nor was he in the least inclined to yield to God’s request through Moses. So Aaron is ordered to draw out the forces, and with his outstretched arm and rod to give the signal of battle.  This was no sooner said than it was done, the army of frogs host is called up, and, under the direction and command of an invisible power, wave after wave of frogs invade the land. The Egyptians, with all their art and might, cannot stop their progress. They cannot even give them a diversion. We can readily compare this with the prophecy of an army of locusts and caterpillars. Joel 2:2 says, “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was in ancient times nor ever will be in ages to come.” As locusts and caterpillars in Joel’s day, so in Moses’ day frogs came up, at the divine call, and “the frogs came up and covered the land” (6). God has many ways of upsetting those that live at ease. The reason we are looking closely at each of these plagues Moses dealt with is because they illustrate the kinds of difficulties people today are in and from which God wants to deliver them through you!

Interestingly, once again the magicians are permitted to imitate what God did or allowed the magicians to appear to have done what God did. “But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt” (7). Surely if God had not permitted this, it could not have happened. The Egyptian magicians could supposedly bring up more frogs, but just as surely they could not remove those that God sent. In Revelation 16:13 the unclean spirits which came out of the mouth of the dragon are said to be like frogs, which go out to the kings of the earth to deceive them, “Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.” Those frogs may even allude to or reference back to the frogs in Moses’ day because it also follows an account of the turning of the waters into blood. Neither the frogs of Moses’ day nor the frogs recorded in Revelation 16 represented anything good, but rather something demonic. So we see that the plague of frogs was a picture of God ridiculing false gods and the forces of unrighteousness behind them. The dragon, like the magicians, intended by the frogs to deceive, but God intended by them to destroy those that would be deceived.

Pharaoh slightly relented under this plague though it is not a full or hearty change in his disposition. It is the first time he does. “Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.’” He begs Moses to intercede for the removal of the frogs, and promises that he will let the people go. He who a little while ago had spoken with the utmost disdain toward both God and Moses is now glad to be obligated to the mercy of God and the prayers of Moses. Those who defy or ridicule God and prayer will in a day of difficulty or extremity eventually be made to see their need of both God and prayer. Stated differently, those that have ridiculed mercy and prayer are brought to beg for them, as the rich man that had scorned Lazarus eventually pled with him for just a drop of water. These observations can help us, like Moses, to have tenacity. We will win if we stay with the deliverance project. Incidentally, if we yield to God’s dealings in our lives, we must seek to do so completely, not just partially as Pharaoh reluctantly did with the frogs.

Moses allows Pharaoh to choose the time for the frogs to leave. Then he prevails with God by prayer for the removal of the frogs in compliance with the time Pharaoh set. Let’s notice the wisdom of this. Moses, to show that his performances had no dependence on the location or passing of the planets, or the fortunes of any one hour more than another, tells Pharaoh to name his time. “Pharaoh, you tell me when this plague will stop. This way you can know that no other power is manipulating these things. You, Pharaoh, have the responsibility.” This was designed for Pharaoh’s conviction, that, if his eyes were not opened by the plague, they might be opened by its removal. What a variety of measures God allows in order to reason with thinking men and bring them to repentance. Pharaoh sets the time for tomorrow.  Verse 8 says, “Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said. Moses replied, “It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God.” And why not immediately? Was he so fond of his guests, the frogs, that he would have them stay another night with him? No, but possibly he hoped that they would go away on their own accord, and then he would become free of the plague without being obligated to either God or Moses. However, Moses forces Pharaoh’s hand by cleverly letting him choose the time. Whatever the magicians do, God can force anyone to acknowledge that He is the One in charge by letting them choose the time.

No one has such a command as God has over all the creatures, nor is anyone so ready to reason with and forgive those that humble themselves before Him. The great design both of judgments and mercies is to convince us that there is none like the Lord our God. There is none so wise, so mighty, so good; no enemy so formidable, no friend so desirable or so valuable. Moses, according to the time Pharaoh set, applies to God and prays earnestly to God for Him to recall the frogs. “After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh” (12). We must pray for our enemies and persecutors, even the worst of them as Jesus, our example, also did. In answer to the prayer of Moses, the frogs that came up one day perished the next, or the next after that with one added for the “clean-up.” According to verse 13, they all died, “And the Lord did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields.” This way it would accurately be known through several senses that they were real frogs. The dead frogs could be seen, touched and smelled. Their dead bodies were left to be raked together in heaps, so that the smell of them became offensive. No one could say that they were just seeing things. Ha! Verse 14 says, “They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them.” The great Sovereign of the world makes what use He pleases of the lives and deaths of His creatures. He who allows any creature whether animal or human, to serve one purpose, may, without wrong to His justice, call for it again immediately, to serve another purpose. He notices when a sparrow dies and falls to the ground and He knows when the frogs do too.

We have now arrived at a crucial part of this story. What came out of the plague? When Pharaoh saw the frogs were dead and he had hope that they would be removed he further hardened his heart. Verse 15 says, “But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.” Without considering either what he had just recently felt or what he had reason to fear, he further hardened his heart. Until the heart is renewed by the grace of God, the impressions made by the force of affliction do not stay with us. Our convictions wear off, too soon, too easily. The promises we make to others or even to ourselves are too quickly forgotten and abandoned. Until the disposition of the mind is changed, until the condition of the human heart is changed, things that thaw in the heat of sunlight freeze again in the shade. How sad that God’s patience is shamefully abused by willful persons. The second chance He gives them, to lead them to repentance attracts their attention, but they are hardened by it and while He graciously allows them a truce, in order to make peace, they take that opportunity to stir up again the already defeated forces of obstinate unbelief. The sentence needs to be carried out quickly because, “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). People seize the opportunity to receive mercy, but when they have it they may quickly return to their folly. Psalm 78:34 says, “Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again.”

The tricks of the devil revealed in the story of the plagues, are still used today. You, a deliverer in todays world, may need to review the plagues of Moses in Egypt in order to harden yourself, steel yourself, set your face like flint in the pursuit of a full and complete deliverance from the captivity of sin for the people to whom God sends you. In this lesson we learned to be tenacious in the face of the obstinance the enemy shows. Press in. Press on. Put your enemy to the mat and hold him there.