Exodus Chapter 8 Verses 1 – 4

• (Pharaoh is not going to very hoppy! HA!!) I was wondering, why not just go to the final plague?  First the waters of the Nile turning to blood, now frogs…then lice, then flies….and so on and so on until finally death will come to every home of every Egyptian and then Pharaoh finally says, “Get out!”  So, I was thinking, why go through all of these other things?  Two possible answers.  First, God’s unwavering mercy and incessant long suffering…
• Although Pharaoh has no heart for God, God has a heart for him. And so what we see are waves of difficulty, new and unforeseen circumstances and consequences in an attempt to bring about God’s will and purpose with the least amount of damage possible.  But Pharaoh will not listen.  He will not turn.  And so the repercussion becomes progressively worse until ultimately it is the worst. 
• I have had the unfortunate displeasure of watching this truth proven in the lives of many. To some degree, even in my own life.  Walking apart from God, making daily decisions acting in the flesh…its funny how things don’t immediately fall completely apart…little by little they do though until one day you wake up and man its just a disaster.  What happened?  All along the way there were several exits…to turn and give your life to the Lord…but they weren’t taken…plague after plague of circumstance and rather than listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, “Enough is enough, give your life to Jesus,” what’s listened to is the spirit of dumb that says, “If God really loved you, He’d help you right now.” 
• God does really love you. He showed you that when He climbed up on that cross…now its our chance to show Him that we really love Him…and turn to Him… and begin to learn to hate evil!  You know we have to learn that!?  Because evil is pleasurable in our flesh…for a season…but by wisdom we see the consequences of what and who we’ve become and what we’ve done and we stop blaming anything and everyone else and begin to hold ourselves accountable.  That’s called circumspection and it is synonymous with wisdom.  Once we see what the flesh does, what evil does, what is it’s offspring consequential effect on us and those around us that we say we love…we begin to learn to absolutely HATE evil.
• Romans 12:9 says, “Let love be without hypocrisy. Hate what is evil.  Cling to what is good.”  Psalm 97:10, “You who love the Lord, hate evil!”  Check this out, link this with wisdom!  Proverbs 8:13, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil!”  When Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”  And therefore, the beginning of wisdom is to learn to hate evil!  Until you get there…until you decide to teach yourself by studying the scriptures, circumspectly holding yourself accountable for the consequence of your own decisions and reading the road signs like long-suffering plagues along the road that God puts right in front of your face…wisdom is not even begun! 
• That’s Pharaoh…he is blinded by his pride. Second reason why God doesn’t just jump to the final plague is just that…at this point Pharaoh is just blinded and even if God when right to plague number 10, Pharaoh would have hardened his heart.  It’s truly sad to watch how folks have to go through waves of utter failure and sometimes even total destruction before they will submit to God…when God has a life of blessing and abundance in His other outstretched hand to them.  And so, here come the frogs!
• Which by the way is a special problem for Pharaoh. Oddly enough, frogs were considered sacred to the Egyptians.  HA!  Not sure why!  They couldn’t kill them!  In fact, one of their goddesses had the head of a frog…Heqet…awkward!!!!

Exodus Chapter 8 Verses 5 – 7

• I have to wonder, how on earth did this impress Pharaoh!? The frogs were already everywhere…not very impressive!!!  HA!!!

Exodus Chapter 8 Verses 8 – 9

• Moses wanted to get specific for Pharaoh. Not just take away the frogs…then perhaps there could be an explanation…but give me the time, specific time and I’ll give you the place, specific place so that you can see and know that it is the Lord!  That’s awesome!  That’s why we ought to be student’s of God’s Word…not just so we can say something about God but so that we can give specifics like chapter and verse or give the credibility to God…so that people think on Him as truth and guidance…not on us!

Exodus Chapter 8 Verses 10 – 14

• Ok that is gross! They didn’t retreat…the frogs didn’t hop away…they just died!  And then there was a sale on chicken nuggets down at the McPharaoh’s, HA!!  Egypt is roughly 380,000 square miles.  To feel like the place is overrun by frogs, each square mile would have to have about 20,000 frogs…if they need about 8 inches each…that equates to over 8B frogs!    That would be roughly 400M pounds of frogs!!  WOW…unless they were all female…they tend to be heavier, HA!!  True story…LOL!!  Gross!!!  That was some sort of STANK!!

Exodus Chapter 8 Verse 15

• Talk about circumstance! Gross consequence…and yet Pharaoh remains blind!  He does nothing!  Absolute FOOL!  This is his land…his responsibility…his life…and it is covered with 400M pounds of stink…and what does he do…fixes his girly makeup!  Wastes time…please do not go by the way of Pharaoh…more plagues are coming…but isn’t it enough? 
• One reason could be that when Moses asked when he/Pharaoh wanted things fixed…his response back in verse 10…tomorrow! What an odd response!  A huge national problem, the answer right there available and the decision by Pharaoh is to delay.  Here’s the thing…when you have the fix right now and yet you continually say no to it…delay after delay in getting right with God…its amazing how that will harden your heart!!

Exodus Chapter 8 Verses 16 – 17

• Notice this, this plague came unannounced by God. The Nile turning to blood and the frogs upon the land, both of these were known ahead of time by Pharaoh but now the lice, perhaps the worst yet…unannounced!  With the wisdom we have available to us in the scriptures, through the family of God, filled with the Spirit of God,…we can, you can, I can…if we want to…we can look at our lives, our decisions, our attitudes, our motivations and we can predict with a great bit of accuracy what will come ahead for us in our lives…
• But deny all of that…and the issues of life will be like earthquakes…tsunamis…unforeseen and catastrophic (Proverbs 1:23-33), and THAT will serve to harden our hearts even more…because now instead of praying for blessings, folks begin to doubt God’s goodness…and here is where many fall away for good…and those that don’t fall away completely find it foreign to worship a God that is allowing the hardship they have asked for with their own denial of His grace…just like the Egyptians…
• This is a strike against their worship. The Egyptians, especially the priesthood were extremely zealous about hygiene and cleanliness…a total infestation of lice would cut worship off immediately, not only in the places of worship but in the culture collectively!!  The lice were on every beast, not just every person…so no sacrifice could be made to any god.

Exodus Chapter 8 Verses 18 – 19

• This is interesting. There is now no rational reason why Pharaoh would deny God.  Now its simply irrational and even the magicians took a step back and said to one another, “What is he doing?”  That is such a hard place to be in…when you have given as much as you can give to someone…even the “finger of God” which speaks to His immutable and perfect and grace/love filled Word…and yet they continue to harden themselves, defile themselves…I hate that place more than any other.  What’s left…for me…you may be different…I step back…and watch their nation fall…praying for them all the while that they come to their senses before they drown for good…unfortunately, Pharaoh does not…
• Its crazy too…I mean at any moment, all the moments, God is right there to pull them right out…if they would humble themselves, pray, seek the Lord and turn from their wicked ways (2 Chronicles 7:14). Healing is available at all moments until the last…and my heart screams…WHY – why not turn to the LORD!  Man, its right there…everything is right there…outstretched to you…but you choose suffering…you choose death.  I step back…

Exodus Chapter 8 Verses 20 – 23

• Another attempt, a change in strategy…you will know Pharaoh that I am God because My people will be shielded. This is such a wonderful truth.  That although we who love the Lord and trust Him with our lives, we go through the same things the world goes through, there is something different about you in the midst of it all and that never goes unnoticed!  The hope of eternal life, the indwelling friendship and support of God Himself…sustains your joy and your wisdom even in the presence of great difficulty…and the world wonders…

Exodus Chapter 8 Verses 24 – 25

• Alright I give! I acknowledge God!  Go sacrifice in the land…Not good enough.  Bolt Jesus on to your life and know that He is the answer but remain in your sin.  Not good enough.  We must come out of the land of bondage…

Exodus Chapter 8 Verses 26 – 32

• This is not unusual in the lives of some. That things are hard, we cry out to God, and when things ease up we go right back to our old ways.  That’s not repentance, that’s manipulation…repentance is freedom for good and that is what God has for us, waiting for each one of us, in your affirmative response to His grace!