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EXODUS: FUNCTIONING WELL IN A HOPELESS GROUP ASSIGNMENT
Part I: God's Deliverance Of Israel Amid Humanly Helpless Trials
I. God's Glorifying Himself By The Plague Of Frogs
(Exodus 8:1-15)
  1. Introduction
    1. Scripture reveals five goals for the plagues of Egypt: they came (1) to deliver Israel from Egypt (Ex. 3:8, 19-20), (2) to answer Pharaoh's question of "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice and let Israel go?" (Ex. 5:2; 8:22; 9:14), (3) to reveal God's power to Israel (Ex. 10:1-2), (4) to reveal the earth belongs to God, not Egypt's gods (Ex. 9:29) and (5) to level God's judgment on all the gods of Egypt (Ex. 12:12; Num. 33:4), R. Grigg, "The Ten Plagues of Egypt," Creation (v. 27, no. 1), Dec.-Feb. 2005, p. 36.
    2. For such goals to be reached, the plagues would have to have been seen as miracles by the Egyptians.
    3. However, naturalistic explanations for the plagues were offered by Greta Hort in 1957, a scholar of medieval English literature and religion, and her views are cited in reference works today, Ibid., p. 34, 38.
    4. Thus, we view the Scripture and the data to see if the second plague was a true miracle that glorified God:
  2. God's Glorifying Himself By The Plague Of Frogs, Exodus 8:1-15.
    1. The Biblical account of the second plague is as follows:
      1. God again sent Moses to Pharaoh to ask him to release Israel so the nation could go and serve Him in the wilderness lest God would smite Egypt with a plague of frogs, Exodus 8:1-2.
      2. The Nile would then bring forth multitudes of frogs that would get into both the bedchambers and beds as well as the ovens and kneading troughs of the Egyptians and their servants, Exodus 8:3-4.
      3. Pharaoh refused again to release Israel, so God brought up the frogs as He had warned, Exodus 8:5-6.
      4. Pharaoh's magicians were allowed by God to copy Moses' miracle, Exodus 8:7.
      5. Afflicted, Pharaoh then asked for the frogs to be removed and he would let Israel go, Exodus 8:8.
      6. Moses asked when Pharaoh wanted the frogs removed, and he replied, "Tomorrow!" (Exodus 8:9-10a)
      7. Moses complied, promising the frogs would leave and return to live only in the Nile River so that Pharaoh would know there was no God like Israel's God, Exodus 8:10b-11.
      8. After they left Pharaoh's presence, Moses begged the Lord to remove the frogs to alleviate the suffering of the people of Egypt, and God heard and answered this request, Exodus 8:12-13a.
      9. However, God not only caused some of the frogs to return to the Nile River, but let many of them die on the land, leaving piles of dead, rotting, foul-smelling frog carcasses all over the land, Ex. 8:13b-14.
      10. Yet, after the plague was gone, Pharaoh again rationalized that since his own magicians could copy the miracle, Moses' God was no greater than Egypt's gods, and he refused to let Israel go, Exodus 8:15, 7.
    2. Yet, Greta Hort gave a naturalistic explanation for this plague to counter the view that it was a miracle: She suggested her alleged red algae in the Nile River from the first plague killed the fish which gave rise to a plague of anthrax bacteria that made the frogs sick so that they left the river to die, Ibid., p. 34.
    3. On the other hand, this naturalistic explanation is countered by viewing the scientific data (as follows):
      1. "Anthrax occurs in soil . . . It does not infect aquatic animals [like] fish . . . or frogs," Ibid., p. 36.
      2. Indeed, some of the frogs returned to live in the Nile River from where they had risen, Ex. 8:11, Ibid.
      3. "Anthrax infects mammals . . . land animals which graze on grass contaminated by anthrax . . ." Ibid.
    4. Fulfilling God's will, the "2nd plague . . . attacked the Egyptian goddess Heqet, symbol of good crops (derived from the Nile waters) and childbirth, usually depicted as a woman with a frog's head; as well as Isis, another fertility goddess." (Ibid.) This explains why God highlighted the presence of frogs in the bedchambers, beds, ovens and kneading troughs that the Egyptians associated with places of fertility and crops, Ex. 8:3. Finally, "Frogs were sacred to the Egyptians. However, these goddesses were powerless to prevent these symbols of life from becoming rotting piles of death." (Ibid., p. 37; cf. Exodus 8:13-14)
Lesson: Hort's naturalistic explanation for Egypt's plague of frogs is countered by scientific facts, and the plague critiqued Egypt's idols of fertility as a miracle, glorifying Israel's God as the One True God!

Application: May we trust the Bible's ONE, TRUE God Who ALONE makes plant, animal and human life FERTILE so that it can successfully REPRODUCE!