Exiting Egypt Chapter 8 P5

Exiting Egypt

“The Second Plague – Frogs Everywhere”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 8 P5

No one is like the Lord, who is both just and merciful. Who executes judgment upon the sinner, but also will have mercy upon the sinner who cries out to Him for salvation. Solomon said,

Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts (1 Kings 8:23 NKJV)

The deliverance is stunning. Moses interceded with God for Pharaoh and the people, and God heard his prayer and stopped the judgment.

But notice something, neither Pharaoh nor Moses asks for how the frogs would depart, only that they would, and so the next day all the frogs died, leaving quite the stench. Imagine a million plus frogs dead, plied up and rotting.

What this speaks to me is that sometimes we need to add a caveat to the request. I remember how our church in Vegas went on a 40 day fast for God to move and so that we could get out of our lease on a building that was literally falling around our ears. But we never asked God specifically that when He got us out of our lease that we would have new facility to move into.

So, after we found out that the building was uninhabitable, the next thing you know we were out in tents, and it took us around 8 months before we were able to move into something more permanent.

Maybe they should have said for the frogs to go back to their water source, and die of natural causes. Instead they all died at once. They died in the homes, in the food bowls, in people’s underwear. And so they heaped up the bodies of these frogs throughout the country and the country stank. If it wasn’t bad enough when the dead fish stank up the country, now a whole lot dead frogs are adding to that stench.

But, God answered Moses prayer on behalf of Pharaoh and the Egyptian people.

Thinking about this, we often will find ourselves in situations that we feel absolutely powerless. But, whatever your experience may be, it cannot match the power of God’s mercy to deliver. So, what’s the key? We need to be in the will and purposes of God, as Paul said,

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28 NKJV)

Let me just say that we are never truly powerless in this world we are living in when we are living in the will of God and serving the Lord. And so, whatever the situation may be, health, job, family, relationship, whatever, instead of trying everything else, which seems to be our M.O., try prayer, because God hears the cries of His people.

Now, Pharaoh forgot his promise, or he never really intended to keep it, but what we have here is the sin of turning back, as Pharaoh hardened his heart, that is, he made his heart heavier with sin and unrighteousness. What Pharaoh did was shamelessly abused God’s mercy.

But before we condemn Pharaoh, how many of us do much the same thing. We cry out to God for deliverance only to renege on our promise to follow more closely, and to obey Him.

How often to we renege on our promises to God? How many of us shamefully abuse God’s mercy and patience towards us, that while we deserve judgment, we ask for and receive mercy only to turn our backs on God once we get what we want.

So what happened; did the pain fade from our memories? Did the conviction wear off? Were the promises forgotten? And as a result, have our hearts hardened?

Look at this last verse with me, and contemplate

For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world (2 Tim. 4:10a NKJV)

Demas served with Paul, but the cares of this world choked out the good seed.