Frogs

Frogs everywhere.

When a heart hardens, it doesn’t stay hidden in the throne room. It fills every place until there’s no space left it hasn’t touched.

“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. ² If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country. ³ 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. ⁴ The frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials.’” ⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.’” ⁶ So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land. ⁷ But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. ⁸ 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.” ⁹ Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honour of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.” ¹⁰ “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. ¹¹ The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile.” ¹² After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. ¹³ And the Lord did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields. ¹⁴ They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them. ¹⁵ 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.” (Exodus 8 v 1 – 15)

Some people want God to be sweet, kind, and gentle, and He is. But being in this story of plagues, we realise there is a flip side to God. The frogs go everywhere imaginable. There was no space left in Egypt which a frog wasn’t hopping around in. Pharaoh’s kingdom was wall-to-wall frogs. Likened to the hardness of a heart which eventually consumes the whole person, this is what was happening in Egypt through Pharaoh.

Can you see what happened? The magicians somehow copied the plague. However, they could not remove it. I guess it takes little power to make matters worse. But the magicians could not remove one tiny frog at all. They could not create mercy. Only the Lord can remove what the Lord has done.

Pharaoh was permitted to name the time of the removal of the frogs. The timing of the relief was the proof that this was God. But the time between v13-14 and v15 was enough for Pharaoh to once again harden his heart. Once the pressure lifted from him and comfort returned, so did his defiance. Every person can bow before God under pressure, and when that is lifted, they rise from a surrendered position. This is more negotiation than repentance.

Notice that Pharaoh asked for prayer. We know the encouragement when this happens to us. “Please pray for me.” Every person wants the plague removed, but few want the altar of worship. This is the heart of God throughout the story: “that they may worship me.”

Pharaoh wanted the frogs gone. He never wanted the altar.

Every one of us has asked someone to pray for us in a hard season. There’s nothing wrong with that. But be careful what you’re really asking for. Are you asking God to remove the pressure, or are you asking Him to change your heart?

Relief without repentance doesn’t last.

God wants altars of worship to be built, not just to lift plagues so we can have it easy. Worship is the centre and the purpose.