King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 17 notes
1And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
2And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:
3And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs:
What happened to the bloody river?
Natural laws took over, and likely the blood river flowed into the sea and fresh water flowed in.
4And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.
5And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.
6And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.
7And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
The magicians 🧝♂️ had matched Moses boot for boot so far.
Just that they could not reverse what Moses did. They could just duplicate same, but Moses could reverse whatever he did.
8Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the LORD, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the LORD.
9And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me: when shall I intreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only?
Moses was so sure. How?? Because he had such a relationship with God there was no doubt 🤷♂️.
I mean he just spoke to God like face to face yesterday, why would the answer be no when it was God who sent him in the first place.
10And he said, To morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the LORD our God.
11And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people; they shall remain in the river only.
I’m wondering, at this time it was very likely the abuse of the Israelites had ceased — nobody wanted to be in the bad books of this their so-called God.
12And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh: and Moses cried unto the LORD because of the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh.
This was not done at the swinging of a wand like we see on TV.
It was through cries and intercession until heaven heeded and the Lord showed up.
How that Moses could intercede for his enemies with cries is a whole different ball game.
⚽ Moses had mastered the art of intercession and entreaty before the Lord.
13And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields.
14And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank.
15But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
16And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
17And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
18And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.
19Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
Pharaoh thought he was a demi God. He saw the finger of God yet hardened his heart. Believers see the finger of man and cower.
It was after they could not duplicate what Moses did that they concluded that this was the finger of God, and not the curious charms of men, wise so-called.
The Egyptians had many gods — gods of fertility, harvest etc.
I wonder who Elohim was to them, but obviously they knew that aside all the other gods there was this one God who is called Elohim who surpassed all the other gods.
Or it could mean, since they were producing results through enchantments just as Moses was, they thought they were on the same level with Moses, just that he Moses was an advanced wizard 🧙♂️.
However, at this point they realized that this is not the cunning and curious act of men, neither is it the power of sorcery; rather this was the finger of the Elohim (the gods), because Elohim means Gods.
It was only after their magic failed to work that they realised this was the finger of God. All along they thought it was a contest of power and who knew more magic.
But this time they realise it was no longer a battle of men who all had access to the realm of the spirit and to magical powers. It was now a contest of God.
God against man... suddenly it was not that someone’s magic power was more potent than the other, but rather suddenly — Moses had all the power and all of them put together had none.
At the very beginning, God seems to be permitting the 🧝♂️ magicians to also counter with their powers.
I suspect it was all part of the agenda to harden Pharaoh’s heart ♥ 🐍.
Now at this time enough was enough. The enchantments 🧙♀️ failed.
Even the magicians 🧝♂️ concluded that this indeed was the hand 🖐️ or rather finger of God.
The great God himself who created the other gods was involved here.
The tricks and games were over.
20And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
21Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.
22And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.
I don’t think this implied that the earlier plagues affected both cities. It affected the Egyptians only.
Also, with so much disruption going on in Egypt 🇪🇬, Israel now had much needed respite from hard labour as their slave masters had their own issues to deal with.
Does that imply all the previous plagues affected everyone?
Because it seems from this statement that the separation of Egypt 🇪🇬 from 🇮🇱 Israel itself was a sign 🤘.
I can imagine that by now the confidence of Israel had risen tenfold.
I doubt they were being molested or cruelly treated at this stage by their Egyptian masters.
23And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be.
I believe that in our walk with God, we should just trust the process.
See, God did not start with killing of the first borns of Egypt.
No, he did not even start with a miracle. It started with ill favour coming upon Israel.
Then the miracles started — pretty exciting, right 😏 — only for the magicians to produce same results.
So that neutralises what God was doing as nothing.
Then came miracles which none other could perform.
God knew what he was doing from the beginning.
Then now he performs the plagues and gives physical boundaries as to how far the plagues could go.
Just like he has given boundaries to the sea 🌊.
The ways of God. 🤦♂️ Beyond searching 🔎.
And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.
Exodus 8:22 KJV
I believe that in our walk with God, we should just trust the process.
When it came to liberating Israel from bondage in Egypt, God did not start with killing of the first borns of Egypt.
No, he did not even start with a miracle. He started with a promise, the birth of Moses and finally their liberation from Egypt.
Even when God started the miracles, I believe it might have been pretty exciting 😏 — only for the magicians to produce same results.
This sort of neutralises what God was doing as nothing, but God was up to something.
Then came miracles which none other could perform.
In Exodus 8:23 KJV he says: And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be.
The ways of God are 🤦♂️ beyond searching 🔎. Eventually Pharaoh released the children of Israel. This was the end game, but it followed a design and pathway beyond the thinking of mere mortals.
SO TRUST THE PROCESS: the meanderings and hard-to-grasp ride that your life may be going through.
The endgame victory and glory to the name of God.
24And the LORD did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.
25And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.
26And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?
27We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God, as he shall command us.
28And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away: intreat for me.
29And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will intreat the LORD that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, to morrow: but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.
30And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD.
Again Moses uses entreaties, pleading with the Lord, not just waving 👋 his hand and things magically happened.
Even though it was God who sent him, he had to make entreaties of God to reverse it.
He did not make entreaties of God to send the swarm and the flies, but when it came to wanting God to do his bidding he had to wait on the Lord and make entreaties and cries.
This shows that in God’s providence, he does not need man’s active involvement, but when man engages God, there is a way to go about it even if man’s request is actually the will of God.
Hmm 🤔... Very interesting 🤔.
It reminds me of Elijah stopping the heavens with a word, and yet to reverse it he had to make great entreaties in prayers for long.
31And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; there remained not one.
It says the Lord did according to the word of Moses. Left to God alone, probably he would have left the swarms on them all day long.
But Moses had gone to place a bargain, and God answered according to Moses’ bidding.
Moses was a master intercessor and had mastered how to get answers from God.
32And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.