Broadcast
Lessons for Today - Part 2
Exodus 8:16-19
03/05/2024
16 Then the LORD said to Moses, ``Say to Aaron,
`Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the
earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land
of Egypt.'''
17 And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with
his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and
there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of
the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt.
18 The magicians tried by their secret arts to
produce gnats, but they could not. So there were
gnats on man and beast.
19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, ``This is the
finger of God.'' But Pharaoh's heart was
hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the
LORD had said. (ESV)
We find recorded in Exodus:
Then the LORD said to Moses, ``Say to Aaron, `Stretch
out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so
that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.'''
And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his
staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were
gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth
became gnats in all the land of Egypt. The magicians
tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they
could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then
the magicians said to Pharaoh, ``This is the finger of
God.'' But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would
not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
The plagues inflicted on Egypt before the Passover had two
purposes. First, the plagues showed the children of Israel that
God was in their midst and desired to deliver them from slavery.
He would act with power to bring them back to the land once
promised to their father Abraham. Second, the plagues showed the
Egyptians that He is the one true God, that their pantheon of
deities were of no avail.
Egyptian magicians were able to produce the same effects of
the first two plagues. When the water of the Nile River turned
into blood, the Egyptian magicians did the same through their
secret arts. So too, the magicians were able to bring frogs up
from the water, the second plague.
The lesson for today, although we may seem to have power
over nature, yet that power is limited. God, who created the
heavens and the earth, can and does those things at which we can
only marvel, including creating and sustaining life.
May we have the wisdom to acknowledge that God has power
over all things. Amen.