Introduction
In Exodus 7-12, Moses through the power of God releases 10 plagues of different sorts on the land of Egypt which included, turning all the water to blood, plagues of insects, boils, and hail. Finally, the death of every first-born son included the death of Pharaoh’s eldest who would someday inherit the kingdom of Egypt.
We will see that they were delivered not just to let Pharaoh know who God was but also to let the Israelites know who God was. Because they have been enslaved for 430 years, they didn’t know God, they have become used to being enslaved and used to being around the idol gods of Egypt. And so not only did God have to convince Pharaoh who He was, but He also had to convince the Israelites who He was.
THE MIRACLES
Some people question if the miracles recorded were actually miracles, note the following thoughts.
1. In each case they were accurately foretold, as to the time and place of occurrence.
2. The intensity of such things as the frogs and lice was beyond all possibility of what could have been expected naturally.
3. Both their occurrence and their ending were demonstrated to be under the control and subject to the Word of God through Moses.
4. There was discrimination, some of the plagues afflicting the Egyptians and yet at the same time sparing the Israelites.
5. There was orderliness in their appearance, each event more severe than the one that preceded it, concluding with the most devastating of all, the death of the firstborn.
6. Also, there was progression in relation to the reaction of Pharaoh’s servants. At first, they could do anything that Moses did, but at last, admitted their failure and affirmed that ‘This is the finger of God!’
7. Over and beyond all this, there was a moral purpose in the plagues, they were not mere freaks of nature.
Now, remember that the ten plagues were actually ten disasters sent upon Egypt by God to convince Pharaoh to free the Israelite slaves from the bondage and oppression they had endured in Egypt for 430 years.
When God sent Moses to deliver the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt, He promised to show His wonders as confirmation of Moses’ authority, Exodus 3:20.
This confirmation was to serve at least two purposes, firstly, to show the Israelites that the God of their fathers was alive and worthy of their worship and secondly, to show the Egyptians that their gods were nothing.
The Egyptians worshipped a wide variety of nature gods and attributed to their powers the natural phenomena they saw in the world around them. There was a god of the sun, of the river, of childbirth, of crops, etc.
Events like the annual flooding of the Nile, which fertilized their croplands, were evidence of their god’s powers and goodwill. When Moses approached Pharaoh, demanding that he let the people go, Pharaoh responded by saying “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.” Exodus 5:2. And so from that point onwards, the challenge was on to show whose God was more powerful.
THE PLAGUE OF GNATS
‘Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,’ and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.” They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came on people and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats. But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. Since the gnats were on people and animals everywhere, the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the LORD had said.’ Exodus 8:16-19
It’s interesting to note that Pharaoh was given no warning and no thinking time about this plague, from God, as he did with the others. Here we find the third plague, gnats, Exodus 8:16. This was a judgment against ‘Set’, the god of the desert.
The Hebrew word used here for gnat is the word, ‘ken’, and it means, any of the tiny, minute stinging flies, which are classified as stinging gnats. Different translations of the Scriptures use different words here, some use ‘gnats’, some use the word, ‘lice’, some use the word, ‘maggots’, some use the word, ‘mosquitoes’ and others use the word, ‘fleas’.
Adam Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The word used in this text means the tick, 1. Their being said to be in man and beast, the tick buries its head in the victim, and 2. The meaning of the root word here, which is to make firm, fix or establish, which ticks most assuredly do.’
Aaron, with his hand out-stretched with the staff, strikes the dust of the ground, and gnats came on people and animals, in fact all the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats, Exodus 8:17. Just as man was created from the dust of the ground, Genesis 3:19 / 1 Corinthians 15:47, so too were these gnats.
But unlike the previous plagues, the magicians were unable to duplicate this one, Exodus 8:18 / 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10, this is possibly because this plague came unannounced and so they would have had no time to prepare. Notice they declared to Pharaoh that, ‘this is the finger of God’, Exodus 8:19.
Durham, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The new element introduced in the account of the third of the mighty acts is the realization by Pharaoh’s learned men that God or a god is in the midst of what is happening in Egypt.’
When the magicians said this, they weren’t acknowledging the God of Israel, they were simply acknowledging that the plague was supernatural and beyond their power of imitation. This, of course, was an excuse for not being able to replicate the miracle.
Asimov, a Jewish commentator, says the following.
‘Jannes and Jambres were so impressed by Moses that they eventually joined the Israelites but died in the course of the Exodus.’
There were so many gnats, they covered the land of Egypt which would have made life pretty miserable for the Egyptians. Because they were all over the animals, the gods of Egypt wouldn’t receive the sacrifice of gnat-infested animals, so this stopped their sacrificial system.
Pharaoh’s heart once again became hard and he wouldn’t listen to God just as God said, Exodus 8:19 / Exodus 4:21. It’s interesting to note if Pharaoh himself was regarded as a god by the Egyptians, why didn’t he himself intervene and do something about all these judgments?
